Yvessirae Pov
The weight of the morning was heavier than any textbook in my bag. I sat in the back of the lecture hall, my eyes fixed on the professor's moving lips, but I didn't hear a single word about historical philosophy. All I could see was the glowing static of my own eyes staring back at me from the hallway. All I could feel was the phantom sting of my own fingernails digging into my skin.
"Rae? Earth to Yvessirae."
I blinked, the fluorescent lights of the classroom suddenly snapping back into focus. Maia and Dvora were leaning over my desk, their faces a mix of concern and that same, tired pity I was beginning to hate. The rest of the class was packing up, the shuffle of paper and zipping of backpacks filling the room.
"You were a thousand miles away," Dvora said, crossing her arms. "Did you stay up all night?"
"I found them," I whispered, my voice sounding raw. "I got the Lens. And I got the Speech. I had them both in my hands."
Maia's eyes widened, and she quickly pulled a chair out to sit next to me. "Both? In one night? Rae, that's... that's almost impossible for a first-timer."
"It doesn't matter," I said, my voice rising with frustration. I pulled my phone out and slammed it onto the desk. "I took a picture. I had a clear shot of the Librarian. I thought I could show someone. But look."
I flicked through the gallery. The bright, sunny photos of me sleeping mocked us from the screen. "It changed the data. It's like the phone knew. It lied."
Maia didn't even look surprised. She sighed, pushing the phone back toward me. "No matter what you do in the game, Rae, it always stays in the game. Technology, ink on paper, even scars on your skin—the Reset is a perfect eraser. It doesn't just clean the school; it cleans the record of the night."
"But that's not the worst part," I said, leaning in so close our foreheads nearly touched. "I saw... me. There was another version of me in the Gallery. She had my face, my clothes, but her eyes were just static. She tried to kill me."
I expected them to gasp, to call me crazy, to tell me I was hallucinating from the stress. Instead, they just looked at each other with a knowing, heavy silence.
"That wasn't your twin or a ghost, Rae," Dvora said, her voice chillingly calm. "It's a Mimic. The school creates them specifically to guard the higher-tier items. It's someone—or something—pretending to be you because it knows you can't easily hurt yourself. It plays on your hesitation. It knows that if you see your own face crying or bleeding, you'll freeze."
"There is only one version of you," Maia added firmly, grabbing my hand. "And that is the you sitting here right now. If you ever see yourself again in the dark, don't talk to it.
Don't look into its eyes. It's just a trap made of shadows and your own memories."
Before I could ask anything else, the loud, cheerful chime of the lunch bell rang through the speakers. It was such a normal, happy sound that it made my stomach turn.
"Come on," Maia said, standing up. "You need to eat. You look like you're going to faint."
We walked out of the hall and toward the student union. The campus cafe was packed. The air was filled with the smell of roasted coffee, fresh paninis, and the loud, boisterous laughter of hundreds of students. I stood by the door, completely flabbergasted.
I watched a group of guys at a corner table arguing about a football game. I saw a couple holding hands over a shared milkshake. I saw a line of girls taking selfies near the window.
"Look at them," I whispered to Dvora. "There are so many people here. Hundreds. Maybe thousands."
"Yeah?" Dvora shrugged, grabbing a tray. "It's a big school, Rae."
"But when 8:00 PM strikes... I can't find a single person," I said, my heart sinking as the realization hit me. "I run through the halls, I scream for help, and it's like everyone has vanished into thin air. Why is no one else trying to escape? Why are they all just... eating lunch?"
Maia leaned in close as we moved through the line. "Because most of them have made a choice, Rae. The school offers a 'Sleepers' deal. If you agree to never look for the items—if you agree to just hide and never fight back—the school makes you forget the nightmare during the day. They live in total ignorance until the bell rings. They think they're having a normal college experience. They're happy because they've given up."
I looked at the laughing students again, and suddenly, they didn't look happy. They looked like cattle.
"I won't do it," I said, my grip tightening on my tray. "I won't forget."
We sat down at a small table near the back. I couldn't even look at my food. My mind was back in that vent, back in the Auditorium, listening to the ghostly voice in the chair.
"I have a plan for tonight," I said, my voice low and determined. "If the phone won't work, I need to leave a physical mark that the Reset can't touch. There has to be something that stays."
"The stone," Dvora whispered, her eyes darting around to make sure no one was listening. "There's a room in the basement. The 'Founders' Cellar.' It's the only part of the school built on the original foundation from a hundred years ago. The Reset has a hard time reaching it. Students have been carving their names into the walls there for decades."
"If I can get there," I said, "I can leave a message for myself. Or for whoever comes after me."
"It's dangerous, Rae," Maia warned. "The Cellar is where the 'Recruits' congregate before they go out on the hunt. You'll be walking right into the hornet's nest."
I looked out the window at the beautiful, fake campus. I thought about the static-eyed girl who looked like me. I thought about the picture on my phone that lied to my face.
"I've already died twice," I said, picking up my fork. "What's one more night in the nest?"
As I took a bite of my sandwich, I noticed a student at the next table staring at me. He was a tall guy with a varsity jacket, but he wasn't eating. He was just watching me. When I caught his eye, he didn't look away. He slowly raised a hand and pointed to the clock on the wall.
It was 12:00 PM. Halfway to the dark.
He leaned over and whispered just loud enough for me to hear: "The third item isn't in the lab anymore, Yvessirae. He moved it to the Chapel."
Before I could speak, he stood up and vanished into the crowd.
"Who was that?" I asked, breathless.
Maia and Dvora looked at the empty chair, then back at me, their faces pale.
"We didn't see anyone, Rae," Maia said, her voice trembling. "You were just talking to an empty table."
I looked down at the table where the boy had been. There, sitting next to a half-empty sugar packet, was a small, rusted pin in the shape of a bell. I picked it up. It was cold. It was real.
The game wasn't waiting for 8:00 PM anymore. It was starting to bleed into the day.
end of chapter 7