Ridgeway Academy: The Girl Who Entered As A Boy

Chapter 6: Something Under Ridgeway

Raven’s POV

The first rumor came from a whisper in the corridor that stopped halfway through being spoken.

I caught it by accident while walking past two students near the stairwell.

“…another one disappeared last night.”

The second boy shifted immediately.

“Shut up. Don’t say that here.”

That alone made me slow down because people didn’t shut down harmless conversations that fast.

I didn’t turn my head. I just kept walking like I hadn’t heard anything.

So this wasn’t the first disappearance.

It didn’t fit the narrative they had given me. Ridgeway wasn’t supposed to have missing students.

I adjusted my pace slightly and continued toward the training wing.

But my mind had already moved somewhere else.

My brother. My fingers tightened briefly at the thought.

The academy felt different today.

Too many students were speaking in low voices, many eyes avoiding certain hallways and pauses in conversations that should have been normal.

Then I saw a student standing alone near the courtyard fountain.

At first, I thought he was just zoning out.

Then he moved strangely, his head jerked slightly too fast and his breathing was uneven.

His fingers curled as if he was resisting something inside his own skin.

I stopped.

My instincts sharpened instantly, this wasn’t fatigue or stress. He had lost control and dropped his bag hard to the ground.

Then he laughed and a few students nearly stepped back immediately.

No one approached him. That was the second thing I noticed.

He bent down slowly, picking up his bag, but his movements kept glitching like something inside him wasn’t syncing properly.

Then his head snapped up and his eyes met mine. I saw something feral stripped out of his eyes.

My body shifted instinctively, and quickly a teacher appeared within seconds.

“Clear the area,” the instructor barked.

The boy started shaking violently, then he lunged at the teacher.

Two instructors grabbed him immediately. It took ten minutes to restrain him.

The sound that came out of him didn’t sound human anymore. He kept screaming until he went completely still.

My chest tightened slightly.

The instructors dragged him away quickly and the crowd slowly returned to motion like nothing had happened.

That was when I realized their reaction was like a routine.

My wolf stirred carefully again.

“…Raven .”

I didn’t answer her because I was watching Ethan now.

He had been standing still at the edge of the courtyard the entire time. But his eyes followed the boy being taken away.

Across from him, Elias was also watching, but differently as if he was recording data internally.

Then I noticed Rowan. He was closer than the others and his expression wasn’t amusing anymore.

It was tight, but frustration moved slightly in his posture when the boy collapsed like he had seen this before and hated it.

Then Kade appeared. I didn’t see him arrive, he was just suddenly there between me and the direction the boy had been taken.

His head turned slightly toward me, giving me this protective look.

I felt strange because nothing had been directed at me and no one threatened me.

Yet he had moved like I was already involved. My eyes narrowed slightly.

Then Rowan spoke. “That’s the third this month.”

The words dropped into the space.

Ethan finally spoke, voice quieter than usual. “They’re increasing in frequency.”

Elias closed his eyes briefly. Then he said, “Containment failure rate is rising.”

That was acknowledgment as if they were discussing a system error.

Something uneasy settled in my chest.

I thought to myself. If this wasn’t new then they had seen it before and knew more than they were saying.

Rowan glanced sideways at me suddenly.

“Don’t get close to anything like that,” he said.

I didn’t respond because I was lost in thoughts.

Ethan stepped closer into my line of sight. His eyes held mine for a while.

“You shouldn’t be here during incidents,” he said.

I tilted my head slightly. “I was already here.”

Elias’s gaze flicked toward me briefly, he shook his head and looked away.

Rowan scoffed lightly. “You’re really not like the others,” he muttered.

I ignored that, I didn’t care how they categorized me. What I cared about was the boy and the way no one was explaining anything.

After the incident, classes resumed back to normal.

Later, I went to the archive terminal again to search for incidents and disappearances.

Ridgeway Academy internal logs were restricted at first, then partially accessible.

Many redactions and missing sections, but the fragments were something.

“Student relocation record…”

“Unauthorized transfer…”

“Behavioral deviation correction…”

That word sat wrong within me. I leaned closer and slowed my fingers as I read.

Multiple entries, all with similar phrasing, gaps and then I saw a file tag that made my breath pause slightly.

Cross-reference: Virell, Arlen.

My brother.

I stared at it and my fingers hovered over the file. But access denied flashed immediately.

I leaned back slowly.

So they had access to him, or probably had erased him.

Behind me, footsteps approached, but I didn’t turn immediately.

Then he said quietly, “You shouldn’t look at that.” That was Ethan’s voice.

I closed the terminal and turned slowly to him.

“What is Ridgeway?” I asked.

He didn’t answer immediately and behind him, I felt Kade.

Rowan appeared at the far end of the hall, watching and Elias was somewhere behind the glass corridor.

Ethan studied me for a long second.

Then he said, “Don’t dig into things that already swallowed people before you arrived.”

That was not an answer, but it was enough. It confirmed everything I was starting to suspect.

I stepped back slightly. I now know my brother wasn’t the only one.

He was part of a list.