Victoria stays behind after lessons and follows a rumour into the school’s deserted corridors, where the silence feels watchful and something in the darkness seems to know her name.
By the time the last bell faded, the school had changed its face. The noise, the shoving, the slammed lockers - all of it was gone, swallowed by a silence so complete it made the corridors feel abandoned rather than empty. Victoria moved along the wall, keeping her steps light, as if the building might notice her and decide to expose her to the caretaker.
She knew she should have gone home with everyone else. Instead, she stayed because the rumours had been growing all week, feeding on themselves. A girl crying under the stairs. A light blinking in the locked biology room. A shadow seen twice where no one stood. Victoria did not believe in ghosts, but she did believe in the way her stomach tightened every time she passed the old classroom at the end of the hall, as if the place itself was holding its breath.
The air smelled of chalk dust and wet coats. Her fingers were damp around the strap of her rucksack as she reached the staircase. Her own footsteps came back to her in a thin, hollow echo. Then another sound slipped through the silence - a soft laugh, brief and close, as if someone had leaned in from just around the corner and covered their mouth.
Victoria froze.
The laugh came again, quieter this time, followed by a whisper that seemed to drift from the old cloakroom opposite her. Don't be afraid.
The door was barely open. A pale strip of light spilled onto the floor beneath it, too weak to be from the corridor bulbs. Victoria stared at the crack, feeling the cold settle under her skin, and every instinct told her to turn around. Instead, she reached for the handle and pulled the door wider. The room was dark except for the trembling glow in the back corner, and from somewhere inside, something shifted - as if it had been waiting for her all along.