(From the journal of Aisha Khurana, dated October 31, 2019. Found six years later, hidden inside a wall at Ravenshade Academy.)

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"If you're reading this, it means I'm gone.

I don't know if we'll make it out tonight. But we have no choice. The others think we can stop this-Arjun, Meher, Ishan... they still have hope. But I know better.

We aren't the first. We won't be the last.

We thought we were uncovering a secret. We didn't realize we were part of the experiment.

Six of us went in. None of us were meant to leave.

The tunnels under the school-they go deeper than we thought. We found something down there. Something we were never supposed to see.

If I die, if we disappear, don't believe what they tell you. Don't let them erase us like they did the others.

Ravenshade is a lie. The Forsaken Club is a trap.

And whatever lives in the dark... it's waiting for you next.

Run."

- Aisha Khurana

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"We weren't invited. We were chosen.

Like bones drawn from an ancient grave.

The moment we stepped inside the tunnels, something knew our names.

And it hasn't stopped whispering since."

---

Ira Karki's breath fogged in the cold hallway air, her glove-clad fingers curled tightly around the tattered journal. Behind her, the mirror she had shattered lay in shards across the floor-glass that refused to reflect, as if something had swallowed her image whole.

The journal pulsed faintly in her hand. She could feel it-like a heartbeat that wasn't hers.

Around her, the others gathered.

Sonam Pelden, quiet but alert, eyes darting as if listening to something no one else could hear.

Farhad Kapadia, stone-faced, skeptical-yet clutching a blade he never admitted to carrying.

Arav Ray, half-sure this was a joke, half-hoping it wasn't.

And in the center, as always, stood Ato Yeptho.

Tall. Still. Watching Ira like he could see through the very fog crawling into her lungs.

His voice cut through the silence. "What did you see?"

Ira didn't answer immediately. Her eyes had turned silver-blue again, the glow barely fading. She had seen something-a shadow running beneath the floorboards. A name scratched on the wall in blood. A masked figure... with Ato's eyes.

"There were six," she murmured. "But they never left the tunnels."

Sonam shivered. "Then why are there only five of us?"

Ato stepped forward, his gaze steady but storming inside. "Because the sixth hasn't arrived yet."

The journal trembled violently. Pages flipped on their own, blood-stained ink dragging itself into jagged lines.

We were chosen.

Not for who we were-

But for what we would become.

Ravenshade is no school. It's a crucible.

A trap disguised as a legacy.

And when the sixth appears...

The circle begins again.

-Ira blinked. The last line wasn't in Aisha's handwriting. It had just appeared. Written in her own.

A sharp bang echoed down the corridor.

Farhad raised his weapon. Sonam backed against the wall. Arav cursed under his breath.

But Ato didn't move.

He simply turned toward the sound-toward the darkness-and whispered:

"They've started watching again."

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