It's not a bad floor to wake up to—dark, shiny stone, freshly swept—but it's unfamiliar, and it makes you stop.
You close your eyes to pretend to sleep for a few more breaths. The cold seeps through the thin fabric of your pajamas as you lie on your side and mentally take stock of your situation.
Here's what you know: You've turned yourself in early to your temporarily assigned room in one of the modern dormitories meant to impress prospective students at the University of Larkspur. And sure, you were exhausted from a busy day of Welcome Weekend activities, but no natural sleep is so deep that it would survive you being pulled under a tall bed.
Chances are you've been drugged, seeing as you ate the same really decent cafeteria food as every other first year. So that leaves just one other explanation:
Witchcraft.
The possibility doesn't bother you too much - after all, you're a witch, and you've signed up in Larkspur for its top-notch Magical Studies department - but the midnight kidnappings during the summer Welcome Weekend event weren't covered in the brochure.
You open one eye and take a quick look around. The horror movie environment isn't doing great things for your nerves.
Gutter torch lighting: check.
Windowless stone walls decorated with gruesome carved faces: check it out.
Shaking bodies approaching your unprotected back: check-check-CHECK.
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Pedro Henrique
