Chapter 2: Whispers Beneath Skin
922 Words
Victoria did not sleep that night.
The dormitory was too quiet in a way that felt intentional, as if silence had been placed there rather than simply existing. Moonlight filtered through tall arched windows, cutting pale lines across the wooden floor. Outside, the academy stretched into darkness, its towers disappearing into mist.
Inside, Victoria sat on the edge of her bed fully dressed, hands resting lightly on her knees.
Waiting.
Because something about this place made waiting feel safer than sleeping.
A soft knock broke the silence.
Victoria tensed instantly.
“Come in,” she said carefully.
The door opened.
A girl stepped inside—curly dark hair, relaxed posture, and eyes that carried too much awareness for someone who looked her age.
“You’re the scholarship girl,” she said casually, like she already knew the answer.
Victoria studied her. “Yes.”
The girl smiled slightly. “Good. That means you’re not completely reckless. I’m Selene.”
She walked in without waiting for permission and dropped onto the bed opposite Victoria’s.
“You didn’t unpack,” Selene noted.
“I was observing,” Victoria replied.
Selene snorted softly. “That’s what everyone says when they’re too nervous to pretend otherwise.”
Victoria didn’t deny it.
That was… accurate.
Selene leaned back on her hands, studying her properly now. “Bloodright eats people who try to stay invisible, you know.”
“I’m not trying to be invisible,” Victoria said.
A pause.
Then Selene raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Then what are you trying to be?”
Victoria hesitated.
Safe.
She didn’t say it.
Because saying it would make it feel impossible.
Instead, she said, “Careful.”
Selene laughed under her breath. “Wrong academy for that.”
A low sound passed through the room.
Not outside.
Inside.
Victoria froze slightly.
Selene noticed immediately. “You felt that too?”
“…What was that?” Victoria asked.
Selene’s expression shifted—less playful now. More alert.
“The academy reacts at night sometimes,” she said. “Especially to new arrivals.”
“That doesn’t sound reassuring.”
“It’s not supposed to.”
The silence that followed was heavier than before.
Then Selene stood.
“Come on.”
Victoria frowned. “Where?”
“Somewhere less… watched,” Selene said. “If you stay here, you’ll go crazy listening to the walls think about you.”
Victoria stared at her for a moment longer, then stood.
Because Selene was right.
The room was watching.
They moved through the corridors quietly.
Selene walked like she belonged there. Victoria walked like she was trying not to disturb anything.
“You’ll get used to the shifting paths,” Selene said. “Or you won’t. Either way, the academy doesn’t care.”
“That’s comforting,” Victoria muttered.
Selene smirked. “You’re sarcastic. Good sign. Means you still feel human.”
Victoria didn’t respond to that.
Because something about the word human felt… unstable here.
They reached a balcony overlooking the lower academy grounds. Fog rolled between the towers like something alive.
Selene leaned on the stone railing.
“So,” she said casually, “what’s your story?”
Victoria hesitated.
She could say the safe version.
Scholarship. Hard work. Opportunity.
But something about Selene’s presence didn’t feel like judgment.
It felt like curiosity without danger.
“I worked for it,” Victoria said finally.
Selene nodded. “That’s not the part I asked about.”
Victoria glanced at her.
Selene smiled slightly. “Everyone here worked for it. Bloodright doesn’t accept laziness. I meant—what are you running from?”
The question landed too precisely.
Victoria looked away.
For a moment, she almost saw something else in the fog.
A street.
Rain.
A voice she hadn’t heard in a long time.
Luca.
The memory hit so fast she barely caught it.
A hand brushing hers in the dark.
A promise spoken like a warning.
If I ever lose you, Victoria… I won’t stop looking.
Her chest tightened slightly.
She blinked, and it was gone.
“…Nothing,” she said quietly.
Selene didn’t push.
Instead, she said softly, “That’s usually the loudest kind of answer.”
A sudden pulse moved through the academy.
Victoria felt it in her bones.
Her fingers curled instinctively against the stone.
Selene straightened immediately. “Okay. That one wasn’t normal.”
The fog below the balcony thickened.
Something inside Victoria shifted.
Not thoughts.
Not emotion.
Instinct.
A pressure behind her ribs, like something inside her was waking up and recognizing the night.
Her breathing slowed without permission.
“What is happening?” Victoria whispered.
Selene didn’t answer immediately.
Because she was watching Victoria now.
Carefully.
“…You didn’t feel that before?” Selene asked.
“Feel what?”
Selene hesitated.
Then quietly: “The pull.”
Victoria frowned. “What pull?”
Before Selene could respond—
The air snapped cold.
A shadow moved across the far tower.
Victoria looked up instinctively.
For a fraction of a second—
She saw it.
A pair of golden eyes in the distance.
Watching her.
Not the academy.
Not Selene.
Her.
Her breath caught.
The presence disappeared immediately.
But the feeling remained.
Selene noticed her reaction. “What did you see?”
Victoria swallowed.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly.
But her body did.
Because something inside her had answered that gaze.
Like recognition.
Like memory.
Like something that had been waiting far too long.
And somewhere deep beneath Bloodright Academy…
something else stirred in response.
- Writer
