Souls' Collision | ✔

S E N I O R I T Y

~Chapter One~

She was late.

The others were already gathered in the meadow, immediately noticeable even through the dark. They were all huddled together in a desperate yet useless attempt at fighting the intrusive wind. Maybe once, before the whole forest went to shit, the trees could've proved some kind of barrier against the wild snow whistling between their ears. But now they were nothing but thin pillars, naked sticks portruding from the snow like spears.

Liz quicked her steps, eager to escape the hazardous roots and ice-puddles she'd fought through to get there. She tried to run towards the others — no doubt they would make an example out of her now that she was late — but the heels of her snowboots kept getting stuck in the particuarly large heaps, tripping her up.

"What's this?" one of the seniors called once she got close enough. He shook his head and grinned. "A tardy little porkchop!"

"Sorry," Liz muttered and joined the outskirts of the group circled around the three seniors. "I had to do something."

Every single pair of eyes were on her. Her classmates looked unsure how to react whilst the three seniors in the middle produced laughs, each one theatrical and loud. For some reason Liz' eyes shot to the surrounding forest and she wondered if it was a good idea making too much noise.

A gloved finger was suddenly pointing to her, singling her out with malicious intent.

"Oh really? And what was it? Something more important than getting welcomed into this magnificent college of ours?"

Of course she'd already gotten in, with or without a ceremony. But Liz didn't feel like spoiling the mood so she dug her rosy fingers further down the pockets of her jacket and offered the senior a tense shake of the head.

He grinned — like he was the king of the world.

"Enough stalling," his friend complained. "It's fucking cold! Let's get on with it."

The finger dissapeared from her face and the seniors turned to adress the entire group. Liz relaxed, wished she'd brought something to cover her face from the snapping wind.

"Alright. You all know why you're here; the Bern initiation rite each freshy class has to endure. We've done it, the ones before us have done it and after we're gone, it's gonna be you doing it to someone else."

"And why do we do this, Tyler?" his friend interjected in a theatrical British accent. Spread laughs echoed throughout the circle, all whisked away by the wind.

"Oh, how nice of you to ask. You see, before you can join the college of Bern, bear its badge, we have to make sure you're not... What's the word?"

His friend grinned. "Pussies."

"Thank you!" The senior snapped his fingers. Liz rolled her eyes. "We have to make sure you're not pussies. Are you pussies?"

The freshies all yelled, "No!" and Liz got pulled along, yelling as well.

"Oh, how touching," he acted. "Really. I could cry. But sadly, that's statistically incorrect; at least one in five freshies are pussies. Which makes..." His eyes flew around the group, touching each face. "Four! Four of you are pussies. And tonight we gotta single them out, don't we?"

A noise got carried by the wind, emanating from the treeline behind the group. It sounded like a scream.

Everyone shared worried looks but Liz knew it was a setup, supposed to scare them. Even so, she couldn't help looking over her shoulder, squinting through the dark and feeling adrenaline rush to her muscles.

"This forest is haunted," one of the guys said. Liz couldn't keep track of them in the darkness but noticed how excited they were, childishly happy at the reactions the scream had gotten. How far were they willing to go? Standing outside, exposed like that in the dark, she began regretting coming at all, wondered if it meant total social suicide to bail.

"It's known allover Bern; scary things hide amongst these trees. Some say it's evil spirits, some say witches — there's even a rumor that in the past a buttload of people hung themselves here and then their ghosts wander the paths, looking for a happy soul to devour. That's why the locals don't let their kids out to play after nightfall." He put out his hands in a dramatic gesture. "Twenty miles of complete desolation."

Liz pursed her lips, thinking the story was a little out of turn.

"Tonight, my small grasshoppers, you will wander these woods until you find our checkpoint!"

"Wait," someone from the circle piped up, becoming the first of them to interrupt. "You're sending us into the woods in this weather? That's dangerous!"

Even Liz knew he shouldn't have done that. One of the seniors grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into the circle. She held her breath as he got right up in his face.
"I think we found our first pussy — don't you, gentlemen?"

"Yeah!"

"No, I'm not," the freshy argued, but not sounding as sure as before.

"Then prove it." The senior stepped away but didn't let go. Instead he dragged him across the snow and pushed him out of the circle with a devious smile. "You go first."

The freshy helplessly looked for any backup amongst his peers. They all averted their gazes, not wanting to become a blip on the seniors' radars within the first week of college. He turned his gaze to the wood. "I-I'll get lost."

"You won't!" One of the guys threw off a backpack Liz hadn't noticed he wore and pulled out a stack of crinkled papers. He gave the top one to his friend who then proceeded to toss it on the snow by the freshy's feet. "Behold. A map. More than we ever got."

The poor guy quickly snatched it from the ground, tried to protect it from the assault of snowflakes. Liz then watched as he hesitantly turned around, began staggering to the treeline.

They all watched, waiting for someone to say something but doing so in vain. The circle was completely quiet until his receding back dissapeared from sight, wandered into the forest and left the meadow along with any chance of turning back.

Liz finally spoke up, watched the spot he'd dissapeared with growing concern. "Maybe we should call him back?"

"You again, freshy?!"

This time she was the one to get pulled into the circle. She quickly pushed away the senior's hands from her collar but it didn't matter because another set proceeded to push her out the circle. As much as she hated it, it felt like losing a protective space, like she'd been left to get sniped by some predator.

A map was pressed into her palms.

"Go — join your boyfriend. Maybe you can keep eachother warm."

"Fuck off."

They snickered but Liz didn't find it nearly as funny anymore. She turned her back on the circle, stared into the trees. The guys had been joking but maybe catching up with him wasn't a bad idea — they had to have a better chance together. Not that she believed the bullshit story; hypothermia was what really made her scared to death.

"Well, freshy? You wanna bail?"

Against better judgement, Liz stuffed the map into her pocket and began walking across the meadow. Sometimes her foot broke through, soaking her jeans in snow melting through the seams and causing her skin to prick painfully. She didn't look back at the hollering seniors but also didn't want to look too intently at the trees. On her way there she'd walked through the forest. Sure, it was dark but if she couldn't find the other freshy then she could probably find her way back to her car. Liz knew it would ruin her reputation back at campus but the map was unclear and poorly made (by choice, she guessed) and she wasn't about to die for some initiation rite.

Another scream traveled with the snowflakes, coming from her left.

Against better judgement, Liz took off running.

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