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For the umpteenth time, Kaylee tells her friend she’s unsure what to do about her ex, Jack DuCoeur. They start texting him. He lives only three doors down. Kaylee misses him. She wants him to come over.

2:26 a.m.

Kaylee phones Jack. He’s asleep and doesn’t hear her call.

She calls a second time.

She calls a third time.

A fourth time.

A fifth.

2:44 a.m.

Kaylee calls Jack a sixth time.

Then Maddie phones him three more times.

He sleeps through all of them, blissfully unaware of the imminent danger.

2:52 a.m.

Kaylee tries Jack one last time.

3:00 a.m.

Emily wakes up at the Whites. So, too, do Josie and Linden. Josie realizes she’s left her phone in her car.

She goes to get it. It’s foggy out, she thinks. It’s dark and quiet .

When she comes back, Hunter Johnson gets up and locks the door to the apartment. He doesn’t know why. He’s never done that before.

He and Emily go to sleep. No one thinks to text Ethan or Xana. They assume everyone is asleep.

In fact, Xana is awake and scrolling on TikTok. She orders DoorDash from the Jack in the Box in Pullman, the only place open at that hour.

4:00 a.m.

Xana’s food arrives. It ought to be the ordinary end of an ordinary game day.

Except for Maddie, Kaylee, Ethan, and Xana, it isn’t.

4:17 a.m.

Dylan is in her bed, drifting in and out of a fitful post-game-day sleep. The walls of her bedroom are so paper-thin that earlier Dylan could hear almost everything Maddie and Kaylee and Ethan and Xana were saying as they chatted on the couch in the living room.

Next thing she hears is the familiar stomping as they go up the stairs. She can dimly hear music from one of their bedrooms.

But then everything turns surreal. Not sure whether she’s dreaming or awake, she thinks she hears someone frantically say, “There’s someone here.”

Huh? That doesn’t seem right. And yet it also does, because so many people come in and out of 1122 King Road.

She gets up and opens her door a crack. Nothing.

Dylan goes back to bed. But then she hears someone crying. Is it Xana?

She gets up again and opens her door a fraction of an inch. She hears a male voice say: “It’s okay. I’m going to help you.”

There’s a thud. And Murphy starts to bark. Dylan shuts her door again. Is she going crazy? Now there’s silence again.

She opens the door a third time.

That’s when she sees the firefighter. Or at least, bleary-eyed, that’s what she thinks she’s seeing. He’s got bushy eyebrows; he’s wearing a mask. He’s holding a firefighting object, a bit like a vacuum. They make eye contact for a split second.

She shuts her door and looks around for her Taser. The battery is dead.

Bethany? She tries calling her friend downstairs. Nothing. But then, thank God, Bethany phones her back.

Dylan tells her she thinks she saw someone. In black. Masked. Their call lasts less than a minute.

Dylan then calls Xana. No reply.

She calls Kaylee. Nothing.

She calls Bethany again. They speak for forty-one seconds. Dylan is breathing heavily. She’s terrified. Has she gone crazy? Is she hallucinating?

Then Bethany phones Xana.

She also gets no answer.

Dylan tries Maddie. Nothing.

Bethany phones Ethan. Nothing.

At 4:22 a.m., Dylan texts Bethany the tragically obvious: No one is answering and then: I’m rlly confused rn.

She texts Kaylee again: Kaylee

What’s going on?

There is still no reply.

On the lower level, Bethany switches to Snap and then back again to text message. She texts Dylan: Ya dude wtf then Xana was wearing all black … It’s a question, not a statement.

Dylan replies to Bethany’s texts. To the former: I’m freaking out rn

And to the latter: No it’s like ski mask almost

Bethany writes back:

Stfu

Actually

Dylan’s fingers trip on the keys as she types: Like he had soemtbing over is for head and little nd mouth

There’s no time to fix typos. Bethant I’m not kidding o am so freaked out

Bethany: So am I

Dylan: phone is going to die fuck

Bethany tells her:

Come to my room

Run

Down here

It’s 4:24 a.m.

Can Dylan run? Is it safe?

Dylan tries Ethan’s cell once more. She and Bethany have another quick exchange.

At 4:27 a.m., she tries Kaylee again, then Xana.

Still nothing.

Dylan makes the decision to run. She sprints to Bethany’s room.

The two friends cling to one another.

They keep trying to reach the roommates. Bethany tries Maddie twice, then Kaylee twice. Dylan texts Kaylee.

Bethany goes on snap and Instagram looking for clues.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

It’s 4:37 a.m. Exhausted and terrified, the two girls pass out.

Neither of them falls into a deep slumber. Bethany wakes at 7:30 a.m. and calls her parents, telling them both about the strange events of the night before. Maybe, she tells herself, Dylan just had a very bad dream.

Dylan comes to around 8 a.m. and also tells herself she had a very bad dream after drinking too much. She immerses herself on Instagram for a couple of hours. The house seems quiet. Calm.

She agrees with Bethany. She must have hallucinated the whole thing.

Around 10:23 a.m., when it should be time for the others to start waking, Dylan texts Maddie: R u up? There’s no reply, but that’s not abnormal.

Dylan dozes off again. Over an hour later, she rouses and also texts Kaylee: R u up? Nothing.

Now she’s starting to panic again. Was it all not a dream?

At 11:49 a.m., Dylan calls her classmate and Pi Phi sister Jenna McClure and asks her to come over.

Then she phones her “Big,” Emily, who is at her apartment having breakfast with Josie, Hunter Johnson, and Linden.

“Can you come over?” Dylan asks. “Something weird happened last night. I don’t really know if I was dreaming or not, but I think there was a man here, and I’m really scared.

Can you come check out the house? I texted Xana and the others, but no one’s answering. I’m in the basement with Bethany.”

Emily laughs. Dylan can get really, really drunk. This is not the first time she’s heard a story like this from her Little.

“Ha-ha. Should I bring my pepper spray?” she asks.

Emily gets up and goes looking for a sweatshirt, and when she comes back, she sees Hunter Johnson has already left the apartment.

Hunter makes his way up the steps into the house.

He heads up the stairs and sees Xana’s bedroom door slightly ajar. Unusual. He opens it. He sees her lying inert, as if she’s fallen backward on the floor face-up.

There is blood everywhere.

He takes in Ethan on the bed behind her facing toward the wall.

Hunter’s heart is about to explode.

He doesn’t go any farther into the house. He turns around, goes downstairs, and says as calmly as he can to Dylan and Bethany: “Call 911. And stay outside.”

He takes a breath, goes back up the stairs, and heads to the kitchen, across the hall from Xana’s room. He opens a drawer and takes out a kitchen knife. He’s terrified.

He’s about to reenter Xana’s room when he hears someone coming up the stairs. It’s Emily. He stops her. “Emily, I don’t think Xana’s going to wake up,” he tells his girlfriend as softly as he can.

She doesn’t understand. But something in his expression chills her and she stands still, rooted to the spot.

“I’m going in to take their pulses,” he says, knowing already that he’s too late.

But he goes in anyway. And after he’s done that, he checks the closets for any sign of the murderer. There is none.

Emily has gone downstairs.

He follows and waits for the cops in the living room. Hunter says nothing to Emily or to the others who are outside. He’s trying to protect these innocents from both the sight and the reality. But he already knows the horrific truth: Xana and Ethan are dead.

Hunter doesn’t know if Kaylee and Maddie are even in the house, but he fears the worst.

The devil has been at 1122 King Road, and he has no idea why.