HALLWAY OF LIES

The One Behind You

Darkness swallowed the hallway.

No one dared to breathe.

The whisper lingered in Maya's ear.

"Don't turn around."

Her heartbeat thundered in her chest. Every instinct told her to spin around and see who—or what—was standing behind her. But something in that voice made her freeze.

Jordan's voice trembled through the darkness.

"Maya... where are you?"

"I'm here," she whispered.

"Don't move."

A faint clicking sound echoed somewhere ahead.

Then another.

Click...

Click...

Click...

The emergency lights flickered to life, bathing the corridor in a dim red glow.

Maya slowly looked around.

Emma was standing beside a cracked mirror, gripping her flashlight with both hands. Jordan stood several feet away, staring at the floor. Grant and the Director were searching the walls for another exit.

Everything seemed normal.

Until Maya noticed the shadows.

Each person's shadow stretched across the floor...

Except one.

The Director wasn't casting a shadow.

Maya blinked.

Then looked again.

His shadow was there.

Had she imagined it?

Or had the hallway wanted her to notice something?

The Director pointed toward an iron door hidden in the stone wall.

"It wasn't here before."

Grant pulled on the rusted handle.

With a loud groan, the door swung open.

Beyond it lay a narrow staircase spiraling downward.

Cold air rushed upward.

Emma looked into the darkness.

"I don't think we should go down there."

"We don't have a choice," the Director replied.

"The hallway is closing behind us."

Sure enough, the passage they had just crossed was slowly filling with solid stone.

Within seconds, it had disappeared completely.

The Hallway of Lies was trapping them.

One path remained.

Down.

The staircase seemed endless.

Every step echoed through the darkness.

Halfway down, Maya noticed framed photographs hanging along the walls.

Each picture showed a different class from Westbrook High.

Students smiled proudly beside their teachers.

But every photograph had something disturbing in common.

One student in each picture had been scratched out.

Not crossed out.

Scratched away so completely that only torn paper remained.

Emma stopped in front of the oldest photograph.

"The faces..."

Jordan frowned.

"They're all different students."

Grant examined the dates.

"1941."

"1956."

"1973."

"1988."

"2005."

He looked at the Director.

"One student disappeared every generation."

The Director lowered his eyes.

"No."

"One student was chosen."

Those words hung in the air.

Maya's stomach tightened.

"Chosen for what?"

The Director didn't answer.

The staircase finally ended at a massive circular chamber.

The room was unlike anything they had seen before.

Hundreds of old clocks covered the walls.

Large clocks.

Tiny pocket watches.

Broken alarm clocks.

Grandfather clocks.

Every one of them showed a different time.

Yet none of them ticked.

Silence filled the chamber.

Then...

Tick.

One clock moved.

Tick.

Another.

Within seconds, every clock in the room began ticking at once.

The sound became deafening.

Emma covered her ears.

"Make it stop!"

Jordan noticed something in the center of the room.

A stone pedestal.

Resting on it was a wooden box wrapped in heavy chains.

Across the lid, someone had carved a warning.

DO NOT OPEN UNTIL THE SIXTH BELL.

Maya stepped closer.

The silver locket around her neck suddenly grew warm.

So warm that she instinctively grabbed it.

The locket sprang open.

Inside was something she had never seen before.

A tiny folded piece of paper.

With trembling hands, she unfolded it.

Only five words were written inside.

Trust Emma. Not the Director.

Maya's breath caught.

She looked toward Emma.

Then slowly toward the Director.

Before she could say anything—

A loud metallic BANG! echoed from above.

Then another.

The Hunter had found them again.

But this time...

It wasn't alone.

Dozens of heavy footsteps echoed down the staircase.

The masked figures were coming.

And someone among them spoke a name that made the Director go pale.

"Bring me..."

"...Director Harris."

Not Maya.

Not the Book of Founders.

They had come for him.

The Director whispered under his breath,

"They know."

Grant turned sharply.

"They know what?"

Before the Director could answer, the chains around the wooden box snapped open by themselves.

The lid creaked open.

From inside...

A child's laughter echoed through the chamber.