SHADOWS IN THE HALLWAY

Chapter 1: Shadows in the Hallways

The bus had never felt smaller, nor the forest beyond it darker. Lyra Vale pressed her forehead against the cool glass, watching the trees stretch like skeletal fingers toward the sky. She had always known she was different—able to sense the hum of magic in the air—but even she wasn’t prepared for what Darklight Academy had to offer.

The academy appeared suddenly, as if conjured from the forest itself. Black iron gates twisted into strange, almost living shapes, while ivy crawled up the walls like it had its own will. The scent of damp earth mingled with something sharper, metallic, like the tang of old blood or a storm about to break.

The bus hissed to a stop. Lyra’s stomach churned with nerves, excitement, and a strange thrill she couldn’t name.

“Welcome.”

Lyra turned. A boy leaned casually against the bus, arms crossed, head tilted slightly. His hair was black as midnight, messy but perfectly styled, and his eyes… well, his eyes were a storm that seemed to draw the light from around him.

“Kael Riven,” he said, voice low and smooth, almost teasing. “You must be the new student everyone’s whispering about.”

Lyra blinked. The whispers hadn’t even started yet, and she already felt the weight of them. “Lyra… Vale,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

Kael’s smile was slow, deliberate. “Don’t worry,” he said. “The shadows are friendlier here than the students. Mostly.”

He pushed off the bus, moving beside her in a way that made her pulse stutter. She noticed, almost subconsciously, that the shadows clung closer to him, pooling around his feet and stretching toward her like dark fingers.

Inside, the hallways of Darklight Academy were even stranger. Corridors bent in ways that made her stomach lurch, stairs looped impossibly onto themselves, and the walls whispered, just beyond the edge of hearing, secrets she wasn’t yet meant to understand. Candles floated lazily along the ceiling, their flames flickering without wind, casting light that did not reach the corners, where darkness pooled like liquid.

Lyra’s heart thumped as she followed Kael down one corridor. He moved with the confidence of someone who had already claimed this strange place, as though the academy itself recognized him.

“You’ll notice,” Kael said, his voice low, almost conspiratorial, “that things here aren’t exactly… ordinary. Don’t trust everything you see—or everything you feel.”

Lyra shivered, and not from the cold. She could sense the magic here, not just as energy but as something alive, aware, and insistent. It tickled the edges of her mind, tugging at thoughts she didn’t know she had.

A sudden flicker caught her eye—a shadow shifting independently in the hallway ahead. It stretched, warped, then dissolved into the walls. She blinked. Kael noticed.

“You see it, don’t you?” he murmured, his dark eyes gleaming. “Most of the new students scream and run when the hallways start moving on their own.”

Lyra’s lips parted. “It’s… alive?”

Kael smirked. “Alive, hungry… playful. And it’s curious about you.”

The bell tolled, resonating through the stone corridors, shaking the very air. Lyra jumped. The sound didn’t just announce class—it seemed to echo in her bones.

They stopped at a large, arched doorway. The hall beyond was lit with floating lanterns, golden and warm, but the corners remained swallowed in darkness. Other students drifted through the halls like shadows themselves, their faces half-hidden, their eyes glinting with secrets. Some glanced at her with interest, others with thinly veiled disdain.

Kael leaned against the doorway, watching her with a gaze that felt too intimate, too knowing. “First rule of Darklight,” he whispered. “Never let the school see you afraid. Second rule… never let it see you want something.”

Lyra swallowed hard. There was something about the way he said it—the way his voice brushed against her skin like smoke—that made her aware of her own racing pulse. She wasn’t sure if it was fear, desire, or a dangerous combination of both.

The first lesson of the day was introduced by a teacher whose eyes glowed faintly under the hood of his robe. Lyra sensed layers of magic beneath his calm exterior. She wondered if he noticed her too, if he could see the threads of power that twisted around her like invisible chains.

Kael’s presence at her side made her feel both protected and exposed. His hand brushed hers briefly as they stepped into the classroom, and the warmth lingered longer than it should have. A current of energy seemed to spark between them, and she realized with a shiver that she had already been pulled into something far bigger than any normal school could offer.

By the time the lesson began, Lyra understood one undeniable truth: Darklight Academy was not a school—it was a living, breathing entity, and she had just walked into its mouth.

And in the darkness, Kael Riven smiled.

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