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Mary

The house seemed much more eerie than it had all the times before Mary had visited. Though it had not been often, it was enough for her to decide she never wanted to be caught alone here. For the first time all night, Mary had been separated from Haley. While she was now with Sophia, she much preferred the company of a close friend to the company of this perpetually worried girl whom Mary felt should have left with the others.

The clocks on the wall seemed to rush quickly toward midnight as the pair poked their heads into rooms, and occasionally called out for Molly, Gina, or Rachel. While Sophia was convinced the others had all been devoured by demons, Mary believed it was more likely the others had chickened out and left without telling anyone. Of course this was only one possibility, and as a Delta Omega officer it was her responsibility to assume the girls were still here, had fallen into a hole, and were now trapped.

"Sophia," Mary said gently as the poor Latin girl muttered the Lord's Prayer in Spanish.

"Si?"

"You're speaking Spanish."

"Oh... sorry," Sophia said as she focused on her words.

"Why did you stay?" Mary felt the need to know. "Why didn't you go with the others?"

"My team stayed."

"What?"

"My team," Sophia repeated, "they all stayed."

"Well, yes... but..."

"I do not abandon my team. They stay, I stay."

"I see," Mary said with a smile on her face. "Sophia, you're Catholic, right?"

"Y-yes."

"Would you like to pray with me?"

"Yes!" Sophia's whole body seemed to brighten at the thought of prayer. "You Catholic too?"

"I am," Mary said with a smile. "The others make fun of me for it."

"What they say?"

"They call me, their very own Virgin Mary," she said with a laugh.

"You still virgin?" Sophia asked as Mary's face turned red.

"Yes," Mary said as she prepared for the laughter. "I'm the only virgin Junior I know at this college."

"Oh," Sophia said with a sad smile, "I envy... I wish I still virgin."

The pair traveled in silence as the clocks all said that there was less than five minutes until midnight. The chapel was not very large, with only six pews total, but it had enough religious artwork to impress both of the young women. The gigantic angel which surrounded the crucified Christ unnerved her a little, but the whole place was theirs, and Mary led Sophia into the front pew, where they knelt on the pullout cushion, and began to pray.

"Ave Maria," Sophia began, then stopped and looked at Mary.

"Go on," Mary said with a smile, "I'll say it in English, maybe it will double our chances of being heard." Broad smiles were exchanged as they each began the prayer in their native tongue. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee..." The feeling of this common comfort settled them, drained their stress, and brought them closer as friends. But as they rounded the end of the second verse, a cacophony of old fashioned clocks all began chiming midnight at once.

From every angle and in every tone, cuckoo clocks and grandfather clocks began tweeting and banging away, rattling the windows, resonating off of the walls, and even vibrating the pews on which the girls prayed upon. Their concentration was momentarily broken as they paused as they waited for the uproar to finish.

When at last the last of the instruments fell silent, Mary and Sophia burst into a fit of laughter which collapsed them together. A great hug was exchanged between the two of them, and then their bodies went ridged as a the sounds of roaring, groaning, and maniacal giggling echoed through the chapel. Distant creatures had been awakened and their movement was apparent from every passage. The two girls crouched down, curling up on the prayer cushion as they peaked out from under the pews.

Mary listened carefully as strange creatures ran up and down the hallways. Some sounded like they were fighting, others were playful, but not a single one of them was familiar. Then, as if their horror could not have grown thicker, the great angel statue which surrounded the crucifix began moving.

"Ave Maria!" Sophia shouted as the great statue flexed its wings and broke free from the stone which encased its flesh. With a heavy crash, it leaped off of its podium and began fluttering its wings like a newly emerged butterfly. "No!" Sophia cried, as she began crawling to the end of the pew.

"Sophia!" Mary shouted. "Don't go!"

Mary watched in dismay as her new friend's faith failed her, causing her to rush from the chapel, into the hall where other things where going bump in the night. In all the horror stories Mary had ever heard of, she never knew one to panic and live. Survival instincts boiled in her veins as she watched the statue become flesh. Cold crimson eyes gaze out of an inhuman head, sniffing the air, and then looking at her with a growl on its lips.

"Mary... Mary..." It knew her... and without a doubt, she would need to act fast or become its prey.