"Kind of," would be a generous answer.

Andy: First, what. Second, the fuck.

Andy: Okay, so the tentacle sex thing is probably the reason for the glowing things I saw. That girl didn’t have one before, after she did.

Andy: I clocked about four total today, followed them back to Kappa.

Andy: She’s definitely not human anymore. I want to say she’s dangerous, but the girl wasn’t exactly yelling “yamete,” when she was plowing her.

Andy: Still, I don’t like it. I swear I could see the faces behind their faces sometimes, screaming and yelling silently. That doesn’t shout “good,” to me.

Andy: The reading’s hazy on how to stop it. I got information, but no clue how to use it. We need something old and … divisive? I know that’s vague, but it’s all I have. I’ll keep you updated.

“Cool. Cool cool cool,” you mutter to yourself, reading Andy’s texts first thing in the evening. Divisive is … specific. Pretty much no idea where to start there. Part of you wants to just storm Kappa and see if you can crush the life out of this Atlee-thing before someone puts you down, but every rational thought in your head (and a few vocalized opinions of your friends) tell you that’s an awful idea. “She already came back once, why would that work, anyway?”

“Babe, you up?” you hear Eva yell from the bathroom. “Kappa’s doing their final rush thing tonight! We’re still on the list, if you wanna’ check it out. I know it’s kind of ‘belly of the beast,’ here, but it’s also an invite to get inside. What do you think?”

“Hate it! I’ll get dressed,” you call back. The truth is, whenever you think about that house now, all you see in your head are stock-still faces, blankly staring out windows. The idea of going into that … it’s not pleasant. But if Atlee’s doing something to these girls, and if it’s a bad something (“the faces behind their faces,” was a particularly unpleasant thing to read), it’s … probably, kind of, sort of your fault. You end up deciding on a black and gold dress Eva talked you into buying a few months ago. You have to admit, it looked hella good on you last time you wore it. Impressing the horrible tentacle conglomerate sorority isn’t your chief concern, but hey, it can’t hurt to look good for it. That said, you immediately gravitate towards some flats in case you need to, hypothetically, bolt off at top speed across campus for some reason.

“Damn.” Eva walks back into the room, towel wrapped around her lower body, but make-up already on. She looks you up and down, grinning. “So glad I talked you into getting that. I know you can’t see it anymore, but just a great mix of formal and slutty.” You brush your hair back with one hand, a little embarrassed, but still return her smile before she drops her towel and starts putting on her own outfit. You feel a little guilty looking at her as she slips into her underwear, then the amber, patterned dress she’s picked out. It really goes great with her hair, but there’s no way she doesn’t know that. God, this is bad timing to figure out now. “Now let me get your face, then we can move.”

“Andy’s got no idea,” you tell her as the two of you walk to Kappa. “She said that it’s spreading, though. And probably from the whole hentai fuckin’ thing.”

“This isn’t how I saw the zombie apocalypse happening. Walking corpses sound a little nicer than the sorority of the damned. Guess that means we don’t have any space to drag our feet. Oh, I tried looking stuff up during the day. Pretty much just got porn.”

“Me, too,” you sigh. “She also said it might not like something … ‘old,’ and ‘divisive,’ were the words she used. But she doesn’t know much more about that than what I just said.”

“Monopoly.”

“… what?”

“Like, a vintage set,” Eva explains. “Anyone outside Kappa yet?” You shake your head. “Sorority’s a sisterhood. If she’s sticking to them, at least for now, it sounds like a family thing. Classic tool for putting families at each others’ throat: Monopoly.”

“And what, exactly, is your plan to kill the tentacle monster made out of a nightmare person and her mind-slaves with Monopoly?”

“I dunno’,” she answers with a shrug. “Like …” Eva turns to you and mimics making it rain, which you immediately crack up at. “Look, until you have a better idea, you can shut your face.”

“I’m sorry, just the idea of attacking the first non-vampire monster I’ve seen with dolla dolla bills is …”

“MONOPOLY dolla dolla bills.”

“Oh, then it makes perfect sense!” you follow up, grinning at her. Despite her mild annoyance, Eva still giggles a little.

“Hey, it sounds crazy, but there’s no harm in prepping,” she allows. “Those things on her, they looked STRONG. Like, gorilla strong. Fighting her head-on sounds like suicide. At least if it doesn’t work, we go down knowing we tried.”

“… how are you so calm about this?” you ask, genuinely concerned by the ease she’s processing this with.

“Please, I’ve always known the world was full of monsters. Just didn’t know it was literal until Saturday.” She stops and you with her as you reach Kappa again. It’s as loud and frantic as it was before, which is at least a mild comfort. You had been imagining a stony silence and dead eyes being all that would greet you. “Honestly, it feels good to have the door open now. I can DO something about it, you know? Always wanted to fix the world, anyway. Seems like a pretty direct way to go about it. I made peace a long time ago with ending up in jail or getting my skull cracked open or being a victim of ‘accidental discharge,’ when I start protesting. As long as I’m doing the right thing, I can deal. And stopping whatever Atlee is now, especially because it feels like my own damn fault, is the right thing.” She grabs your hand and squeezes it lightly. You look back at her in silence for a few moments, both of you wanting to speak, but instead, you let your fingers part as the door opens.

“Jaquelin. Eva,” the same girl who greeted you last time says. The one who didn’t need to know your names. “Please, come in. We’re just about to get started. I’ll let Atlee know you’re here.” She smiles, pleasantly if you didn’t have the context of what had clearly happened to her. “She’s been talking about how excited she is to see you again.” She steps aside and invites you inside. You put yourself between her and Eva as you walk past her, acutely aware of her gaze following you even as you start to mingle into the crowd.