The Chance

College days are fun,eh?

I am a horror movie buff, and my friends knew that. I had watched every single horror movie and lived to tell the tale in quite a modest way to whoever would listen. My friends were sick of it. They didn’t like to watch these ‘kind’ of movies, but hey, when you are in the same stream, studying in the same university and living in the same dormitory, there are some kind of trends that come and go, and if you want to be popular, you have to follow them. Otherwise no society, no team, no frat. Forget everything if you are not popular.

Well, at least in my university.

And when the trend of horror movies came, I became the most popular guy. S**t, what I said, they followed. No kidding. I had become a god to them. And made my roommate extremely jealous in the progress.

One fine day, darkness fell over my dorm. Tomorrow we had exams, followed by lab practicals. And everyone was buried in their books, preparing, the coffee machine on full swing. Lights were on in almost all the rooms, except mine.

I had prepared for the exams well before. Yeah, I was a nerd. But a cool one. My name was Mason Kemp. It still is.

I was sitting with some of my friends, revising. And then my roommate came inside.

He was my competitor, you see. Hell, something more than that, if that existed. But he was sweet on the outside. He lacked a bit brains to be true. And he relied on me for the most important course of the semester.

I couldn't say no to him. I didn't like to do such things.He came to me and asked me about the tutorials that we had to solve for tomorrows's exam.They are on my laptop, I said, and in the same folder the solutions are there as well.He liked to study alone. Helped him to concentrate or something.But Fred was a good guy. He was the non cool nerd, you could say. Bespectacled.

Fred reached his room, and opened Mason's laptop. He knew the password. Mason hadn't even bothered to tell him that, he thought. He opened it and got the folder.He had read his notes multiple times, but the course of Discrete Mathematics had been a tough one for him. He had relied on Mason for that.

As he was searching for the solutions of the second last tutorial, he noticed that some kind of video was on in the background. Paused.Fred knew that Mason was a horror buff. He himself wasn't a big fan of those 'kind' of movies. He believed in science.And he was  the kind of guy who would cry out Mommy if he got scared.

He was scared of anything that might have the slightest resemblance to anything supernatural.

He was jealous of Mason, because he had become the center of attention now.

All because nobody could scare Mason, and because he loved to watch horror movies.

Fred always thought that Mason had some kind of problem due to which his body couldn't release enough epinephrine. That made him feel a little better.

But this time, curiosity, or what would be better put as peer pressure, got the better of him.Fred clicked on the play button, and the video started running.The lights in his room went out.Fred didn't notice that. Power cuts were common in the dorm.

He watched the video for some time. Then his eyes widened with fear. He tried to shout but he couldn't. He couldn't move.But there was a sound that he heard that may have aggravated his condition.Someone had closed the door from the outside.Something was happening to Fred. He had become catatonic now.

Fred didn't have much friends.

No one checked in on Fred that night. Everyone knew how cranky he became when disturbed while studying.

Mason slept with his friends that night.

Fred didn't come for the exams either.

Nobody noticed that though.The exams had been tough, and no one wanted to see his face anyway, the topper. But it was only after the practical exams, when someone came to Mason's and Fred's room to invite Fred to the after exams party, the truth behind his absence was found.

Fred had died of a heart attack, and his body was bent in a painful posture. The police and an ambulance came and took him away. Turns out, Fred was a heart patient, and was taking medications as well.

But nobody cared to look at Mason's laptop.

What had he seen, that had brought about this attack?

The day after Fred's death, everyone had gathered at the common room for some kind of ceremony to pay respect to him.

Mason gave a speech that day.A long one, about how they lost a genius, a good guy, a friend, a brother.But when everyone left, Mason didn't. He sat and when he knew that he was alone, he smiled.

He knew about Fred's illness.He had read the letters sent by his parents.He also knew about heart attacks, and how they can be brought about.All he had done that night was given a little push. He had came to his room that day, and looked through the window.He had seen Fred alright, but looking at the video, no, the movie that he had left there on purpose.

He had closed the lights by switching off the circuit breaker.After he saw his face, he knew that this was an easy job. His floor was secluded, and there were no cameras. If their were any, then he would have done something about them as well.

Mason had meticulously planned this, and it would never go wrong, he knew that.

He put on his gloves, and closed the door from outside.It took him 10 minutes to die. Fred writhed with pain, and before dying, he had seen Mason's face at window, smiling at him, torch light illuminating his features.His only friend.

After that, Mason had gone in, deleted all movies from his laptop, opened the page required, closed the curtains, and had left the room with the door open from outside.

Quick and Precise plan.

Painful death.

Fred had been a major threat to Mason since the beginning of his time at the university. He was the only competitor that Mason had.The placement season was coming, and his dream company, took only one from among all the students of his branch. Both Fred and Mason wanted that chance.

Mason smiled again and left the common room.

The dream job was his now.

Four eyes Fred was no more.