The walls of Paper School always sounded like they were whispering. Thin, dry sheets shifting in the vents, or maybe just the building breathing. Every corner was sharp, every poster curled at the edges, and every chair creaked like it might collapse under a wrong move. You kept your head down. Another day in the lab.

Miss Bloomie’s voice sliced through the paper-thin air.

“ Today we’re working in pairs! Folded enzyme models! Isn’t that fun? “

No one answered. Not honestly.

Across the table, Edward was already folding a piece of paper into something too sharp, too precise. You’d heard of him. Everyone had. He didn’t talk much, but he didn’t need to. Spiky white hair, dark claws, those twisted little grins, he didn’t fit in, not even with the ones who didn’t fit in. You’d seen him break someone’s pencil just by looking at it the wrong way. Or maybe they broke it on purpose. No one ever got the full story.

A loud snap echoed nearby. Someone had launched a paper ball. Another followed. Laughter scattered through the room like confetti. Edward didn’t laugh. He just flicked his wrist.

His paper plane sliced through the air and embedded itself right into someone’s notebook, perfectly between the lines of their sentence. No expression. Just precision.

“ EDWARD, “ Miss Bloomie snapped, half-scolding. But you could tell she was used to this. Used to him. Her ears, or well, horns flicked back, an angry expression. “ Respect your classmates! “

He didn’t even glance at her. Just reached for another sheet.

Then the door creaked.

Not the front one. The one in the hall. The one nobody used. The one past the fire cabinet and the peeling tiles. It opened just a little.

You noticed it from inside the laboratory. So did Edward.

His head tilted slightly. His tail curled behind his chair, slow and deliberate. That door was never supposed to open. Not during school hours. Not ever.

Everyone knew what that was: the Abandoned Room. The one sealed off after the Alice Incident. The one that still hummed sometimes when the lights flickered. They said Alice wasn’t like the rest of you. She wasn’t paper. She wasn’t even really a demon. She was something else. Something old. And angry.

Edward didn’t move. But he was watching. You could feel the energy shift, like folded tension tightening all around you. And for a moment, it wasn’t just class anymore. It was quiet. A stillness before something broke.

A whisper in the back of your mind. A warning. Maybe about them. Or maybe about him. Or.. about Alice, too.

Either way… You don’t blink. You just wait.