Lena yanked Dre back from the open door. "Did you see her eyes?"
"I saw something," he said, voice shaky. "That wasn't... that wasn't normal."
Kai stepped closer to the classroom, cautiously peeking through the window in the door.
Ms. Crayle was gone. The classroom was empty. Chairs neatly pushed in. Chalk still hanging on the edge of the board.
"She was just there," Lena whispered.
"Okay. Screw this," Dre said. "We're leaving."
They turned around—and stopped.
A student stood at the end of the hallway.
Not moving. Not blinking.
His clothes were soaked as if he'd been standing in the rain for hours. His mouth was open just slightly, lips parted, like he wanted to speak but forgot how.
"Kai," Lena said. "Do you know him?"
Kai shook his head. "I've never seen him before."
Then the boy's eyes rolled upward. Just for a second. White. Then black.
He sprinted at them.
No sound. No scream. Just feet slamming into the tile floor like thunder.
"RUN!" Dre yelled.
They bolted down the hallway, turning a corner, nearly slipping on the wet floor. Behind them, nothing. No sound. No footsteps.
They stopped near the gym doors, panting.
But Kai wasn't with them.
Lena's heart dropped. "Where's Kai?"
---
Cut to: Kai — Alone
He had turned the wrong way.
"Guys?" he called out.
Silence answered.
Then came a creaking sound. Slow. Deliberate.
Kai turned toward the lockers—and one of them was open. Not wide. Just enough to see a single, black eye staring through the gap.
Then it whispered:
> "You were never meant to wake up."
Kai backed away, but something grabbed his wrist.
He screamed.