I shot up in bed to hearing screaming in the hallway. I looked at my phone to see that it was 3 in the morning and I had only been asleep for two hours. Suddenly I heard the door to the room next to mine being kicked in and the girls screaming before I heard gun shots. I grabbed my phone and jumped out of bed. I couldn’t run out of my room without being seen so I jumped into my closet just as they kicked in my door too. Opening my door slowly I looked out to see three guys no order than early 20s look around my room. One of the boys headed to my bed and saw my laptop sitting on my bed still on from when I fell asleep watching Supernatural.

“Leave it, she’s in here somewhere,” one of the boys said. They started to move things under my bed but didn’t find me.

“Over here, I found a letter,” another boy said. They found a letter that I had left for my roommate last week that said that I was out of town and they thought it was new. “She’s not here,” the boy said dropping the paper.

“No, she’s here, why would she leave her laptop on over the weekend?” the boy who saw my laptop asked. One of the boys got out of my eye sight as they continued to look for me. Suddenly the door to my closet open and a bullet barely missed my heart and hit me in the shoulder. I acted without thinking and fell face down on the floor acting dead. I still had my eyes open as I lay still on the floor playing dead the boy that shot me pointed his gun at me to shoot again.

“No, we need to save our bullets,” one of the boys said as he stopped him from killing me for real. They ran out my room shooting people who were trying to get away as they kicked into the next room. When I was sure that they were gone I pulled out my phone with my good hand and dialed 911.

“911, what is your emergency?” a lady said answering the phone.

“There’s three guys acting my dorm building, they are breaking into our rooms and killing us,” I cried as I tried to talk softly so that they didn’t hear me.

“What school are you enrolled in, honey?”

“Bowriver University, I’m in building QL,” I told her as I heard the boys coming back. “They are coming back, please help,” I said before ending the call and hiding the phone.

“Check the bathrooms again!” one of the boys order when suddenly a round of gun shots fired in the hallway. Within seconds the shooting was over and cops ran into each room looking for survivors.

A cop ran into my room and rolled me over and saw my phone in my hand. By this time my eyes were closed and the cop patted my face to wake me up. “Are you ok? Is there anyone else in here?” he asked as he looked for where I was shot.

“I’m the only one,” I said softly as I tried not to cry. A cop ran up to my door and saw that I was alive and ran over to help carry me out. As we went down the hall I saw all the bodies being covered and one girl was being given CPR. I finally broke down crying when she finally started coughing and looking around and saw her roommate covered.

There were ambulances outside and more police cars as they tried to keep the crowd back. The cops sat me down so that they could look at my shoulder and went back for the girl who had CPR done on her.

“Nicole!” I looked up to see my friend Sarah and Evans running to me through the crowd. I cried as they held me and got up when they brought another girl out. By the end of the night over 40 girls were killed, 2 boys who were in one girls’ room, and five of us made it through the night with gun shoot wounds and nightmares that we will have for the rest of our lives.

“Can we go up to her room to get her a jacket?” Sarah asked as Evans tried to get me to laugh at some joke she came up with.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t go in, we are still checking the building,” he added in a whisper. “But I’ll go and get her one, does it matter what jacket?”

“My Castiel one please,” I said.

“Supernatural fan?” the cop asked before he went to get my jacket. My phone vibrated in my hand, I looked down to see my uncle calling me.

“Hi,” I said softly as I answered the phone.

“Nicole! Are you ok? Do I need to come over?” he asked worried. The news of the shoot must have hit the news already.

“I’m fine, my friends are here with me,” I said trying not to cry.

“Do you need me to come?” he asked again calmly.

“Please, I want to go home,” I cried as Sarah took my phone to talk to him. Suddenly I saw a face in the crowd that I knew. “Tara! I thought you were still out of town!”

“I came back early, and I’m glad I did. Did they hit you?” she asked hugging me.

“I got hit in the shoulder, was lucky it wasn’t more to the left or I would be dead,” I said as the cop came back with my jacket. “My uncle is coming for me,” I told her as all of my friends hugged me.

Thirty minutes later my uncle drove up in his truck. “Nicole!” he yelled jumping out of the truck. A cop tried to stop him from passing but we got the cop to leave Uncle alone. “How did you make it?” he asked looking into my eyes. The flashback to hiding in my closet came to me and I freaked out. I froze in my friends’ arms as I thought of how I lived and 42 students didn’t.

“I did what I was told to do when a bear attacks me, I played dead after they shot me,” I barely said before I cried harder. As Uncle tried to comfort me the cops brought out one of the shooters. I stood up to see that the boy had been shot in the arm and leg.

“You son of a …” I grabbed Uncle before he could take the boy down as the cops walked him by. “What is wrong with you!” he yelled as I held him back.

“Uncle, you’re not helping,” I told him as Sarah and Tara helped me hold him back.

“Mr. Giles, Nicole is right, the cops have it under control sir,” Evans said as the cops put the boy in the back of the cop car. The boy looked out the window and stared at me. His eyes look me over and saw that they had hit me in the shoulder and not the heart like they thought they did. I looked away in time to see the cops bringing out two bodies in body bags.

“Can we go home?” I asked turning back to Uncle. Sarah went to ask the cop and came back with a cop behind her as Uncle tried to calm me down and as we tried to calm him down.

“You can leave, we are sorry for what you had to go through tonight. The young man will serve for what he did to you and all the other students,” the cop said putting a hand on my shoulder.

“What about the other two? There were three of them,” I told the cop.

“We had to shoot them when we came in, the one in the car will go to jail for murder and the other two didn’t make it,” he explained looking me in the eyes. “No one should ever have to go through what you did. Hearing all that, you must stay brave. There are those who made it and they are feeling the same way as you are right now. Show them that there’s still a reason to live on.” He let go of my shoulder as Uncle took me to the car.

“We’ll be here when you get back,” Sarah said as I got in the front seat of Uncle’s truck. “Call us if you need anything,” she added as Uncle started the truck.

“Thank you guys, you are the best friends I could ever ask for,” I said as we began to drive off.