The final week at Distillery High School is supposed to be about exams, plans, and goodbye parties, but Magda, Michal, and Dawid are drawn into a strange message that points them toward the abandoned gym at midnight.
June light slanted through the dusty windows of Distillery High School in Old Chojny, turning the corridors pale and hazy. The building was louder than usual, but not with lessons. Students were drifting in loose clusters, talking over each other about graduation, summer plans, and the small scandals that made school feel almost bearable in the last week.
Magda, Michal, and Dawid had stopped beneath the notice board, where a fresh poster announced the Last Bell Night in bold black letters. Magda tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear and studied the teachers moving past them with the tired, guarded faces of people counting down the hours.
"Think it’ll be worth showing up this year?" she asked.
Michal gave a crooked smile. "If it’s half as chaotic as last year, definitely. Remember the Bluetooth speaker in the chemistry office? The principal nearly detonated on the spot."
Dawid did not laugh. He was staring at his phone as if it had personally offended him.
"I got a message this morning," he said at last. "From a number I don’t know. It said: Come to the old gym at midnight. You’ll see something you won’t forget."
The corridor noise seemed to thin around them. Magda frowned. "And you’re just telling us now?"
"I wasn’t sure what to make of it."
Michal folded his arms, but his voice lost some of its ease. The old gym had been shut for two years, ever since the roof repairs started and never quite finished. That had not stopped the rumours. Flags disappearing. Lockers found open. Books nobody remembered carrying turning up in the middle of the court like they had been dropped there by a ghost with a grudge.
By the time the final bell rang, none of them could think about anything else. They agreed to meet after dark and went their separate ways, each pretending the message was probably a joke.
At midnight, the side door of the gym gave under Dawid’s shoulder with a sharp, complaining creak. Inside, the air was cold, stale, and thick with dust and old timber. A bluish streetlamp leaked through a cracked pane high above the court, barely enough to outline a figure waiting in the centre of the hall.
She wore a black cloak that swallowed the light around her. In one hand she held a translucent envelope. In the other, a small silver key.
She looked straight at them and raised the envelope.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
Behind them, the door slammed shut.