Anxiety spiked and prickled through Cat’s body as she slowly entered into the main hallway of the tunnels. They were virtually silent. She had no idea if they had been utilized in any way since the night of the Winter Formal. The air was humid, stale, dank as she walked along in an eerie false twilight of flickering and dying lightbulbs that lined the corridors. She had no idea where she was going - no direction other than she hadn’t reached a single open door or fork in the hallway yet.

A blue light flickered in the distance in front of her, she continued to walk towards it when she noticed a scrawl of paper affixed to the wall below it once she got close enough to notice.

“Seminar 1” was written in faint pencil - the hallway branched off to the left and right - a placard on the wall indicating laboratories to the left; recovery, lectures and seminars to the right. She looked down the left “laboratory” hallway, but it looked identical to the hallway to her right. Flickering lights lined the ceiling, the corridors completely silent save for a faint clicking from the pipes that ran the length of the hallways and the sound of - maybe - dripping? It had been such a wet and rainy spring…

Cat set off down the right hallway - still uncertain where she was being led to or what might be awaiting at or in Seminar 1. She didn’t recall ever seeing any seminar rooms down here - what was a seminar room? She passed one locked door after another - all shuttered, silent and dark. If her journey so far was any indication, these tunnels hadn’t been used at all in recent weeks. Every now and then, Cat would step around slicks and rivulets of water that had collected on the floor. At one point, an icy cold drip of water fell from the ceiling to the back of her neck and she barely restrained a surprised shriek.

She continued onward, progressing closer and closer to a red light at the end of the hallway she was in. At the red light, another placard hung on the wall indicated Seminar Rooms to the left and right. 1 - 3 to the left, 4 - 6 to the right. She turned to the right - completely dark, save for glowing red light emanating from the walls at about waist-height. She took a deep, steadying breath. She’d made it this far, her curiosity was too piqued to not investigate why she had been led down here in the first place. She could barely make out oppressively large numbers 1, 2 and 3 above each of the glowing red lights… Keypads on doors to the rooms.

She stood in front of the door marked “1” and stared at the glowing red keypad in front of her. She’d seen no indication anywhere on the journey to this door that she was in the right place or that she had access to this room - just the “Seminar 1” that she had found taped to the wall at the initial junction in the tunnel. She stared at the numbers on the keypad and realized that she likely had been given the access code. She punched in the numbers she had memorized that had been scrawled within the envelope with the pin key. The keypad flashed red. Nothing happened.

“Shit…” she muttered to herself. She probably needed to push one of the other keys to activate the lock but which one?! The keypad looked like any regular phone keypad, but she couldn’t recall if the code had included a star or a pound sign or anything. Even if it had, the number had been written so faintly, it was entirely possible that it just rubbed away with the key pin in transit from the Great Hall to her dorm room.

She tried the code again, punching the “pound” key at the end. The keypad flashed. Nothing happened. She tried again, the “star” key at the end. Same thing. Tried both options the other way around. Nothing. Her surroundings were completely silent. If there was someone waiting just on the other side of this door, the room was either completely soundproof and whoever was inside was completely oblivious to her trying to access the room. Or she was being watched, judged, graded(?!?) over her inability to unlock a door which she felt confident she had the access code to enter.

Finally, she caught the glimmer of the pin key still affixed to the cuff of her shirt from when she entered the tunnels from her dorm room. She looked around the door. She didn’t see a keyhole anywhere on it… There wasn’t even a handle on the door. She bent over and squinted in the dim light at the keypad. The red glow made her eyesight fuzzy up close, but as she scanned the edges of the numbers, there was the tiniest hole in the bottom right corner of the keypad. It could have been where the pad screwed onto the door for all she knew, but it was the only option she had left as far as she could tell. She withdrew the pin key from her shirt, stuck it into the hole - it fit! - punched in the number code she’d memorized and the pin quickly disappeared within the door before her eyes. The keypad flashed green and she heard the heavy click of a lock in the door. The door slowly slid to the side, opening into a small vestibule with 3 closed doors. It was far too reminiscent of the nightmarish laboratory room that she had been in prior to the Winter Formal where she’d been forced to watch Max and August. Her legs shook as she stepped into the vestibule and the door slammed loudly and firmly behind her, locking her within the vestibule. She spun in a frantic circle as a light flashed on overhead and she heard another loud click.

“Catherine,” a woman’s voice rang out above her head.

“What the fuck?!” Cat gasped at the walls and ceiling. “Where the… what the fuck is going on?!”

“Catherine,” the voice was firm and stern, “you have been summoned to bear witness for the events that happened the night of the Winter Formal. Can you confirm that you were at this event and escaped with your purity?”

Cat felt like she was about to hyperventilate. She’d stayed out of trouble for weeks! What was about to happen to her here?!?

“I… yes?” She answered truthfully.

“And have you remained a pure St. Mary’s scholar since that time?” The voice asked from above her.

“Yes, of course,” Cat replied. Oh god, was she about to undergo another purity test?! And by who?!?

”Enter and have a seat,” the voice indicated as the overhead light flashed red and the abrasive buzz that she’d come to dread and fear over the past year practically vibrated through her body in the tiny room.

The door to her right slid upward and open, revealing a single chair in the middle of a rather small room. The room was dimly lit, a reflective wall extended from floor to ceiling in front of the chair, two more doors were on the other walls of the room. Was she about to be interrogated?!

She’d been punished enough for nothing over the past year to disobey the mysterious voice from overhead. She entered the small room and sat in the chair facing the mirrored wall. The door she’d entered through slid shut behind her and the room was eerily silent - Cat could swear she could hear her own heartbeat echoing in her ears.

An audio feedback crackled through the room around her and Cat jumped where she sat. Her hands were trembling in her lap, her knees bouncing up and down in her chair as her eyes darted back and forth between the mirrored wall and the doors within her line of sight.

“Catherine,” a tinny voice rang through the speaker from above where she sat, “you have been summoned to Seminar One to bear witness to the events that transpired the night of the Winter Formal. Can you confirm that you were present at the purity ceremony the night of the Winter Formal?”

”Y…yes,” she answered, her voice breaking on the simple answer.

“Can you confirm that you escaped the purity ceremony at said Winter Formal with your purity intact?”

“I…yes… I think so…” she stumbled. She must have, although she shuddered as she remembered the cloaked figure whose hand disappeared between her legs and shoved into her so forcibly that she had moved on the mattress where she had lain.

“Did you have a hand in the assault of the individuals who were maimed or wounded following your escape from the ceremony?”

Cat had no idea who had been maimed or wounded. She could recall the bright pools of blood on the floor in her wake as Max had dragged her from the room, but she was certain that she hadn’t been the one to wield a weapon on any of them. She could only recall the crush, thudding and shove of bodies against her as Max dragged her forward to safety.

“No… I don’t think so.”

“Has anyone since that night - patron, professor, scholar or other - questioned you about your involvement in the events that transpired that evening?”

This gave Cat pause. She hadn’t been. Her patron had been shocked to see her emerge from her dorm room the weekend following the formal. She had been subjected to a quick and brusque purity test at that time, which only seemed to surprise the patron further - but she was never asked a single question as to why or how she had returned to her dorm room, how or why she had remained a virgin after all the fanfare around her having been chosen for the ceremony in the first place. It was almost as if the entire night had been selectively forgotten, and she’d - unbelievably - been allowed to continue on with her day to day life as a St. Mary’s scholar as if she was any regular college freshman.

“…No,” she finally answered, but the answer made her uneasy. Was she going to have to atone for her actions here and now?! Months after the fact?! It was all such a blur… she only remembered what she had been fearfully present for. Assuming her position on the bed, the humiliation of having to expose her genitals to a room full of shrouded ghouls, the prick and pain of the injections and then…well, the rest was just a blur of black and grey chaos.

“Have you shared any information with anyone - patron, professor, scholar or other - about your involvement in the events that transpired that evening?”

“No,” she could answer that without hesitation. She would have debriefed for weeks with Max…if Max hadn’t completely disappeared. Who else would she have shared the information with otherwise? It would have only led to endless questions from the other ladies at the college that she couldn’t even begin to provide an answer to.

“Do you plan to stay at St. Mary’s for the remainder of your academic studies?”

This question surprised Cat, although she couldn’t deny that the question had been ruminating within her own mind for weeks already. Without the oppressive presence of the dean, she enjoyed her classes and studies. Without the constant threat of assault and molestation, she knew she could become an exemplary scholar. Even without her private studies with the dean, she was at the top of the freshman class for the year - her teachers frequently praised her intelligence and were already encouraging her to consider graduate studies that would lead her to pursue a lucrative career. But she was only at this school because of her family. She didn’t know if they had been privy to the events that had transpired at the winter formal. They hadn’t withdrawn her from the school, but she would only be able to afford the tuition and class materials for as long as her family paid for her privilege to continue.

“That’s up to my parents,” Cat answered finally.

“Do you wish to stay?”

“I…I think so.”

The door to her right slid open to a brightly lit room and the voice from above indicated for her to enter the next room. Cat had no idea what to expect anymore. She stood up, a little shaky on her own feet, and walked into a room where six women - graduate scholars, from the looks of them - sat around a large conference table.

“Please, take a seat,” a tall redhead dressed in a pristine white lab coat said as she nodded towards the single empty seat at the head of the table. None of the women looked remotely familiar to Cat. They were all similarly dressed in lab coats or medical scrubs. Their appearances were impeccably neat and tidy. None of them looked particularly welcoming or friendly, but they didn’t appear to be hostile either - professional, impassive, Cat felt like she had just entered the strangest board room meeting to ever meet.

Cat sat in the empty chair, pulled herself close to the table and folded her hands neatly in front of her. She looked around to each of the faces, trying to elicit just the barest hint of a smile from anyone at the table. No one looked at her except for the redhead - as a matter of fact, every other face at the table was directed towards the redhead as well.

“Catherine you have been summoned here to Seminar One to bear witness to the events that transpired the evening of the Winter Formal,” the redhead reiterated once again. “What you are about to be invited into is likely to shock, disturb and repulse you, so I need to know that you are ready and prepared to face what we are about to show you.”

“Is it Max?!” Cat couldn’t help herself. She was desperate to know the whereabouts and wellness of her best friend. She hadn’t heard from or seen her since she’d saved her from the ceremony in the first place.

The red headed woman shook her head and continued, “Max has transferred elsewhere for the remainder of this academic year. She may return to St. Mary’s in the fall, but that is ultimately a confidential matter that has little to do with you or the events that transpired during the Winter Formal purity ceremony. If you are concerned for your former roommate, I can assure you that she is healthy and well. We can provide you with further information when you leave here today should you wish to exchange correspondence with her.”

Cat felt a sigh of relief escape from somewhere deep within her, although the cagey response only made her all the more curious about what had happened to her best friend in the first place. So she presumably hadn’t been arrested…that was promising.

“Catherine,” all the faces at the table turned in her direction. “We have the dean.”