The darkness didn't lift.
Not after five seconds.
Not after ten.
It stayed.
Heavy.
Alive.
Mia couldn't see her own hands.
But she could hear breathing.
Two breaths.
One shaky.
One calm.
Too calm.
"Lila?" Mia whispered.
Silence.
Then—
"I'm still here."
The voice came from somewhere to her left.
But it wasn't right.
It echoed.
Like it wasn't fully inside the room.
Mia slowly backed up until her shoulders hit the wall.
Her fingers brushed something cold.
Wet.
She froze.
Water?
No.
It wasn't dripping.
It was spreading.
Her socks soaked instantly.
"What is this?" she gasped.
The air smelled damp now. Like a basement. Like something left too long in the dark.
The floor shifted under her feet.
No.
It wasn't shifting.
It was filling.
Water crept across the room.
Rising.
"How is this possible?" Mia whispered.
They were on the third floor.
Dorm rooms didn't flood from the inside.
A sudden splash.
Lila moved.
Or something moved where Lila stood.
"Mia," the layered voice returned, softer now. "You weren't supposed to answer the knocking."
The water reached Mia's ankles.
Cold.
Freezing.
Her teeth began to chatter.
"I didn't do anything!" Mia cried.
"You did," the voice replied gently. "You woke her."
The walls creaked.
The room felt bigger now.
Wider.
As if it wasn't a dorm anymore.
Mia squinted into the darkness.
And then she saw it.
Not with her eyes.
But reflected in the water.
Room 213.
The number glowed faintly above a door that wasn't there before.
It stood in the middle of her room.
Half submerged.
The handle slowly turning.
"No," Mia breathed.
The door opened.
Water rushed out from inside it, rising to her knees.
And through the doorway—
A hallway.
Gray.
Endless.
The same one from her nightmares.
Mia's chest tightened.
"You know this place," the voice said.
"I've never been there!"
"Yes," Lila answered. "But she has."
The water reached Mia's waist.
Her phone buzzed again, somehow still alive.
Floating beside her.
She grabbed it.
One new message.
Unknown Number.
A single image.
An old photograph.
Four students standing in front of Room 213.
Mia stared at it.
Her blood ran cold.
One of the girls—
Looked exactly like her.
Same eyes.
Same scar above the eyebrow.
Same face.
But the timestamp on the photo read:
Three years ago.
Before Mia ever transferred to this school.
The water rose to her chest.
"I don't understand!" she screamed.
The door in front of her creaked wider.
From inside the gray hallway, a figure stepped forward.
Long black hair.
Head tilted.
"You promised," it whispered.
Behind Mia, something grabbed her wrist.
Ice-cold fingers.
She turned—
Lila stood there.
But her eyes were completely black now.
"You have to remember," Lila said.
The water suddenly stopped rising.
Everything went still.
And then—
It began draining.
Fast.
Violently.
Pulling Mia toward the open doorway.
She clawed at the floor.
"Help me!" she screamed.
Lila didn't move.
She just watched.
The last thing Mia saw before being dragged across the threshold—
Was the number on the door changing.
From 213…
To 214.
Silence returned.
The dorm hallway outside was normal again.
Lights on.
Dry floors.
Students sleeping peacefully.
But inside Room 214—
There was no Mia.
Only a faint puddle of water.
And on the desk—
A thin, old album no one had seen before.
With a name written across the cover in faded ink:
CHARLIE.