*Chapter 12: The Whispering Halls*
The laughter from their infamous Crybaby incident had started to die down.
Just a little.
But Aether High was never quiet for long.
It began with a whisper.
Literally.
Kaito heard it first.
He was walking to his late-night library detention (thanks to accidentally setting a broom closet on fire during Spell Theory), when the hallway air suddenly turned cold… too cold.
Whispers slithered from the cracks in the walls.
*"He's here…"*
Kaito stopped. "Um. Nope. Nope-nope-nope."
He turned to leave—only to come face-to-face with Alexander.
"Lost?" Alex asked coolly, arms crossed.
Kaito jumped a full meter. "Are you stalking me?!"
"No. I was sent to make sure you didn't burn the library *again*."
They started walking.
Until they heard it again.
*"The curse... awakens…"*
This time, Alexander froze too.
Kaito's eyes widened. "You heard that?!"
"I'm not deaf. Or crazy. Yet."
Suddenly, the walls rippled. The torches dimmed. And the school's sigil above the hallway door flickered into an unfamiliar symbol—a broken eye dripping with ink.
Alexander grabbed Kaito's arm. "We're leaving."
"YES PLEASE."
—
The next morning, the entire school was buzzing.
"Someone summoned a forbidden sigil."
"Was it a prank?"
"Or… a warning?"
White Louise was furious. "If this is one of your *stupid emotional projections*, Kaito, I will hex your soul."
"I didn't do anything!" Kaito defended.
David walked over, arm casually around Jin. "That symbol isn't in any textbook. Even the ones from the Cursed Wing."
Alexander, overhearing, added quietly, "It's not a student's doing. It's something… older."
Jin blinked. "What do you mean?"
"There are parts of this school sealed off for a reason. Places even the teachers avoid."
David raised a brow. "You've *been* there, haven't you?"
Alexander didn't answer.
—
Later that night, the whispers came again.
But this time, they were inside the dorms.
Kaito woke up sweating, heart racing.
Someone was *screaming* in his dream. A boy. With silver hair and violet eyes.
"You promised!" the boy had yelled. "You said you'd find me—!"
When Kaito opened his eyes, his mirror was cracked.
Again.
"What the hell is going on with me…"
—
Meanwhile, Jin had started avoiding David. Ever since that crying incident, something in him had shifted. He couldn't look at David without blushing—or panicking.
And David? Oh, David noticed.
He tried cornering him in Spell Tactics.
"You're acting weird."
Jin turned red. "No I'm not!"
"You haven't texted me back in two days."
"Maybe I'm dead!" Jin squeaked.
"You already ARE."
Jin sprinted out of class and hid in the supply closet for forty minutes. Which he then accidentally locked himself inside.
David eventually found him curled in a pile of floating mop heads.
"I hate my afterlife," Jin whispered.
—
That evening, Kaito found an envelope under his pillow.
No name. No seal. Just a note.
*"Come to the East Wing basement at midnight. Come alone.*
*– A Friend"*
Kaito stared at it.
"Oh hell no."
So naturally…
He went.
With everyone.
He dragged David, Jin, and—begrudgingly—Alexander.
"It said come alone," Alexander muttered.
"I don't do alone," Kaito replied. "Alone is how you die first in horror stories."
They arrived at the East Wing.
It was… rotten. Like the magic itself had decayed.
Runes cracked on the walls. Shadows moved on their own. The stairwell creaked like a living thing.
As they descended, torches lit themselves. A long corridor stretched ahead, ending in a stone door with a familiar symbol.
*The broken eye.*
Kaito's hand trembled.
The moment he touched the door—
A shock pulsed through the hallway.
And a voice echoed loud and clear through all their minds:
*"The curse has begun."*
The door slammed shut behind them.
—
*End of Chapter 12.*