I don’t know when the alarm goes off, but when I come after lunch to get my books it’s probing, pulsing, beckoning through the dorm. It does not fluctuate like mine, which crashes and recedes-waves on a wall. It chips away at my sanity with the reliability of the aorta. I lose a sliver each second I am not crushing the power button of the dorm clock. I cannot be the only person who frequents this hallway during the day, or can no one hear its grinding wails? What Lucifer enthusiast set this alarm when no girl should need waking? I cowered today when I heard it seeping under my door, this immovable constant in my life. I believe now that it only sounds for me. Maybe I have forgotten something and this is the sound of it struggling inside a mental prison. Maybe one day I should let it ring, and ring, and ring, until I wake up.