Nudity.
Drugs.
Alcohol.
Late nights alone in the woods.
Initiations are hazards, but they are a tradition; one that every high school student dreams of partaking in. I was no exception. My name is Alex, and this is the story of how my life ended.
I don’t truly believe it ever began, my life that is. The foster home was the only one I knew, and it was what always set me apart from the group. Sure I could blend into the crowd of nerds or even get away with hanging with the alternatives, but having just that single difference made me permanently different.
I had hoped that my high school graduation would make everything better, it would be my tabula rasa. Nobody would have to know I was an orphan and I could be a whole new person. I attended Carroll College in Helena Montana, it was about as far as I could get from Delaware. Popularity isn’t spontaneous however, and I had to work for my fame.
I stayed in an apartment right off campus, that helped a little. My intense knowledge of the world, did not. It wasn’t until our hectic college freshman lives calmed down towards the second semester that we all started to form cliques. Sororities and Fraternities of all kinds came out of the woodworks and began to recruit new victims. As much as I wished for it, I knew I wasn’t going to be one of the chosen. That’s why it shocked me when I found a black envelope with a deep red wax seal on the back, stuck in-between the pages of my textbook.
As children we hear LOTS of stories of what happens when you join a house on campus. Sometimes you are forced to run around butt naked while the other members record it. Other times, you’re influenced by roofies that leave you vulnerable for all types of violations. One of the deadliest rituals is that of survival; you are dropped off in the middle of an unknown terrain with a potato sac over your head and must find your way through the dark while others are playing tricks on you.
Roar Omega Roar, the house I was to be pledged into, was one of the largest and most popular of them all. The thoughts of what awaited me as an initiation, clouded my mind and my grades began to slip.
Two weeks later, I was standing on a corner ten blocks away from the campus. Alone under a dim street light, I awaited my pickup.
A sleek black truck pulled up beside me with no license plate to be found. A cloaked figure helped me up into the bed and sat me down before tying a handkerchief around my eyes. It was a long car ride, although they were probably just trying to confuse me; first a left, then another, a right, and a left. I was repeatedly offered a drink during the ride; the minute I accepted, the ride came to a halt.
A small drop from the tailgate to the ground and then twenty paces along the tar pit road to the right. I removed my blindfold and revealed an unusual scene. Everyone was grouped around a conflagration. Why had I needed to be blinded? I wasn’t staying put, that’s why. I followed a trail of twinkling lights through the woods for at least a mile before being given any directions.
Using only what I was born with, I was to find my way back to the campus; that implied that we were in the surrounding woods because I would not be returning to town before hand.
Thunder rumbled overhead and it began to pour but I continued anyway. As I walked my surroundings grew darker and darker vanishing before my eyes. Only the occasional glow of beady eyes let me know that I wasn’t completely unaccompanied. I felt around and I couldn’t even find a tree to lean on at some point. I was officially alone, and I was in an endless darkness. Struggling to find courage I continued on into the endless black hole. Eventually I started to hear noises again. Soon a faint glow rose on the horizon.
It wasn’t the sun, that’s for sure; I wasn’t nearly fatigued enough for the whole night to have gone by already. Hoping that it was a sign that the end was near I ran towards it. Gargoyles and menacing angel statues greeted me at the brink of the darkness. The back door to Roar Omega Roar presented itself to me. Obnoxious music blared from inside the walls. Upon entrée however, I was greeted with nothing. Nobody filled the kitchen nor did anybody fill the adjacent halls; even now, I was alone.
A squeal reverberated from the front of the house. Eager to end this treachery I bolted through the doorway.
Animals.
Ginormous animals.
That’s what had created the sound.
Cautiously I wandered through the crowd, passing pigs three feet high and eagles that nearly touched the roof. Following a basilisk that glided through the halls like a river, I came across a grand staircase. While ascending this staircase a swarm of flying monkeys engulfed me. Staggering on the edge of the rail, I inched my way to the top.
The clamoring of noise behind me faded as I walked down the ancient hall. Doors lined the sides and as you got further down, it seemed as if you were traveling back in time. Bright florescent lights slowly changed to candles hanging on the walls, the carpeted floor gave way to wood boards, painted doors changed to chipped oak planks.
I peeked into every room I walked past; there was an infinite amount of horrendous mysteries in store for me.
The first room had walls completely covered in spiders, not an inch was bare. The second room was similar to that of a circus tent, clowns entertained each other with new tricks. A third room spilled water as I creaked the door open a smidge. On and on my fears came to life, becoming more and more intensely bizarre. At one point I swore the room contained nothing but a rickety old wooden bridge that led to another door. In yet a different room, blood oozed down the interior with no logical explanation to it. Vampire’s controlled the next room; possibly they were the cause of the bloody walls. That’s when everything took a turn for the worse; My Little Ponies had bedazzled the final room.
Everywhere you turned there was another one. They mesmerized me with their innocence and magical allure. Slowly I began to lose all sense of time. Eventually I managed to crawl out of the lair and tumble down the staircase. But by that point it was too late for me.
All the animals surrounded me, even the gargoyles seemed to have risen for the occasion. This was it; they were going to destroy me in a cruel and unusual manner. Maybe that’s what they had done to the members of Roar Omega Roar. I was just the last puzzle piece. Left to be demolished by an animalistic society.
As the lights faded from my vision and the animals floated farther and farther away I regained a small glimpse of reality.
The true identities of all the dangers I faced, revealed themselves. They weren’t animals at all, but instead my peers that had already passed their initiation rituals.
My name is Alex, and my demise was my own doing; I beg that you heed my advice and just be yourself. There’s no need to be like everybody else because you aren’t like everybody else. We struggle through our own lives and nobody can understand what it is we go through. Even you don’t understand what you are capable of accomplishing or not.