Lena, Adam, and Maks find a hidden map in their boarding school room, and it points to a place that should not exist. Then someone knocks on their door.
The boarding school always felt a little off after dark, as if the walls were listening. On that evening, though, Lena, Adam, and Maks sensed something sharper than the usual unease. The wind worried at the curtains in room 312 while Lena dropped a book, and a yellowed page slipped from its pages to the floor.
At first it looked like a floor plan of the school. Then Lena bent closer and noticed the differences: hallways that did not match the real building, a staircase that stopped at a blank wall, and one thin line running from their room to a place marked only with a strange label: the Missing Drawer.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Maks asked, crouching beside her.
Adam stared at the paper, his face draining of colour. "We don't even have a drawer like that," he said, though he was already searching for the torch on his phone.
They checked under the beds, behind the wardrobe, even along the skirting boards, while the old clock on the wall ticked toward 22:13. The corridor outside had gone quiet. No footsteps. No laughter. Only the soft hiss of the wind outside the window.
Then Lena noticed it: a narrow gap beneath the heavy chest of drawers by the far wall. She knelt, slipped her fingers into the seam, and found a shallow drawer hidden so neatly in the wood that it looked like part of the furniture. Her pulse thudded in her ears as she pulled.
The drawer gave a long, reluctant squeak.
Inside, buried under dust, lay a small silver key and another map, folded so tightly its edges had cracked. This one led somewhere none of them recognised. On the back, in a sharp, slanted hand, were seven words: When the clock strikes thirteen, follow the pointer.
The wind slammed against the window hard enough to rattle the glass. Adam opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, there came a quiet knock at the door of room 312.