Chapter One

It was two in the morning. I was awake. As usual. Drinking coffee, no less. I hadn't been able to sleep for, let's see, a couple days now. I mean, I'd slept, of course. I didn't want to start hallucinating.

"God, are you still awake?" my roommate asked, sitting up in her bed and blinking in the little light coming from the TV.

"Yes," I answered. "And you don't have to call me God."

"Ha. Go to bed, Jo."

"I will, soon."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

I waited until Lucy turned her head to the wall and pulled her covers over her head. Her breathing soon became heavy and even. I leaned over and poured the last bit of coffee into my mug. I added cream until the coffee was a nice caramel color.

Better make another pot, I thought.

I threw away the old filter, put in a new one, and scooped generously. I sat back and let the coffee maker perk gently in the corner. It was going to be a long night, I could tell. Despite the numerous cups of coffee I'd had, I kept nodding off in front of the TV.

I took my cup of coffee and walked out of our dorm room, into the hallway. It was so quiet. I wandered down the hall, glancing at my dormmates' doors, wondering why in the world someone would put a picture of herself, drunk and half-naked and dancing on a table, on their door. Free advertising?

As I approached the bathroom, I heard a door down the hall slam. I jumped and splashed coffee on my Spongebob slippers.

"Shit," I murmured. I heard raised voices around the corner, by the elevators. It sounded like Sara, our RA, and her boyfriend. Again. I tip-toed back to my room and slowly shut the door. Lucy seemed to be sleeping through the disturbance.

The movie I'd been watching was over, without me seeing much of it, so I hit play again and tried to settle my nerves on the futon. The caffeine racing through my bloodstream made it difficult, so I pulled out my notebook to work on my plans. I added pepper spray and rope to my list of supplies to buy and put in my emergency kit. I wondered how old you had to be to buy a flame thrower? That could come in useful.

Lucy stirred in her bed. I peeked over the futon, and saw she was glaring at me from the top bunk.

"Seriously, J, GO TO SLEEP," she said. "You can write in your damn notebook tomorrow."

I slammed the notebook closed. She wasn't supposed to know about this.

"Ok," I said. "I'm going. Night."

Lucy rolled over and started snoring softly. I pulled my footlocker from under my bed, unlocked it, and placed the notebook on top of the supplies I'd already gathered. I hoped the lighter fluid wouldn't leak.