The hallway outside the classroom looked normal.
That was the first lie.
Down the corridor, students gathered near the stairwell and the courtyard entrance, laughing too loudly, whispering half-formed rumors, pretending nothing strange had happened. Someone complained about attendance. Someone joked about a power cut. Life continued with aggressive normalcy.
Arav stepped out slowly.
The moment his foot crossed the threshold, a thin current of cold brushed against his arm.
Not wind.
Intention.
He stopped.
Tiku bumped into his back. "Why are we pausing? Are we doing a dramatic walk-away thing?"
Arav didn't answer.
Ira came out behind them, her camera hanging loose at her side. She hadn't turned it on again—not since the shadow dissolved. Her face was calm, but her grip on the strap was tight.
"Is this… normal for you?" she asked quietly.
Arav exhaled. "No."
Tiku snorted. "That's a lie."
The corridor stretched longer than it should have. Rows of windows reflected the ceiling lights, but something about the reflections felt wrong.
Too sharp.
Too attentive.
Arav felt it then.
A presence.
Not the shadow from before.
Not something feeding.
Not something hunting.
This one watched.
He slowed instinctively.
Ira noticed immediately. "What is it?"
"There's someone here."
She glanced around. "Where?"
Tiku ducked behind Arav again. "Please don't point. Shadows get offended."
Arav didn't move his head.
He looked straight ahead.
At the far end of the hallway, where the light thinned just enough to blur details, a figure stood.
Female.
Still.
Almost unnaturally so.
Long hair fell forward, obscuring half her face. She wore something that might have been a long coat—or a uniform. The edges of her outline flickered faintly, as if the air itself couldn't decide where she ended.
Arav's breath tightened.
Ira kept scanning the hallway.
"Arav?" she whispered. "You said someone was here."
She wasn't seeing her.
"Tiku," Arav said carefully, "do you see—"
"No," Tiku said immediately. "My eyes are closed. Ancient survival technique."
The figure tilted her head.
Just a little.
Enough to make the pressure behind Arav's eyes spike.
The air vibrated faintly.
Unclassified observation detected
Perceptual Interference Suspected
Recommendation : Do not Engage
Ira's camera clicked.
She hadn't meant to press the shutter.
The flash burst down the corridor.
The girl vanished.
The hallway was suddenly empty.
Too empty.
Ira looked down at her camera screen.
Her face drained of color.
"Arav," she said slowly. "There was someone there."
She turned the camera toward him.
The image showed the corridor—dark, grainy—but at its center was a pale, blurred face.
Wide eyes.
Unfocused.
A faint smile that didn't reach them.
Arav's stomach dropped.
He blinked.
The image vanished.
Static replaced it.
Ira stared at the blank screen. "It was there. I saw it."
Cold crawled up Arav's spine.
This wasn't a creature.
Creatures reacted.
This presence evaluated.
Measured.
Then a whisper brushed through the hallway—soft, almost playful.
"Not yet."
Ira stiffened. "You heard that?"
Arav shook his head.
"I felt it."
The sensation pressed directly into thought, bypassing sound entirely.
A different resonance stirred inside him. Sharper. Colder. Unfamiliar.
Cognitive Signature Logged
Ajna –Based Interference : Probable
Threat level : Unknown
Monitoring.
Not attacking.
Monitoring them.
Tiku peeked out cautiously. "Are we alive?"
"Yes," Ira said. "But I don't think we're alone."
They started walking again, slower this time.
As they reached the end of the corridor, Ira slowed and looked down.
Something faint was scratched into the tile floor.
A curved line intersected by a single stroke.
Incomplete.
As if whoever had drawn it ran out of time.
She crouched and brushed her fingers over it.
Her camera clicked again.
This time, when she checked the screen, the symbol was gone.
Instead, a single word burned faintly across the image.
Remember.
Ira's breath hitched.
She didn't know why the word unsettled her so deeply. Why it felt like something had tugged gently at the back of her mind.
Arav knew.
He could feel her presence ripple.
A door, barely ajar.
Something on the other side waiting.
They stepped into the daylight of the courtyard, where students argued, laughed, and speculated loudly about "some weird thing" in the old block.
Normalcy reasserted itself.
But the pressure didn't fade.
Tiku tugged Arav's sleeve. "Bade Baba… why does it feel like someone just took our picture without permission?"
Arav stared back at the hallway.
"Because they did."
Somewhere beyond sight, the girl watched.
And smiled.