Blackridge Academy has rules—
not to protect students, but to keep something inside.
When quiet transfer student Arin Malhotra arrives, the school reacts to him like a body recognizing a new infection. Hallways shift when he walks. Doors open before he touches them. And at night, he hears his own voice whispering behind him… even when his mouth is closed.
The academy’s past is soaked in disappearances the staff pretends never happened.
Its rooms are filled with portraits of students who don’t exist.
And the walls sometimes breathe—slow, wet, and hungry.
Arin breaks the first rule on his first day:
Never turn around when someone calls your name in an empty hallway.
From that moment, a presence attaches itself to him.
It imitates the faces of his classmates.
It scratches messages into his desk while he sleeps.
It knocks on his door exactly three times every night… but it only wants to be let in on the fourth.
His mind begins to fracture.
He sees versions of the school where every student is dead, hanging silently from the ceiling.
He hears screams from classrooms that should be empty.
He finds pieces of clothing that still feel warm—yet no one is missing.
Blackridge Academy isn’t haunted.
It’s alive, and Arin is the first student it has chosen in years.
To survive, he must uncover why the school wants him—
and why the entity hiding behind the walls keeps whispering:
“Welcome back.”

Arin Malhotra arrived at Blackridge Academy the way most doomed people do—  


quietly, unknowingly, and carrying hope he didn't deserve.


But with a violent screech that echoed through the fog-covered courtyard like metal being torn apart.


Just the feeling that something old had just woken up to look at him.


He swallowed hard and walked through. Every crunch of gravel beneath his shoes sounded too loud, like the ground itself was listening. The fog pressed against his skin, cold and heavy, as if trying to push him back out.


The main building towered in front of him—tall, grey, and windowed like a skull with empty eye sockets. None of the lights inside were on, even though the school day had already started.


But even thinking that felt like lying.


They didn't budge at first, as if resisting him.  


The doors yanked themselves inward with such force that he stumbled forward, barely catching himself.


Not pitch black, but dim in a way that felt unnatural—like the shadows weren't caused by lack of light, but by something taking the light away.


He didn't want to see if they had shut by themselves.


His footsteps echoed far too loudly. The air smelled faintly of bleach… and something else beneath it. Something metallic. Something wrong.


Halfway down the hallway, he noticed a plaque nailed crookedly onto the wall:


1. Do not use the mirrors after 7:13 PM. 


2. Do not answer the door if someone knocks three times.  


3. Do not speak to the girl on the third floor.  


4. Never turn around if someone calls your name in an empty hallway.


The rules weren't printed. They were carved into the wood. Deep. Violent. Like someone had dragged sharpened metal through it again and again.


From the far end of the hallway, something whispered:


Never turn around if someone calls your name in an empty hallway.


The voice came again—right behind his ear this time:


He had been inside Blackridge Academy for less than five minutes—


and he had already broken the first rule.


Chapter 1 - The First Rule I Broke