DARK CAMPUS

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6: The Sacrifice

That night, I had a dream so vivid it felt more real than waking life itself. I wasn't sleeping in my

dorm room anymore. I stood bound at an ancient stone altar deep beneath the school

foundations, in a cavern so large I couldn't see the ceiling. Faint blue torches lit the perimeter,

casting long, dancing shadows against rough rock walls. Before me stood Alexander — but not

as I knew him in the classroom. Massive shadowy wings unfolded behind him, stretching

upward and outward, made of pure darkness yet possessing a distinct shape and form. His eyes

burned brighter, larger, and the air around him rippled with power that made my skin tingle. He

wasn't just a man anymore — he was an ancient, terrifying force that had existed long before

this school was ever built.

"I never wanted this to happen so soon, Iyanna," his voice echoed all around me, coming from

everywhere at once, heavy with longing and sorrow. "But you were chosen before you were even

born. Your parents... this school... everything was prepared for you. It was never about discipline

or education. It was always about you."

I tried to speak, to ask what he meant, but no sound came from my lips. He reached out, his

hand passing through the stone chains that bound me as if they were smoke, and touched my

cheek gently. The sensation was warm, human, completely at odds with the terrifying power

radiating from him.

"I will not let them hurt you. But the ceremony must happen. The question is... when it does, will

you choose to accept what you are, or will you fight it until the very end?"

I woke up gasping, tears streaming down my face and soaking into my pillow. My heart was

racing as if I'd been running for miles. I reached out to turn on the lamp beside my bed, and my fingers brushed against something cool and smooth resting right where my head had been. A

single black rose lay there, its petals perfectly formed and velvety to the touch, as fresh as if it

had just bloomed in a garden at midnight. There was no way anyone could have gotten into my

locked room — the doors were heavy iron, and the windows were several stories above the

ground. No one... except him. I picked it up carefully, and beneath the stem, I found a single line

written in elegant silver ink: "Sleep peacefully. No one will harm you tonight."