The sun had started its slow descent, casting an eerie orange glow through the dust-covered windows of Shady High.

The empty halls felt heavier than usual, like something unseen was pressing down on them.

It wasn’t anything new, but after everything that had happened, the group couldn’t ignore the feeling anymore.

Sen, Hakari, Luke, and Yen walked in a loose group, their footsteps echoing loudly.

“I feel like we should’ve seen more ghosts by now,” Yen mumbled, hugging his arms.

His voice was quiet, like he was worried about waking something up.

Luke sighed. “We’re not going to find anything by actively looking for them.”

Sen nodded in agreement. “Yeah. It’s like, how you can’t fall asleep if you think about falling asleep. Ghosts don’t show up just because we want them to.”

Hakari kicked at a loose tile on the floor. “Well, that’s frustrating. What are we supposed to do, ignore them until they decide to get in our faces?”

“Basically,” Sen said.

Hakari groaned. “Great. Love that.”

Luke cut in before the conversation could spiral. “For now, let’s focus on something concrete. We need to find more proof of what Shady High was doing before it shut down.”

Sen snapped his fingers. “Got it—let’s break into the janitor’s closet.”

Yen blinked. “...Why?”

“Because,” Sen said, throwing an arm around Luke’s shoulders, “in every mystery, the real secrets are always in the places nobody cares about.”

Luke stared at him. “That is not a real theory.”

Hakari ignored them both and tested the janitor’s closet door handle. “Locked.”

“Guess that means it’s important,” Sen said with a grin.

“Or,” Luke muttered, “it means they didn’t want kids stealing cleaning supplies.”

Hakari ignored him. “Alright, we break it down.”

Luke sighed, but he didn’t bother stopping them.

Hakari took a deep breath and kicked the door. It barely rattled.

Sen held back a laugh. “Impressive.”

“Shut up and help me.”

Sen and Hakari threw themselves against the door at the same time.

On the third attempt, there was a loud crack, and the door swung open so suddenly that Sen nearly tripped inside.

“See?” he said, brushing himself off. “Teamwork.”

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose.

Yen just whispered, “We are so getting haunted for this.”

The janitor’s closet was even more cramped than they expected. Old cleaning supplies, rusted mops, and dust-coated stacks of papers filled the space.

The air was stale, heavy with the smell of expired bleach.

“This place smells haunted,” Hakari muttered.

Luke ignored her and got to work, flipping through old documents on a metal shelf. “Look for anything out of place.”

Yen hesitated at the doorway. “Uh, does ‘out of place’ include weird ghost energy? Because this place is giving weird ghost energy.”

Sen dug through a pile of old invoices. “Ghosts don’t leave behind paperwork.”

He paused. “Probably.”

“I hope not,” Hakari mumbled. “Imagine getting haunted by office supplies.”

Luke suddenly stopped flipping through the documents. His eyes narrowed. “Eidolon Technologies.”

That got their attention.

Yen stepped inside despite himself, standing on his toes to peer over his brother’s shoulder. “That sounds… important?”

“It is,” Luke said, scanning the papers. “They weren’t just funding the school. They were shipping equipment here. Specialized materials.”

Hakari frowned. “You think they were building the Dreamland Devices here?”

“Looks like it,” Luke confirmed. “The dates match up.”

Sen whistled. “So, Shady High wasn’t just a test site. It was a full-on factory.”

“And it wasn’t just Eidolon Technologies,” Luke added.

He pulled out another official-looking document and tapped the logo in the corner. “Daedalus Industries was in on it, too.”

The room went silent.

“So, two creepy corporations were throwing money at a random high school,” Hakari said finally. “Totally normal. Definitely nothing weird going on there.”

Sen flipped through another stack of papers and let out a dry chuckle. “So, evil corporations fund high schools. Good to know.”

Luke shot him a look. “This isn’t funny.”

“No, but it is messed up.” Sen admitted.

Yen shifted uncomfortably. “So, what do we do with this?”

Luke stuffed the papers into his bag. “I’m going to cross-reference this with the supercomputer data.”

“See?” Sen said, nudging Yen. “That’s what we do. We let Luke do his nerd thing.”

Yen still looked uneasy, glancing back at the closet. “I dunno. I feel like we’re gonna regret this.”

Hakari stretched. “Yeah, well, what’s new?”

As they left the closet behind, the weight of what they’d found settled over them.

Shady High had been part of something bigger—something that connected directly to the Dreamland Devices and the Project Eidolon disaster.

And they still didn’t know the full extent of it.

Sen stretched his arms behind his head. “So, we definitely pissed off some ghosts today, right?”

Hakari shrugged. “Eh. If they wanted us gone, they’d do more than just give Yen the creeps.”

“Hey,” Yen said, “it’s called being cautious.”

Sen grinned. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Luke ignored them, already lost in thought.

They had more questions than answers. And whether or not they were ready for them, the answers were coming.

Later that night, the four of them gathered in Luke and Yen’s small apartment—a stark contrast to the eerie halls of Shady High.

The room was cluttered but cozy, filled with stacks of books, scattered papers, and an old laptop that hummed softly as Luke typed.

Sen and Hakari had already claimed the couch. Yen sat cross-legged on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees, watching the screen intently.

“Alright,” Luke said, adjusting his glasses. “Let’s see if these janitor’s closet documents match anything we pulled from the supercomputer.”

The screen flickered as he sifted through corrupted files and fragments of hidden logs, carefully piecing them together like a puzzle.

Luke’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “So far, we already knew Shady High was getting funding from Daedalus and Eidolon, but this makes it clear they weren’t just sponsoring the school. They were using it.”

Hakari leaned over. “Using it how?”

Luke glanced at the documents. “There were bulk shipments of materials that shouldn’t have been necessary for a school—specialized wiring, frequency modulators, power regulators…”

He frowned, adjusting his glasses. “This wasn’t just about education. This was about construction.”

Sen sat up. “So they were making Dreamland Devices in the school?”

“Most likely,” Luke confirmed. “At least, in part. The devices were never meant for mass production, but they were definitely experimenting with them on-site.”

Yen hesitated. “But why at a high school? Wouldn’t a lab be better?”

Luke clicked on another decrypted file. The screen filled with scattered documents, reports, and case studies.

He skimmed them, eyes narrowing. “They weren’t just building them. They were testing them,” he muttered. “And they needed subjects who wouldn’t question it.”

Hakari tensed. “Students.”

Luke nodded grimly. “Students.”

Silence fell over the room.

Sen broke the tension with a dry chuckle. “Y’know, I was kind of kidding about the evil corporation thing. But now?” He exhaled. “Yeah, no. Evil corporation.”

Yen shifted uncomfortably. “Do you think that’s why so many students, y’know, lost it?”

Luke didn’t answer immediately. “Some people resisted the hypnosis. Some had mental breakdowns. But if this was all happening inside the school, then, yeah. That would explain a lot.”

Hakari leaned back against the couch, staring at the ceiling. “Man. Ghosts, brainwashing, a literal conspiracy, we are in so deep.”

Luke sighed, leaning his head on his hand. “And we still don’t have the full picture.”

Sen smirked. “Well, you know what that means.”

Hakari groaned. “More breaking into places?”

“More breaking into places.” He said confidently.

Luke rubbed his temples. “I’m going to regret being friends with you.”

Sen beamed. “We’re friends! You said it, not me.”

Yen let out a nervous laugh. “So, do we sleep after this, or…?”

“Nah, my mom doesn’t want me sleeping over. But I can give you this!” Hakari threw a pillow at him.

“Hey!” Yen threw it back, but Hakari was already out of the door.

Sen giggled. “Well, hey, for what it’s worth, I can sleep over.”

Luke shut the computer. “No way, get out.”

“Aw.”

With that, Sen walked home.