Evaline:
It had been over an hour.
I had checked every corridor, every classroom, every lounge space in the South Wing which was basically an entire building reserved just for final-year students.
And yet, there was nothing.
No flicker of light under doors. No whispered voices or hurried footsteps. Not even warriors on night duty. There were just empty halls and eerie silence, the kind that clung to my skin like cold mist.
The classrooms I passed still smelled faintly of chalk and old paper, but the rest of the building felt... abandoned. Dead.
Each door I pushed open creaked just enough to make my skin crawl. The whole place reminded me more of a forgotten castle than a prestigious academy.
And now, I was trudging through the North Wing, this was a space typically buzzing with students from the second and third years. I had checked all three floors. Nothing. No signs. No students.
Just quiet.
And more darkness.
I should have turned back by now. It was nearly midnight.
