Chapter 3
Part I
Blackthorn Academy breathes at night.
I didn't believe that rumor until the walls whispered my name.
Elara.
I froze in the hallway, barefoot on cold tiles, heart slamming against my ribs. Curfew had already passed. The bell rang at ten—deep, hollow, impossible to ignore.
I should've been in my dorm. Instead, I followed the sound of crying down the east corridor—the one students pretended didn't exist. The lights flickered as I walked, dimming with every step, like the school was guiding me somewhere I wasn't meant to go.
The crying stopped.
I swallowed and whispered, "Hello?" this is a bad idea I said to myself.
A door creaked open.
He stepped out of the shadows, tall, pale, dressed in black so sharp it looked stitched to him. The prefect insignia gleamed over his heart like a warning. When he appeared, the hallway went silent and empty, as if sound itself had been erased. What just happened I said to myself.
"You're out past curfew," he said.
His calm voice brought be back to reality.
"I heard someone crying," I replied, pointing behind him. He didn't look back.
"That," he said, "is not your concern."
Something moved in the darkness. A hand scraped weakly against the floor.
My stomach dropped.
"There's someone there," I insisted. "They need help."
For the first time, his gaze sharpened.....I was curious.
"Everyone here needs help," he replied. "Most don't survive it."
Then he dragged the student into the light.
It was Jonah.
A second-year, loud, reckless, always daring the rules to bite back.
Blood stained his uniform, not enough to kill him, just enough to matter.
"Please," Jonah sobbed. "I didn't mean to—please—"
The Head Prefect tightened his grip.
"You broke curfew," he said evenly. "You entered a restricted classroom. You spoke the name beneath the stairs."
Jonah's eyes flicked to me.
"She saw," he cried. "She saw everything—"
The Prefect turned to me.
I couldn't move.
Everyone knew what happened next. Students who broke too many rules were removed. Their names erased and beds emptied. Teachers called it expulsion. No one ever transferred out of Blackthorn.
"You weren't meant to witness this," the Prefect said.
The walls trembled shadows stretched along the floor, crawling toward us.
"I didn't break curfew," I blurted. Both of them froze.
The Prefect's eyes narrowed. "You are standing in the east wing after curfew."
"Yes," I said, voice shaking. "But I didn't hear the bell."
Silence slammed down on the corridor.
No one ever missed the bell unless the school wanted them somewhere else.
The walls whispered again - Elara.
Jonah screamed.
The shadows surged, swallowing him whole. The sound cut off instantly, like a cord snapped mid-note.
Then—nothing.
There was no blood, body or Jonah he was gone.
My knees buckled. I gagged, pressing my hand over my mouth.
"What did you do?" I whispered.
The Head Prefect stared at his hand like it had betrayed him.
"You should not be alive," he said quietly.
"I didn't do anything," I said. "I swear."
"That," he replied, stepping closer, "is the problem." looking up close, he didn't look human. His eyes were too dark, swallowing light symbols pulsed faintly beneath his collar, etched into his skin like living scars.
"You can hear the school," he said.
I shook my head. "Everyone hears things here."
"No," he said. "Everyone suffers. You listen."
The floor creaked beneath us.
"What happens now?" I asked.
Something ancient shifted in his expression.
"Now," he said, "the school will test you."
*A bell rang*
Pain exploded behind my eyes—visions flooding in, chains beneath the school, blood soaking stone. A boy kneeling, screaming as the academy closed around him.
The Head Prefect grabbed my wrist before I collapsed.
His touch burned.
"Do not fall for me," he said urgently. "Do not trust me. And whatever you do—"
The bell rang again.
"—never follow me after midnight." Darkness swallowed the hallway.
And the school whispered my name like it had been waiting for me all along.
**************
Part ii
I woke up screaming. My dorm room was quiet, unchanged—neatly made bed, moonlight spilling through the window, my alarm clock blinking 6:00 a.m. just like nothing had happened, or Jonah had never existed. I sat up, gasping, my wrist burning where the Head Prefect had grabbed me. I pushed up my sleeve.
Finger-shaped bruises ringed my skin.
This was real..... Freya stirred. "Nightmare?" she mumbled.
I didn't answer.
Because nightmares didn't leave marks.
By morning, Blackthorn Academy buzzed like usual, students laughed, teachers lectured, lockers slammed I looked around to Jonah's seat in homeroom and it was empty.
Why does this feels so weird, it wasn't even announced in the assembly, or an explanation about his where about, this was strange.
By second period, his name vanished from the attendance board. At the cafeteria I pushed my tray away, appetite gone. The walls felt closer today. You survived, they seemed to whisper.
I felt sick.
Then the room went cold, conversations died mid-sentence, forks paused halfway to mouths I didn't need to look up to know why.
The Head Prefect stood at the entrance of the cafeteria, black uniform perfect posture expression carved from stone his gaze swept the room once before locking onto me.
My chest tightened, he raised a hand.
"Miss Elara Vale," he said calmly. "You're required in the disciplinary hall."
A ripple of fear passed through the students.
The disciplinary hall was a myth.
"I didn't break any rules," I said, my voice barely steady.
His eyes darkened.
"That," he replied, "will be determined."
The hallway leading to the hall wasn't on any map the walls grew narrower the farther we walked lights flickered the air smelled like old metal and dust.
"Jonah is gone," I said finally. "Isn't he?"
"Yes."
The word fell flat.
"You killed him."
"No," he said. "The school did."
I stopped walking. "And you let it."
He turned slowly.
"I am not its master," he said. "I am its leash."
That didn't make me feel better.
We reached a massive iron door etched with symbols that pulsed faintly when I stepped closer they reacted to me.
The door creaked open.
Inside, the hall stretched endlessly, rows of empty desks bolted to the floor chains hung from the ceiling the walls were scratched with names—some crossed out, some carved so deep they bled rust.
My name wasn't there.
"This is where students are tested," the Head Prefect said. "Those who fail are corrected."
"What happens to those who pass?" I asked.
"They remain."
The door slammed shut behind us and the lights went out.
*A bell rang*
Pain shot through my skull as the floor beneath me shifted. The desks dissolved into shadows, replaced by a narrow bridge suspended over darkness.
Something moved below, breathing.
"Rule One," the Prefect's voice echoed. "Do not run."
The bridge shook, a shape rose from the dark—too many limbs, too many mouths, stitched together from shadows and whispers.
My legs trembled.
"Rule Two," he continued. "Do not scream."
The thing crawled closer.
"And Rule Three," he said quietly, almost regretfully.
"Do not ask for help."
It lunged I moved without thinking. The moment my foot touched the creature's shadow, the bridge burned—but it held. The thing recoiled, shrieking like metal tearing.
The hall went silent as lights flickered back on. The creature vanished.
I stood there, shaking, heart racing.
The Head Prefect stared at me....
"You didn't obey the rules," he said.
"I didn't break them," I replied hoarsely. "I adapted."
The symbols on the walls flared to life. My name had carved itself into the stone.
The Prefect took a slow step back.
"The school has accepted you," he said.
"That's not good news, is it?" I asked.
His jaw tightened.
"No," he said. "It means you're no longer just a studentChosen Prey