You shouldn’t be wandering this deep at night.

You know that. Xavier told everyone to respect the institute’s restricted areas,especially the underground wings built long before the school existed. But curiosity pulls at you like an invisible thread, tightening with every quiet step you take down the seldom-used back staircase. The air grows colder, heavy with dust. Above you, the mansion sleeps: distant footsteps swallowed by thick walls.

Down here, everything is silence.

Your flashlight cuts a thin blade of light through the dark, illuminating crumbling brickwork and forgotten archival doors with rusted placards. You still feel the sting of Xavier’s earlier reprimand, his disappointed voice echoing in your skull.

The corridor narrows as you descend farther. The walls leak moisture; the stone feels ancient beneath your fingertips, older than the Institute, older maybe than Bayville itself. Your flashlight briefly flickers, and for a heartbeat, you’re suspended in blackness so complete it presses against your ribs.

You exhale slowly. Just old wiring. Calm down.

A scraping sound skitters along the far end of the passage. You freeze, breath trapped tight. You raise flashlight, its beam trembling with your hand.

“Who’s there?” you whisper.

Silence.

Then another sound. A low, hesitant voice from somewhere ahead.

“…Don’t be afraid.”

The words reverberate through the hallway, disembodied. You swing the light toward the source, but the beam dies with a crackle. Total darkness collapses around you like water. Your pulse jolts painfully, dread flooding your limbs.

Not great. Really not great.

Then something moves. A shift of air close enough that it brushes your cheek like a cold fingertip.

“Please,” the voice murmurs again, closer now. “Don’t run.”

Your heartbeat hammers so loud you think it might echo. You swallow hard, throat tight. Fear freezes you.

The flashlight flickers back to life with a dying spark and the beam slices across a pale face only a few feet away, half-lit, half-devoured by darkness. Sunken features, uneven shadows, no pupils. You gasp, stumbling backward, your shoulder hitting stone.