By lunchtime, the missing bell had become school gossip.
Some students said it was a prank. Others blamed construction. A few seniors joked that Ashford High was finally falling apart for real. Lena didn't say anything. She just listened, replaying the image of the black feather over and over in her mind.
Feathers didn't just appear.
She reached her locker, twisted the combination, and pulled the door open.
Then she froze.
Scratched across the inside of the metal door were symbols—thin, jagged lines carved deep enough to shine silver under the hallway lights. They weren't random. They curved and twisted in sharp angles, like writing that refused to be read.
Lena's stomach dropped.
"What the heck is that?" her friend Maya asked, leaning over.
"I—I don't know," Lena said, stepping back.
Maya squinted. "Looks fake. Like someone vandalized it."
But Lena knew better.
The symbols felt… wrong. Her head started to ache the longer she stared at them, a dull pressure behind her eyes, like something was pushing from the inside. She slammed the locker shut.
"I'll tell a teacher," Maya said quickly.
"Don't," Lena said. The word came out sharper than she meant. "Please. Just—don't."
Maya hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. But we're not ignoring this."
Too late.
Classes dragged. Every ticking second felt louder than the last. Lena couldn't focus—not on the board, not on her notes. The symbols kept flashing in her mind, as if burned there.
When the final bell should have rung, silence filled the room again.
That's when Lena saw him.
He was sitting two rows ahead in English, hood pulled low, scribbling in a notebook that definitely wasn't school-issued. She hadn't noticed him before, but now it was impossible not to. He turned slightly, and for half a second, their eyes met.
Gray. Sharp. Knowing.
He looked… unsurprised.
After class, Lena caught up to him in the hallway.
"Hey," she said. "You're new, right?"
He paused. "Theo."
"That's not what I asked."
A corner of his mouth twitched. "Yes. I'm new."
She hesitated. "Did you see anything weird today? With the bell?"
Theo studied her, then glanced toward her locker—the exact one she'd just walked past.
"Yes," he said quietly. "I did."
Her pulse spiked. "What do you know?"
He leaned in just enough to lower his voice. "You should erase the symbols. Before nightfall."
Lena's throat went dry. "Erase what symbols?"
Theo straightened. "See you tomorrow, Lena."
Her blood turned cold.
She hadn't told him her name.
That evening, as the sun dipped and shadows stretched across Ashford High, Lena returned to her locker alone. Her hands trembled as she opened it.
The symbols were still there.
But now, they were glowing faintly.
And beneath them, written in a language she somehow understood, were three words:
YOU WOKE IT UP.