Chapter Seven: The Void
566 Words
They carried Crowe to the window. She was light now, hollowed out by the poison and the revelation. Outside, the ledge was narrow, slick with rain, overlooking the courtyard three stories below.
The void was visible from here—a distortion in the air above the east wing, a patch of night darker than the surrounding sky.
"Once I jump," Crowe said, "you have thirty seconds. The doorway will convulse as it seals. Anyone still inside when it closes... stays inside. Forever."
"Eliza," Maya said. "Go to the front gate. Wait for me there."
"No," Eliza said. "I'm coming with you. I'm getting the journal. And the others."
"There are no others," Crowe said. "They're gone. Just... echoes."
"We'll see," Eliza said stubbornly.
Maya nodded. "Together, then."
They climbed onto the ledge, supporting Crowe between them. The wind tore at their clothes, threatening to hurl them all into the night. They inched toward the void, which pulsed like a heartbeat.
"Remember," Crowe said, her voice barely audible over the wind. "Thirty seconds. No more."
She looked at Maya, and for a moment, the madness cleared from her eyes. "I'm sorry. For all of it."
Then she stepped forward, falling into the darkness.
The void erupted. It roared, a sound like a thousand screams, and began to contract. Maya and Eliza didn't hesitate—they leaped into the shrinking darkness.
Inside, it was worse than before. The void was collapsing, folding in on itself, and they were caught in the contraction. Maya saw Crowe being torn apart, not physically, but atomically, her essence unravelling and feeding the seal.
"Find them!" Eliza screamed over the hurricane noise.
Maya swam through the darkness, which had become viscous, resisting. She saw the students—suspended, catatonic, but still there. Still alive, if barely.
"Wake up!" she shouted, grabbing the nearest boy. "You have to move! The door is closing!"
One by one, they stirred. The void's hold on them weakened as it focused on consuming Crowe. Maya counted them—twelve, fifteen, twenty... all the missing students from decades past, preserved in terror.
"Hurry!" Eliza called from somewhere ahead. "I see the exit!"
They swam toward her voice, dragging the half-conscious students. The void screamed in rage, tentacles of shadow lashing at them.
"Twenty seconds!" Eliza yelled.
Maya saw the journal floating ahead, the source of the void's power. She grabbed it, tucking it into her shirt.
"Ten seconds!"
They reached the exit—a pinprick of light growing smaller. Eliza dove through, pulling students with her. Maya pushed the last boy ahead of her.
"Five seconds!"
She lunged for the light.
The void grabbed her ankle, cold and absolute. Stay, it whispered. Stay and be eternal.
Maya kicked, screaming, and broke free. She tumbled through the shrinking aperture, hitting the corridor floor as the void snapped shut behind her with a sound like thunder.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Maya lay on the floor, gasping, the journal digging into her ribs. Around her, twenty-three students lay in various states of consciousness. Eliza was already moving among them, checking pulses.
"Is it over?" someone asked.
Maya looked at the black door. It was just a door now—wood and iron, scarred but ordinary. Through the window, dawn was breaking.
"It's over," she said.
But the journal in her hands was warm, and she knew: some stories don't end. They just wait.
- Writer
