Episode 5: The Promise Beneath the Moonlight

When Arielle opened her eyes, she was lying on the cold dorm floor. The air smelled of candle wax and something faintly metallic — like blood that had long dried. Her hands trembled as she sat up, blinking in the dim light leaking through the cracked window.

Everything was silent.

Too silent.

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The dolls that had been around her… were gone.

The circle of candles had melted into puddles of wax shaped like reaching hands.

And the mirror — the one that had been glowing — was now shattered, a web of cracks reflecting her pale, shaking face.

For a moment, Arielle thought it had all been a nightmare.

Then she saw it — carved into her wrist, faint and glowing silver under the moonlight filtering through the window.

One word: “Mine.”

She gasped and stumbled back. “No… no, it’s not real.”

But it was.

When she looked at the shards again, she didn’t see her reflection.

She saw him — the boy. The same dark eyes, the same fragile smile, his fingers pressing against the glass as if he were trapped on the other side.

“Arielle,” he whispered, voice echoing inside her mind. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me.”

Her breath hitched. “You’re not real. You died. I—I buried you.”

“Did you?”

His tone shifted — soft, but teasing. “Then why am I still here?”

A cold wind swept through the room. Her textbooks flew open, papers scattering like feathers. The cracked mirror began to pulse with faint light again, and from within it came a sound — a soft humming, like a lullaby she used to hear from her mother before everything went wrong.

“Stop it,” she whispered, clutching her ears. “Stop!”

The lights flickered. The hum turned into whispers. And from the corner of the room, her favorite doll — the one with one eye missing — began to move. Its porcelain face tilted up toward her, and it spoke in his voice:

“Arielle… come back to me.”

Her heart pounded. Tears welled in her eyes as she grabbed the doll and threw it across the room. It hit the wall and broke — but inside it, something glimmered.

A piece of a small golden key.

She froze.

The key.

She remembered it from her mother’s diary — the one she found months ago in the attic, the one that said:

“The key unlocks the truth he died for.”

“Is this… what you want me to find?” she asked the reflection.

He smiled faintly. “You always find what you’re meant to, Arielle.”

Before she could answer, the window burst open. Wind howled, papers circled the room, and for a split second — she saw him again. Not in the mirror. Not in her mind. But standing right in front of her.

He looked older now. Or maybe it was the shadows. His eyes glowed faintly blue, and his shirt — the one she remembered from that night — was torn and burnt, just like before.

Her voice broke. “Why are you here?”

“Because you called me back.”

“I didn’t—”

“You opened the door again.”

She fell silent. The door at midnight — the one she swore never to touch. The one that called her name every night since she came to this cursed boarding school. The one her stepmother warned her about before she vanished.

Arielle stepped closer to him. “If I did… what happens now?”

He smiled, but there was sadness in it — a loneliness that cut deep.

“Now you decide. Let me go… or stay with me forever.”

The candles relit on their own, circling them both in a dim orange glow. His shadow stretched behind him, long and clawed, touching hers — almost merging.

She wanted to run. But something in her heart kept her there.

This boy — this ghost — had once been everything to her.

Before the fire. Before the screams. Before the world told her she’d lost her mind.

And now… he was asking her to make a choice.

“I don’t know what staying means,” she whispered, tears falling. “I don’t even know what you are anymore.”

“Neither do I,” he said gently. “All I know is that I loved you once… and I still do.”

The words shattered her. The wind calmed. The candles dimmed.

And the golden key in her hand pulsed once — twice — before the floor beneath her began to glow.

A hidden pattern appeared on the ground — the same shape as the door from her nightmares.

“You can unlock it now,” he said softly. “But remember — every truth has a price.”

Arielle’s hand shook as she knelt and placed the key in the glowing outline. The moment it turned, the air around her rippled. The door appeared again — but this time, it wasn’t old or rotten.

It was beautiful. Gold and black, shimmering with faint blue light. Whispering her name.

She looked back at him.

He smiled sadly.

“Midnight always remembers.”

The door opened.

And the world went white.

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