Page 119 of My Roommate from Hell
Before they can respond I throw my phone at them.
It does nothing.
“You, deal with him.”
The figure at the end of the bed takes a step toward me. They reach into their robe to pull out a golden dagger. As they advance, they pull it from its sheath, and start waving it at me.
“Be quiet,” they say.
I raise my hands. I don’t want to be quiet, because I know whatever they want to do to Zarmenus won’t end well. Now my fear starts to spike. Why isn’t he fighting? I’ve seen what he can do. He should be able to take all of them out in two seconds.
“Pick him up,” says the largest of the three, the one I hit with the phone. The one at the end is still holding his knife toward me. Is Zarmenus afraid of hurting them? Or have they really beaten him? I feel my heartbeat in my throat.
The two remaining figures pick Zarmenus up, one holding him by the shoulders and the other by his legs. I keep hoping he’ll move, or fight back, or do something.
“If you follow us,” says the leader, “you’ll regret it.”
They carry Zarmenus out of the room, and slam the door shut behind them.
As soon as they’re gone, I grab my phone from the floor. I decide to slow down for a second, to make sure I get this right. Who do you call if your roommate is kidnapped by a bunch of masked cultists? Campus security don’t seem like they’ll be enough, so I call the police.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“Hi,” I say. “My roommate’s just been kidnapped, I need someone to come right now. They were wearing robes, and I think they drugged him. Please, you need to hurry, I think they’re going to hurt him.”
“Okay, I’ll send a dispatch, just try to breathe, all right? Where are you?”
“I’m in my room, at Point. In Clark Hall,” I say. “They came in and took him, and I think they’re going to hurt him. Please, you have to hurry.”
“First, you’ll need to answer this: Is your roommate human?”
Is he serious? The tone of his voice has changed, and now it seems like he’s smiling.
“Tonight, evil will be vanquished,” he says. “Tomorrow, the sun rises.”
The line goes dead.
Crap, okay. So the freaking dispatcher is a cultist, too. How many of them are there? What can I do? I try to think of something, anything. If they have the dispatcher on their side, this must be bigger than a random attack. This is their grand plan, the strike against demonkind they’ve talked about online. This is a serious threat, maybe the most serious we’ve ever faced.
Zarmenus is in danger, and I have to help him. I just can’t think of what to do.
My hands shaking, I try calling campus security.
Bell appears on my bed, and jumps down onto the floor. She stops at the foot of my bed and meows loudly. The call rings out.
Bell meows again, even louder.
What does she want? Now is not the time.
“Seriously, you want attention now?”
She bangs her head against my leg, and swats at me with one of her paws.
“No, Bell, I need to think.”
I should call the police. Bell meows again, only this time, it’s deep and distorted. My phone makes a buzzing noise and zaps my arm. I fling my phone away on instinct, and when I check the screen, it won’t turn on. Bell turns her head to the side, her eyes wide.
“Did you do that?” I ask.
