There were two rules at Delta House. One, paint the basement door every night. Two, always wear earmuffs in the basement. If only I hadn’t broken them.
Let me start from the beginning.
There was nothing I wanted to do more in life than live the quintessential All-American college experience.
You watched all those college movies right? Where the starry-eyed freshman joins the college campus, finds themself, meets their college sweetheart, expands their horizons, rebels against the stale professors, wins the homecoming game, becomes the talk of the big campus party, becomes valedictorian, inspires others, and sets out into the world to be just an all-round awesome guy? That’s what I wanted. The problem?
Me.
It’s been a month since I started studying at a big Midwestern college and I’ve been rejected by every fraternity I’ve applied for.
So when I stood in front of the Delta Omega Iota Lambda Phi Epsilon (I’m not repeating that and I’ll just call them Delta House from now on) I promised myself that this would be the one. This would be the fraternity for me. Otherwise, how else would I get to experience life-changing journey that is college?
At least on the outside Delta House wasn’t really any different from the other frat houses on campus. It was a two-story, red brick home with a front porch and a well-kept lawn. Pretty generic, right?
Which made me nervous. If this looked like all the other houses I’ve applied for, I was more than likely to be rejected again.
Another rejection meant no booze-filled parties. No mixers with sororities. No sports festival to show the other frats and the crusty old dean we belong on campus.
Deep breath.
I knocked on the door and waited. A moment later, the door opened, revealing a young JFK lookalike standing in the doorway. You just knew by looking at him that he was going to go far in life. He was going to be somebody.
“Danny?” He asked.
“Yep that’s me!” I probably sounded like the most overenthusiastic pledge you would ever find.
“Cool. Great. I’m Richard, the local president of Delta Omega Iota Lambda Phi Epsilon. Just, uh, don’t call me Dick please. Welcome. Come in. We’re glad to have you apply.”
We’re glad to have you apply.
You don’t know how happy that made me feel, I felt like this was a done deal.
Unlike the other frats, the interior of this house matched the outside. Everything was nice and clean, the floorboards were polished, no rubbish bags, no umbrellas laying on the floor, they even had a functioning grandfather clock in the corridor. It felt like you were in a gentleman’s club at Oxford where they would get together to drink dry scotch and debate important philosophical ideas. It felt like I was meant to be here.
“Follow me into the living room Dan. Danny or Dan?” Asked Richard.
“Either, totally cool with either. Not anal about it.” I said half-laughing, as if we were already best buds.
The living room was just as immaculate as the foyer. They had an honest to God fire going with three-piece couch set up around a low-lying coffee table.
I was greeted by a senior who introduced himself as George, he was studying pre-law and his Southern accent made him seem like he would be a perfect stand-in for Atticus Finch.
The other Delta member, sat at the edge of the couch and just stared at the fireplace. George introduced him as Theo, an actuarial studies junior.
“Ya’ll will have to excuse him, he hasn’t got much sleep lately.”
Theo turned his head just a fraction as a small sign of life.
“Dan,” Richard clasped me around the shoulders and gently guided me to the couch opposite Theo and George. “Take a seat and we’ll begin the pledge process.”
“Is this all there is? I thought there might be other Delta brothers or other pledges?” I asked earnestly.
All three Deltas looked at each other sheepishly, as if they were embarrassed to tell me something. George broke the awkwardness.
“It’s just us really. We’re more a boutique fraternity than anything. More space. More fun. Isn’t that right Theo?”
Theo uttered an affirmatory grunt. I think.
“See? Lots of fun. Now son, as far as we’re concerned, you’re already a member of Delta.”
You have no idea how happy that made me feel. As far as I was concerned, my college life began that day.
Richard leaned in and said, “There’s only one thing when need you to do as a pledge at Delta House…”
The door to the basement was really something else. I mean, the door itself was just a basic wooden door…except it had three heavy duty locks that needed to be opened by three separate keys. Not to mention there were two suits of armour standing on either side of the door. They were both holding up honest to God swords. It was like something out of renaissance faire.
“Pretty cool props guys- I mean Delta brothers…bros. Delta bros.” In a gesture of fraternal bonding, Theo handed me the bucket of what I could only assume was red paint.
George handed me a pair of earmuffs on which I eagerly put on. Richard gestured for me to take them off straight away.
“Not yet champ. You will need to put that on when you get there. But as part of the…initiation. Look, you’re not a pledge because you’re already in, but consider this a, uh, probationary period. As part of the probationary period you’re going to have to do basement duties.”
“Basement duties?” I asked.
“Basement duties. When we open the door, we want you to put your earmuffs on, go down into the basement, and repaint the markings on the door down there. For a month.”
I cocked my head. I’ve been in some pretty weird hazing rituals but this sounded both bizarre and extraordinarily mundane. I wasn’t sure how to feel to be honest.
“So I’m painting a door in the basement?”
“Yeah. But, it’s important that you do it every day.”
I looked at each of these guys and all of three of them were playing it dead straight.
It wasn’t the most embarrassing hazing ritual so yay, I guess. But still.
“I’m game.”
After Theo opened the door, he turned the basement lights on. With a flickering of the lights I could see the basement in its entirety. I was honestly expecting cobblestone flooring, massive cobwebs, maybe a busted fridge. But it was actually pretty well kept. There was actually a polished wooden staircase, there were a few rugs on the concrete floor, an extra pool table pushed against the wall, and a working fridge.
Oh. Also a giant wooden door with some really gnarly symbols painted on it. Let me elaborate on this. There was a giant wooden door, that seemed more at home in a castle dungeon, with some sort of symbol in red paint that seemed ripped off from a death metal album cover art, in a college fraternity house in the good old US of A.
I felt a gentle nudge from behind and almost jumped out of my skin. George, Richard, and Theo were giving me a thumbs up and so, I collected my wits to descend the stairs.
I don’t know why but I half expected to put my foot through the stairs as if it were decrepit. That was just the sort of mood I was in.
When I reached the floor, I started to walk real slow to the door. There were no handles. I wanted to just touch it, just to get a feel you know? But for some reason there was some deep, instinctual drive just telling me to run as far away from this door as I could. So I instead focussed my attention to the symbols painted on the door. There were stars, some Greek letters, triangles, lots and lots of triangles.
I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to describe. I honestly couldn’t draw the damn thing from scratch, I was just glad they asked me to trace over it and nothing more.
So I did.
When I finished, I ran up the stairs like I was trying to escape. George slammed the door behind me and Richard took the earmuffs from my head.
“Great job Dan. I know it seems like a strange hazing ritual. But it’s just a tradition that we have here at Delta House.” Richard talked to me like he was a proud dad.
“Soo…you guys into roleplay and stuff, right?”
The three Delta members looked at me like I had just spoken another language.
George caught on the earliest. “Yeah. Big on roleplay. Not so much us. But more our brothers who came before us.”
Richard chimed in. “Yeah. That’s right. Now Dan, just a few things. One. You can move your stuff here as soon as you like but we’ve got an eleven o’clock noise policy so just make sure you’re not too late. Two, that door needs to be painted every night. It’s tradition. And three, and I can’t stress this enough. Whatever you do, whenever you are down there. Do not. Under any circumstances, take off those earmuffs.”
It was almost a month, I was actually having a great time, even if it was a bit underwhelming. There were no frat parties or drunken escapades, the fraternity brothers were actually diligent students. No one made noise at night, no beer pong, we never had parties with the sororities. After quickly joining them, I found out why from my friend Damien from macroeconomics.
Damien said that Delta had a reputation for being weird and really closed off. Like they were guarding a secret or something and there were all these rumours how they were like a Yale Skull and Bones type deal complete with coffins in the basement.
Sorry to disappoint but there were no coffins. Just a door with weird symbols. A door that I painted every night as per tradition. No one really gave me a straight answer about the symbols on the door or what was behind the door.
To be honest, I started to get tired of doing it every night as well. Stopped seeming like an embarrassing hazing ritual and more like this weird prank that went on for far too long.
I always obeyed the two rules. One, paint it every night. Two, always wear earmuffs. To be completely honest, I’m a bit of a pushover. If I didn’t paint the door, they might notice it’s not a fresh coat. But they wouldn’t notice me not wearing the earmuffs…
I stood at the basement door and took a deep breath. I grabbed the paint, put on the earmuffs and unlocked the three locks on the door. The light flickered on as it normally did and I descended the stairs slowly. When I reached the bottom, that’s when I took off the earmuffs.
I honestly don’t know what I was expecting. But there was nothing but silence. Not even eerie silence but just silence. I shrugged my shoulders and went to work on re-painting the door that I’ve already repainted every day for nearly a month.
Circles, triangles, funny cuneiform letters, all done.
I laid my hand against the door when I heard her voice.
“Hello? Somebody please.”
My body froze. The whole world seemed to stop around me. It was as if my stupidity and naivety defied space and time. Now I knew why rule two existed. It was so I couldn’t hear the woman plea for help. My mind was racing, thoughts were flying, I couldn’t focus on what to do next. Then she spoke again.
“Please, is someone there?” She sobbed. Oh God, she was crying for help. Crying for me to help her.
“I won’t tell anybody, please, just let me go.”
My throat froze. I didn’t know what to say. How long had she been down here? I’ve never opened this door to find out. Were there more women? Was she the only one? I clenched my fists and I found strength in my voice.
“My name’s-“ I paused. I was too struck by the guilt of being absolutely oblivious to her captivity this whole time I just couldn’t bear to tell her my name. “My name is Daniel. I’m here to help you.”
“Please. Please. Let me go.”
“I’ll let you go. I promise. I’ll free you. I- I promise. I’ll make this right. I just didn’t know.”
I felt as if I was panicking. My breathing was heavy, my head was pounding, and my legs could barely hold me upright.
There was no door handle so I tried looking around for something, anything to pry the door open. There was the pool table, the old fridge-
“Dan. Put those headphones on. You idiot.” Screamed Theo from the top of the stairs. He came charging down and the suddenness of it all froze me in place, making me easy for Theo to put in a headlock and pull up the stairs underneath his arm.
We reached the top of the stairs when he threw me on the ground and slammed the door behind him.
“Rule two you moron. Always rule two.” He screamed at me as I rolled on the floor in a confused daze.
“What’s going on?” Richard had arrived at the scene, confused at the throwdown before him.
“He didn’t obey rule number two.” Explained Theo.
“Shit. That’s no good.” He knelt down beside and put his hand on my shoulder. “Danny, I really like you kid. But sometimes you just got to know when not to stick your beak when you’re told not to.”
George, Richard, and Theo, the members of Delta House, had locked me in a spare closet in the living room. Without my phone I couldn’t call for help. I was completely alone in this dark closet.
Richard said they need to deliberate about my fate. Obviously, a roundabout way of saying they’re trying to figure out how to dispose of my body. As well as the girl down in the basement. That poor woman! How long had she been down there? And how long had I been complicit in keeping her there? Everyday I had painted that door. And just to torture her no doubt. Some sort of sick practical joke on her and me, surely for the amusement for the members of Delta House.
This was easily the worst college experience I could imagine.
All I could think about was the beer pong I could be playing, all the exams I could be cramming for, the girls I could drunkenly kiss, the slam poetry contests I could win, the wide variety of leather on tweed jackets I could wear. But all of that was taken away from me, because of three psychopathic frat boys.
There was no time to waste. No time to delay. I was going to bust out of here and rescue the woman trapped behind the door.
God help anyone who stood in my way.
I shouldered the door but it didn’t budge.
Heavy doors seemed to be a staple of Delta house. There was no way I could break it down without making noise.
So that’s what I did. Leaning against the back wall of the closet, I kicked the door wide open, sending part of the lock flying against the room and announcing my exit with a bang.
I stood still for a moment, trying to hear the response from the Delta members but there was only silence. Remembering my mission, I ran out of the closet and headed straight to the basement door.
When I reached it, I took a sword from the knight’s armour, the keys inside the left suit of armour, opened the door and entered the basement. As I ran down the steps the woman from behind the door cried.
“Please. Just let me go.” Her pitiful tone was almost too much to bear.
“Just hold on. It’s me Dan. I’m going to get you out of there and out of this house.”
There was a pause. Then I heard her sobbing.
“Thank you. I knew there was at least one good person in this house.”
I got to work immediately on opening the door. Since there was no handle of any kind, I figured I would use the sword as a makeshift crowbar to pry it open.
I inserted the sword in between the door and the doorframe and pushed against it with my whole body.
The door wouldn’t move. I tried, and I tried, and I tried. Didn’t move an inch.
“I know you’ve been through a lot.” Calling to the woman on the other side with my face pressed against the door. “But you see the sword there?”
“Yes.” She said in between sobbing.
“I’m going to need you to push, okay? It doesn’t look like I can do this by myself. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. Thank you. You’ve been brave. Now on three, we’re going to push, okay? One.”
I braced myself and heard the woman’s deep heavy breathing from the other side of the door.
“Two.”
The moment was nigh. But then…
“Ya’ll he’s escaped. I told you that noise was him.” I heard George from upstairs and my anxiety jumped through the roof.
It was now or never. Run away and save myself. Or stay and get killed by a bunch of frat boys. But I couldn’t leave. I had left this woman to rot in this dank basement, while ignoring her just so I could have the quintessential college experience.
“Three.”
With all my strength I pushed against the sword, our combined effort pushing the door open…only a few inches. No, I thought to myself, that was enough.
With an opening, there was hope, and with hope, I could save her.
I dropped the sword and reached into the gap with my right arm. Hoping to push the door open with my entire body.
That’s when it grabbed me. Its long, slender, scaly fingers clawing at the side of my throat. My hands struggling, grappling, fighting to keep me from being torn to shreds. That was no woman. Its strong, scaly black arm wrapped around my torso. In the midst of throes, grapples and clutches of the fight I could only see the intense, rage-filled red eyes in the dark room behind the door. Those eyes caused me to reflexively cry out “Help! Somebody!”.
The arm squeezed tighter. Its claws burrowing ever deeper.
I thought I was going to die there.
In a basement. Trying to save someone’s life.
My life gone from who the hell knows what this thing is.
Footsteps, footsteps storming down the stairs.
I could feel the air slam into my face as the sword swung down and struck the arm, it recoiled in pain and the thing behind the door bellowed out in pain. A deep, horrible, rage-filled cry.
Someone, I don’t know who, threw me back onto the floor and I watched as Richard, George, and Theo all pushed the door back closed. With great effort, they managed to shut the great wooden door, all three slumping to the ground as they did so.
The looks on their faces was equal parts relief and sheer terror.
I was kicked out later that night. Richard said they regretted not letting me go but no one can stay in the house if they break either of the two rules. I remember him shrugging his shoulders and saying they could have let me know a bit more about the history of Delta House but they thought it would have been better if I didn’t know.
He said they’ll think about letting me back in but they’d have to think about it for a while. I honestly don’t think I’d want to go back if they let me.
Now? I’m crashing on the couch in my friend Damien’s share house. I’m looking for a new place to stay, I’m not a freeloader. Besides, all his housemates keep staring at my scars on my neck, the claw marks still visible from a week ago.
Damien jokes that’s probably the most painful love scratches he’s ever seen and that the girl I was with must have been really wild.
I said that yeah, she kinda was.