DARK CAMPUS

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7: The Truth

I couldn't wait any longer. The dream, the whispers, the strange book — it was all too much.

After class ended and the other students had filed out, I walked straight to his office and pushed

the heavy wooden door open without knocking. I didn't care if it was rude anymore. I needed to

know.

"What am I to you?!" I cried, my voice shaking, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. "Am I

really your student, or am I just... a sacrifice? Just another thing to be offered up when the time

comes?"

He was silent for a long moment, the weight of my question hanging heavily between us. Slowly,

he removed his glasses and set them on his desk. In that moment, I saw it — the truth I'd been

sensing all along. Part of his face seemed to shift and ripple, shadows forming and dissolving

across his skin like smoke caught in a draft. He looked older, ancient, powerful, and

heartbreakingly lonely — a being who had walked through centuries entirely alone.

"Yes, Iyanna," he admitted, his voice sounding tired, stripped of all pretense. "Your parents... this

school... it is all part of an ancient bargain that was struck long before we were both born.

Generations ago, families like yours made a deal — protection, prosperity, influence — in

exchange for one thing. Every hundred years, a girl of a certain bloodline would be brought here.

You are that girl. They gave you to me in exchange for everything they have."

He stepped forward and cupped my face gently in his hands. His skin felt cool against mine, but

his touch was infinitely tender, as if I were something fragile that might shatter if he breathed

too hard.

"But somewhere along the way... I forgot why I was waiting. I didn't just claim a sacrifice, Iyanna.

I fell for her. Against all reason, against all the laws that bind my kind... I fell in love with you. And

that changes everything. For better or for worse."

I stood there, stunned, tears finally spilling over. My own parents — people I loved — had

knowingly given me away. And the terrifying creature they'd given me to... had fallen in love with

me instead. It was too much to process all at once. "What happens now?" I whispered.

"That is entirely up to you," he said, releasing me and stepping back, giving me space. "You have

a choice to make. And whatever you decide, I will respect it. But know this — leaving won't make what you are go away. And staying means facing a world that has been waiting for you for a very

long time.