The echo of footsteps thundered across the corridor as Aman sprinted forward, his breath ragged, his heart hammering against his ribs. Behind him, Kabir and Rohit followed, their shoes scraping against the cracked floor tiles of the school's decayed hall.
Suddenly— CRACK!
Kabir's cry of pain ripped through the silence as his leg slammed against a jagged piece of debris hidden in the shadows. He fell with a loud THUD, the sound echoing through the corridor like a warning bell.
"Kabir!" Aman skidded to a halt, his eyes wide with panic. He rushed back and gripped Kabir's arm, trying to pull him up.
"Bro, run carefully!" Rohit's voice trembled, half out of fear, half out of desperation. "Otherwise you'll get hurt too!"
"Damn it…" Kabir winced, clutching his leg. "I didn't even see it… the darkness—"
But then his words trailed off. His face froze, pale, as a realization crawled over him. He turned his head slowly, scanning the shadows behind them.
Nobody was there.
No footsteps, no heavy breathing, no rustle of clothes.
The others were gone.
His throat tightened. "Aman… Rohit… we… we got separated."
"What?" Aman's eyes flared with anger. His fists clenched, his voice dropping into a low growl. "Damn it! I told them not to split up. I told them…"
Rohit shivered, his back pressing against the damp wall. His voice cracked. "But bro… that thing… it was way too scary. They must have run somewhere else. Maybe… maybe they're still in the school."
Aman's jaw tightened. He didn't answer. He just nodded once, sharply, though the shadows seemed to thicken around them with every passing second.
And then it came.
A sound that didn't belong in a place so dead.
Giggles.
Light, playful, yet impossibly chilling. The laughter of children carried down the long, dark corridor, echoing off the walls like cruel mockery.
The three froze. Every muscle locked. Even the air felt colder.
Kabir's lips trembled as he forced a broken chuckle. "Ahh… fantastic. Now we're going to get bullied by ghost children…"
His shaky hand pointed at a worn-out wooden board nailed above a cracked doorway. The peeling letters read in faded blue paint:
"Primary Wing."
The giggles grew louder.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the cursed school, Dev's group sat huddled inside the staffroom.
The room was nothing like they had imagined all their school years. Dust-covered cupboards loomed against the walls, files stacked carelessly like forgotten graves of paperwork. A faint smell of chalk, old ink, and mold hung heavy in the air. Broken chairs creaked under their weight as they sat, their whispers barely breaking the silence.
For years, they had wondered what secrets lay hidden in this room. A place students were never allowed to enter.
And tonight, they were finally inside.
Suddenly, Dev stood up, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, the screen glowing faintly in the darkness.
"Today," he announced dramatically, turning the camera toward himself, "the universal mystery will finally be solved. What the heck is inside the staffroom? Is it just a boring room… or a torture chamber designed for students?"
His voice dripped with mock seriousness, but the eerie stillness of the place gave his words a strange weight.
Rishi's eyes widened as he leaned forward. "Wait… what? You had a mobile phone this whole time?" His tone was half disbelief, half irritation. He stood up quickly, pointing at Dev. "Bro, hand it over. I'm the cameraman. You know that."
Dev smirked, tucking the phone away for a moment. "If I told everyone earlier, they'd just snatch it to play games. At least this way it's safe."
Rishi stretched his hand out impatiently. "C'mon, give it to me. Let me do the shooting."
"Fine," Dev said at last, handing it over with a sly grin. "But shoot quickly. The battery's down to 20%."
Sameer, who had been sitting quietly on a cracked chair, frowned. "Wait a sec… if you've got a phone, why don't you call someone for help?"
There was a sharp smack! as Dev's palm struck the back of Sameer's head.
"You dumbo," Dev growled. "Do you really think anyone's going to show up at 1:05 in the night? And guess what…" He lifted the phone, showing the blank signal bar. "There's no damn network."
Sameer rubbed his head with a pout but said nothing.
Dev finally passed the mobile to Rishi, who switched into his documentarian mode instantly. His camera eye roamed across the staffroom, shooting from different angles — the dusty desks, the half-open steel cupboard with rusted locks, and the windows rattling faintly against the night wind.
On the other side of the school.
The faint laughter slithered through the corridor like invisible hands tugging at their nerves.
Aman's jaw clenched. He turned to the others, his voice low but firm."Stay close. Behind me. Don't break the line."
Kabir and Rohit exchanged a terrified glance but nodded quickly.
Step by step, they moved forward into the Primary Wing. The air here felt heavier, colder. Their shoes scraped the floor in slow, cautious rhythm as if each sound might wake something lurking in the dark.
And then—
Silence.
The giggles stopped.
Not faded, not distant. They stopped all at once, as though a switch had been flipped.
The three froze mid-step, their breath caught in their throats. The sudden stillness was deafening. Even the distant wind outside seemed to die.
Rohit's whisper cracked like glass. "Bro… where… where did they go?"
Nobody answered. The corridor stretched endlessly ahead, darkness swallowing the weak glow of the broken tube light flickering far above.
Aman led the way, his shoulders squared, every step calculated. Behind him walked Rohit, tense and alert, and at the very end lagged Kabir, glancing nervously over his shoulder every few seconds.
The silence pressed down on them like a weight.
And then—clink… clink…
A faint metallic sound echoed through the corridor. Kabir's blood ran cold. His footsteps halted. The noise had come from behind him.
He slowly turned his head, his throat dry.
And there it was.
A rusty tin can was rolling gently across the floor, as though nudged by unseen hands.
Kabir froze, staring at it, his heart pounding. The can rolled closer… then stopped.
His breath hitched. He took a cautious step forward—The can rolled forward too.
Step by step, it mimicked him, never too far, never too near.
His fear twisted into frustration. "Tch—enough!" he muttered under his breath. With a sharp kick, he sent the can clattering into the darkness, the sound bouncing off the walls until it was swallowed whole.
Shaking his head, Kabir hurried forward, catching up with Aman and Rohit. "Just some junk…" he mumbled, though his voice betrayed his unease.
The three pressed on, disappearing deeper into the shadowed corridor.
Behind them, silence reigned once more.
And then—shhhhhh…
From the same direction where the can had vanished, something began to stir.
A faint glow flickered, like pale moonlight against the walls.
Out of the suffocating dark stepped a childish figure, its body distorted and creepy, its eyes hollow yet glistening. In its tiny hands, it clutched the same battered can.
But now, there was a bump on its head, swollen and bruised, as if struck by Kabir's kick.
Tears rolled down its ghostly cheeks, glimmering like droplets of silver in the dark. Its little mouth quivered as it whispered in a cracked, childlike voice:
"Why… did you hurt me…?"
Inside the staffroom, the atmosphere had shifted.
Dev and Sameer were rummaging through piles of registers and dusty cupboards, while Rishi kept documenting everything carefully. Every few minutes, he'd pause the recording, then start again to save battery, switching angles to capture the smallest detail.
Dev pulled open a drawer with a loud creaaak and froze. A crooked smile spread across his face as he pulled out a crumpled answer sheet.
"Oi, Sameer!" he called out, waving the paper. "Guess whose masterpiece I just found?"
Sameer blinked, suspicious. "What?"
Dev held it up dramatically, pointing at the top corner. "Look here… it's yours. And bro… you got 2 marks out of 20!"
He burst into laughter, slapping the table. "Even I never fell this low! TWO, bro!"
Rishi leaned over, peeking at the sheet, and smirked. "Obviously, Dev. You never got 2 because you always got… 1 mark."
The room echoed with Rishi's laughter, and even Sameer cracked up, shaking his head. "Fine, fine… laugh all you want. That day I wasn't prepared, okay? I had other stuff going on. You guys know I usually rank in the top 10 of the class."
"Yeah, yeah," Dev waved dismissively, tossing the paper back onto the pile. "I could score well too… if my brain ever felt like studying. But my brain… doesn't."
Rishi and Sameer exchanged a long look, then sighed together with the exact same face before stifling their chuckles.
"Laugh in your minds all you want," Dev muttered, ignoring them, as he moved to another cupboard. His hands rummaged through files and registers.
Then, without warning, a folded piece of paper slipped free from a heavy register and drifted slowly to the ground.
Sameer bent down, picking it up. His eyes scanned the header. "Uh… Dev? Look at this. It seems like… some kind of notice. Maybe from the principal?"
He barely had time to finish before Dev snatched it from his hands. "Give me that! Dumb people like you won't understand a word of it."
Sameer's face flushed red. His jaw tightened, eyes narrowing at Dev. "Tch… seriously, bro? Do you always have to act like this?"
The room grew still for a moment, the tension crackling between them.
For a while, the staffroom was silent except for the faint rustle of paper as Dev's eyes moved across the faded letter. His usual smirk was gone, replaced by something unreadable—half curiosity, half unease.
Sameer, who had been tapping his foot impatiently, finally broke the silence. "So…? What's written in it, bro?"
Dev lowered the paper slowly, his expression oddly serious. "It's… nothing that important," he said at first, his tone almost dismissive. "Just… some old notice. The principal was discussing handing over the case of the… supernatural incidents happening in the school to a family of ancient mantra-users… tantriks."
He paused, scanning the letter again. "…The Varma family."
Sameer's eyes widened instantly. He took a sharp step forward. "Wait—stop. Did you just say Varma?"
Dev frowned. "Yeah. Why?"
"That's… Arjun's surname!" Sameer's voice cracked with shock. "Bro… that means Arjun… belongs to that family."
Rishi's camera tilted slightly, his hands trembling as he zoomed closer on Dev's face.
Dev fell silent, his lips tightening as the weight of the realization sank in. Finally, he gave a slow nod. "Looks like it…"
The three exchanged uneasy glances, their earlier laughter completely gone now.
Dev looked back at the paper, his eyes narrowing. "But there's more. It says here that the exact day the principal called the Varma family to investigate…" He hesitated, his voice dropping lower. "…was the same day the school was shut down. Permanently."
At that moment, the broken fan hanging from the ceiling above gave a faint creak, though no wind stirred it.
A sudden chill spread through the room, crawling up their spines like invisible fingers. Even Rishi's camera lens fogged faintly at the edges.
The staffroom, once filled with jokes and mockery, now felt suffocating. As though the walls themselves knew they had uncovered a truth they weren't supposed to.
The three sat huddled in the dim staffroom, their minds still tangled in the revelation about Arjun.
"Bro… if Arjun really belongs to that family…" Sameer muttered nervously, "then what else is he hiding from us?"
Before Dev could answer, a faint tap-tap echoed down the corridor.
Footsteps.
Slow. Heavy. Getting closer.
Sameer stiffened instantly. "Bro… footsteps…"
Dev's eyes narrowed. He motioned quickly. "Under the table. Now."
All three crouched down, pressing themselves against the dusty floor. Rishi's fingers trembled around the phone. "I need to record this," he whispered, switching the camera on. The dim glow lit their anxious faces.
The screen flashed a warning.Battery: 5%.
Rishi's heart sank. "Shit…"
The footsteps grew louder, stopping just outside the staffroom door.
"Dev…" Sameer's voice was a broken whisper. "Who is it?"
Dev swallowed, his voice hushed but steady. "Could be someone from our group. But we don't know… we're just assuming."
A silence followed—thick, suffocating.
Rishi leaned closer. "Bro… no more sound. Maybe it passed by."
Dev gave a short nod. "Maybe…"
Knock. Knock.
All three flinched violently, their hearts hammering. The wooden door shook slightly under the knock.
Their breathing quickened.
Dev straightened up slowly, forcing calm into his face. He turned to Rishi. "Record everything. Each and every second. Maybe this will be our last shoot."
Rishi stared at him, and then with sudden grim certainty said, "It's definitely our last shoot."
Dev froze, his confidence slipping. "What the heck do you mean by 'definitely'?!"
Rishi held up the screen. "Because the battery is at 2%."
Dev smacked him on the head instantly. "That was the WORST joke, bro."
Despite the tension, a grin tugged at Dev's lips as he pulled a comb from his pocket and casually fixed his hair.
Sameer blinked in disbelief. "Bro… why are you combing your hair now?"
Dev smirked, tilting his head toward the door. "Maybe the thing outside is a ghost girl. A fan of mine."
Sameer's jaw dropped. "What the heck?! Even in this situation you're joking?"
Rishi grumbled, rubbing his head. "And when I made a joke, you smacked me."
"Because," Dev shot back, smirking wider, "your joke was as dumb as Sameer."
Both Sameer and Rishi sat in silence, annoyed yet too nervous to argue further.
Finally, Dev placed his hand on the knob. He hesitated—just a second—then took a deep breath and flung the door open.
The corridor outside yawned with darkness.
For a heartbeat, Dev's expression hardened. And then—he burst into a grin. "Bro… you scared us to death. You're no less than a ghost yourself."
Sameer and Rishi blinked in confusion. "Who…?" they whispered, inching closer.
And when they reached the doorway, their eyes widened, relief and disbelief flooding their faces.
It was Arjun.
Arjun stood in the doorway, his face calm, unreadable. He didn't say a word at first. Instead, he slowly reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
It was Rishi's camera.
He extended it toward him. "Here… your camera."
Rishi's eyes lit up instantly. He grabbed it like a child clutching his favorite toy and rubbed it against his cheek. "My precious… my love… you're back."
Sameer rolled his eyes. "Bro… it's just a camera."
Rishi glared at him. "Just a camera? Bro, this is emotion. This is my soul."
Dev chuckled, shaking his head. "Control your emotions, Romeo. We're still in a damn dangerous place."
Then his gaze shifted sharply back to Arjun. His tone dropped. "But wait… bro, how did you even find his camera? Last we saw, it fell in that area… the one where that monster appeared."
Sameer and Rishi both froze, their expressions mirroring the same confusion.
Arjun sighed deeply, as though tired of their paranoia. With one hand, he reached behind his back and pulled out the object he had been carrying.
It was… an old mop. Its handle cracked, cloth ends dangling with mildew.
"This," Arjun said flatly, holding it up, "was the thing you all got scared of. Nothing more. Just an old mop."
Dev smirked, folding his arms. "See? I knew it. There are no monsters in this world."
Sameer and Rishi exchanged a glance—their relief clear but their unease not entirely gone.
Dev leaned back against the table, his face calm on the outside, but his mind running like a storm inside.
Why didn't Arjun get scared? Where did that mop really come from? Is he hiding something?And what about his family… why was their surname written on that notice from the principal?What really happened on the last day of this school?
The questions burned in his head, but Dev kept his expression unreadable.
After a few minutes of silence, Arjun lifted his hand in a small wave, as if nothing had happened. He turned and began walking toward the door—his face now opposite to the others.
But Dev's voice cut through the air, serious and sharp."Arjun…"
Arjun stopped.
Dev's eyes narrowed. His tone was deeper now, almost accusing."Who are you?"
The room grew heavy with silence. Sameer and Rishi froze, staring between the two of them.
Then—Arjun slowly turned his head halfway, his face still in shadow.
And at that moment, when no one else could see, his eyes glowed faintly red, like hidden fire in the dark.
But before the others could notice, the glow vanished.
Arjun's face remained calm as if nothing had happened.