Curiosity. It has led to many amazing advancement for the human race. It also killed the cat. It was the screams that drew her curiosity, the loud moans certainly didn't go unnoticed, but it was certainly the screams the peaked it. They had been happened for about 6 days. Midnight without fail, it would start and even if asleep, she awoke to those screams.

Normally soundproofed, a hole was the culprit. Drilled through the wall just below the ceiling to avoid notice, the hole has been made by the rooms previous occupants. Neighbors intent on talking each other to sleep, like playful children they had used paper cups and a string fed through the hole to complete the rudimentary telephone system. Yet, both the string and the old students were gone. Taken, memories of existence faded into nothing.

She had wondered what was going on each night. Was it a lover sharing raunchy moments with her new found love? She could only wonder. After the second night she decided to simply ask, as some of the screams sounded urgent, but words were too muffled to make out. So, morning arrived, and she waited outside her room.

She emerged quietly. A real beautiful freshman. Weren't they all though on this island? She asked the questions she had prepared the night before. Tears filled hers eyes and her face became a mask of shame, a mask that would haunt her till the day she died. She barely muttered a sorry and brushed past her, hurrying off to what she could only assume would be class. Questions aplenty, but not a single answer, just a mystery.

After another night full of midnight screams and she was decided. She went to the room and tried the handle but it was locked. She knocked softly, but from the hallway she heard naught but silence and no answer. Returning to her bed, she hears joyful cries. What was happening?

A simple plan. The next night she grabbed her trusty video recorder and popped a blank DVD in it and headed for her door when she heard the telltale shaking of the water pipes in the wall. Trying the door handle it opened silently and in she went. Quickly she moved to the closet, sounds of a shower taking place quietly filtered out from the bathroom. Slipping open the door, she hides inside, leaving it open just enough for the lens to aim out.

Why she decided to record what happened, she simply didn't know. Proof she wasn't insane, maybe she thought her neighbor was cute, or maybe it was a desire to watch her neighbor meet her assumed lesbian lover for a romp under the sheets. In the end it didn't matter, she had brought the camcorder and was more than ready to find out what was happening to cause those screams and to preserve the answer on film permanently.

She emerged from the bathroom having blow dried her hair straight, combing out any tangles wearing a nightie. She looked worried, not joyous as one in a new relationship typically did.

11 p.m. and the lights went out, alarm set to an hour before her first class, and in bed she went. Waiting silently, time passed and she looked at the glowing numbers on the desk. An hour to wait, and if the pattern held true, she would be punctual.

Midnight. A time where darkness casts its shadow over everything. Darkness, the hour of hidden deeds and daytime-desires, suppressed under the light of day, made realities under cover of night. As the clock reaches twelve the lamp on the nightstand comes glowing to light, and it was there. No sound of the door opening or closing, it simply was.

It was right before her, an urban legend among the student body. Yet after rubbing her eyes vigorously, it remained. Hands so shaky, it was only due to the strap pulled tight against the back of her hand that it wasn't dropped to the ground. Upon seeing it, her finger searches desperately for the record button, and somehow, without taking her eyes from the scene unfolding in front of her, she finds and presses the red record button.

Hands shaky it was a miracle she didn't make a sound as her hands shakily recorded that hour. Eyes glued to the viewfinder, what she saw couldn't be unseen. The begging, the pleading, the denial, not again, NOT AGAIN! Erotic acts she had only read about, defilement that her stomach churn, screams of pain and even more of incomprehensible bliss.

Above all else it was proof. Rumors, stories, nay facts being uttered. The stories were all too true to believe and she had it burning to a DVD. When it ended, she had passed out on the bed, how had she endured?

Then it happened. Those eyes, slits of glowing green turned towards the closet, her sanctuary. Fuck. She fumbles, hurried to find the stop and power buttons, sliding back and hoping. Was it in time, was she safe.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Her heart raced, adrenaline surging. When the door creaked open, fight or flight had chosen flight, and like a hare from its den she bolted. Making it to the door she dare not look back or the boogeyman that would forever haunt her dreams would become real. Slamming it open and shut behind her its 10 paces made in 3, as her legs pump fast.

Her room, she had left it unlocked, but as she slammed the door shut, it would forever be locked going forward. With a click, she slumps down. Back against the reassuringly solid frame, she waits. Did it follow? Did it know what room she went in? No answers, just questions, and a shaking of terrified limbs. She waits 20 minutes, her mind imagining horrid things to happen any second. Yet, something even more terrifying happens. Nothing...

I slammed the door behind me. The lock making a familiar sound though in truth would the door hold up against that thing? What had I seen? What had been in that other room wasn't human. I had believed that Kyo was an inhuman bastard but nothing could prepare me for the fact that such horrors were real.

It had to be a trick, yeah, that was it I tell myself with no real confidence. It had four legs! Even if it were a mask or make up how was that going to explain the multiple limbs? 20 minutes march past before I dare look back at that footage, for something that stands out or can point to the fact that this was some sort of hoax.

If I were to see this on the internet I would have said it was fake but I filmed this myself and knew that there had been no editing tricks at work here. The more I looked the more real it had seemed to my eyes. I popped the DVD out of the camera pulling out my bottom dresser draw and hiding it in there after stuffing it into a jewel case. The draw was carefully slid back into place and I breathed out a sigh.

Tomorrow did I dare approach my upstairs neighbor about this? To find out more answers? With proof perhaps even go to the administration. I wasn't expecting the National Guard to be called in though that lead me to another issue. What country had jurisdiction over the island and for that matter where was it?

I had jumped at the chance to assist Armand, to learn those complex things that I was having trouble with. Self taught there was still also that I had to learn even if I did pick up things easier than most.

Getting through the night, first things first, one step at a time I tell myself. In the morning I would see my upstairs neighbor, but would morning come?

The demon Slimer had his way that night with his favorite new arrival. He enjoyed both the fear he struck in her, the revulsion as he slimed her lovely hair, the shouts of denial as he took her, violating every inch of her recently virgin body while she begged for it to stop. He took her over and over again, making her his plaything, rooms soundproofed, he became the horror that arrived in only midst of night, an evil that traveled in nightmares and couldn't be fought or vanquished but merely survived if allowed. She would either become his willing slut or lose her mind, yet his role in preparation of these young students was clear.

Yet, this night as he took his pleasures he was unaware that not only was his brutal rape witnessed, but recorded as well. It was that tiny red recording light that caught his attention. As he opened the closet, she ran past, surprise her dearest friend. Fear and the unexpected explosion of movement propelled her past and out the door to freedom before his mind comprehended what he was seeing.

He was keenly aware his mind focused his gaze on that video recorder. The sheer audacity that someone dared record what was his moment with his prey. It happened so fast, adrenaline making her move like a gazelle sprinting from a lion, that he only saw her longer black hair. As he made it to the door he opened it in time to hear the slamming of a nearby door. Yet as he reached the hallway, he didn't know which one.

The rooms being soundproofed, allowed for discrete interactions between the guests and the students, keeping the charade alive that this was just a dormitory and the whispers just rumors. Yet, if he started kicking in numerous doors, that lie may come to an end soon rather than later. Listening wouldn't do any good.

He would have to do something he did best, wait. It had to be one of the rooms in this hall and patience would help him find exactly which one. He would be damned if that girl brought his stay here to an end. He would find her and that recording and make her pay for her snooping.

That crack in the ceiling had me thinking upon what had occurred. At least the screams had stopped, at least for the night though sleep did not come that night. I had wondered over what I had witnessed. I dared not sleep. Each time my eyes closed even for a second I could only see that creature. Even the dark shadows in my room were suspect.

When morning finally came I found myself lacking in the sleep department but decided to get up a little earlier than usual. I showered, dressed and grabbed a piece of toast though while in the halls I could not keep from thinking how many of the others had nightly visitors.

Yeah, I told myself that I had to have imagined what I witnessed but still I climbed up the flight of stairs that had been near my room at the end of the hall and peeked out onto the floor above looking for a familiar face.

My gaze cut over those that seemed to be too chipper, especially at this hour. I hated getting up early and a good deal of my classes were arranged around lunch but just in case the girl had early cases. It was not too early though just reaching 9 but that was all I could stand waiting for.

Not seeing her I sauntered over to the room hesitating at the familiar memory of what was here the night before. Once that moment swept past I knocked on the door not sure what I was going to say or how to approach this matter.

The demon waited, then he waited further, and finally he waited some more. The hours till dawn passed and he stood vigilant watch in the dorm hallway outside his latest victims room. He listened intently for the sound of a door opening or closing, yet as the night wore on the only one to wander the hall was one of the custodial staff emptying a garbage can next to the couch in the hall.

Time wore on and the darkness outside faded and light brought a new day to the island. Remaining camouflaged he held his silent watch. Patience, it was his greatest virtue and sleep was not necessary for one of his species for quite some time. So he did what he does best, he waited for opportunity to favor his effort.

With the dawn came the first door opening. A petite red head made her way down the stairs in her skimpy uniform headed for class. She was the first but certainly not the last. The hallways soon became alive with sporadic activity as classes would begin to meet on the hour and half hours throughout the morning.

Girls from all walks of life trundled past, with all different colors of the rainbow hair. Trying to find one girl with long black hair was not a problem for the demon, it was figuring out which one was the right one. He ruled out many from simply the way they went about, carefree unaware of what fate could hold in store for them should he simply decide to hunt. Yet as fate would have it, one such girl approached the door he watched.

As he watched he tried not to get too excited but from behind she matched what he recalled of her height, hair length and color and body shape. He stood silently waiting to she what she did.

She approached the door and seemed to hesitate. Yet after some apparent internal deliberation, she rose her hand and rapped on the door a few times. It wasn't long before Teresa answered. In the last week, Slimer had come to know her quite intimately.

As she opened the door though, she saw the familiar face, the same girl who she apologized to before and moved to close it, saying simply Sorry.

The other girls seemed to be too cheerful. For Pete's sake it was too damn early and after witnessing what I had the night before if any of them had been spectator or prey their moods would have been colored too.

Something seemed off though as I approached that dorm. Something that was there but not there. I could see into those realms that bordered ours from time to time I saw some freaky shit though from a young age I learned not to address it. It wasn't here on this dimension, it could not harm me. It all reminded me of an old movie I watched, From Beyond with Jefferey Combs. I loved watch movies on her lap top on You Tube back home. Whether low budget or with today's special effects did not matter to me.

The door opened up and there was a brunette girl before me that I had not seen before She would have been quite attractive too if there was some color to her face but it was clear that the girl seemed a bit disheveled.

She had to recognize me from the night before or at least worked out that it was I who had been in her dorm but instead of opening up she laid an apology on my lap and moved to close the door but I was stubborn.

I had learned what males wanted, reading females had been tougher though they were often catty I could see the same far away look that had been in my own eyes at one point or another. I promptly stuck my foot in the door before she could close it all the way.

“Wait. We have to talk,” I told her though I was uncertain if she would just close the door as I retracted my foot. Her choice. I was still alive after all and I had no one though I knew how dark life became too especially with no one out there looking out for you.

I was far from a saint after all but listening to someone was easy enough. Besides I was curious about what was going on, in verifying that this was real.

Teresa moved to close the door, when the dark haired student stuck her foot out preventing the closing of the portal. Wide eyes she pushed harder at first with a desperation, yet when Midori spoke, she halted her efforts. Poking her head out the door she would look timidly left and right down the empty hallway. She knew the girl, she was the one who came to her door a few days ago to talk and she had dodged her then. Was she the one who witnessed the demon that assaulted her night after night?

Fine, come in, Teresa says reopening the door wide and letting the girl enter, her eyes cast towards the carpet avoiding meeting her gaze with her blue eyes. The demon doesn't hesitate and follows the dark haired mystery student inside. His passage soft and quick.

After she enters the brunette moves to slowly close the door. It shuts with a click and she quickly locks it, not realizing her tormentor was already present. Turning to her guest she asks rather abruptly, Why are you here? What do you want?

She changed her mind and I was happy to oblige by gracing her dorm. The lay out was the same the lay out was the same of course and only t---he posters and the like had been different. I couldn't say I liked the style but giving lessons on style had not been what I was here for.

My left foot ached a little with being used to jam the door but it was no big deal. The click of the lock had indicated that we were safely tucked away … no not safely given that after the first night attack the door would have been secured if it had not been so already.

She felt something odd as she looked to the door. Her eyes track Slimer for a moment though she does not see him she just has an odd feelings then looks toward Teresa after she speaks. There was little she could do she thought though she knew it couldn't be worse.

“How long?” She begins not referring to anything she saw and allowing her to start off where she wished or not, one could not force such things on others after all.

As Teresa closed the door and locked it, she waited eyes trained on the carpet. She could feel the other girls eyes on her and being the center of attention to anyone after being it during the assaults left her feeling like a caged animal. She didn't want it, no one would ever know what she been through.

No one could understand her feelings of fear, of desperation, of needing a knight to ride in on a shining steed and yet no one had come. It was real life and everything she had been taught as a little girl meant nothing. The stories, the fables, the things her parents used to tell her meant nothing, they were all lies. She had begged and pleaded, she had hoped and even prayed for salvation and none had come. She had been violated and used.

Like a desperate caged animal who had been abused, her meek demeanor that hoped to avoid unwanted attention or abuse changed dramatically as she was cornered.

What do you mean how long? What the hell are you talking about? What do you want from me? Why do you keep coming here? The brunette snaps, eyes quivering, angry daggers for her unwanted guest. She wanted nothing more than to cry it out and feel sorry for herself, yet she was still in denial and wishing that no one knew anything was wrong. She didn't see herself as a victim, she was too proud for that as all are. Yet what was she?

She was ashamed she had no control over the situation and by the end had even been forced to enjoy it. She wondered how sick and twisted she was, but the blame she still left on herself for letting it happen. So, she had no reason to offer up anything but denial. Right now it was all that protected her fragile ego, and she wouldn't heal until well after that was long gone.

I had experienced it all before knowing full well the resentment I had towards Kyo even as I was force to walk the streets. Hell, I still read those fairy tales with knights and princesses but instead of deluding myself that this was some ideal perfect life I only say the could haves of the situation, what I had been missing all along, what I had wanted.

I suppose that was a difference between us, that I had been beaten down by matters. I had only manage to get that fighting spirit back, that bought of pride with knowing Armand. There was something good in all that darkness to look forward to.

“You know what I'm speaking of,” I mentioned as I glanced to her. The girl was like a cornered animal ready to bite and fend off an attack as best as it could.

“I … I don't know what it's like, not with those things. But I do know a thing or two. It never goes away, that feeling.” I paused remembering the first of many of those horrid card nights, fucking Kenny Rogers singing something about holding them and folding them in the back ground. God, I hated him almost as much as I hated that situation that cast me in that dark room in the first place.

“I don't want anything from you save for knowing that you're alright. But, I'll go ...” my eyes slid to the door. No, she was not ready yet. “But I'm right downstairs if you ever want to stop by.”

She had not answered why she had been coming here. After all she was curious about what was going on here but never suspected this.

As this fellow student spoke, it was like the ringing of a gong. A moment that is defined and the realization struck her, she knew. She knew! Wait was she the one from the other night? Fear ran through her, yet that was quickly replaced by shame. Surely she knew why this girl had not intervened to help her, and by the end she wasn't sure she would have wanted her to, damning herself to suffer the same fate in a futile effort to save her. The smoldering in her eyes faded as the shame set in. Perhaps she could deny what happened all she wanted to herself, pretend those horrid nights were just her imagination, yet she knew...

The demon listened as they talked, watching his prey grow some backbone and lash out at this curiosity. Was she the one he sought? Her words all but confirmed her as the voyeur with the recorder, yet he waited.

You're the one? You know? Her mind worked to resolve the conflict happening between her denial, and finally not being alone to bear the burden of her suffering, silent and alone.

Don't go? I'll make us some coffee if you aren't busy this morning, I only have calculus and if I miss an hour of that headache I think it would be fine. It was an amazing complex reaction. She held out the offer like a lifeline to hope. While she hadn't reconciled all her internal dissonance, she had heard a kindred soul who had suffered. Besides all that she wasn't alone and she knew. Had it happened to her too?

I was amazed at the change, the want to ignore it fading to shame. I had been there before. At first I was shocked that anything happened then the shame and finally I tried to run, I tried to do something at least. Why hadn't that cop listened? He thought he fucking knew everything, hearing all the sob stories before. She was of age why did he turn her back over to that man? To get her off the streets? That cop could burn in hell too as far as I was concerned.

“Coffee ...” I wasn't a big coffee drinker but at the same time the girl was reaching out to me. “Sure, I usually have afternoon classes so I'm free until 1ish. Coffee sounds great.”

What was up with that spot? It had moved shifting from the door though now I had not seen it. “It's not your fault ...” I said once I gazed about. It wasn't though I did not get into all the details just yet figuring we could talk over coffee.

“My name's Midori. Midori Gemma from the dorm just beneath this one.”

The demon moved along the wall to get a better look at this guest. As he did so, he could almost swear she could see him. While not impossible, the light bending of his camouflage did leave a slight shimmering around the edges of his bulky form when he moved, and it was rare, but he had run into a few beings who were able to spot him given the right conditions and concentration.

Who was this Midori? He couldn't recall seeing her around the campus before, perhaps she was new? Either way he decided it was unlikely she truly saw him, as she would have called out in alarm, tried to fight him, or simply ran screaming at this point. For the moment he was content to learn more.

As she spoke he learned the location of her dorm room. Directly below this one. He made a mental note. It would be easy enough to visit her and retrieve the recording, yet she had not confirmed she was the one. He was almost certain, but he knew this was not a situation to take chances in.

...

The girl smiled for the first time as her guest decided to stay. She didn't quite know what to make of her yet, but she knew one thing, she seemed to understand and at the moment that was enough.

Midori, that's a pretty name. Where are you from? Oh I'm Teresa Peterson, sorry I forget more and more lately with these terrible nightmares. Back home my friends called me Terry though. It was an odd way to refer to them yet she seemed to still have trouble completely accept the situation or even fully believe it was real herself.

As she spoke she moved to the small kitchen area and reached into a cabinet to retrieve a canister of coffee. It was the cheap stuff freeze dried and ground up before packaging. The aroma was still lovely though as she finished getting the filter and it started to brew.

How do you take it? Terry asks grabbing two coffee cups and some cream and sugar.

I had seen things that seemed off before while here before not truly realizing what they had been. Thus I determined that this strangeness had been no more than something in another dimension that bordered this one and since they could not harm me regardless I relaxed unaware of the truth, that we had an unexpected guest not too far away.

As we spoke Terry moved toward the kitchen and I followed. “Midori means green in Japanese. Not the most original name but seeing how most Asians are born with black hair and brown eyes. Mine are actually hazel though and not a true green but it was close enough for my mother.

“I hail from Japan though I lived in China a number of years. Learned English in Japan throughout schooling.” I explained though it all seemed like ancient history now. I wasn't like most of the girls that had lived in the U.S before moving here.

Looking towards Terry as she sets the filter into the coffee maker I recall scenes from the various movies I have seen via You Tube will back home. I answered, not that I really knew much in this realm but something that sounded good rather than show my ignorance. “A little cream, two sugars.”

I waited for the coffee to begin brewing. “Is that a hint of an accent I hear? And before you say you don't have one everyone does. I can't place it though, probably not West Coast … Mid Western U.S?” I guessed though I was uncertain. Most foreigners I encountered at China and Japan were from the West Coast and I did not think that it was from there.

As the coffee brewed the delightful aroma of coffee fills the air perfuming the kitchen with its bold scent. As she listens she seems to forget the events that drew this stranger into this moment, the banality of this simple task and exchange enough of a distraction to provide some relief to the raw wound of her emotions and pain. She looks into Midori's eyes with her blue orbs, seeing the greenish brown composite, and appreciating the delightful story of her namesake.

As she listens the humming, bubbling rattle of the coffeemaker continues softly behind her on the counter. When it ends she turns to add the cream and sugar to the bitter brew, turning it a softer brown. She turns and offers her guest her cup first, I'm from a small town in Indiana actually, not too far from Evansville. I had always wanted to visit Japan. Its portrayed as so exotic back home. When I think of it, I see tall building everywhere, people bustling about, hurrying this way and that. Neon signs adorning everything, cars, trains, zipping everywhere.

As her guest takes her cup, she takes her own, sipping from the still steaming mug, the bitter sweetness slowly inhaled through pursed, thin, ruby lips. She looked gaunt and pale, appetite having been nonexistent due to the circumstances, sleep a fond memory of what her former self indulged in. The coffee though seemed to cheer her up and rekindle her.

My town, we had the main strip, and then woods and fields. All our houses were spread out, and neighbors required a good walk to visit. It was so boring, all I could think about was leaving and getting as far away as I could and doing it as fast as possible.

Her gaze seems to focus on a spot behind Midori as she loses herself in distant memories of home. The familiarity of her home and town there, yet distances between objects, shapes and sizes faltering in surety. The details as plain as her thin nose, yet the clarity of it all fading slowly as time makes those memories less firm.

Snapping out of it, she whispers softly, and now all I want to do, and I would give anything, to go back to that boring little place. I was a fool for leaving, for thinking that escaping that droll life would make ms happy. Why did I come here? Why me? Her eyes moisten slightly as she seems to become interested in the liquid filling her cup, eyes focused on the beige inside.