The Forgotten Student
575 Words
Amara couldn’t breathe.
The Headmaster’s eyes remained fixed on her from across the crowded auditorium.
Then, as quickly as it happened…
He looked away.
“…Thank you, and enjoy your first semester.”
The audience erupted into applause.
Amara didn’t clap.
She couldn’t stop staring at the empty chair in the front row.
“I’m telling you… someone was sitting there,” she whispered.
Lily frowned.
“What chair?”
“The one… right there.”
Lily looked where Amara was pointing.
“There hasn’t been anyone there since the ceremony started.”
Amara’s stomach tightened.
No… that’s impossible.
She had clearly seen a girl sitting there only moments before the lights went out.
⸻
The ceremony ended.
Students poured out of the auditorium in groups, laughing and taking pictures.
Amara hurried back inside.
The front row was empty.
On the floor beneath the chair…
She found a silver bracelet.
Its tiny charm was engraved with the initials:
E.M.
“Looking for something?”
Amara jumped.
An elderly janitor stood behind her, pushing a worn cleaning cart.
“I… found this.”
The old man stared at the bracelet.
His weathered face instantly lost all color.
“You shouldn’t touch that.”
“Why?”
Instead of answering, he grabbed the bracelet with shaking hands and stuffed it into his pocket.
“You never found it.”
“What do you mean?”
He leaned close enough for her to smell the strong scent of old books and dust.
“People who remember…”
“…don’t stay here very long.”
Before she could ask another question, he hurried away.
⸻
That night…
Rain hammered against the windows of Dormitory 7.
Lily had already fallen asleep.
Amara couldn’t.
The words of the janitor echoed through her mind.
“People who remember…”
She reached for the campus map the dean had given her.
Something felt wrong.
She unfolded it across her bed.
Every dormitory was listed.
Dormitories 1 through 12.
Dormitory 14.
She blinked.
She counted again.
There was no Dormitory 13.
“That’s… strange.”
She grabbed the rulebook.
As she flipped through the pages, a folded piece of yellowed paper slipped out.
It wasn’t part of the book.
Someone had hidden it inside.
Written in faded black ink were the words:
THEY ARE LYING.
Below the message was a hand-drawn map of the campus.
Unlike the official map…
This one showed another building.
It was circled in red.
DORMITORY 13
At the bottom of the page, someone had written:
If you can still remember us… meet me at the old clock tower tomorrow night. Come alone.
There was no name.
Only one symbol.
A black crow.
Amara’s heartbeat quickened.
“Who left this?”
Just then…
A loud knock echoed through the room.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Amara glanced at the digital clock beside her bed.
3:13 A.M.
Her blood ran cold.
She remembered the dean’s warning.
“Never leave your dormitory room between 3:13 a.m. and 3:33 a.m.”
Another knock.
This time louder.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Lily remained asleep.
It was as if she couldn’t hear it.
Then a soft voice came from the other side of the door.
“…Amara.”
It sounded exactly like her mother.
“…Open the door.”
Amara froze.
Her mother was hundreds of miles away.
The voice came again.
Gentle.
Pleading.
“…Please… I need you.”
Slowly…
The doorknob began to turn by itself.
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