A Month Later
Caliban Hall, Nevermore
Valen and Alex were in the narrow, drafty room assigned to them. Their parents had just dropped them off.
Valen tossed his bag on the bed and let out a low whistle.
So this is Nevermore.
The walls were cracked, the ceiling creaked when the wind hit just right, and the furniture looked like it had been stolen from a second-hand shop that specialized in curses.
I think Wednesday comes next year… but I'll definitely meet Bianca. Wonder what she's been up to.
"I can't believe I'm finally here, finally a school life. I will definitely make a girlfriend...," Alex muttered, running a hand over the crooked bedframe. His eyes lit up in that way they always did when his brain started wandering.
Valen smirked. "You're already muttering? We've been here five minutes."
Alex ignored him, scanning the space. "Hey, man, wanna decorate it like our old room?"
"Fuck yeah."
They got to work. Most of the decorations weren't posters or string lights like the other students would put up, but their trophies. Jagged claws, cracked fangs, preserved eyes that gleamed faintly in the dark.
Their elder, Karo, had been a master craftsman and turned the remains of the monsters they'd killed into keepsakes, morbid jewelry, crude wall-hangings, even a lamp stitched together from the bones of something that definitely hadn't been human.
By the time they were done, the room looked less like a dorm and more like the lair of something waiting for the apocalypse.
"So where the hell do we keep shooting the vids?" Alex asked, holding his phone up and circling the space. "This room's impossible. Too small for a studio, and the neighbors will probably complain if we start beating the drums too much."
Before Valen could answer, the door creaked open and a senior stepped inside.
"Hey, freshers! Welcome." He flipped open a notepad, scribbling as he glanced at them. His questions came rapid-fire- names, powers, where they were from. But when they said the word Eidolons, his pen froze mid-stroke.
"Uh… no offense, but weren't Eidolons just, like… stories? Extinct?"
Valen gave him a flat look. Then, slowly, his hand twisted, skin splitting, bone lengthening into a jagged claw. He set it on the senior's shoulder, the points just grazing fabric. The effect was wonderfully intimidating.
The senior's eyes widened. He'd clearly seen claws before, Nevermore was full of them, but nothing like this.
"Ah… hah." His laugh was thin, nervous. "I see now. Okay, cool. Good talk." He snapped the notepad shut. "We've got a meet after dinner tonight. All the seniors and first-years. Looking forward to… uh… having you."
Then he bolted, nearly tripping over his own boots in his hurry.
Alex chuckled. "You didn't have to scare him like that."
Valen flexed the claw once before shifting it back into a hand. "It was funny. Besides, he was probably a gorgon, right?"
"Maybe. He did wear a beanie. Could've been hiding snakes."
Valen leaned back on the bed. Gorgons… wasn't there one in the series? What was his name again?
*
After Dinner in the Lounge
The fire in the lounge crackled low, shadows stretching long across the vaulted ceiling of Caliban Hall. The smell of damp wool and wet leaves clung to everyone who had come in from the storm.
The new arrivals gathered in uneasy clusters, sinking into threadbare couches and crooked armchairs that had probably been here since Nevermore was built. Some clutched mugs of cocoa as if the sugar might save them. Others still dragged their trunks in from the corridor, dripping rainwater across the stone floor.
Alex leaned back on a faded velvet chair, his boots kicked onto the armrest. Valen sat beside him, posture loose but eyes scanning the room. The storm outside rattled the windows, the glass panes quivering like they might burst inward at any second.
A senior lounged against the mantel, smirking. His face was made for half-truths, cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass, smile caught somewhere between charm and threat. The firelight turned him into something theatrical.
"First night in Caliban Hall," he said, voice carrying easily over the crackle of fire and storm. "Tradition says you get a story. Not a bedtime one. Those don't last long around here."
The chatter died. The younger kids exchanged nervous glances. Someone's mug clinked too loud against their teeth.
Alex and Valen just smirked at each other.
The senior tilted his head toward the corner, where the old grandfather clock stood like a corpse on duty. Its pendulum swung with a faint tick that blended with the storm. "Ever heard of the boy with the mechanical heart?"
A few shook their heads. Someone muttered, "No…"
The senior's grin widened. "He was one of us. Long ago. Brilliant, they said. Too brilliant. Born with a weak heart, so he built a new one out of gears and springs. A clock inside his chest, tick-tock, tick-tock, keeping him alive. They say you could hear it echo down the halls at night."
The fire popped, sparks leaping up the chimney. The younger kids leaned in.
"But genius has… complications." He tapped his temple. "He built other things. Dangerous things. Machines that never should've been made. One night, one of them went wrong. Boom. The whole lab went up."
The storm outside rumbled as if on cue. Shadows quivered across the ceiling.
"When the blast hit, it wasn't just fire and smoke. Half the tower ripped apart. His body was thrown clear across the grounds, like a rag doll caught in the wind." The senior's tone shifted, half amusement, half horror. "He landed beneath the oldest tree in the cemetery. The one shaped like a skull. Bones shattered, gears twisted, but that heart…" He tapped his chest with two fingers. "Still ticking. Tick… tock… tick… tock."
A log in the fire cracked loud enough to make one freshman flinch.
"He was buried right where he fell. The earth swallowed him whole. But the heart never stopped. Stand there at night, real quiet, and you'll feel it. The ground pulsing, like the heart is still waiting beneath your feet."
The kids stiffened.
"A dare," another senior chimed in lazily from the couch. "Simple enough, sneak out, go to the Skull Tree, and stand under it until you hear the ticking. If you come back and swear you heard nothing… fine. But if you do hear it…" He let the firelight paint his grin into something wolfish. "…you'll never mistake it for anything else."
One of the freshmen scoffed. "That's stupid."
The first senior leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Then it should be easy, right? Just stand there. Just the dark, the storm, and the sound in the ground beneath your feet." He let the silence hang, then whispered, "Tick… tock… tick… tock", tilting his head with each word.
A nervous laugh bubbled from the group, swallowed quickly by the thunder outside.
"Every hall has its way of breaking in new blood," he finished. "For Caliban, it's the Skull Tree. Midnight isn't far."
The grandfather clock in the corner chimed, its hollow note dragging through the air like a warning.
No one spoke. No one volunteered. Every eye flicked toward the windows, black with storm.
Alex elbowed Valen. "Wanna go?"
Valen raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"To the Skull Tree. Won't it be exciting?"
Valen looked at him. Alex's grin spread for adventure. "Do you actually want to?"
"Yeah." Alex nodded quickly.
Good time for him to make some new friends, Valen thought. I'm fine with just the two of us. But he's a kid… he needs people.
He raised his hand. "We'll go."
Every head turned.
"Anyone wanna come with us?"
A few hands shot up, some eager, some dragged by the invisible noose of peer pressure. Nobody wanted to look weak on their first night.
The senior at the mantel barked a laugh. "Now that's what I call real Calibans! Let's go. I'll show you the way out."
The room buzzed with sudden energy. Whispers. Excitement. Fear. By now, the entire dorm had gathered, drawn by rumor. Watching was tradition, too.
A hulking senior moved through the crowd, a head taller than anyone else, broad as a doorframe. His voice rumbled low. "Be careful out there. Things wander the grounds in this weather." He didn't look like he was joking.
Eight kids in total agreed to take the challenge. Valen. Alex. A boy with sharp teeth, definitely a werewolf. A witch with a streak of silver hair. Others whose powers hadn't revealed themselves yet.
"Click a photo for proof!" someone shouted.
The seniors led them to a side corridor where ivy curled through cracked windows. The group slipped out, one by one, sliding down the rain-slick tree outside and landing in the mud with a splash.
Valen hit the ground in silence. Alex landed beside him, laughing. The others followed, stumbling, slipping, giggling nervously as the rain plastered hair to their faces.
They ran. Across the courtyard, over the stone wall, into the woods. Flashlights cut wild beams through the downpour. Raincoats slapped against their legs. Mud splattered up their shins.
The storm howled around them, but the thrill carried them forward like a current they couldn't resist.
The woods thinned, and the air grew colder. The ground beneath their boots changed from soft mud to uneven stone. Rain-slick slabs jutted up at odd angles, some tilted so far they looked like teeth gnawing their way out of the earth.
They'd stumbled into the cemetery.
[Image]
Crooked crosses leaned like drunks, some snapped clean in half. Names had long since faded from the stones, leaving only scars. One grave marker had been split down the middle, jagged as if something inside had pushed too hard to get out.
"Creepy enough for you?" Valen muttered.
Alex just grinned and pulled out his phone, the flashlight beam cutting a harsh circle through the fog. "Perfect time for a vlog."
Valen shot him smirk. "Really?"
"Yeah, man. What's creepier than filming in a cemetery during a storm?" Alex already had it recording, the red light glaring back at them.
He turned the camera on himself, water running down his face. "What's up, homies, it's Alex here, with Valen. First night at Nevermore, and, uh, guess what? We're doing the Skull Tree dare."
Behind him, the others groaned.
"You're seriously livestreaming this?" asked the werewolf, tugging his hood tighter. His teeth glinted when he talked.
"Not live," Alex said, panning the camera to him anyway. "We don't want the school to, like, expel us on day one. But come on, introductions!"
The flashlight beam cut across their faces as Alex swung the phone around.
"Okay, so, this handsome bastard is Valen," Alex said, pointing the camera toward his brother. Valen just raised an eyebrow at the lens, rain dripping off his hair. He just waved with a charming smile.
Next, Alex turned the phone toward the werewolf, who bared his teeth in a mock growl. "Leo" The werewolf snorted.
One by one they leaned into the beam of light.
"Eli," said a skinny kid with glasses, his voice cracking. "Uh… nothing special yet."
"Connor," said another, puffing his chest.
"Mateo," muttered a stocky boy with a shaved head, giving the camera a flat look like he regretted everything already.
They went around in a stumbling rhythm, some trying to sound mysterious, others trying too hard to sound tough. Their names blurred in the rain and fog, just strangers forced together by dare and storm.
Then the camera swung toward the lanky kid in the beanie. He hesitated, tugging it lower over his forehead.
"…Ajax," he said finally. His voice was soft.
Alex tilted the phone. "Ajax. Strong, silent, totally suspicious. Bet he's hiding snakes under there."
A ripple of laughter passed through the group, but Ajax just gave a half-smile and looked away.
Alex flipped the camera back to himself, water dripping down his cheek. "There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The Caliban Hall Class of Idiots... Eight idiots, one haunted tree. If we die, somebody better make a Netflix documentary about us."
----
A/N – Just like before, I went a little crazy and made this chapter long enough to count as a bonus too.
First chapter at Nevermore!! Next up… we finally meet someone you've all been waiting for!!! (any guesses?)
Milestone-
Till the next power reset!
Every 10 reviews = 1 bonus chapter!
Now gimme that POWERSTONE …got a planet to save.