At first glance I saw a tiger. No, no way I thought, I’m so drunk I have no idea what I’m looking at. This is crazy and I’m completely hammered. I had hoped and dreamed of joining the Phi Betas since I was a kid and we would drive by their sorority house. I would see all the pretty girls lined up outside drinking from sparkly cups and laughing uncontrollably. I wanted to be part of that. My dad was a professor at the university so he would let me tag along at work and my favorite part was the drive through sorority lane. All the Greek letters displayed handsomely, the rose bushes separating the houses so beautifully manicured, the loud music blasting from the windows. It was a dream.

Now, on my eighteenth birthday I sat on a plastic couch covered in some kind of animal feces, waiting for the senior girls to finally let me in. I could hear them whispering in the room next door. I was only allowed to sit in one position until they came back, this position started to hurt my back, but I didn’t dare move. They knew if one hair on my head was brushed out of the way. They knew everything. I heard the growl again. WTF? Was I hearing things too? All of sudden the rooms pink curtains turned to fire and I heard a hissing sound behind me. I jumped up and yelped, only to realize it was gone in a split second. I jumped back into my seated position and waited, praying they didn’t hear my weak attempt at screaming. What is wrong with me? What did they give me? I thought it tasted funny but having not been a big drinker I figured my taste buds weren’t used to the bitterness of alcohol.

One girl, Amanda, came out with a steel look on her face and checked on me, then turned around and left. I breathed deeply. This is worth it, this is worth it, this is worth it. C’mon Laura, everyone goes through this. You’re not the only one, these are going to be your sisters! I am finally going to be a part of something bigger than me, even if do have shit rolling down my knees. I heard laughter and clinging of glasses. Oh wow, this was it. I think they made a decision.

All of sudden the sound of clack-clacking heels stormed through the hallway. They were coming! Ivette, the leader, stood in front of me and slapped me so hard my eyes went blurry. I didn’t move. I was in too much shock. Silence. No one moved. Were they just as shocked as I was? Nope. All of them had shit eating grins on their faces. I immediately knew this was a bad idea and my night was about to get far worse. The growl began thundering in my ears. I started shaking. I couldn’t hear them all laughing at me, but I could feel the vibrations of their laughter through my body. What was happening? Ivette finally spoke, “You actually thought we would let you in. After what your father did to us?”

“What...” was all I could muster to say.

Silence. The room got heavy with anticipation and growing anger...towards me. Each girl slowly pulled up their sleeves to reveal what looked like scratch marks, no, not just any scratch marks, intentionally placed scratch marks. The markings looked like symbols. Some of the girls let tears ruin their mascara, others stared at me with so much hatred I had to look away.

“I don’t understand...” I begged.

“You’re daddy is a sick fuck and he’s finally going to pay for what he did to us, What he’s done to all of us. And you’re just the right prize pig to slaughter.”

“Now HE’LL know what it feels like!” Yelled one girl in the back.

My head was reeling. I still didn’t know what was happening to me or around me. Tears streamed down my face as the growling began to overwhelm my ears.

“Have fun tonight.” Ivette hissed at me.

She picked me up and threw me out of the doorway. A loud blast of music came jumping at me and a car load of what looked like humans grabbed me and started dragging me to a giant car/boat/spaceship looking thing. I couldn’t scream, my mouth weighed a ton and my tongue was swelling up. All the pretty girls lined up, perfectly in order by seniority. All dressed up with sparkly cups in hand. Ivette walked over to me before the car door slammed close with tears in her eyes,

“It’s not over. It will never be over, but this is a start.”

“I....didn’t.....III...” I sluggishly got out.

“We didn’t deserve it either.”

The car door slammed, the music blasted into my head and off into then tube of darkness I went. Never to come out of it again.