A new physics teacher arrives at Antoni Gwoździec Secondary School, and Kuba and Zośka are dragged into a chain of strange, funny, and unsettling events.
When Kuba walked into 2B at Antoni Gwoździec Secondary School, he had the distinct feeling that something was about to go very wrong. Not because it was Wednesday, and Wednesdays were already suspicious enough, but because the entire school had been buzzing about the same thing since the morning bell: the new physics teacher, Professor Flejser.
According to the rumours, Flejser had come from a school that no one could find on any map, in any archive, or on the internet, which in itself was almost impressive. People said he could build a motor from a biscuit tin and two pencils. Others swore he once turned a classroom kettle into a smoke machine. Kuba believed exactly none of it, which was why Zośka, already seated by the window and doomscrolling memes about catastrophic lab experiments, looked up at him with that expression that meant she absolutely believed all of it.
Do you think it’s true about the school that doesn’t exist? - she whispered.
I think people in this school would invent a haunted sandwich if it got them attention, - Kuba muttered, dropping into the seat beside her.
Zośka snorted, then shoved her phone under the desk just as the door opened.
First came the smell of something herbal and aggressively medicinal. Then a pair of checked trousers. Then Professor Flejser himself, carrying under one arm what looked like a 1980s computer held together with string, tape, and pure spite.
He stopped at the front of the room and smiled as if he had just walked into a laboratory, a circus, and a court hearing all at once.
The class went silent.
Kuba opened his mouth, then closed it again. Zośka had already taken out a pen, though she looked less ready to take notes and more like she was preparing a witness statement.
Before anyone could answer, the speaker in the ceiling crackled to life.
The room turned to stare at them.
Kuba had done nothing. Zośka had done even less. Which, in their school, was usually the most dangerous position to be in.
As they stood up, Professor Flejser’s eyes flicked toward them. His smile widened, slow and oddly pleased.
Kuba and Zośka exchanged a look, half annoyed and half alarmed, and headed for the door. They had barely reached the stairwell when a metallic clatter echoed from the library below, followed by a whisper so clear it raised the hairs on Kuba’s neck.
Zośka stopped. Kuba did too.
The library door, which had definitely been closed a second ago, now stood half-open, spilling out a cold blue light that made the corridor look underwater. Inside, shadows shifted in ways that made no sense at all.
Zośka looked at Kuba.
Kuba swallowed.
They stepped towards the open door, and the whisper came again, closer this time, from somewhere just beyond the darkness.