DAMON
The silencethat greets me as I open the main doors of Montague House, the dorm I live in, is a welcome reprieve from the usual chaos that comes with living in a frat house.
The huge Queen Anne Revival style mansion is the official residence of the Oathkeepers, or the Keepers as everyone calls us, one of the four frats on campus. Or more correctly, it’s one of the four secret societies that masquerade as a frat on campus, and it’s just as ridiculous as every other building that makes up the school.
Like the other societies at Silvercrest, the Oathkeepers is the unofficial name that’s used in mixed company. The actual name of the frat is top secret, and new members only learn it during their initiation ceremony at the end of their freshman year. Like the other frats/societies on campus, the rules about secrecy are insane, and we’re not allowed to say the official name out loud unless we’re in a secure location with other members. We’re also not allowed to discuss frat business of any sort with anyone who’s not a member, and the punishment for breaking the rules is swift and severe.
It's stupid and ridiculous, but being a member gives us advantages that most people would kill for, so the trade-off is worth it.
Another weird thing about Silvercrest is that every building looks completely different. The dorms and society houses were all built by the original families who founded them, and the designs of most of the academic buildings have been heavily influenced by the various people who’ve donated huge sums of cash to the school over the years.
Some of the buildings look like castles, while others have a more utilitarian style. Others look like they’ve been plucked out of various ages of the past and dropped onto a modern campus. Then there’s our dorm.
The lore of the house and inspiration behind the design is that the founding families were all new money who’d made their fortunes in the growing industry of the age. Because of this, they didn’t have a fixed style or identities like the other frats because the members had nothing in common except they were all new money and none of the other frats wanted anything to do with them. So instead of taking the L and accepting that they really weren’t that important, they founded the Oathkeepers.
That birthed the confusing mess that is Montague House, or Romeo House as it’s colloquially called.
The outside of the building is an asymmetrical structure full of ornate details that would be impressive if there weren’t so much going on. The first four floors of the house look like a normal stone mansion with some fun architecture styles built into it, like the mix of differently shaped windows and different colors of bricks and stones that create interesting lines and patterns on the outer walls.
Things go a bit off the rails for the next two floors, which are a lopsided mix of round, jutting rooms, huge turrets, and prominent towers that make the house look like it was createdby two different architects who each designed half of the house without ever meeting or speaking to the other about it. And instead of ironing out the inconsistencies, they just mashed their designs together and built something that reminds me of the pictures of fairytale houses my sisters used to draw when they were little and had no concept of how things looked in the real world.
The house also has a massive wraparound porch with fancy spindle work and decorative shingles in different patterns that would look cool if there were some sort of consistency among them. There are also small, gargoyle-like stone carvings about the size of an average house cat dotting the many towers and turrets. No one knows exactly why the carvings are there, but they’re not even the strangest part of the building.
The inside of the house is even more of an eyesore than the exterior, and while there have been several massive renovations over the years, especially as new tech becomes available, that still doesn’t account for all the different design influences in the place.
The main floor is where all the common areas are, like meeting rooms, game and leisure rooms, study areas, and the dining hall. Unlike every other building on campus that has a cohesive design that flows from the outside through the interior, the rooms on the main floor are a mix of different styles from various eras spanning from medieval to modern and pretty much everything in between.
The house pool, gyms, media rooms, storage areas, and the rooms used for various frat purposes and ceremonies are all on the first level of the basement, while the lower basement levels are off limits to everyone except the frat leadership and their admin team. The accessible basement rooms are normal and look exactly like they should, but they’re pretty much the only ones in the house that do.
Our private rooms are another mishmash of styles, but at least there’s a pattern where the rooms get bigger and more opulent the higher up they are, which also coincides with how rooms are assigned. But even then, there’s no set interior design style, even if the actual layouts of the rooms are identical on each floor.
Freshmen, who are the equivalent of pledges, all live on the first floor and share small rooms with basic private baths. Sophomores live on the second floor and have larger rooms and nicer bathrooms, but they’re still pretty basic compared to the third level, where juniors live. Those rooms are significantly bigger and have more luxurious bathrooms.
Most seniors live on the fourth floor and get to enjoy single rooms, even nicer private baths, and we have our own common areas on the floor that only seniors and their guests can access. The next floor is the one with all the towers and turrets and jutting rooms. Those are where the leaders and their admin team stay, and no one other than the people who live there and their approved guests can access the floor. The top floor is a complete mystery to everyone other than the leaders, and no one really knows what’s up there. It’s rumored the rooms up there hold all the Keepers' records and security hubs. And while I’ve never seen any of them, there are also rumors that the house is full of secret passages, hidden rooms, and trapdoors. I don’t know if they actually exist or are just part of the house lore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the house was full of secret features that only the leadership and their trusted allies know about and have access to.
Just like the other frats, the Keepers have a second house that’s known as the main house, and is a smaller, less lavish version of Romeo House. Usually that’s where the leaders and their team would live if we were any other frat, but we only use ours to house guests or for specific frat events and ceremonies.I have no clue why we don’t utilize the house more, but it’s tradition, and if there’s one thing the Keepers love more than design chaos, it’s tradition.
My footsteps echo on the marble floors of the main foyer as I cut across the art deco-inspired space to get to the western side of the building. As soon as I’m through the door, the vibe changes to a more modern and minimalist style. The overhead lights are dimmed and cast eerie shadows around me as I make my way to the back stairs to get up to the fourth floor.
As far as I know, I’m the only person in the building right now. No other students opted to come back early, and the staff isn’t due back until Sunday. I had the option of recalling some of the staff early, but I refused. I can fend for myself for a few days, and after everything that’s gone down since my vacation started, I could use a weekend of solitude.
The stairwell is so dark I have a moment of slight panic as my imagination conjures up images of masked figures waiting for me in the shadows, but I do my best to ignore them and hurry to the fourth floor.
The hallway, like the rest of the house, is empty and silent except for the muted sound of my footfalls on the carpeted runner, and I unlock my door with one of the ridiculous skeleton keys we all use. The locks are modern, but they were designed to use the same style of skeleton keys as the original locks, so we’re stuck using the massive keys that look cool but are annoying as hell to carry around.
But even with the inconvenience, they’re better than having electronic locks that use our IDs and log our every move like the ones that are found on every other door or gate on campus. Having a way to move around our dorm without being tracked is one of the few things that makes living here bearable.
The door clicks shut behind me as I flick on the lights and drag my tired ass over to my bed, which is the only part of myroom I don’t keep tidy. I refuse to make it, and the cleaners know not to bother making it when they come through the dorms unless they’re changing the sheets. Not making my bed was one of the few ways I could rebel as a kid after I had to move in with my dad, and the habit stuck.
My room is decently sized, and while I could do without the craftsman style decor where everything is made of dark wood, has dark wood trimming, or dark wood panels covering it, the layout is pretty sweet.
Every room on the floor has an identical setup with huge beds, a single night table, a massive dresser that’s easily the size of two normal ones, large desks with built-in shelving, and a separate bookcase. They also have small walk-in closets that are just big enough to stand in and spin in a circle with your arms out, and they have impressive organization units in them.
Most dual occupancy dorm rooms on campus have a small common area in the center of the room with seating and some sort of table. Even though I have a single, it also has a sitting area off to the side that has a pull-out couch and a coffee table that has a feature where the actual table part can be lifted up and unfolded so it can double as a small dining table, or it can be converted to a taller bar-style table.
The bathroom is modern, with white marble and chrome fixtures, and it has everything we could need, including a sink with a massive mirror above it, a big soaker tub, a separate shower, and of course, the toilet. Compared to the locker room-style bathrooms the freshmen get to share, we got spoiled.
The silence in the room feels different tonight, and I toss my bag onto my bed as I go over to my dresser to turn on some music. I’m the only person I know who has an actual stereo system instead of just using my computer or another device to play music, and instead of being full of clothes, the top two drawers of my dresser are crammed full of CDs I’ve collectedover the years. Maybe it has to do with the way I grew up, or because music is such a huge part of my life and work, but I keep physical copies of all the music I listen to on top of the digital copies I have and the streaming services I use.
