Ashford High smelled different after the shadow disappeared.
Not bad. Just… old. Like dust that had waited too long to be disturbed.
Lena followed Theo down the far staircase near the gym—one students rarely used because it led to storage rooms and locked maintenance halls. The kind of places teachers pretended didn't exist.
"People almost died back there," Lena said, her voice low. "And you're just casually walking?"
Theo didn't look back. "Panicking feeds them."
"Them?" she snapped. "There's more than one?"
He stopped.
Slowly, he turned to face her. "Lena, the thing you saw was a scout."
Her stomach dropped. "Say that again. Slower."
Theo exhaled. "Creatures don't cross worlds blindly. Something on the other side sends small ones first. To test boundaries."
"And the bell stopped that," she said.
"Yes."
They reached the end of the hall. A single metal door waited there—unmarked, paint chipped, handle rusted.
"I've walked past this for four years," Lena whispered. "I swear that door was never here."
Theo placed his palm against it. "Because you weren't meant to notice."
The symbols appeared again—thin lines of light blooming beneath his hand. The door shuddered and clicked open.
Cold air spilled out.
Stone steps curved downward, carved directly into the ground beneath the school.
Lena stared. "You're telling me there's a dungeon under Ashford High?"
"Passage," Theo corrected. "Older than the school. Older than the town."
They descended.
With every step, Lena felt farther from reality—as if phones, homework, and cafeteria gossip belonged to another lifetime. The walls were etched with faded markings, similar to the ones from her locker.
"These symbols," she said. "Why do I understand them?"
Theo hesitated. "That's the part I don't like."
"Love the honesty."
At the bottom, the stairs opened into a narrow corridor lit by faint blue crystals embedded in the walls. The air hummed, low and constant, like a heartbeat.
"This passage leads to the tower," Theo said. "The space beneath it. That's where the bell was anchored."
"Was," Lena repeated.
A sound echoed ahead—soft, wet footsteps.
Both of them froze.
From the darkness, a figure emerged.
Maya.
"Maya?" Lena breathed. "What are you doing here?"
Her friend's face was pale, eyes unfocused. Like she was sleepwalking.
"Maya," Theo warned. "Don't move."
She smiled—but it wasn't her smile.
"It's awake," Maya said in a voice that wasn't quite her own. "And it remembers you."
Lena stepped forward. "Remember me how?"
Maya's eyes flickered black for a split second.
"You rang the silence," the thing inside her said. "Now the silence wants you back."
The ground trembled. Cracks raced along the stone floor.
Theo grabbed Lena's arm. "We need to leave—now."
"But Maya—"
"She's being used," he said urgently. "If we stay, it'll pull her fully through!"
Maya screamed.
The sound wasn't human.
Shadows flooded the corridor, crawling up the walls, reaching—
Theo shouted another word of power. Light exploded. The passage shook violently, and suddenly Lena was being dragged backward, stumbling up the stairs as the door slammed shut behind them with a deafening BOOM.
Silence.
Lena collapsed to her knees, gasping. "We can't leave her."
Theo stared at the sealed door, guilt hardening his expression.
"We won't," he said. "But if we go back unprepared, we all disappear."
Lena wiped her eyes and stood.
"Then we prepare," she said. "Because that thing chose the wrong school."
Theo looked at her—really looked this time.
And for the first time since they met, he smiled.