Niles had just left the infirmary, the scent of antiseptic clinging to him like a guilty thought, when he saw Alice hovering near the end of the corridor. She was pretending to examine a notice on the bulletin board, but the tension in her shoulders was a dead giveaway. She fell into step beside him as he passed.
“Is he okay?” she asked, her voice low and urgent.
“Severe strain. He’s confined for the day,” Niles reported at her ear. “He told the nurse he fell during a morning run.”
A ghost of a smile touched Alice’s lips. “That sounds like Leon.” The smile faded as quickly as it came. “Well... I heard Professor Crawford talking to another officer outside my door after he left. He didn’t believe my story about the window being stuck.”
“And what did he say?” Niles asked, feeling a knot of anxiety tightening in his stomach.
“He didn’t say anything to me,” Alice replied, she gases around the hallway. “But I heard him whispering to another officer.”
Alice mimicked the tone of Professor Crawford, ”Of course it would be that room, it is always that room.”
Her hazel eyes met Niles’, her expression grim, “Niles, I don’t think my room is a curse…it is more like a… designation…”
”What do you mean by the word ‘designation?’”
“My room, Dorm 7B… it’s in the record as a ‘solitary observation suite’. I took a quick glimpse at the floor plan Professor Crawford was holding during the inspection.”
”I believe they don’t assign students there, unless they want to test and monitor a student. Chole and I… we might be the subjects…”
She paused before continuing, “Now, Chole was already gone and I have become the long-term subject.”
The logic was chilly and scary. For Niles, it was a terrible, precise sense. It wasn't superstition; it was scientific methodology. Alice and Chole were some controlled variable in Blackwood's cruel experiment.
“We can’t meet at your room anymore,” Niles gave his conclusion, his mind already discarding her dorm room as a safe haven. “It’s a monitored node.” A new, unsettling thought occurred to him. “My room… it’s a standard double. My roommate is quiet, almost non-existent. But what about Leon’s?”
“He’s in the prefects’ wing,” Alice stated. “Single occupancy. A reward for loyalty, or…” she met his eyes, with sorrow in her eyes, “a way to isolate a potential problem where they can watch him more closely.”
The architecture of the academy itself was a tool of control, for controlling special students. Dormitory assignments weren't random; they were diagnostics.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRmENJobvxH
“We’ll find another place,” Niles said, the need for a secure, unobserved location now paramount. “Perhaps your fencing salle would do well as our safe haven.”36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9yCGKU9CRG
“Great idea.” Alice gave him a nod, and a small smile. “But for now, you need to act normal. Go back to your own room, change your clothes, and for goodness' sake, don’t be late for Professor Crawford’s literature class at ten.”
“Literature? Why does that matter?” Niles asked. In the grand scheme of near-death experiences and institutional conspiracies, a poetry lecture seemed trivial and of little importance.
“It MATTERS because Professor Crawford is one of them,” Alice insisted, her voice dropping to a whisper. “He always notices everything. Absences, tardiness, a flicker of inattention. He files reports with Professor Draven. If you’re not there, and looking perfectly ordinary, it’s just another data point against you. After this morning, we can’t afford any more data points.”
She gave him a small, firm push in the direction of the boys' dormitories. “Go. I’ll check on Leon later after my Advance Calculus class. Just… be more careful, especially around Professor Crawford and Professor Draven.”
Niles watched her hurry away, a slender figure disappearing into the shadows of the corridor. 36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd67NhvbQDS
The simple act of going to class had suddenly become a strategic maneuver. Every move was now being watched, every absence noted, every minor infraction potentially added to a ledger that determined their fate. 36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡle5ar3UUep
Alice’s room wasn't cursed by ghosts, but by design, and they were all now living under the same carefully engineered shadow. He turned and walked toward his dorm, the weight of performance settling on his shoulders. He had to be on time. He had to be normal. 36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVfIcJI2q9t
It was the most important test he would take all day.36Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBtP1IuVlj
and then Add to home screen.