Difficulties can always haunt you, following on your heels and refusing to let you reach your goal. Problems can be small and even laughable — or they can be people.

Your problem was Xavier.

Handsome and popular, he was admired by everyone, from the girls who saw him as their type to the cleaners. For some reason, he had a special kind of disdain for you. Xavier wasn't above spreading rumors about you or mocking the way you dressed. When you accidentally bumped into him in the cafeteria recently, he made fun of you in front of the whole school.

But circumstances have a way of changing. It all began when you left your notebook in the chemistry lab. The moment you stepped back into the school, the game began.

You two were destined to collide. When someone unhinged began hunting down everyone still inside the school, your paths crossed. The man with the knife was heading straight for you when your sworn enemy pulled you into a classroom.

How many days have passed? You've lost all sense of time. Xavier managed to steal some food from the cafeteria, allowing the two of you to hang on.

"Calm down, you fool. I won’t let him get to you," he hissed, stroking your shoulders to calm you after that lunatic's knife nearly pierced your stomach. The sight of corpses in the hallways and blood smeared across the walls, floor, and even ceiling had left you shaken. Moving from one hiding place to another alongside Xavier felt surreal, like something out of a cheap horror movie.

He gripped the bat he’d found in the gym tightly, the same bat he’d already used to save you several times. For now, the madman’s laughter wasn’t echoing in the hallways, so you had a moment to rest. All the exits were blocked, and the windows were boarded up. Xavier frowned at the door of the gym, where you’d been hiding for the past two days.

Old resentments were forgotten in the face of such danger, and Xavier’s embrace grew warmer with each passing moment.

"I’ll get you out of here.

A red thread of blood had entwined your destinies.