Chapter 1: Orientation

Life so far hasn’t been easy for Chloe Esiason. She grew up in an unstable household with abusive, alcoholic parents who often left her scarred both physically and emotionally. Her life at school was never any better. She was often made fun of for being poorly dressed in tattered apparel, her unkempt hair, her voice, everything and anything. She spent her childhood hiding in the shadows, both literally and figuratively, to avoid attracting any attention from anyone. Chloe’s only escape from the constant and relentless abuse was in her creative pursuits. Drawing, writing, reading, and music allowed her to temporarily escape the misery of her daily life.

Chloe endured this abuse for years, but now, after 18 years of torture, she finally gets to start fresh. Chloe was accepted into a nearby university and got enough grant and scholarship money to afford a small dorm room on campus. She could finally get away from her abusive parents, and maybe even her biggest bullies from school. Move in day went off without a hitch. Chloe was surprised when she found out she wouldn’t have a roommate, but she quickly discovered why. The room she was assigned was tiny, with barely enough room for one bed, a small desk, and a small dresser. Most people would’ve likely complained, but Chloe was more than content. In fact, she was ecstatic, because this meant she no longer had to worry about her roommate bullying her the way everyone else in her life had in the past. As Chloe unpacked her things into her room, she began to grow cautiously optimistic about her new situation.

Today marks the first day of the rest of my life. She thought to herself. I’m away from my parents. I’m in a new town where nobody knows me. I have new teachers and new classes. I might even be able to actually make some friends here!

A smile lit up Chloe’s face for just a moment before vanishing once again. She had had glimmers of hope like this in the past, but they rarely lasted long. Why would this time be any different? She sank down to the floor and reached for something in her suitcase. After some rummaging, she pulled out a journal and a pen, and started doodling quietly. Once she had calmed herself down again, she finished unpacking and got ready for bed. The next two days should be quiet since school doesn’t start until Monday, but after that, Chloe’s new life would begin.

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Over the weekend, Chloe acquainted herself with the various facilities in her dorm building and around campus. She spent very little time outside of her room, only leaving to pickup or make food and to use the communal bathrooms, showers, and laundry rooms. Most students didn’t live very far from home, and opted to drive back to spend some quality time with their families before the first day of the semester, but not Chloe. She was happy to stay on campus to avoid her toxic home life.

By the time Monday rolled around, and the first official day of school commenced, she had already picked out routes to all of her classes that she expected most people would avoid due to how out of the way they were. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, she had two classes in the Center for the Arts & Literature, one of the furthest buildings on campus from her dorm. This trip would normally take about 10-15 minutes of walking if you followed the main pathways, but Chloe mapped out a route along one of the trails in the forest behind the main campus. The trail was beautiful and quiet, but it added 20-30 minutes to her walk. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she had a class at Synergy Hub and another class in Catalyst Hall. Synergy Hub is within eye sight of Chloe’s dorm, so she decided it would be ok to take the main path there. However, between Synergy Hub and Catalyst Hall is just about every popular hangout spot on campus. To avoid this, Chloe mapped out yet another path that took her through the forest behind campus to get to Catalyst Hall, then back to her dorm after class. Her final class is completely online, so thankfully she didn’t have to find any other out-of-the-way paths to that class.

On Monday morning, at 6:30 AM, Chloe’s alarm went off. The loud beeping startled her awake, and she rose her arms to cover her head, expecting an assault that never came. After a handful of heartbeats, she lowered her guard and shut off the alarm and caught her breath. Chloe had been having a nightmare about her parents, one which caused her to relive the time her father beat her for having too loud of an alarm on one of his days off. She made a mental note to adjust the alarm’s settings tonight, then got up to get dressed. In her backpack, she packed some her pencil case, a metal water bottle, and two notebooks: a green one for English Literature and a red one for Jazz History. She picked out one of her usual outfits; a black plaid skirt with black tights, a white long-sleeved button-up shirt with a collar, and a black cardigan. This outfit was one of her favorites because it was nice enough to give decent first impressions, but not fancy enough to cause her to stick out. When 7:15 rolled around, she strapped on her backpack and made her way to the trail head. In a perfect world, this would afford her roughly 10 minutes of wiggle room in case something slowed her down for any reason.

As Chloe stepped outside, she noticed that the air was cold and dry. This meant that her favorite season, Fall, would likely arrive within the next few weeks, turning the leaves on all the trees to beautiful shades of orange, red, and yellow. Chloe pulled her cardigan tight around her and marched forward. The forest she had plotted the majority of her routes through served as a sort of barrier between the school and the city and had become more of a park than a wild and natural forest. Most of the pathways were paved with light posts dotted around, but the park was big enough and the trees and bushes were still dense enough to simulate a real forest. Chloe enjoyed the sounds and the smells of the forest as she made her way to the far end of campus. When she finally arrived to class, she was surprised by the amount of people who had also arrived early. She looked around for a spot in the back of the room when she heard an all too familiar voice calling her name.

“Chloe? Is that you?” Chloe immediately recognizes the voice as Cassandra Hickler’s. Her heart immediately sank to her stomach. She debated turning around and leaving, but she knew she couldn’t now. She could feel the eyes of other students on her back like the sun through a magnifying glass. The voice grew slightly louder as Cassandra beckoned. “Chloeee! Come here! I haven’t seen you in months! Come join us! You can sit right next to me.”

Chloe turned her head towards the voice, allowing her eyes to confirm that it was indeed Cassandra calling her. Sat in the middle of a crowd of preppy girls and frat boys was a smiling girl with fair skin and dark curly hair that flowed down from her head to her shoulders. Chloe hesitated for a moment. Cassandra had been one of her most brutal and ruthless bullies throughout her entire life. How could she be here? Why didn’t she go to a bigger college like her friends did? Am I really going to have to deal with another 4 years of torture? She thought to herself as she made her way towards Cassandra and her posse who were sitting near the middle of the lecture hall. As she drew closer, Chloe’s soft shaky voice let out a reply.

“H-hi… Cassandra. You’re right, it’s been a while.” She let out a nervous laugh as she set her stuff down and pulled out her chair. “Are- are you sure? I just didn’t-“

“Didn’t what?” Cassandra interrupted with a laugh. “Come on girly, that was high school! No need to dwell on the past, let’s start fresh!”

Cassandra twirled her hair with a pencil and patted the seat next to her. “Come on, sit. I insist!”

Chloe hesitated once again, but eventually took the seat directly next to Cassandra. This can’t be real. Cassandra has done nothing but torture me for as long as I’ve known her. Why the sudden change of heart? What could have changed over the handful of months between the end of high school and the beginning of college? Even if she did go through some crazy transformation, Chloe wasn’t sure if she wanted to stick around to find out. Chloe looked down to open her backpack, allowing her long platinum blonde hair to cover her face as she pulled out a green notebook neatly labeled “English Lit” along with a box of various pens and highlighters of all colors. Chloe could hear Cassandra whispering and giggling with her friends. There was no doubt she was plotting something. Chloe knew from the start that this was only ending one way. And she was right. Just as the rest of the class got settled into their seats, Chloe felt something poking her outer left thigh and she could feel Cassandra leaning in towards her.

“So, I see you got some new clothes. It’s about time, but I gotta say, I kinda miss the old raggedy look you had.” Cassandra spoke softly into Chloe’s ear, increasing the pressure she was applying through her pencil. She could almost hear Cassandra’s lips twisting into a wicked grin beside her. “Luckily, I think we can fix that.” The pencil tore through Chloe’s tights and into her skin, causing her to bleed. She winced at the pain as Cassandra removed the pencil from her leg. “Pay attention, wouldn’t want to miss anything on your first day of class now, would you?”

Cassandra wiped her pencil off on her leg as the professor began his lecture. Meanwhile, red hot tears began to swell and burn in Chloe’s eyes. But these tears weren’t just caused by the open wound that lay beneath her now torn tights, these were tears of frustration. For the first time in what felt like forever, Chloe thought she’d be able to start over and build a life worth living. But the torment followed her once again just as it always had.