Issue 1 Downtime

Hakey was in deep slumber, her eyes fluttering beneath her lids. Clearly having a bad dream, one of her dresser drawers started to tremble, along with several other items in her room.

As the furniture vibrated, her mattress seemed to move even more.

Also, an arm fell across her hip.

The arm that fell across her hip JUST as the hideous ghost grabbed her and pulled her back into the darkened cellar in her dream!!!!!!

Haley shot upright in bed, screaming, and her drawer shot across the room, splintering as it hit the reinforced wall and sending her underwear across the room.

After she sat panting, clutching the blanket to her chin, tears rolling down her cheek, she noticed the other girl in bed with her. And she' screamed again.

The scream sure as hell woke Daphne up, and as Haley looked at her, she screamed too, falling through the bed to thump onto the floor below. There was a muffled 'ow.'

"...I'm in the wrong room again, aren't I?..."

"What the fuck are you doing in my room?! In my bed?!" Haley practically shrieked.

"How was I supposed to know?" the muffled voice said as she started trying to crawl out from under the bed. "These rooms all look the same in the dark!"

"Our names are on the doors, genius," she said, keeping her sheets pulled tightly against her

"Key word was dark," Daphne repeated, wriggling out from under the bed, banging her head on the bedframe as she did. "Ow!"

"Well you're neither Violet, nor....well you don't SOUND like Aisha, so what the fuck were you doing in our suite then? The lights are always on in the hallway....and WHO are you?" she asked.

That question seemed to trigger an automatic response from Daphne as she sat up, rubbing her head. "Oh, hi, I'm Daphne!" she said, smiling a (usually) infectiously cheerful smile. "And what room is this?"

"Haley Crusek," she smirked, now seemingly more amused than pissed off or scared. "And it's my room. And Violet Salu, and Aisha Khan are my suitemates."

"Ohhhhh, this is Violet's dorm? That... poop, I counted the floors wrong again," she said, scrunching up her nose in annoyance. "Oh well. I'll get it right one of these nights."

"Counted the floors?" she asked.

"Yeah, I climb the wall in the common room 'cuz it runs right up between the dorm rooms, but there's all kinds of ducts and struts and stuff and it's hard to keep track of where you are in there," she said, scrunching up her face in annoyance. "And no trees outside the windows, so that's out..."

"You cl..what? You know, there are stairs, and even an elevator."

"Well yeah, but those are all the way down there," she said, pointing in the opposite direction of where the stairs would be. "And what fun are they?"

"Well, they do keep you from getting into bed with strangers," she smirked.

"Exactly!" Daphne said with a grin, glad that they were on the same page.

"Well. Staying out of stranger's beds is usually a good thing, no?" she smirked.

"Well yeah, but we're not really strangers. I mean, we live in the same place, we can't be strangers..."

"Well I've never met you. And I'm not even sure I've really seen you around the halls," she smirked.