Ink-lings
Thursday May 13th; 5:45 PM
In the heart of the Northern University, the students were starting to flee from class and head back to their dorms and houses to get ready. Thursday is a big night in University because it is the first night of the weekend. Most students intentionally set up their schedules to have as few classes on Friday’s as possible. While the school’s buildings were now nearly empty since the final class of the day just let out, those dormitories were loud and lively.
The big event this evening is a party at Theta Xi Beta Chi. All of the girls went shopping over the last couple days. Their outfits are simple, fit the jungle theme, and don’t leave much for imagination. Meanwhile, over at the frat house, the pre-game had already started. All the guys had music bumpin out of their rooms with the doors propped wide open and the light from the last hours of sunshine were blocked with sheets that were thrown over the windows. The dark, loud music got all the guys excited for another successful wild night ahead.
A few of the bros were already hitting up their dealers and older bros to get more substances for the evening. With a collection of 200 guys in this 40 person house, the rooms were already getting filled up, and the girls hadn’t even arrived yet. These parties usually pack in close to 500 people with no comfort to walk around. You are always nudging against someone to get somewhere. They are a ton of fun though and everyone makes good memories and new friends, which is why they happen every Thursday. Usually the frats on the row will coordinate their parties to get the most eyes on their houses. Since there are over a dozen frats though, there will typically be 3–4 parties happening simultaneously each night of the weekend.
There is a group of guys in each frat who pick their corner of the house and decide to make it their smoke corner. This smoke corner is usually referred to as the degen corner, because most of the rambunctious and mindless decisions originate there.
This week, however, is a bit more experimental than previous, as one of the degen bros picked up some new stuff from his dealer. It’s supposed to be some super hard drug that messes you up for a good few hours. That was all they knew before signing on for taking a dose. This drug was so new and unheard of that it came in a scientific vial. This black vial had the dealer’s sticker on the center of it, a trippy smiley face with its tongue drooping out of the corner uncontrollably.
It appeared to be some sort of gas or possibly a liquid. The guys were unsure, so they went out back. In case it was a gas release, they wanted to all get some and huddled in close. If it ended up being a liquid, they would just take a couple drops and pass it around. The degen who got the vial, with a sly smile, cracked open the top.
A black smoke flew up into the dusk air and the group of five quickly started inhaling from their nose as close to the vial as they could get. The main degen started laughing and mouthing “ink, ink, ink” to himself. His eyes were glazed over already and he was looking around at the sky and the side of the house too intently to only be seeing a deep orange sky and brown walls. The psychedelic already hit his system. The other four degen guys were still good for a couple minutes, but sure enough they found themselves mouthing “ink” and staring off into the blank walls and sky seeing things that were not there before they inhaled.
The main degen was more adept with the drug than his other friends, already having done it twice, but he didn’t want to spoil the surprises and let them know what kind of high they were going to experience. They all enjoyed their trip for around 20 minutes, but to them it felt like a couple hours. As the real world started to blink back into their vision, they started to get noticeably angry with each other. Why did the high only last a couple hours? They wanted more; they didn’t plan on staying sober for long. The four grabbed onto the main degen aggressively.
“Bro, give us another round!” They demanded in unison
The main degen didn’t see or hear them though, he was still deep in his high. The other four brushed him off and went back inside. They were mad and decided it would be best to smoke some green to cool off.
The night ended casually for the four degens. They couldn’t kick their anger, but getting more high helped them suppress those feelings and enjoy their night. The main degen had come back in to join them 30 or so minutes after the other came in. He couldn’t stop itching himself throughout the night though.
He already knew the long fit of rage and ceaseless headaches he was going to endure for a couple days, but he had never felt itchy the other two times he did INK. When he went to bed early the next morning, he noticed some sores developing on his back.
The next morning he arose with some strange taste in his mouth. He didn’t remember eating anything in the middle of the night though. As he stumbled to the bathroom to pee, he looked into the mirror and saw his skin had changed to a grey shade. There was also a chunk of skin missing from the back of his forearm.
What happened in the past 10 hours since he went to sleep? What caused these changes to happen? Why did he now have a sudden hunger for flesh?
All we know now, is that the other 39 guys who lived in the house witnessed one of the first changes to the population. Once he was seen outside by the overlords, there was an entire team of hazmat swat people sweeping him off the street. He was never to be seen again.