Arya woke up in a rush.
His body felt heavy, as if he had just been forced back from a long, unfamiliar, and unpleasant dream. His eyes blinked several times, trying to adjust to the morning light seeping through the gap in the curtains. His hand fumbled around the small table beside the bed, searching for his phone.
The moment he saw the screen, Arya's heart began to pound.
07:42.
His alarm had died long ago. The sun was already climbing high.
"Ah, shit… morning class!"
Arya jumped out of bed in a panic. He grabbed his bag lying haphazardly on the floor, pulled a wrinkled hoodie from its hanger, and slipped his feet into a pair of shoes without bothering to tie the laces. In one hurried motion, he locked the door to his boarding room and ran out.
His breath came in short gasps. His footsteps echoed through the narrow alleyway of the boarding house.
Usually, the road to campus would be bustling at this hour. Students would be coming and going, motorcycle taxi drivers would be hanging around the street corners, and the voices of food stall ladies calling out to breakfast customers would be heard from all directions.
But this morning…
There was nothing.
Not a single person.
No vehicles passing by.
Not even the sound of birds that usually chirped from the flamboyant tree at the intersection.
Arya slowly slowed his pace. A cold chill pierced his skin even though the sun was shining brightly. The morning air should have felt warm under the sunlight, but what touched his skin was a biting cold that seeped deep into his bones. The trees along the road stood rigid. Their leaves did not stir in the slightest, as if the entire place was holding its breath.
"Why is it so quiet…? Could it be a holiday today?"
Arya muttered to himself, trying to shake off the strange feeling that was beginning to creep into his chest.
But he remembered clearly.
There was no announcement about a holiday.
He quickened his pace again.
"Maybe I'm just too tense…"
A few minutes later, the campus building came into view in the distance.
But instead of feeling relieved, Arya's steps slowed down once more.
The front courtyard of the campus was usually full of students sitting on benches. Some were busy on their phones, some were reading books under the shady trees, while others were walking back and forth toward their respective buildings. This morning, the courtyard was empty. Completely empty.
Arya swallowed hard.
"What the hell is this…?"
His whisper sounded too clear in the silence. He forced himself not to turn back and stepped into the campus building.
As soon as he passed through the door, the cold air grew even stronger.
The stairs leading to the upper floors looked dark even though the neon lights on the ceiling were dimly lit. Each of Arya's steps created echoes that sounded too loud in the silent corridor. Floor after floor he passed. There was no one. No sound of chatter. No sound of students' footsteps. No sound of chairs scraping against the floor from the classrooms.
There was nothing.
The further he walked, the stronger the feeling that this building wasn't just empty. As if this place had been abandoned for years.
Upon reaching the fifth floor, Arya paused for a moment. He tried to steady his breathing, which was beginning to become irregular. A long corridor stretched out before him like a hallway with no end.
The windows on the left side were tightly shut. Sunlight only seeped through the small gaps, casting long, odd shadows across the tiled floor. Arya began walking toward the end of the corridor, toward his classroom. His footsteps were clearly audible.
The sound of his steps bounced off the walls and returned to him. For some reason, the echo sounded like another set of footsteps following from behind. Arya quickly turned around.
Empty.
He swallowed and faced forward again, his hand trembling slightly as it touched the classroom door handle. He took a deep breath.
"Maybe this is all just in my head. They must have already started class… and I'm going to get yelled at by the lecturer for being late."
Arya pushed the door open. Its hinges let out a long creak.
The room was empty.
All the chairs were still neatly arranged. There were no students busy chatting or preparing their notes. The neon lights were on in the ceiling, but their light felt pale, as if unable to chase away the cold air that filled the room.
Arya stepped inside slowly. The wooden floor creaked beneath his feet. He closed the door behind him.
And then a deep voice broke the silence.
"You're late. Sit down quickly."
Arya jolted. His body stiffened instantly.
At the far end of the room, a middle-aged man stood with his back to him. His hair was jet black without a single streak of gray. He wore a white shirt that had yellowed in some places and black cloth trousers that looked worn. His shoulders were broad. But there was something wrong about his presence. A cold air emanated from the man's body, more piercing than the chill Arya had felt in the hallway earlier.
"Quickly. Sit down."
His voice was firm and authoritative.
Arya's heart felt like it had dropped into his stomach. His breath caught in his throat. Every instinct in him screamed to run. But his legs would not move. His hands felt numb. His fingers began to grow cold with sweat.
The man slowly turned around. Only then did Arya realize that he was the lecturer who taught the morning class. The man's face was expressionless, without the slightest smile. He was probably in his fifties, but his eyes held something difficult to describe.
Without much thought, Arya walked to the backmost seat and sat down.
Even so, his mind was full of questions. He took out a notebook from his bag and opened it, pretending to be ready to follow the lesson.
And so the class began. Thirty minutes passed. The lecturer taught as usual. He wrote something on the whiteboard while explaining material that sounded foreign to Arya. The other students also looked serious, taking notes.
No one spoke. No one joked. No small murmurs that usually popped up between lessons. The atmosphere was so silent.
Then suddenly, Arya's phone vibrated.
Arya glanced at the screen under the desk. A new message had just come in from the group chat.
"Today's morning class is canceled because the lecturer has an event out of town. Class is off."
Arya read it once.
Then again.
At first he thought it was just a joke from his friends, but something inside him began to sense the oddity. Slowly, Arya lifted his head. He looked around the room.
And then he realized it.
The clothes of the students in the room looked outdated and styled like something from the 1990s.
Some wore plaid shirts with slicked-back hair. Others wore blouses and long skirts in styles that had long been out of fashion. Arya felt his heart beating faster and faster. His body began to feel cold. Cold sweat ran down his temples. He tried to find a logical explanation for everything that was happening.
But before he could find a single answer, the lecturer's voice came again.
"You've noticed it, haven't you?"
The voice now sounded deeper and softer. But it was precisely because of that, the voice felt increasingly piercing to Arya's ears, like the sound of a death knell in the distance. Arya slowly turned his head.
The lecturer was now walking toward him.
His steps were slow, but each step felt like it was adding more and more pressure on Arya's chest. His gaze was sharp, as if it could see right through to Arya's very soul.
"Before class ends, no one is allowed to leave this room," he continued in a threatening tone.
Panic began to consume Arya. His whole body felt stiff, as if something was holding him in place. The cold crept from the tips of his toes all the way to his head.
He wanted to scream, but his voice seemed trapped in his throat. His eyes darted around, searching for an exit. The door behind him felt so far away and tightly shut.
Suddenly, a woman's scream came from outside the classroom. The sound was so loud it echoed through the entire room.
Arya squeezed his eyes shut. He hoped that all of this was just a nightmare that would soon be over. But the harder he tried to ignore it, the heavier the atmosphere that enveloped the room became.
And for the first time, Arya could only hope that this would all be over soon.