The Midnight Feast: Becoming the Campus Monster

The smell of blood.

A nauseating mixture of rust and formaldehyde, so thick it made me want to gag.

My fingernails dug deep into my flesh, my lungs heaving like a worn-out bellows. The second hand on the clock mounted on the wall ticked forward.

"Tick."

The time was 9:50 p.m.

I lowered my head and stared at my perfectly intact hands.

No broken finger bones from Chad stomping on them. No ruined wrists from Victoria's box cutter.

I breathed in the icy air as my heart hammered against my ribs.

I had been reborn. Back to the night of death at St. Jude's Academy—the night they called the "Freshman Initiation."

In my previous life, I had died at exactly midnight, my last breath swallowed by their hysterical laughter.

Two hours and ten minutes remained until midnight.

This time, I would make sure they wished for death and couldn't even have that.

One hundred and thirty minutes until midnight.

I was curled up in the basement changing room beneath the women's swimming pool.

The metal locker was freezing against my back, and through the slats of the blinds, I could see the dim hallway outside.

According to my memories from my previous life, in three minutes, Chad would kick open this door with his two lackeys.

They would drag me into the drained swimming pool like a dead dog and begin the first round of tonight's torture.

I had to move.

I pushed open the locker door, and the damp, cold air immediately wrapped around me.

There was something strange in the air. Beneath the chlorine was a faint, almost imperceptible sweetness.

I knew that smell too well. The smell of human blood oxidizing in the air.

Why did I smell blood already?

I forced down the tremor inside me and scanned the changing room: moldy benches, scattered towels, and a broken section of galvanized pipe lying on the shower floor.

My eyes finally settled for a moment on the glass case containing the fire axe in the corner.

"Clang—"

From the end of the hallway came the shrill sound of a metal baseball bat scraping across the tile.

"Kelly? Little mouse, where are you?"

Chad's voice echoed through the empty corridor, filled with a sickening excitement.

9:52 p.m. One minute earlier than in my previous life.

The butterfly effect had already begun.

I didn't smash the fire-axe case. That would make too much noise.

I slipped off my shoes and stepped barefoot onto the freezing tile, silently moving into the blind spot behind the changing-room door.

I gripped the section of metal pipe I'd picked up from the shower. Its broken edge was sharp as a blade.

"Bang!"

The changing-room door was kicked open, slamming into the wall less than an inch from my nose.

"Come out. Victoria said that if we finish tonight's game before ten, she'll let me take you downstairs."

Chad's massive body blocked the doorway. He tapped his baseball bat against the floor. The bat was smeared with some dark red substance I couldn't identify.

There was no one behind him. He was alone.

I held my breath, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. Chad turned his back to me and began opening the lockers one by one.

"Bang!"

The first locker was empty.

"Bang!"

So was the second.

His movements grew increasingly violent, his breathing like that of a beast losing control.

I stared at his completely exposed back, and the agony of him breaking my ribs in my previous life seemed to awaken all over again from deep inside my bones.

My fear reached its peak.

Then it rapidly hardened into pure murderous intent.

The dull ticking of the wall clock gradually merged with my heartbeat as the hands crept toward 9:55.

The moment he opened the fifth locker, I moved.

Without making a sound, I slipped up behind him like a shadow. I didn't swing the pipe at his head. It wouldn't be enough to kill him.

I gripped the pipe with both hands and brought it down with all my strength behind his right knee.

"Crack!"

The sickening sound of bone breaking exploded through the silent changing room.

"AAAH!"

Chad let out a piercing scream. His massive body instantly lost its balance, dropping to one knee.

He whipped around. His usually arrogant face was twisted with pain.

But what sent a chill through me were his eyes.

His pupils had dilated to an unnatural degree, almost swallowing the whites completely.

"You filthy little rat!" He swung the bat at me.

I'd already anticipated it. I threw myself backward, and the bat whistled past my scalp before smashing into the mirror beside us. Glass rained down like a storm.

I didn't retreat.

Using the momentum of my fall, I drove my foot into his already shattered knee.

"Crack!"

This time, the joint gave completely.

Chad's enormous body crashed to the floor.

I gave him no chance to recover. I stepped forward, pinned his chest beneath my knee, and pressed the metal pipe against his throat.

"Chad."

I leaned down and stared into those unnatural eyes. My voice was so cold it sounded foreign even to me.

"The rules have changed. Tonight, I'm the house."

The smell of blood suddenly became overwhelming.

Chad didn't beg. He looked at me—and suddenly laughed.

His lips stretched all the way toward his ears, exposing a vivid red gumline. That wasn't a human expression.

"Time... is almost up." His voice came out as a hollow, rattling croak.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the minute hand on the wall clock jerk violently. 9:58.

That inhuman smile felt like a cruel countdown to death, sending a chill crawling down my spine.

I couldn't stay here another second.

I sprang to my feet, grabbed the baseball bat from the floor, and ran out of the changing room.

Behind me, Chad's inhuman laughter continued to echo through the darkness.