From Darkness It Comes

Does She Even Live Here?

Figuring that he has nothing to lose, and that since she was looking into pledging a sorority it is unlikely that she paid for a full private dorm, he decides to go look into the student housing building mentioned by the office helper. He knows that the large double building used for student housing, known as Tracksus Hall, is not near the dorms and is actually closer to the back of campus, near the outer wall.

The building itself is four stories high and extremely long, with a strange break in the center where you have open walkways between the two parts on each floor. It is relatively thin though, allowing only one hall down the center of each story and small rooms on each side of the hall. It could take a while to search the whole thing, but Darrin knows he has no other option at the moment.

Hopefully someone will know where she is. The thinks as he approaches the eastern side of the hall and walks in.

Once inside he can't believe how bleak this place looks. The hall seems to go on forever and has relatively few cheap fluorescent lights flickering down its length, making it seem a rather gloomy place to live. Not many students seem to be in the halls and those that are seem to only be in it for as long as they have, not milling around like everywhere else on campus. Without the expected groupings of students to ask Darrin knows this is going to be a long day.

Taking a deep breath he starts walking down the door and knocking on doors. He asks anyone who answers and everyone he sees in the halls about Lisa. Seeing into the some of the rooms he can't believe people actually live here. They are worse than the halls, with small windows that don't look like they open and prison cell like dimensions. He can't believe they actually cram two people per room into these things. Before he is even halfway down the hall be actually starts to hope that he doesn't find her here, because he wouldn't wish these living conditions on anyone he cared about.

It seems to take forever just to get to the center walkway at the middle of the building. Walking between them seems like an amazing relief after spending so much time in those eerie halls. He lingers on the path, with sparse bushes on either side, before taking a deep breath and passing through the doors to the other side of the building.

Soon after starting on the second floor he finds someone who seems to remember Lisa being here. Darrin's heart both skips a beat at the thought of finding her and drops at the thought of her living here. The guy points up to the ceiling while talking. "Yeah, I've seen her. She lives up on the third floor somewhere, on this end of the hall. I've seen her walking back and forth from there when I've been out smoking on the stairs. She's a little hottie."

"Thank you." Darrin says, ignoring the last statement of this oily haired guy.

"No problem, dude. Good lucking getting some of that. She seems kinda tight with it."

Darrin shakes his head, trying not to get angry, as he leaves. Half under his breath, but hoping the guy hears it, he says, "Not really, she just has taste."

He rounds up the outside stairs at the edge of the building and starts in on the third floor hall. Still not knowing which room she is in he starts his usual pattern of knocking on every door and asking everyone in the halls. It doesn't take too long for a blond girl walking down the hall to overhear him asking someone at one of the doors and walk over to him.

"Are you looking for Lisa?"

"Yeah," Darrin turns to her with a look of hope and the guy at the door closes his room and disappears. "Do you know which room is hers?"

She shakes her head. "But, she's not around here much anyway. She is always out busy with something. Usually seems to be going to see some guy or talk to the girls down at the Sorority or hanging out the coffee shop or something. Can you blame her though? Would you want to hang around here if you had something better to do?"

Darrin shakes his head with understanding. "Not really. I can't believe they expect this many students to live like this. But thanks for the information. I guess I'll go look elsewhere."

She nods and smiles at him before bobbing off. "No problem."

Darrin doesn't waste his time in here any more and gets out into the sun as quickly as possible. It takes a few moments to shake off the cold feeling of despair that place held over him, but as soon as it does his resolve to find Lisa returns. He just has to decide where.

That girl mentioned a couple good options. She does want to join a sorority, so she might be down there pledging again or something. Also, the library has that nice coffee bar around the back with a patio. It could be nice on a day like this, so she might be there too. Hell, she might even be in the library reading for all he knows. He is sure he could think of more places to look if he tried, but he doesn't waste any time trying and immediately heads out.