Grab a drink in the next room.

A drink it is. Probably a good idea. You haven’t seen your friends in years, let alone spoken to some of them, so you could use a little social lube for the occasion. You enter the room. It’s hot…and wet. Why is it so wet? Steaming bodies dance, violently you might add, in mass around a makeshift DJ stand, strobe lights and two tall speakers at the end of the room. Everyone is sweating. Even the walls seem to be sweating. You’re not one for dancing, sober that is, and you’ve never felt more sober than you do in this room right now. Grab a drink and get out you say to yourself. There’s a short, but slow, line at the cooler. Everyone in front of you is filling and chugging at least two or three cups at the cooler. Fill, chug, repeat. Finally, you’re up. You grab a plastic cup, reach down and fill it. The drink is clear; vodka soda maybe? Or G&T? You remember years of sugary punches, the kind that split your head the next morning and stained every white shirt you ever made the mistake of wearing out. You take a sip…this is water! Confused, you turn to a student behind you.

“This is wa-,” but before you can finish they’re at the cooler filling two cups with uncontained excitement. They chug the first and pour the second over their head.

“I love water! Water is lyfe, l-y-f-e lyfe” they say through a wide smile to no one in particular. You not even sure they heard you.

This is fucking weird. You want to get out of this room, maybe find your friends, but before you can make it out you’re stopped. A student, sophomore maybe, of an almost astonishingly nondescript appearance grabs your right arm.

“Alumni, huh” they say. Your not entirely sure if this is a question, but you can tell they have more to say so you just nod your head yes. “For you,” they say as they drop something into the palm of your hand. It’s a pill.

“What is this?” you ask.

“Welcome back! For alum – free,” and with that they disappear into a well-timed puff from the smoke machine near your feet.

You shout hopelessly into the smoke, “Hey! What is this!?”

You try to see what it is, but under the stobe’s rapid flurry it’s impossible to tell. It’s not like you know anything about pills anyways. You haven’t touched any drug other than melatonin in years. You don’t have time for drugs these days, or if you’re being honest the money. But you’re back at college, you did drugs in college a couple of times! Like that one time you did whippets with an empty can of Cheez-whiz. You can practically hear your friends chanting Do it! Do it! Do it! Hell, this is a special occasion right. Besides, it’s probably just Adderall or something similar. So what will it be?

A) Take the pill.

B) Throw the pill away and go look for your friends.

Frat House Pub Crawl

You’re glad you picked your winter coat. It’s not the most stylish, you’ve never bothered to clip the years worth of ski club lift tickets that dangle awkwardly from the left pocket zipper, but it’s practical. You know what?! Fuck ski club, you deserved a black diamond sticker. If you went fast enough you could ride rails! You should probably stop ruminating over this, at least you got the blue square…right? Right! Still, when is the last time you went skiing you wonder? Come to think of it, when’s the last time you did anything considered extreme? For a second it seems weird to consider skiing an extreme sport anymore, but your pretty sure it’s in the X-Games and as far as you know that’s the only criteria for extremeness. A text from an unknown number lights up your phone.

“HEYYYY, YO! I can’t believe you came back. I saw you on VINCENT LANE and it totally brought me back. How you been?! Some of the old crew is meeting DK house at 7, you should come by!” Cool — you’re remembered!

You approach DK with a stubborn pride in your choice to wear the winter coat even as you see sleeveless groups of much younger, much sexier students entering the house before you. They’ve got to be drunk to bear walking through this weather. Speaking of drunk, being back in the DK house is making you thirsty. You spot a crowd of sweaty bodies gathered around a cooler in a room to your left. Perfect, you can step in and grab a drink. On second thought, maybe you should take off your jacket and find a place to hide it first. This thing is too warm to wear in here.

A) Grab a drink in the next room.

B) Find a place to hide your jacket.

Attempt to save Meredith

Whoever that is, Meredith certainly won’t be able to take it alone. You sprint off after her, screaming for her to stop.

As she approaches the campfire, she screams, the person — the creature — lunging for her.

But you’re almost there, too. You reach her at the same time, bodies crashing into one another and tumbling back towards the campfire. Without looking back, you and Meredith scramble to your feet around the fire, looking for a way out that isn’t the way you came.

But you’re stuck there, frozen in horror by the trees. Because they aren’t heavy with pine needles and snow — they’re heavy with people. Arms, legs, and torsos speared on sharpened branches, a primordial meat locker of drying human flesh.

And The Butcher, now back on its feet, has none of your hesitations. It is long and loping, fingers hooked and sharp. In the glittering fire it’s skin shimmers with blood and sweet, mangy hair covering everything except for a mouthful of bone-white teeth.

There is nowhere left to run.

A) Bumrush it again, bowling over it
B) Stand your ground
C) Push Meredith in front of you and run

Go and look for Jackie with Meredith.

“Steven? What’ll it be?”

But Steven is already walking away, obscured by the storm. He turns back to tell you that he’ll send for help, and then he’s gone.

As he slips away, you a scream erupts behind you. Before you can stop her, Meredith charges right for it.

“JACKIE! We’re coming Jackie!”

You sprint to keep up with her, climbing higher and higher up the ridgeline. The branches poke and stab, your coat/jacket in tatters, until you reach a small clearing. You freeze.

In the distance, a campfire burns through the storm. It’s in a secluded area, the shadowy trees thick with pine needles that shield it from the wind. You can just make out the silhouette of the someone before the fire, warming their hands.

“JACKIE” Meredith cries, stepping forwards.

They turn their head, looking right at you, but the face is still obscured. Meredith is already running towards it as it stands, slowly. And it’s only as Merdith is just about to arrive that you realize that this isn’t Jenny. They’re much too tall to be Jenny, the limbs loo long and gangly.

BBAAABBAAA) Help Meredith
BBAAABBAAB) Get out of there

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Look, we don’t have time to –” Steven’s words are cut off by a mangled scream in the distance.

“Oh god. It’s here.” Meredith is backing up, eyes brimming with tears.

The humming grows closer.

“What’s here? Is this some stupid Alphi Kai bullshit?” Look, just because people thought it was funny when you’re in school doesn’t mean it’s funny now. You didn’t come back to be messed with. “I’m not in the mood for games.”

“These aren’t games. This is… well, I don’t know what this is.” Steven sighs, and for the first time, you notice the blood trickling down his forehead.

“G-ggg-gg-guys…” You turn to Meredith, confusion and horror on her face. “Where’s Jackie?”

“We need to keep moving, now.”

“Steven! We can’t leave Jackie!”

“It’s too late to save her.

“Go if you want,” Meredith says, “Real friends hang together.”

They turn to you expectantly.

A) Go and look for Jackie with Meredith.
B) Get out of here with Steven.

Head towards the voices.

“I’ll be right over,” you call out. As you follow the sound of the voice, your flashlight catches something shiny, just off the trail. It looks like a watch, dangling from the trees. You can’t be sure, not in the snow, but it seems like it’s still attached to a hand…

Someone grabs you by the shoulders! In your panic, you trip and fall to the ground.

“I can’t believe you made it this far!” You turn to see three people, roughly your age. They reach down and pick you up, introducing themselves as Steven, Meredith, and Jackie. Their eyes dart around the woods worriedly.

“Thank god I found you guys! Started to wonder if I was all alone out here.”

“You’re not.”

Sheesh. Warm welcome. “I think the ropes course is this way,” you say, “I feel like I have my bearings again.”

“You don’t want to go to the ropes course.”

A twig snaps behind you. In the distance, a low, grinding noise echoes through the trees.

“We need to go, now.”

Go where? You did just meet these people after all. And something about them makes you nervous — their darting eyes and shuffling feet putting you on edge.

A) “What the hell is going on here?”

B) “Alright, let’s go.”

Go right, up onto the ridge.

Maybe you can get a better view from the high ground. You should always take the high ground. You start hiking, the sharpened branches closing in around the trail.

It’s steep. You’re practically climbing, scrambling up roots and rocks. By the time you make it to the top it’s nearly nightfall, and you can hardly see the forest floor. A light snow begins to fall, further obscuring your vision.

You fumble for the flashlight on your phone when you hear:

“Hey! Is that you? Come over here. Quickly!”

It’s not a voice you recognize. Still, your only other option is to backtrack into the gorge.

A) Backtrack into the gorge

B) Head to the voices

Find your own way to the course.

Screw waiting, you know your way The Glen like the back of your hand. You set off into the woods with a pep in your step.

It’s gotten dark since you left the dorm, as if the clouds were lower. Or maybe it’s the woods themselves. Even though the trees are stripped of their leaves, they block out everything — the sun, the wind, the sounds of campus. Your only companion is the soft crunch of leaves beneath your feet and the quiet, visible panting of your breath.

Before you is a fork in the road, and, for the first time, your memory fails you. Maybe you don’t remember how to get to the ropes course… To the left, the trail snakes down into a gorge, and you can hear the faintest sound of running water. To your right, the path shoots up along a ridge, curving away from campus.

BBAAAA) Go left, into the gorge.

BBAAAB) Go right, up onto the ridge.

Nature Walk & Ropes Course

“Careful,” the student says, smiling. “Rumor has it that The Butcher is back.” You smile at the old ghost story, a holdover from days spent hazing freshman every Halloween. It’s good to know the new students keep up traditions. No matter how long it’s been, some things never change.

Butcher or not, nothing beats an autumn walk in the woods. You thank the student and head down the old, familiar paths towards The Glen. You brush past the old, stone buildings you used to study in, each window black. For what feels like the first time, you see other people on campus, but they’re all at a distance, jackets pulled around their faces. No one turns towards you or acknowledges your presence, but you get the feeling that they’re watching you.

It’s a relief when you’re past the last building, it’s darkened windows behind you as you approach the path into the woods.

You look around for a group, but all you see is a note nailed to a tree. It reads:

“Dear Alumni, if you’re reading this, we’re already at the ropes course. If you know the Glen, feel free to find us. Otherwise, wait for the next Orientation Leader to arrive.”

So, what’ll it be?

A) Find your own way to the course.

B) Wait for an orientation leader.

“I heard you were back ;) wanna meet up at the spot for old times sake”

Your heart races. They remember you? Of course, you remember them — you remember the spot. How could you forget? All those hours spent talking, sharing, laughing… And the following Friday they were in the arms of someone else. You haven’t spoken in years, and why would you? You saw the wedding photos on Instagram and, even worse, the honeymoon. And yet, as you type your reply, you know that you can’t say no. You still think of those fleeting moments spent together when you close your eyes at night. You also wonder what would have happened… You were the closest of friends and then, one day, they just disappeared. Until now.

You grab your trusty flask– just in case — and head for the door, heart pounding.

You take off your boring winter coat and throw on your thinner, sexier jacket. Your cool jacket. Then again, you can hear the wind howling outside, and it was a chilly walking in. That said, you’ll definitely need to look cool. Which do you grab on your way out?

A) Stick with the warm, winter coat.

B) Grab the thinner, sexier coat.