In Halls

Fire Alarm

"This is a fire alarm. Please leave the building immediately via the nearest available exit." A loud beeping punctuated the recording, then "This is a fire alarm. Please leave the building immediately via the nearest available exit..."

I had an instant headache. How could this man's voice be so loud? Was this someone's idea of good music?

There was a hammering on my door.

"Ellen? Fire alarm, Ellen, come on!" It sounded like Christopher. I heard him back track to Elizabeth's door. A steady realisation of the present moment set in as I dragged myself from the bed and out into the corridor. This was my first night in halls, I was drunk, still, or at least I wasn't sober, we needed to get outside before the building went up in smoke. Elizabeth was emerging, clutching her head with one hand and bent almost double, and other doors were open. I pulled out my key card and took Elizabeth's hand, guiding her down the stairs along with a swell of other grumbling, groggy students.

"This is a fire alarm. Please leave the building immediately via the nearest available exit." Beep.

The cold air once we got outside was like an ice bath, and as soon as my feet hit the tarmac of the small car park I realised I hadn't put on any shoes. According to my phone, we'd been back for less than an hour, and yet I was sure it had been fairly mild on the way back from the Union. The crowd of fellow residents around us showed the full range, from people with bed hair who had clearly been six hours into a solid night's sleep, to those who had brought out vodka bottles to continue the party outside. There was no visible sign of any fire that I could make out.

"This is a fire alarm. Please leave the building immediately via the nearest available exit." Beep.

Elizabeth and I huddled by a hedge and Christopher soon found us. To my complete surprise, Josh and Tara looked to be keeping each other warm very effectively over by the corner of the building. Christopher followed my gaze.

"I know," he grimaced. "I left them in the kitchen a few minutes ago, got the feeling my company was not called for any more."

"Wow. That escalated quickly."

I couldn't think of anything else to say. I'd left the kitchen straight after Tara had smashed the mug. I still wasn't sure if any of them had seen me come back. The warm, fuzzy feeling I'd begun to have towards my flatmates in the club had been depleted by Ed's make out session, and obliterated completely by the mug incident. All I'd wanted to do was curl up and sleep for the rest of the night. Instead, I was standing in the cold with goose-bumps all over me, listening to one of the foulest noises on the planet.

"This is a fire alarm. Please leave the building immediately via the nearest available exit." Beep. "This is a fire alarm. Please leave the building immediately via the nearest available exit." Beep.

On and on. I clicked my phone about every minute, wondering how long this could possibly take.

Another figure approached our little group, in a weirdly triangular shape because of a duvet hanging down from his shoulders.

"Hey," he said. It was Ed. He looked uncharacteristically unsure of himself. "I looked for you guys in the club but I couldn't find you... I thought maybe you were still out until I saw you just then."

"Where's your lady friend?" asked Christopher suggestively. "Hiding under that duvet?"

"No comment," Ed replied, relaxing into a grin. Underneath it he was still wearing his night out clothes. But he shook out the duvet, wrapping it around Elizabeth instead. She was definitely the worst off of all of us. When I'd helped her into bed she hadn't been that bothered about getting into pyjamas, so she was in a short, flimsy dress patterned with flying bird silhouettes and sheer tights. She gratefully hugged the duvet into herself and sat down on the wall that edged the car park.

"How long can this take?" she groaned. The rest of us shivered in response.

"You know, you'll have to change that more often if you keep dragging it around outside," I said to Ed, indicating the duvet cover he'd been wrestling with that morning.

He yawned.

"Thanks, Ellen. Where would I be without your advice?"