The silence in the room was heavy, pierced only by the shallow, uneven breathing of those present. Harumi’s voice wavered when he broke it, “Where were you guys anyway?” He cast a wary glance at Shane and Himura, their soaked hair clinging to their foreheads. The boys exchanged a look, exhaustion etching deep lines across their faces. Shane exhaled, his breath shuddering as if trying to expel the memory.

“When Senior Subaru called us, we ran to the main entrance of the dorm,” Shane began, voice straining under the weight of recollection. “But the door wouldn’t budge. We pounded on it, tried to force it open, even threw ourselves against it until our shoulders bruised.” He paused, glancing down at the purpling skin peeking out from under his torn sleeve. Himura winced, recalling the dull, sickening thuds. “We looked for something—anything—to break it open. That’s when we heard the click, and suddenly, the door swung open on its own.”

A wave of unease swept through the group, palpable and electric. Subaru’s eyes narrowed as he turned to Ray. “Then how did you get in, Ray?” he asked, his voice low and tight.

Ray’s brows furrowed as he processed Shane’s words. He seemed haunted, like someone who had peered over the edge of something deep and dark. “I came here to tell you about the teacher… but I didn’t see them at the door. The door was already open when I arrived, wide open.”

A chill scuttled down their spines, leaving goosebumps in its wake. No one doubted the truth in their voices, and that only made the moment more terrifying. The implication clawed at their minds: the spirits, the unseen forces that had them dancing on strings, manipulating their senses, pushing them into corners. Paranoia tightened its grip, making them doubt even the solidity of the ground beneath their feet.

Rester’s gaze found Alvia again, his eyes now hollow wells of desperation. He whispered, a voice choked by his plea, “The book, Alvia… we need it.”

She nodded, a stiff, mechanical motion, and turned her eyes to Emo. Emo’s stare was vacant yet simmering with suppressed frenzy. “The book is in the orphanage,” Alvia muttered, her voice brittle as frost cracking underfoot.

An unspoken agreement passed between them like a jolt of shared adrenaline. Without wasting another breath, Alvia bolted for the door, the others following on instinct, legs moving before thoughts could catch up. The hallways blurred past them, dim, yawning mouths that seemed to stretch and shift as they sprinted. Himura and Shane fell into pace at the rear, glancing at each other in confusion but knowing they couldn’t afford to stop now. Whatever this madness was, they had to stay close.

Erano’s voice, raw and urgent, echoed as they ran. “How long has it been since anyone left the school grounds after being promoted to ninth grade?” Her question hung in the air, heavy as lead. The silence that followed was suffocating. No one answered because the truth was stark and immutable: none of them had left. Not once. The realization lashed through them like an icy whip. Even though Alvia, Rester, and Jetto had once left for the orphanage, that trip felt insignificant now, a fragile tether easily broken.

Rain began to spit at them through shattered windows and crumbling walls as they neared the ground floor. It dripped like venom from the sky, a warning of the tempest to come. The patter on the roof escalated, transforming into a roar as the downpour swelled, drowning out their ragged breathing and pounding footsteps.

They burst through the doors of the dorm building into the open, the cold rain slamming into them like a wall. It soaked them in seconds, plastering hair to faces, sending shivers that rattled their bones. The muddy earth squelched underfoot, trying to suck them down with each step as they pushed on toward the main building. The basketball court stood eerily empty, a skeletal ghost under the sheets of rain.

“Get inside!” Subaru shouted over the wind that howled like a banshee. They stumbled into the main building, collapsing against the walls, gasping for breath. Water pooled around their feet, and the chill seeped into their marrow.

“Oh my god,” Elicy whispered, wrapping her arms around herself as if to hold the trembling at bay. “It’s raining so heavily…”

Iwaisimi’s eyes, shadowed with dread, fixed on the storm outside. “It won’t stop. They’re trying to trap us here. Keep us from leaving.”

Sean pushed his drenched hair back, his eyes narrow slits against the rain that still lashed in through the broken windows. “We can’t let them stop us. Let’s go.”

Their feet pounded against the wet tiles as they ran again, sloshing through corridors that reeked of mildew and something far more sinister. The rain pelted them without mercy when they emerged back into the open, running across the slick, muddy ground toward the school gates. Each step threatened to send them sprawling, but they pressed on, driven by a force they couldn’t name but dared not defy.

The gates were in sight, their iron bars towering like skeletal sentinels waiting to embrace the desperate group. Hearts thundered in chests, breaths coming in sharp, ragged bursts as they pushed their limbs beyond exhaustion. Rain lashed against their faces, cold and punishing, mingling with the sweat and fear that drenched their skin. In a burst of sheer will, they surged forward, slipping through the gates as if chased by death itself.

They stumbled to a halt, gasping for air, muscles quivering as adrenaline coursed through their veins. For a brief moment, hope flared in their chests. They had made it out. They were alive. But as they turned to look back, their blood ran cold.

Beyond the iron bars, a sea of faces pressed close, their hollow eyes like black holes in pallid faces. The student spirits grinned, mouths stretching wide with impossible, jagged teeth as dark as the abyss. It was a smile not of joy but of mockery, a silent promise of doom.

Katsuki’s foot caught on the uneven ground, and he went down hard, skidding across the slick, rain-slicked road. The thud of his body hitting the ground jolted the others, their eyes snapping to him.

“Get up quickly!” Asahi shouted, her voice breaking, every second stretching into an eternity. Katsuki's eyes, wide with panic, met hers, and he nodded, scrambling to push himself off the ground.

Then it happened—a blinding flash that seared the night apart. The world exploded in white-hot light, followed by the deafening blast of a horn. The noise was so sudden, so violent, that it drilled into their skulls, making them flinch and clutch at their ears. Zen moved instinctively, pulling Asahi aside, the two staggering away from the road’s center.

Asahi’s heart thumped erratically as the light receded, leaving behind the hollow roar of silence and the patter of rain. She blinked, vision swimming, before focusing on the spot where Katsuki had fallen. Relief threatened to surface, but it was crushed as soon as she opened her mouth.

“Katsuki, let’s go—” The words died on her lips as her gaze locked on the scene before her. Katsuki lay motionless, his body twisted in a grotesque tableau of flesh and broken bone. His back was flattened, crushed with tire marks that carved a brutal, dark path through his spine, the imprint soaked in blood that seeped into the cracks of the road and mingled with the rain. His eyes stared wide and empty, mouth frozen in a silent scream that would never sound.

Asahi’s stomach clenched, bile rising as her knees buckled. A breath, sharp and suffocating, stuck in her chest. Then, with a scraping hiss, the spirits began to move. They surged forward, translucent forms slithering through the iron bars like living shadows. Their hands, skeletal and rotting, reached out, fingers clawing at the lifeless body. One by one, they piled onto Katsuki, limbs scrabbling, pale hands disappearing beneath the weight of more. His body was lost beneath the mass, pulled into the darkness beyond the gates.

A harsh, metallic clang rang out as the gates slammed shut, sealing them away.

Asahi’s scream tore from her throat, raw and fractured, her hands flying to her ears to block out the horrid echo. Tears streamed unchecked down her cheeks, warm rivers cutting through the cold rain. The world around her dissolved into a blur of shadow and rain, the relentless cacophony of grief and terror filling the void.