--- Chapter 13: Whispers from the Walls The screaming didn't stop. It swallowed the hallway like a wave of madness, echoing off the cracked walls of Dorm 6A. Light bulbs burst, one after the other, until darkness claimed the corridors. The students huddled in the common room, too terrified to scream, too alert to sleep. The only sound was their ragged breathing and the whispering in the walls. The whispering never stopped. Clara clutched Maya's wrist. "That wasn't Rachel. You know that, right?" Maya nodded, but her eyes said something else. Her mind was racing, trying to piece together the possibility — what if Rachel was alive? What if she had been trapped this whole time, speaking through whatever had taken her? A chilling voice echoed from the hallway: "Let me in... please..." Naomi sobbed into her knees. Daniel stood by the boarded-up window, eyes darting between shadows. "It's playing with us," he muttered. "It knows our fear. It feeds on it." Clara looked toward the hallway, her skin crawling. "No. It's not just feeding. It's hunting." A sudden thud shook the dormitory. The floor vibrated like something massive had landed on the roof. The sound echoed again — boom... boom... boom — like heavy, dragging footsteps above them. "We need to get out," Naomi whispered. "And go where?" Maya asked, voice hollow. "We tried the authorities. They're covering it up. They won't let us leave." "We have to try," Daniel said. "We can't stay here and wait to die." Before anyone could respond, the emergency alarm system crackled to life. A voice — metallic and robotic — came through the speaker. "THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN SYSTEM. PLEASE REMAIN INDOORS. DOORS WILL BE SEALED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE." The door slammed shut behind them with a deafening clang. They were locked in. Clara ran to the door, yanking at the handle. "No, no, no! It's locked from the outside!" Maya backed away slowly. "They knew it was coming." Naomi's lip trembled. "They trapped us. With it." Boom... boom... boom... The sound came again — this time, closer. From the hallway. Clara turned to the others. "We need to find somewhere to hide. Not just in this room. Somewhere it can't reach." "What about the basement?" Daniel asked. Maya's eyes widened. "You mean the one they sealed off after the fire?" "Exactly. If they sealed it off, maybe they were trying to keep something in — or out." They moved quickly. Clara led the way down the shadowy hallway, her phone's flashlight barely cutting through the darkness. Strange markings lined the walls — unfamiliar symbols drawn in charcoal, some pulsing faintly with a reddish glow. Maya paused. "Wait... this wasn't here before." "I think they're protection symbols," Clara said. "Like what Father Emma tried to use." "He died anyway," Daniel muttered. They reached the stairwell that led to the basement. The entrance was chained and padlocked. Naomi pulled at the chains. "We'll never break this—" Daniel stepped forward, pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall, and swung. CRACK. The padlock snapped. The basement door creaked open. Darkness bled from within — thick, oily, suffocating. The air smelled of mold and something rotten. Clara took the first step, heart hammering. The others followed, their feet echoing on the concrete stairs. At the bottom was a long, narrow hallway — stone walls, dripping pipes, and rusted doors on either side. Old storage rooms, maybe. Or cells. Naomi stopped. "This... this isn't a basement. It's something else." They moved deeper, flashlights flickering as if something was interfering with them. Maya's breath hitched. "Guys," she whispered. "That smell... it's sulfur." Clara's hand flew to her mouth. Sulfur. The sign of something demonic. Daniel stepped ahead and froze. "There's something here." They turned the corner. A massive black sigil was drawn on the floor — the size of a room. Candles surrounded it, now burned down to nubs. Bones — human bones — lined the outer circle. In the center sat a tattered journal. Clara picked it up. The name on the cover made her knees go weak. Rachel Chukwuma. Maya gasped. "That's her handwriting." Clara opened it. The pages were filled with frantic writing, drawings of the Dwfilt, and entries about what she had discovered. "Dorm 6A wasn't built by accident. It was a seal. A prison. Dwfilt was buried under it, kept weak by the markings. But someone removed them. Someone let it wake up again. I tried to warn them. I tried to stop it. But it's too late. I hear it whispering my name now." Clara turned to Maya slowly. "Your sister didn't just vanish." "She sacrificed herself," Maya whispered. Suddenly, the sigil on the floor began to glow — blood red, then black. From the wall behind them, a voice spoke in Rachel's voice: "Help me, Maya... I can't hold it much longer." The walls trembled. The floor cracked. A black hand, long and clawed, began to rise from the center of the sigil. Maya screamed. Daniel grabbed her and pulled her back. Clara dropped the journal. "Run! RUN!" They fled up the stairs, the roar of the Dwfilt following them, shaking the very bones of Dorm 6A. As they reached the top, the basement door slammed shut behind them. Clara turned the lock — this time from the outside. "I'm sorry, Rachel," she whispered. And in the silence that followed, a single word echoed up the stairs from below. "Traitors..."