The lights cut out.
Everything went black in an instant.
A second later, the emergency bulb buzzed to life — faint, flickering, casting long shadows across the file room like ghosts waiting to be seen.
Camille was gone.
The door hung open.
No footsteps. No sound. Just the stale, electric quiet of panic.
"She was right there," I whispered. "She—she saw us."
Killian moved fast, yanking open the door fully and stepping into the hall. "She left us in here on purpose."
I followed close, heart hammering against my ribs. "Why? Why not call security? Why not—"
"Because she wants us scared," he said. "She's not trying to stop us yet. She's testing us."
I clutched the files tighter against my chest. Lila's folder. My own.
"How long do you think she's been part of this?"
Killian didn't answer.
But I could see it in his eyes.
Too long.
Back in the greenhouse, we sat in the same corner as always. The only place on campus that felt invisible enough to think clearly.
I handed Killian the folder labeled "Z. Monroe."
He flipped through it carefully. Silent. Focused.
"Your dorm. Your class schedule. A copy of your application essay. Notes from professors you haven't even spoken to yet."
"They were watching me before I even arrived," I said, voice hollow.
Killian nodded. "This isn't just about your sister anymore. They're expanding. Watching anyone who asks too many questions."
"But why? What is this place really hiding?"
He leaned back on the bench, eyes tracing the cracked glass overhead.
"There are rumors," he said. "Old ones. Stories about experiments, psychological evaluations, behavioral testing…"
I stared. "You think Blackmere is—"
"I think someone at Blackmere is."
"Lila found out," I said. "She figured it out. That's why they killed her."
He didn't correct me.
He didn't try to soften it.
Because he believed it, too.
The next morning, Camille was gone.
Not just from the dorm.
From the school.
Her name was wiped from the RA roster. Her photo gone from the dorm bulletin. Even her bed had been emptied out — mattress flipped, closet cleared, keycard invalidated.
Like she never existed.
"She's not stupid," Killian said. "She knew we were getting too close. She ran before they made her disappear like the others."
I clutched the folder tighter. "So what now?"
"We go higher," he said. "Whoever's running this isn't some random RA."
We spent that weekend digging.
Killian hacked into the staff database — don't ask me how, I didn't want to know — and pulled up names that had been on the payroll two years ago.
One stood out.
Dean Vincent Soren.
I froze.
V. S.
The initials from Lila's journal.
The name Killian mentioned weeks ago — the former Dean of Student Life who vanished after my sister's death.
"Where is he now?" I asked.
"Official record says medical leave," Killian said. "But there's no forwarding address. No record of transfer. No paper trail."
"Which means?"
Killian's voice dropped. "Which means someone made him disappear, too."
Monday came.
A normal week at Blackmere.
If you ignored the lies.
If you ignored the fact that I now walked with one eye over my shoulder and my fingers curled tightly around the strap of my bag like it held a weapon.
I still went to class. Still showed up. Still played the part of the quiet transfer student who didn't know anything.
But I was watching.
Always watching.
Especially Professor Halvers.
He'd been my Lit Theory teacher since day one — monotone, sarcastic, eyes too sharp for someone who "didn't care."
But now I noticed things.
Like how he never looked surprised. Or how he always seemed to know when someone had stopped talking behind him.
And how he flinched — visibly flinched — when he saw the folder sticking out of my bag one afternoon.
After class, I stopped by his office.
He didn't ask why I was there.
He just leaned back in his chair and stared at me.
"You're not subtle," he said. "But I'll give you credit. You're braver than your sister."
My heart stopped.
"You knew her."
"She was in my office more than she was in class," he said. "Smart. Unstable. Reckless. Thought she could fight something bigger than herself."
"She could have," I said. "If someone had helped her."
He tilted his head. "Is that what you're doing now? Trying to finish what she started?"
"I'm trying to understand what she died for."
Halvers stood.
Walked to the cabinet in the corner of his office.
Unlocked it.
Pulled out a dusty file marked "Soren, V."
And dropped it on the desk between us.
"You didn't get this from me," he said. "You never came here. I never spoke to you."
I stared at the folder.
And whispered, "Thank you."
Inside were records — disciplinary reports, letters of concern, internal memos.
Dean Soren had been accused of "unauthorized student evaluations."
He'd started a program called Project PRAXIS — a behavioral tracking initiative disguised as scholarship review.
It involved secret observation, planted stressors, false social manipulation… and "testing the limits of human resilience."
And the test subjects?
Students flagged as emotionally vulnerable, intelligent, and isolated.
Like Lila.
Like… me.
I met Killian at the greenhouse that night.
His face was unreadable as he read through the PRAXIS documents.
"So it's true," I said. "All of it. They were using us."
"They still are," he said.
I nodded.
"Then we expose them."
Killian looked up.
"Zara, if we do this—"
"I know."
"We'll be next."
"I don't care."
Later, alone in my dorm, I opened Lila's journal again.
One final page had come loose from the back — a note I hadn't seen before.
In shaky, rushed handwriting:
"If something happens to me, don't trust anyone. Not even him."
I stared.
Felt the air drain from the room.
Because it was signed:
– L
And I wasn't sure who she meant by him.
But one name echoed louder than the rest.
Killian.
[Creator's Note – oh no, not HIM 😭💔]
WHAT. THE. HELL.
Zara just found Lila's last warning — and it might've been about Killian??? 😭 I refuse to believe this man with trauma and emotional damage is the bad guy… BUT THEN AGAIN 👀
Also… Project PRAXIS?! Experimental psychological testing?? This school is giving straight-up horror movie energy.
Who's really behind it? What did Killian know before Zara arrived? And is it possible Lila was betrayed by someone she trusted?
Chapter 8 is coming. And it's going to HURT.
xoxo
–Smith_10