The world did not end with a bang, but with the soft click of a digital lock. Professor Draven’s grip on Niles’s arm was like iron, and Professor Crawford, a silent, grim shadow leading the way. They didn't march him directly to the headmaster’s office. Instead, they guided him down a series of increasingly deserted corridors, into a part of the east wing Niles had never seen, where the electric lights gave way to flickering gas sconces.
A heavy, unmarked oak door swung open, revealing a steep staircase leading down into a damp, cold darkness. Niles was shoved forward brutally by Professor Draven, and the lock engaged behind him. The entire process was chillingly efficient. It was simply a system correcting an error.
The frantic knocking on Alice's door felt like it was part of a bad dream. Alice groaned, rolled her eyes, and pull the pillow over her head. It was 6 a.m., and the grey dawn light was just beginning to stain her window.
The knocking persisted, urgent and desperate.
“Go away!” she shouted, hiding her face under the mattress.
“Alice! It's me, Leon! Open up! Quick!”
The sheer, raw panic in his voice jolted her fully awake. She scrambled out of bed, unlocking the door to find a disheveled Leon, his face ashen, leaning heavily on his crutches. He looked like he hadn't slept for days.
“Leon, it’s 6 AM in the morning,” Alice stated, her tone grumpy.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgAnTVBpPJ
“They took him!” Leon grasped, before Alice could form another sentence. “Last night, Niles sneaked out of his room to get his data. I couldn’t stop him. Crawford and Draven. They caught us in the faculty offices. They…they took him and I had to play along.”
”Alice, I—”
”Where? Where is he?” Alice interrupted, her last vestiges of sleep instantly vanished, replaced by a cold and sharp fear inside her whole body.
She immediately pulled him inside her room, locking the door.
”Where, is, Niles?”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOjdGtuwOt
”I-I don’t know! Maybe somewhere in the east wing or the west wing?” Leon shook his head frantically, losing his usual calm and coolness. “Maybe a basement, I guess? I couldn’t follow.”
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Niles’ absence was a silent alarm that rang through their entire school day.
During Literature class, Alice’s gaze kept drifting to his empty seat. She also noticed how Professor Crawford’s eyes had lingered on the vacant seat for a very long time. Whenever he looked at the vacant seat, a satisfied smirk always appeared on his face.
“Disgusting…” Alice screamed inside her mind, while praying sincerely for her friend’s safety.
During Mathematics class, Leon watched the door, his knuckles turned white. Professor Draven was writing complex formulas on the blackboard, teaching advanced algebra as usual. He made no comment. It was as if a student named Niles Fulgencio had never existed at this academy.
”Niles…what have they done to you…”Leon sighed, while trying to concentrate on the numbers, but failed eventually.
The two found each other after their last class, their meeting in the fencing salle was a pantomime of casualness that felt hollow.
“Leon, did you check the detention hall?”
”He’s not in detention hall, not even in standard detention cells.” Leon murmured, pressing his voice low. “I’ve used my prefect assess to check the log. No, our genius isn’t there.”
”He is not in the infirmary, either,” Alice added, her tone becoming more serious and her mind was racing. ”They wouldn't just put Niles with other normal students, not after what he did. They would lock him in somewhere no one would think to look.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSu0cWG3P0n
”Somewhere...silent.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dcjYnahtY
”The old sub-basements,” Leon said, his eyes darkened with the memory of his brother's journal. ”Lance mentioned them in his journal. He said that once. He believed those silent rooms are used to put something—or someone—they wish to forget or... erase.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIjZu5H2iwL
”Wait! Are they trying to erase Niles?” Alice whispered, her eyes widened and her face extremely pale, covered by the horror of Niles' possible death.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKhnCSpkf5
”It could be worse,” Leon replied, his knuckles turned white. His blue eyes met Alice's ones, his gaze fury and determined. ”We have no time to waste now!”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo77A6v6jpq
The performance of normalcy was over. The system had acted, and their friend was gone.
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They waited in the salle until the halls grew quiet. Then, moving like two hidden ghosts, they began their desperate search, avoiding the main administrative wing. They focused on the forgotten places: the disused passages in the oldest towers of the east wing, the corridors blocked by ”RENOVATION” sign.
It was behind a faded tapestry in a dead-end corridor that Alice found it. Her fingers, which were sensitive to the slightest vibration, felt a draft of cold and stale air.
She pulled the tapestry aside. there was no door, but just a modern, keycard scanner mounted directly onto the ancient wall, its red light beaming like a malevolent eye in the gloom.
It was a digital lock on a secret, that looked like it predated electricity.
”This is it,” Leon whispered, his finger pointing at the door. ”This must be the containment area.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoKP1YtpwZS
Alice placed her palm flat on the cold and firm door beside the scanner. She closed her eyes, her breathing slowing. ”The air is dead here.” She slowly opened her eyes, removed her palm, a haunted certainty in her eyes. ”Niles' down there. I can feel it.”
”Niles, are you there? It's us, Leon and Alice,” Leon knocked the door slightly.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNJe8UcBPOy
There was no response.
The red light on the scanner stared back, hinting them it was an impassable barrier. They had found the lock, but not the key.
They stood there in the dark, the silence of the corridor pressing in, and the fate of their prodigy friend resting on the other side of a wall they could not open.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpB677NtI9L
and then Add to home screen.