As thee walketh inside, thee behold ‘round thee

Needeth not products to conceal thine blemishes, 

How thou art is plenty

The rest of the w’rld can seeth ‘t

The w’rld apart from thee 

Mine own w’rld illuminates because thou art present

How thee sways thy locks amazes me

At which hour thee behold at the ground t’s apparent to me

Thee knoweth not thou art a beauty

If’t be true only thee couldst seeth what i did see

Thee wouldst knoweth wherefore i wanteth thee so badly 

As I look at thou even but now, I can’t believeth, thee knoweth not that thou art quite quaint

Yet thy’s humility keeps thee quite quaint. 

“Dude relax, you’re gonna have a blast,” Sawyer insisted, reaching to the passenger’s seat and patting Noah’s leg with his other hand on the wheel. He must’ve felt Noah kick his leg up and down again as if he had his own vibration setting; a nervous tick Noah’s developed for as long as he could remember. Once he felt Sawyer place his large, firm hand on his thigh, however, he felt comfortable enough to settle down for a moment, and when he felt the driver gave his leg a good squeeze, he stopped kicking completely. Sawyer always knew what to do like that. The gesture would have been intimate to Noah had it not been from Sawyer; he’s seen Sawyer butt naked countless times but he figured that’s just how it is when his older best friend of 12 years even goes to the same university as him.

“I don’t know. I feel nervous,” Noah articulated, the road ahead blurring past his vision. “Do you guys haze? Like, hard?”

Sawyer snorted, Noah feeling a bit disparaged. “You know, we’re not even an official fraternity. We’re not recognized as… anything by our campus.”

“So what am I supposed to make of your group of friends? A bunch of douchebags that sit around and drink beer while patting each other on the back for existing? You asked me to join because you said I would like it.” 

“I guess,” Sawyer answered, “but we also actually do some community services here and there. Just a few months ago we cleaned up, like, a good chunk of the neighborhood up north. People litter so much. Pretty sad.”

“Cool.”

“Trust me, these guys are anything but cool.” Noah could hear him grin. “I know you’re not good with a ton of people in one sitting but once you get to know them you’ll see they’re as just as dorky as you are.” Sawyer reached over again and pinched his cheek playfully, Noah swatting his hand away but grinning nonetheless. 

“You’re a loser.” 

“I’m your best friend. What does that say about you?”

“Can you tell me a little more about your friends again? Also I forgot all of their names because I was too distracted and I didn’t care when you did tell me about them,” Noah said as he slumped down into the seat, pulling out his phone to check the time. 9:31 P.M. Had they really only been driving for five minutes?

“Of course you were,” Sawyer cleared his throat as he continued. “So, we’re all meeting up at King’s house and he’s the oldest of us. He’s really chill and he’ll help you out when you’re… a mess?” Sawyer tried to find a replacement for “shitfaced”, failing sadly. “Then there’s Alexander. I was kind of put off by him at first because he smiles too much. It’s uncomfortable.” 

“That’s hilarious coming from you of all people,” Noah snorted. Sawyer ignored him.

“Emmett is the fuckboy I told you about, but I changed my mind. He doesn’t act like one. You’ll see what I mean when you meet him. Then…. Taylor. Trust me, I thought I was straight before meeting this guy. I mean, I am, but like… Taylor is Taylor?” Sawyer squeaked the last part. Noah wanted to blow his own brains out; Sawyer is his best friend who’s biggest flaw is sadly a severe case of No Homo Syndrome. “And I know that you’re gay, and I’m not gay, but I’m just saying if I was gay, which I’m not but--”

“Oh my god fine, I won’t tell him just shut up.” 

“Cool. Where were we? You might like not Aiden at first because he yells a lot but I’m sure you’ll warm up to him. And Angel is really short and he has one of those faces that make you think he’s glaring at you, but he’s not so don’t worry about it. He reminds me of you in a way—”

“I do not always glare at people.”

“Yeah. Yeah I know, but like, you’re not the most smiley guy either.”

“I’ll give you that.” Sawyer returned to silence. Noah was about to let him continue but he didn’t. Noah spoke up again. “Didn’t you say there were seven of them I’m meeting tonight? Who’s the last one?”

“Oh!” Sawyer sputtered. “Yeah. Jack. We all call him Jackie. He’s a freshman like you so I don’t actually know much about him. He seems… nice? He’s kind of dumb. Laughs a lot for no reason. You’ll probably like him.” 

“Maybe.”

“Don’t worry. And you’re not gonna hazed either. I don’t want you joining thinking you’re getting yourself into something crazy.”

Truthfully, Noah wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into.

2

It was about another ten minutes before they finally pull into the brick, drive-in parking lane in front of a large, modern-designed  home. As Sawyer stopped just a couple steps before the closed garage door and took the keys out of the ignition, Noah looked up and swore his jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Everything about this house was incomprehensibly pristine. The home’s exterior was made of a grey stone, a second floor ten feet above them; an orange luminescence and its shadows moving around and pouring out into the night. 

“Your cult is so far away from campus,” Noah said as the two got out of Sawyer’s pickup. 

“Not a cult. And this is King’s house. Pretty cool right?”

Noah looked up at the house one more time, taking in all its glory. “Pretty cool.” He looked up into the window second floor once more; a realization hitting him as he stared at the moving lights and then turned to glare daggers into Sawyer’s being. “Wait is everyone already here? Are we late, Sawyer?” he grunted. 

“No! Not really. I think the guys just got here, like, ten-ish minutes ago—”

“Let’s go then,” Noah cut off Sawyer, gripping his hand in fear of what these guys would think of this. The moment they stepped in, Noah felt even more insecure. As if the inside could be anymore beautiful as the outside, Noah found himself standing directly under an expensive, crystal chandelier hovering over them from the second floor and a clean, spiraling staircase awaiting for the two to put it in use. 

“Take in that view, Noah,” Sawyer gushed. “Now, we gotta introduce you to your new friends!” He sounded more excited than Noah ever would be, but Noah didn’t mind when Sawyer grabbed his hand again and pulled him up the pretty stairs.

Once they made it to the top of the second floor, the first person Noah saw was a guy shorter than the both of them facing of a table with a assortment of snacks thrown all over it, his back towards the two and unaware of their presence. Could it be Angel? The short angry guy? Noah looked at Sawyer briefly before he saw a huge grin grow on his face, looking back at Noah for a second before making a “shhh” motion. Sawyer snuck up behind him sneakily before he lunged forward and pulled him into one of his infamous headlocks.

“Honey, I’m home,” Sawyer howled as he held a tight grip on the guy. 

Oh fuck. Ew. It’s Gay Taylor, Noah thought to himself as he scrunched up his nose looking at the two in complete disgust. It’s Gaylor. I wonder if he got that a lot in high school?

“Gross, don’t do that,” Taylor cackled, pulling Sawyer off of him and turning around with a big smile on his face. Noah found the guy’s face to be one of the most friendly and inviting he’s ever seen. 

“Hello there!” he smiled warmly at Noah. “I’m Taylor.”

“I can tell,” Noah said with insincerity.

“Sawyer here has told me a lot about you.” 

“I’d hope so.” 

“Yeah, this is Taylor, Noah!” Sawyer grinned.

“I just said that dumbass,” Taylor deadpanned.

“You gotta repeat things for it to get into Noah’s head.” Noah felt his stomach churn. He usually didn’t mind at all when Sawyer would make comments like that, in fact, he’d argue that’s what made their friendship beautiful, but something just didn’t sit with him right this time. Taylor didn’t sit right with him.

“So, let’s introduce you to the rest!” Taylor said. He started walking down a short hall with Noah, Sawyer grabbing a few snacks to munch before following behind shortly. The hall led them to a room where the other six guys were conversing amongst themselves. Noah wished he could shrink into nothingness. 

Noah clearly was inattentive to whatever Sawyer and Taylor were bantering about until he heard Sawyer groan, “You act like you’re not the faggot here but you cry when it gets too dark and ask me to spoon you,” he slurred through bites, occasional bits of food falling from the corners of his mouth. Noah fake-gagged and pretended he didn’t know him.

“Guys, give Noah here a big welcome!” Taylor announced. 

“Hi, Noah,” the rest said out of unison. One of them nearly shouting it; Noah could only think that was probably Aiden based on Sawyer’s lack of further description. Noah gave them a small wave and nod before returning his arm back to his side. 

“Okay, welcome to the brotherhood, Noah!” Sawyer beamed, throwing his arm over his shoulder leading him to a spot on the small, white couch, sitting next to who he assumed was Angel because of his obvious lack of height and withering glare. 

“Serious? That’s it? No weird black cloaks or ominous chanting in a circle for my initiation?” Noah joked. 

“What do we look like, a cult?”

“Funny you should say that, because—”Sawyer was about to say before Noah elbowed him in the gut to keep him quiet.

“What are you doing?” he sneered. 

“What were you gonna say, Sawyer?” a short guy with sharp eyes asked, shaking up a drink into a mixer, a glass held under his arm. Noah stared him mixing it together, not convinced the guy knew what the outcome was going to be in taste. 

“Do you know how to do that?” 

“Sure I do,” the guy said, shaking it vigorously before it into his glass. 

“King is the oldest. He knows what he’s doing,” a tall guy standing against the wall in front of Noah assured. “I’m Emmettt by the way.” 

“Trust your elder without question?”

A buffer, tanned guy chuckled from his position sitting on the floor. “They’re words to live by. We’re a troop that tends to fuck up a lot, and King is always there to fix our shit! I’m Jack, but they call me Jackie here.” The guy reached his arm out to Noah for a shake, which Noah declined. 

“And me,” another guy shorter than Noah said. “I haved fix a lot of your guys’ shit.” 

“Yeah. That guy too,” Jack chirped as he took in another huge gulp of his drink. Noah stared at the blue plastic container in his hand. 

“Jackie, don’t forget I’m the one that saved your ass from failing calculus your senior year.” 

“Yeah, that’s true. I owe you my life, Alex!”

“Do you not drink?” Noah interjected. 

Jack looked towards him. “Who, me?”

“Yes. Do you not drink?”

“Jackie is morally superior to all of us,” Angel said lazily, not even looking up from his spot on the couch as he crushed what looked like his fourth can of beer. 

Jack grinned, looking back at Noah. “Yeah. Haven’t had a drop. I like maintaining a clean system.”

Noah nodded off, unsure what to do with that information. 

3

The group spent most of the time afterwards picking at each other’s faults in a non-aggressive way, Noah appreciating the banter they engaged in; reminiscing the pointless fights he and Sawyer have. Noah learned they’re not all the biggest assholes you can find around campus; there have been worse.

Sawyer coughed loudly before speaking up. “Guys, Noah totally thought we were gonna haze his ass on our way here!”

Taylor raised his brows, looking genuinely intrigued. “Reallyyyyy?” He drawled. 

Noah attempted a brief smile. “Yeah, I was just nervous—”

“Let’s do it,” Jack interjected. 

Noah felt his lungs drop into his guts. “What?” he nearly choked. 

“You’re gonna get hazed, dude,” Angel said bluntly. “You asked for it.”

“Let us commence the hazing!” Taylor declared, standing from his seat by Alexander and Aiden; Aiden cackled wildly while Alexander shook his head in dissatisfaction. 

“But I—Sawyer said—“

“Oh right,” Taylor smiled, taking Sawyer’s hand as he walked closer to the group. “Sawyer, my good sir, would you please grant us the blessing and accompany your brothers in the hazing of your dear comrade Noah?

“With pleasure Taylor sir,” Sawyer smiled. 

‘If I was gay’ my ass. You’re the gayest hetero I’ve ever met, Noah thought.

“Jesus Christ, get a room,” Aiden groaned. 

“Are you guys serious?” Alexander rolled his eyes. 

“Oh come on, Alex, don’t be a buzzkill now. We’re just getting to the good stuff.” Jack whined. 

Noah can’t believe Sawyer would ever say Jack was going to be his favorite. 

“For real. How are we gonna haze? Should we have him strip?” Aiden suggested, clearly excited by the idea. 

“I once heard about this college a few states over that had their newbies run naked through the leader’s neighborhood and they got arrested,” Emmettt mused. 

Aiden cackled wildly. “Holy shit, there’s no way we could get away with that in this neighborhood.”

King chimed in, “Yeah, we shouldn’t do anything to disturb the peace here. These people call the police on people who just stand on their front lawns.”

“Why is your neighborhood insane?” Jack asked. 

“Security issues? I’m not sure; I’ve only been living here for a few months.”

“Guys, stop straying off topic I wanna haze this guy’s ass already,” Taylor said impatiently. 

“Nobody is going to touch my ass,” Noah yelled. “Just—damn, have me drink a nasty mixture of old milk and vodka or something.”

“Hey, that’s actually not a bad idea,” Aiden pondered. 

“Noah, you’re so sick,” Sawyer grinned. Noah didn’t bother giving him his attention. After all, he was only doing this because his ‘best friend’ brought up the topic in the first place. 

“That’s the perfect initiation for our team,” Taylor giggled. “Jackie, come with me to the kitchen. We got some mixing to do!” With that, the two scurried away, excited to bring pain onto their newest member. 

Noah’s stomach began to churn. What if they spit in it and only tell him after he downed it? He looked at Sawyer helplessly, but his friend was too busy to notice his fear. Sawyer knows how squeamish he gets. Why isn’t he saying anything?

“So much for best friend,” Noah muttered. 

“What’s wrong, newbie?” Emmettt asked, patting his back kindly. 

“You know my fucking name,” Noah grunted. 

“Don’t worry. I don’t think Taylor or Jackie are actually that cruel. They might just mix a gnarly party drink for you or something. You’ll be fine.” 

Noah hoped that was the case. 

“We’re baaaaaack!” Taylor howled, running in with Jack with two glasses in his hands; Jack was giggling the entire time. 

“Now Noah, since you’re our first hazing, we’re giving you the option to go easy on yourself and just down the milk-vodka genius mix that you obviously want inflicted onto yourself, or you can go with something wicked nasty that the two of us came up with,” Taylor grinned evilly. 

As both concoctions were placed into Noah’s hands, the newbie stared at them suspiciously. One of them clearly smelled nastier than the other, and one clearly looked much more inviting than the other. He looked up and saw that everyone was staring at him in anticipation; Aiden, King, and Jack especially seemed thrilled by what was about to happen. 

Noah wasn’t the best with peer pressure. He knew what he wanted, but he definitely knew which one the rest wanted him to pick. Prompted by that, Noah put down the milk-vodka mix and chugged down the daredevil one. The group began to boom with shouts and whooping, overjoyed with Noah’s choice. “Go, newbie!” One of them yelled. 

This is gonna be a long night, Noah thought to himself again. 

4

Time went on, and as it did, Noah felt sicker than he did when they first arrived. He was slumping over and breathing heavily. He couldn’t get a clear grip on reality as his mind became clouded by void. Sawyer, his supposed ‘best friend’, finally took his attention away from the group and looked back at his dear to ensure he was having a good time, the smile dropping from his face the group moment Noah actually came into view. 

“Dude, are you okay?” Sawyer asked, placing one hand on Noah’s head and the other on his knee. 

He wanted to answer, but found that he couldn’t. Then, without a moment of hesitation, Noah stood upright from his spot on the couch, sputtering and coughing. He wrapped his own hands around his throat. He felt his heart pounding at a rapid, painful rate, reverting to smacking his own chest. 

“Muh… muh…” he choked. 

“Holy shit, please breathe,” Sawyer cried, standing up with Noah and attempting to guide him to the bathroom. 

“He’s coughing up blood!” Aiden exclaimed, pointing and staring at Noah in shock. Noah felt it drip down onto his chin. 

“What the fuck did you give him?!” Taylor glared at Jack.

“What? Nothing! That’s just the vodka probably! We mixed it into both drinks!” Jack said defensively. 

Noah took a few more steps, pushing Sawyer away. “Mmggmghah… Muuuugghhhhgh.”

“Holy shit, what the fuck did you guys give him?” King said. 

“Somebody grab him!” Alexander said, he and Sawyer running towards him as Noah made it closer to the balcony.

Before of them could even get a foot close to him, Noah leaned against the gate and fell backwards off of the balcony, a loud thump echoing in the groups’ minds followed by the longest silence as Sawyer stared off onto the ground below him. 

“He’s dead.” 

5

“Fuck,” King paced around the room. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.” They all grouped together around the pool deck, none of them bothering to look at the blood surrounding Noah’s head, let alone even acknowledge the lifeless body lying without wanting to vomit. He already began to stink. 

Nobody except for Sawyer, who kneeled in front of Noah and locked his hands around one of Noah’s. 

“What are we gonna do?” Taylor panicked.

“He got blood all over the pool deck,” King murmured, lost in his own thoughts.

“Your fucking pool deck? Your pool deck. My best friend just fucking died,” Sawyer growled, looking up towards the elder. His eyes watery and bloodshot. His tears haven’t stopped since it happened, Angel by his side rubbing his back with his own look of fear and confusion. “You guys killed my best friend!”

“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Alexander said angrily. “I told you guys it was a bad idea. Nobody fucking listens to me.”

“Yeah, well you’re now, you accessory to murder,” Aiden snarled. 

“Murder?” King looked back at them all. “You just—you guys—wait, who mixed the drinks?”

The room fell silent once again as all eyes turned to Taylor and Jack. The duo looked downright terrified. 

“Wait, you think I tried to kill him? I just met him!” Taylor said defensively. “I’m way too much of a chickenshit to give him anything like that.”

“He only got sick like that after you guys made him… we all made him do it,” Taylor cried, dropping his face into his hands and making a long, drawled out groaning noise. 

“I didn’t,” Alex scoffed. 

“You could’ve stopped him. Any one of us could’ve,” Sawyer sniffed, his eyes still locked onto his dear dead best friend.

“I can’t fucking take this anymore,” King said. “Guys, we have an actual dead body. In my house. We’re all going to fucking jail.” 

“Not if we just… hide it?” Jack suggested. They all stared at him, clearly disturbed. 

“What?” Chanyeol grimaced.

“Guys, I can’t have this on my record; that shit’s been spotless since day one,” Aiden quipped. 

“As unbelievably awful as that sounds… I’m with Emmettt on this,” Taylor reluctantly admitted. 

“You guys want to dump the body,” Minseok said, staring off into space. 

“What choice do we have? We can’t really tell anyone what happened, especially since no one wants to take the blame,” Alexander pointed out. 

“Murder really brings out the ugliest in everyone,” Angel whispered, watching as Sawyer gave his full attention to Noah’s body. 

“This is all my fault,” Sawyer stuttered.

He’s crouching by the edge of the ground floor’s window, peering curiously into a room filled with teenage girls. They all probably attended the high school just a few blocks from here, he assumes. He’s only spent about a week in this town and just knows how tight knit the community is just from the overall feel of it. Reminded him of his childhood a bit. 

The girls are all happy, excited, joyous, close. From what he can see from here, they’re just about ready to gather ‘round and tell each other little stories. He wants to so badly crack open the window a bit to hear their small tales. He likes knowing their last thoughts. 

It’s nothing special; he’s done this countless times before. Neighboring cities, borderline crossing from state to state. He would say he likes to hunt. Of course, this is something he does in his private time. It’s not like he could illuminate his interests to anyone outside of himself. 

The girls seem at peace. It’s almost time to sleep. They turn off the lights. 

Not even half an hour later and he’s already broken into the house and is drenched in one of his victim’s blood. 

“Is anyone there?” 

She should’ve practically announced her location for the killer; it’s essentially the same as what she had just done. 

“I have the police on right now, you better get the hell out of here!”

She sounded frightened out of her fucking mind. 

He immediately barged into the room, knife ready in hand. 

“No you don’t,” he snarled, pouncing onto her. “No one ever does.”