After two years of living together, they all had a pretty solid rhythm. Working from home, Dizzy usually made dinner. Jess or Brent did dishes. Whoever didn’t do dishes takes care of trash. And the rest of the house got cleaned on a need basis. The newest addition to their little trio was Stephen, Brent’s newest boyfriend. The kid seriously fell in love every other week though this was the first time that he invited anyone to live with them. The girls were hesitant at first. In fact, Jess’ exact words were “Are you fucking kidding me?” but Brent won over Dizzy and being outvoted Jessika just had to deal.

As it turned out, Stephen was a great guy. He wasn’t as geeky as the rest of them with their gaming addictions, art jams, and nerd movie references but he was funny and he didn’t judge. That probably had a little something to do with the fact that Stephen worked as a stripper and faced plenty of his own public ridicule. Jess even suspected that he could be the elusive unicorn known as a male bisexual, a status even a lot of gays had a problem with. However, Dizzy was convinced that it was just overflow from his job. He couldn’t exactly strip for women if it was obvious that he wasn’t in anyway attracted to them.

That was where Stephen was that Friday night. Shaking his ass for old ladies with pinchy fingers and drunken bridesmaids. Diz invited Jess to go out to a show with her but she opted out. A quiet night in sounded nice. Besides, Brent got off work around 10 and the besties needed a little friend time after only seeing each other in passing all week.

He surprised her by coming home around 9. Only they wouldn’t be partying. With his hand bandaged and his already fair skin taking on a deathly pallor, the only place Jess was going to let him go was to bed. After all, he did get sent home sick. And she didn’t think much of it really. Catching every cold, cough, or flu going around seemed to be the unfortunate side effect of being an ER nurse. At least he wasn’t covered in blood or vomit. Those were the really fun nights. Tucking him in, she stayed up a little while watching TV before going to bed herself around midnight. She had no way of knowing that the world was about to be vastly different come morning and it might have been better that she just didn’t wake up again.

At 8am the house was always quiet. Considering she always had to be at work by 9, Jess was used to being the only one awake so early. She started to head downstairs per her usual routine when she remembered her sick best friend and went to check on him. Knocking lightly, Jess peeked inside the room. “Brent?” She whispered loudly before her eyes could adjust to the near perfect dark Stephen’s black out curtains provided. At first, all she saw was a certain strawberry blond writhing on top of his partner.

“Jesus! Sweetie, I’m so sorry. I guess your feeling bet--” Her words died on her lips the moment her best friend turned his washed out bloodshot eyes her way and she saw all the blood. Brent wasn’t riding Stephen. He was eating him and considering how little of him was left, he’d been at it a while. As soon as he set his sights on her it was obvious he was only thinking one thing. Fresh meat.

The shock prevented her from reacting too quickly but she managed to shake it off in time to slam the door closed. There was no lock from the outside but there was a hall closet door that if opened all the way prevented Brent’s door from opening. Jess had barely got it set up when out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Dizzy standing right behind her. There was no time to think, barely time to relax. Whatever was wrong with Brent was happening to Dizzy. While Jessika wrestled her roommate to keep from ending up like Stephen, Jess saw a good chunk was taken out of Dizzy’s shoulder. It reminded her of Brent’s hand but before she could think to hard about it, Jess, not realizing how close she was to the stairs stepped back only to find that there wasn’t a floor. With Diz still clawing at her, both girls tumbled down the steps. It was like it happened in slow motion. All she saw was hair, her friend’s washed out eyes, and gnashing teeth until it ended in a crack.

Jessika scrambled away from the other girl but Dizzy wasn’t moving. In fact, her neck was at a very wrong angle and blood pooled under her head. 911 kept her on hold long enough that she was able to speak but she couldn’t stop shaking. Even 5 hours later when help finally arrived, after all the tears she had were cried out did the shaking stop. The paramedic called it shock. That didn’t seem to be a strong enough word.