Three students were left outside, finishing the task of hanging a very oversized banner above the entrance to the library to mark the location of the big party. Two of them balanced on unsteady ladders, struggling to hold up the two ends of the massive sign, the third watching from the ground to direct them.

"Little higher, you're blocking the doorway still," he instructed.

"About here?" One called down after adjusting her placement slightly.

"There's good, tack it in!" he responded.

"Colby, you've got the hammer, right?" she questioned the other ladder bound teen.

"Yep, coming at you," Colby replied, tossing the tool to her. The trajectory and power were both significantly off target, the hammer not even covering half the horizontal distance and clattering to the ground.

"Good toss," she remarked sarcastically.

"Sorry Jess, trying not to die here," he retorted, ladder wobbling lightly as his one arm was outstretched to its maximum to hold the banner in place.

"I got you Jess," the third interjected, walking over to pick up the wrongfully discarded tool.

"Thank you, Devon," Jess replied, struggling to hold the massive banner in the correct position. Devon snickered, picking up the tool. No sooner had he looked up at Jess, when someone exited the doorway in front of him, brushing past him.

The newcomer's dark hood caught his eye; as he watched them walk away, he noticed they were holding a hammer. It was then that he realized this hammer was in fact the same tool he had been holding before this person arrived.

"Hey, what the hell??" he called after them.

"What? What happened?" Colby questioned.

"Some dude just swiped the hammer from me," he explained, jogging after the stranger. He watched as they rounded a corner, following not far behind them. Before he even passed the corner, he was struck in the eye by the grip of the tool.

He stumbled backwards into the wall, staggered by the impact. Before he could even muster a pained cry, the face of the hammer collided with his jaw and then the back of his head.

Casper stood over his victim, twirling the hammer flamboyantly before bringing it down on the teen, in heavy blow after heavy blow. Not a single scream, not even a yelp of pain was ever heard by anyone. Exactly as planned.

----------------------------------------

"And so it begins," Abby declared, stepping out from the bedroom to show off her outfit. Tattered, cut up, jet black jeans and a bright green T-shirt with the lower half sloppily torn off in a very rough inverted V shape, exposing her midsection.

Over the torn T-shirt she wore a denim jacket, also riddled with cuts and tears and left hanging open with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. In addition she slipped on a pair of black leather fingerless gloves. Sam and Maddie observed as Abby modeled her costume for the party.

"Well, if you were aiming for the world's sexiest hobo, you've got it nailed," Sam noted jokingly.

"I actually don't know whether to be offended or flattered. Well played Jr," Abby responded. "But you're missing the key detail." She crossed the room, sliding the closet doors open. Maddie glanced up at the head warily.

It had strangely gone quiet not long after Sam arrived; whether it was simply because she was finally able to drown it out or if it had truly fallen silent, she didn't know for sure.

Sam never mentioned it, maybe because it was too strange to bring up in conversation, or maybe because she was indeed going crazy and there never were any sounds. Abby took the head from the shelf and reclaimed her modeling space as she slid the head on.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Presto! Syth lives!" she announced, doing a pirouette.

"And now you've upgraded to outright nightmare fuel," Sam commented, examining the macabre suit head.

"Why thank you," Abby responded. This was the reaction she was aiming for.

"What about you guys? Party's already started," she questioned her friends.

"Oh, I thought it was obvious," Sam replied, posing dramatically, "I'm going as a handsome runaway teen, undercover to avoid being seen by his older brother," He explained facetiously.

"Amazing," Abby retorted. He sniggered lightly, taking a white mask with purple streaks running down both sides over the eyes out of his jacket pocket.

"That's better," Maddie commented. "I got something last minute, don't worry." She disappeared into the bedroom for less than a minute before returning with a plastic Five Nights at Freddy's mask and a purple jacket which she zipped up a little more than halfway.

"Simple, and classic. Nice," Sam noted.

"Alright party people, let's hit it!" Abby announced, leading the way. Most everyone on the campus was already packed in the library, flashing lights and deafeningly loud music blasting away.

A huge majority of the costumed crowds bounced and flailed away shamelessly in a section of the large open room marked as the dance floor. A scattered few lingered around the outer walls and the library, observing the crowd or mingling with friends.

Abby went right to the dance floor, pulling Maddie along with her. The suit head wobbled lightly as she bounced around but stayed more or less in place. Sam skirted around the mass of people, keeping a watchful eye out for his brother Adam. The night went as expected, the buzz of alcohol and deafening music replacing any worries about education.

About an hour into the evening, Abby made her way over to a vacant spot along the wall, leaning against it in a sort of daze. An unusual sound had started to become audible over the blaring dance music. An awful sound.

It was like a person straining to breathe, only producing a raspy, crackling hiss in prolonged bursts that steadily grew longer and more frequent. She couldn't tell where it was coming from, it didn't seem to have a direction of origin.

It was like the sound itself was in her mind. There was a distinct difference between a sound created by an overactive imagination and a sound originating from grounded reality. Still it didn't feel like the work of her imagination. She felt an off-putting presence from within her own head. Something was there, prying at her mind and clawing relentlessly at her sanity.

"Hey, feeling tipsy already?" Maddie joked, approaching her friend.

"...Some...thing......something isn't right..." Abby mumbled, the sounds growing louder. She could physically feel claws digging into her temples, piercing through into her brain. Maddie spoke again, a slur of muffled words blending into one long, wavering sound.

The horrible hissing wormed into her mind, flooding out any other sound. An unpleasant sensation built in her stomach; a slight dull pain that festered until her entire midsection went numb.

It was hunger, ravenous starvation, as if she had gone years without any kind of sustenance. Her vision swirled and swayed, quickly becoming unfocused. Her line of sight reduced to a blurry patch of merging color that slowly faded to black.

Her eyes squeezed shut as she began sliding down the wall. Her legs felt weak, everything went numb. She couldn't see, couldn't hear. She felt herself falling, sinking into nothing.

Then it stopped.

She opened her eyes. Two people now stood in front of her, Maddie and Ian. The suit head was removed, now held by Maddie. With a few blinks her vision was completely normal, the feeling returning to her body an inch at a time.

"Abby? Everything ok?" Maddie repeated her frank question.

"...Yeah...Its fine now," she answered, slowly standing upright again. "...I don't know what happened...everything just..." She rubbed her temple gingerly as she trailed off, unable to explain what had just happened.

"I think you should leave this off for the night, ok?" Maddie suggested, referring to the suit head. Abby nodded quietly, not even able to look at it anymore. It felt different now, she could feel that something wasn't right with it.

"Take this up to our room, will you?" Maddie whispered to Ian, handing him the head. "Just put it in the closet."

"Yeah, no problem," he responded, before turning to Abby. "Don't party too hard without me, I'll be right back." Abby chuckled weakly, Maddie nodding in thanks as he turned and walked out of the crowded library. Maddie supported Abby for a few steps before she steadily regained control of herself and returned to the gathering.

Unknown to them, a third witness was present. Casper walked freely among the crowd with a pale white theater mask in place of his own. He watched Maddie and Abby disappear into the crowds, then his gaze followed Ian.

His focus was drawn to Syth as he made his way after Ian, focusing on the suit head. In the orientation it was being carried, its eyes stared blankly back at him. Two gazes meeting. Unblinking.

Something about this peculiar object transfixed his attention, even more so after what he'd just seen. He was drawn to it; he could almost feel some invisible force tugging him towards the head. It was an intriguing mystery too bizarre for him to pass up. Ian traveled down a short hallway before turning up a flight of stairs.

Casper removed the theater mask, dropping it in the lap of a student passed out against the wall as he followed Ian's path, heading up the stairs after him.