The air inside Shady High felt heavier today. The usual dusty, abandoned scent of the school was the same, but there was something different about it now—something that made the silence feel thicker. As if the walls themselves were listening.

Luke sat at one of the desks in their usual meeting spot, his laptop balanced on his knees. The others were gathered around him, waiting for him to explain what little he had pieced together from the files they had uncovered yesterday.

"So," Sen said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. "You gonna tell us what the hell all that was? Because I don’t know about you, but ‘behavioral conditioning experiments’ and ‘Project Eidolon’ sound like the exact kind of crap that ends in brainwashing and government cover-ups."

Luke sighed, adjusting his glasses. "I don’t know much yet. Most of the data was wiped or encrypted beyond what I can crack. But what I do know is that Project Eidolon wasn’t just some virtual reality experiment. Those students we saw? They weren’t playing a game. They were being trained for something."

Hakari leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. "Trained for what?"

Luke hesitated. "The files suggest it had something to do with modifying behavior. Some kind of mental reprogramming. The phrases they were repeating—’Listen, Obey, Repeat, Eternal’—they weren’t random."

"Brainwashing," Sen said flatly. "Told you. Government cover-ups."

Luke ignored him, scrolling through his laptop. "The thing is, if this was just some shady experiment, why erase everything? Why abandon the school completely? There had to be more going on."

Hakari frowned. "And that’s why we’re about to do some good old-fashioned trespassing?"

"Exactly," Luke said.

"Love that for us," Sen said, stretching. "So, what’s the plan? Where do we even start?"

Yen, who had been quiet up until now, spoke softly. "If it was an official experiment, the teachers had to know something… right?"

They all exchanged looks.

"Faculty records," Luke said. "If there are any old files left behind, they’d be in a staff-only area."

Hakari groaned. "Ugh. That means the teacher’s lounge or one of the offices."

Sen stood up, already grinning. "Then let’s get to snooping."

The halls of Shady High had long since fallen into disrepair, but the faculty wing still had an eerie sense of authority to it. The doors bore nameplates of teachers who had left in a hurry, their rooms frozen in time, half-graded papers, dusty coffee mugs, and sticky notes reminding them of meetings that would never happen.

It was too quiet.

Luke led the way, glancing occasionally at his phone, where he had saved a rough map of the school’s layout. They reached a hallway where most of the teachers’ offices were located. Some doors were unlocked, revealing messy but ultimately harmless interiors. But then, they found it. A faculty room door, locked.

Sen jiggled the handle. "Well, that’s suspicious."

Luke stepped forward, pressing a hand against the door as if trying to sense what was inside. "Why would this one be locked when everything else was left open?"

"Maybe because it has answers," Hakari said.

Yen hovered slightly behind them, his fingers curling into his sleeves. "Do you think… we could get in?"

Sen cracked his knuckles. "I mean, we could break the lock. But that seems like a one-way ticket to bad karma."

Hakari rolled her eyes. "Since when do you care about karma?"

"Since we started messing with creepy brainwashing projects in an abandoned school," Sen shot back.

Luke ignored them, inspecting the lock itself. "We need a key. And if it wasn’t taken when everyone left, it’s probably in the main office."

Hakari huffed. "Great. More sneaking around."

Luke gave her a flat look. "What did you think investigating a mystery was gonna be?"

"I dunno. Less ‘breaking and entering’ and more ‘cool detective work.’"

Sen snorted. "This is cool detective work."

"Not when it’s boring," Hakari muttered.

Luke ignored her and turned back toward the hallway. "Let’s check the office."

But as they started walking, Hakari suddenly stopped.

A sound. Footsteps. Behind them.

She turned sharply, expecting to see someone, one of the boys messing with her, or worse, someone else who wasn’t supposed to be here. But, nothing.

The hallway was empty. A slow chill crawled up her spine.

"...Did you guys hear that?" she asked.

Sen raised an eyebrow. "Hear what?"

Hakari’s eyes darted back down the hall. She could have sworn, she knew, that she had heard someone walking behind them. But now there was only silence.

Yen tilted his head slightly, watching her. "...You okay?"

Hakari forced a grin, waving a hand. "Yeah, yeah. Just… I dunno. Thought I heard something."

Sen snorted. "You’re just getting paranoid. School’s messing with your head."

Hakari didn’t argue, but as they continued walking, she couldn’t shake the feeling. And just as they rounded the corner, she swore she heard it again. Footsteps. Faint. Slow. Following them.

Hakari clenched her fists as they pressed forward, willing herself to ignore the sound. If she kept acknowledging it, she’d only freak herself out more. Maybe it was just the school settling, or maybe, like Sen said, she was being paranoid.

Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

Luke led them to the main office, the door already ajar, hanging slightly off its hinges like someone had forced it open in a hurry. The office itself was a mess, filing cabinets left open, papers strewn across the floor, chairs toppled over. It was as if someone had been looking for something before them.

"...Okay, not creepy at all," Sen muttered, stepping over a pile of crumpled memos.

Luke adjusted his glasses and scanned the room. "If the key is here, it’s probably in one of the drawers. Or a storage cabinet."

They split up to search. Hakari rifled through the desk drawers, pulling out expired hall passes, old disciplinary reports, and a stapler jammed with gum. Gross. Sen, on the other hand, had already given up on actually searching and was spinning around in a rolling chair, per usual."What if the key isn’t here?" he asked lazily, pushing himself off a desk with his foot.

"Then we’re out of luck," Luke said without looking up.

"Or we break the door down," Sen suggested.

Hakari tossed a crumpled-up paper at his head. "You just said breaking the lock was bad karma, dumbass."

"Yeah, well, I changed my mind," Sen said, rubbing the back of his head, as if he were hurt.

"Found it," Yen suddenly said.

They all turned toward him. He was standing near a filing cabinet, holding up a small key attached to a faded blue tag labeled "FACULTY STORAGE 2B".

"That’s gotta be it," Luke said, already standing.

Hakari glanced around the wrecked office one more time before following them out. For a moment, she swore she saw something shift in the reflection of the glass window—but when she turned, it was just them.