The classroom was in controlled silence.
The teacher was explaining something about exponential functions on the board, his monotone voice echoing through the room while chalk scraped numbers no one really wanted to see at eight in the morning.
Davincci tried to keep up.
Valhalla looked bored.
Elloysa was taking notes with focus.
Beside her, Francielly was too still.
Her eyes fixed on her notebook.
But she wasn't writing anything.
The pain began as a light pressure behind her eyes.
Then it spread.
It pulsed along the sides of her head, as if something were pushing from the inside out.
She discreetly brought a hand to her temple.
She took a deep breath.
It didn't help.
The pressure increased.
A high-pitched sound emerged in the back of her hearing, not external, but internal. Like electrical interference.
Elloysa noticed the movement.
— Are you okay? — she whispered.
Francielly forced a smile too small to be convincing.
— I'm going to the bathroom.
She stood up before the teacher noticed and left the room.
In the hallway, the sound of the class became distant.
The pain intensified.
For a second, she had the sensation that she could hear things that weren't there, distant heartbeats, footsteps on the upper floor, someone opening a locker two rooms away.
She stopped.
She blinked hard.
— Stop… — she muttered to herself.
She continued to the girls' bathroom.
The bathroom was empty.
Cold. Echoing.
Francielly leaned against the sink and stared at the mirror.
Her reflection seemed… slightly delayed.
Nothing obvious.
But strange enough.
She moved closer.
Her eyes were normal.
But there was something behind them.
— What are you becoming? — she whispered to herself.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Maybe it was stress.
Maybe lack of sleep.
Maybe guilt.
She opened her eyes again.
For a microsecond, her pupils seemed darker.
She blinked.
They returned to normal.
— It's nothing… — she said softly.
She placed both hands on the sink.
The muscles in her arm were more defined than she remembered.
She squeezed her own wrist.
The strength was… greater.
She slowly let go.
Tried to ignore it.
Tried to pretend normality.
And that was when the bathroom door burst open.
— OH MY GOD, DID YOU SEE WHAT HE POSTED? — a voice shouted.
Four girls entered as if the bathroom were a stage.
Loud laughter. Strong perfume. Phones in hand.
Francielly closed her eyes for a second.
— Of course he'll come crawling back, he always does — said another.
— Men are all predictable — commented a third, tossing her backpack onto the sink.
The fourth just laughed at everything, even without understanding half of it.
The noise felt amplified.
Each laugh echoed like metal striking inside Francielly's head.
She clenched her teeth.
Tried to ignore it.
Washed her face again.
But the voices only grew louder.
— Girl, did you see the outfit that girl from class 3B was wearing? It looked like she got it from the trash!
Laughter.
One of the girls finally noticed Francielly standing there.
— Uh… look at that.
All four turned at the same time.
Momentary silence.
The one who seemed to lead the group — perfectly aligned hair, automatic superiority in her expression — tilted her head.
— Do you always just stand there… staring into nothing?
Francielly slowly lifted her eyes.
Tried to keep her voice neutral.
— Could you talk a little quieter?
The leader raised an eyebrow.
— We're in a bathroom. Not a library.
Another girl laughed.
— She's always been kind of weird, hasn't she?
Francielly felt something vibrate inside her chest.
The headache intensified.
— I just asked you to lower your voices — she repeated.
The leader crossed her arms.
— Or what?
She stepped forward.
— What are you gonna do, weirdo?
The name slipped out with disdain:
— Right, Luany?
One of the friends confirmed it, laughing.
Luany.
Luany gave a crooked smile.
— I've always thought you were kind of strange, you know? — she said, analyzing Francielly from head to toe. — You walk like you're hiding a secret. You barely talk. You stare weird. Like you're about to snap at any moment.
Her friends laughed.
The sound echoed.
Louder.
More irritating.
Francielly felt something change inside her.
Not explosive.
But rising.
Like pressure building behind a dam.
She looked at Luany.
For a moment, she felt like she could hear her heartbeat.
Fast.
Irregular.
Full of social adrenaline.
Luany took another step.
— Say something.
Silence.
Francielly just stared.
And for the first time, Luany seemed slightly uncomfortable.
The pain in Francielly's head suddenly stopped.
Replaced by something worse.
Clarity.
The silence in the bathroom felt artificial.
As if the air had grown denser.
Luany held the gaze, but now there was a microsecond of hesitation there. Something instinctive. Animal.
Francielly took a deep breath.
Once.
Twice.
When she spoke, her voice was… too normal.
— Sorry.
The four girls looked at each other.
— For what? — Luany asked, still wearing that half-smile.
Francielly took a small step forward.
— I think I've really been acting kind of strange lately.
The shift in posture was so abrupt it almost seemed rehearsed. Her shoulders relaxed. Her gaze softened.
— My name is Francielly… I don't think I ever properly introduced myself.
Luany blinked.
— Okay…?
Her friends laughed, uneasy.
— How old are you? — Francielly asked, tilting her head slightly.
— Seventeen. — Luany answered, already confused.
— Oh. Me too.
Francielly smiled.
It was a beautiful smile.
Wrong, but beautiful.
— And everything okay? School, life, that kind of stuff?
— It's… normal? — Luany replied, not understanding where this was going.
Francielly nodded slowly.
— That's good.
She extended her hand.
— Nice to meet you then, Luany.
There was a second of hesitation.
But the social need not to seem like "the weird one in the situation" won.
Luany shook her hand.
The touch was cold.
Firm.
Too strong.
Francielly squeezed gently at first.
Then… not so gently.
Luany frowned.
— Hey—
In a movement too fast to process, Francielly twisted Luany's arm into an impossible angle.
The sound that followed was not a scream at first.
It was a crack.
Dry.
Brutal.
And then the scream came.
A high-pitched scream that echoed throughout the bathroom.
Her friends froze.
Francielly was no longer smiling.
She twisted harder.
And Luany's arm tore away from her body in a violent, abrupt motion, as if there weren't enough resistance to stop it.
Blood splattered across the mirror.
The floor.
The walls.
Luany fell backward, the shock greater than the pain in the first seconds.
The other three began screaming at the same time.
Francielly dropped the torn limb as if it were insignificant.
Her breathing was steady.
Her eyes… darkening.
And whatever was there now… definitely wasn't just Francielly.
— AHHHHH! — the scream cut through the bathroom like a blade.
The sound echoed off the tiled walls.
Francielly stopped smiling.
The silence she wanted did not come.
Panic did.
She slightly tilted her neck, her expression hardening.
— What the hell… — she muttered, her voice now deeper, emptier. — You're still screaming? Learn what silence is.
One of the girls tried to run to the door.
She didn't make it.
Francielly appeared in front of her in an almost imperceptible movement. The punch landed on the side of her head, short, direct, precise beyond human. The impact caused the girl's head to be mangled and sent her violently against the wall. The tile cracked. Her body slid to the floor without reaction.
— Second. — she said calmly.
Francielly's eyes turned completely black.
A white pupil emerging in the center like an inverted symbol of purity.
This was no longer an irritated teenager.
It was something unleashed.
The third girl tried to hide behind one of the sinks, crying, begging.
— Stop! Please!
Francielly leaned forward, analyzing her as if curious.
— Funny… — she whispered. — Now you know how to speak quietly.
She advanced.
The next movement was too fast for the eyes to follow. The girl's chest was pierced and her heart crushed. A dry sound echoed as her body lost resistance. Something fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
Another one.
The fourth tried to escape through the door.
She slipped.
Fell.
Crawled desperately.
Francielly walked after her slowly. No hurry.
— Run — she murmured, almost amused. — Let's see how far you get.
The escape attempt ended in seconds.
The third girl had both her legs and arms torn off, with clean, perfect cuts.
The bathroom was now unrecognizable.
The metallic smell dominated the air.
The silence, now, was absolute.
Except for one sound.
Irregular breathing.
Luany.
She was on the floor, against the wall, eyes wide, unable to process what had happened. Shock kept her alive and paralyzed.
Francielly approached slowly.
Her footsteps echoed.
She stopped in front of her.
— What bad luck… — she said, almost pitying.
Luany tried to speak.
No words came out.
Francielly leaned down.
The movement was quick.
Luany's head was torn off.
And it ended in silence.
And then…
The breathing changed.
The black eyes began to lighten.
The white pupil disappeared.
Francielly blinked.
Looked at her own hands.
At the floor.
At the walls.
The entire bathroom looked like an impossible scene.
— What… — her voice came out trembling. — What happened…?
She took a step back.
Slipped.
The shock finally hit.
— No… no… no…
Her heart accelerated.
Her hands began to tremble.
— That wasn't me… that wasn't me…
But it was.
She knew it.
She stumbled out of the bathroom, trying to breathe.
In the hallway, the noise of the school was still normal.
For three seconds.
Until the first staff member noticed something was wrong.
— What is going on here?
The principal appeared at the end of the hallway.
— Francielly? What was that screaming?
He took two steps toward the bathroom.
Looked inside.
And froze.
His expression shifted from confusion to absolute horror.
Francielly was pale.
Trapped.
Her eyes began to darken again.
— I'm sorry… — she murmured, almost crying. — I don't have a choice.
She advanced.
The blow was strong enough to knock the principal down immediately, but controlled enough not to kill him. His body hit the floor heavily.
Staff members began to scream.
Students and teachers poured out of classrooms.
Chaos spread like fire.
Francielly ran.
Dodged a teacher.
Shoved a staff member without even looking back.
Alarms began to sound.
Attention students, an active threat is in the school. Evacuate immediately if possible!
Screams.
Running footsteps.
Doors slamming.
A distant siren beginning to approach.
Davincci, Valhalla, and Elloysa stood frozen for a few seconds inside the classroom.
— What's happening? — Elloysa asked, already standing.
Valhalla looked out into the hallway.
People running.
A teacher crying.
And… blood on the floor.
Davincci felt his stomach drop.
— It can't be…
Valhalla was the first to understand.
— It's her.
Silence.
Elloysa swallowed hard.
— Francielly?
Outside, the chaos intensified.
And somewhere in the hallway, something was moving far too fast to be caught.