Assassins - Part 2

Renee was out first. Joe got her while she was walking home from class. The rules were simple; the only sanctuaries were classrooms and dorm rooms. The halls were fair game, as was campus. So halfway through her hectic Monday routine, Renee was shot with a small stream of water while walking across Landis Green, a giant stretch of grass where students sat to study, relax or avoid class. She never saw it coming - Joe was hidden behind a tree, aware that she'd walk by around one o'clock. It may or may not have been fate - Renee had a hidden crush on him at the time.

Before starting the game, we set up a basic angelfire website - the kind that was predesigned and had enough pop ups to make you hate the Internet. Each player had their own page with a posed photo and their schedule typed out. We were all friends, we had known each other for over a year, but having multiple schedules memorized was seemingly impossible. So we had it there, documented, for all to see. It made assassination attempts that much easier.

Keith lived four floors above me. He was the kind of guy who tried to look like he was in a band, only never actually tried to play an instrument. He had piercing, tattoos, dyed hair. And yet, he had a laugh that was comparable to a five year olds, infectious and endearing. I waited for him to return from class at night. Acting as a sniper, I sat by my fourth floor window that looked out to the courtyard behind our dorm. My blue water gun's stream wouldn't reach him four floors down, but the box of water balloons would. The snipering never paid off, though; he always managed to come in through a different door.

Everyone became suspicious, paranoid. We couldn't walk from class to class with one another like usual, we couldn't walk down the halls together. We made small pacts, vowing not to kill each other during a quick lunch downstairs in the cafeteria. The lonesome feeling never caught up because I liked being part of something - something no one else around knew about. I liked knowing that the plastic gun was secretly hidden in my pocket, water sometimes leaking out. A backup was in my backpack. I felt like an undercover spy, always observant and aware of my surroundings. I looked around corners before walking. A leaf didn't fall without me knowing about it. No one else on campus knew what was at stake.

Our games were serious. I wasn't ready to lose.