The old woman's eyes held him like a vise. Paul felt his consciousness slipping, his mind drowning in the darkness of those black voids. He was seconds away from hitting the pavement when a hand suddenly clamped onto his arm and yanked him around.
The moment his eyes broke contact with the woman in the window, the fog in his brain vanished. His mind went back to being as clear as water, the heavy pressure lifting instantly as if he had been pulled out of deep, suffocating waves. He gasped, the artificial weight of her stare finally gone.
Standing in front of him was a girl with black hair streaked with rose-pink highlights. She looked at him with a mix of pride and amusement. "You didn't think you could just stroll down the street and reach the opening ceremony, did you?"
Paul was speechless. His eyes were still wide, his heart racing from the close call.
"You really are something," she continued, seemingly amused. "Scuola Phobia is an elite school, one of the best five institutions for the gifted. Reaching the opening ceremony is our first test to evaluate us. The selection was just the beginning."
Paul was starting to get the situation. He wondered why he hadn't been informed of such crucial details, but then, after a second thought, he just accepted it. Why would they even mind telling someone filling the vacant place? To the government, he was just a body to throw into the meat grinder.
"Oh, thanks," Paul replied, trying to pull himself together. "I was admitted very late because I chose this school as my second option. I didn't have time to consult the administration or do my research."
He said it quickly, trying to hide the fact that he was the "defective" filling the vacant seat.
"Well, whatever. I'm Alexia. We can cross the street together if you want." Paul made a quick calculation. It was better to stick with someone having knowledge. "Let's go together then."
---
Having a mutual agreement, they decided to cross the street to the other side to avoid the strange woman. There were still 150 meters until they reached the school gates.
They had only moved twenty meters when a pair of dolls appeared out of nowhere. One reached out and brushed Paul's shoulder. A chill shot down his spine, and in a blink, the world blurred. They were standing right back at the start.
"What the hell happened?" Paul asked, looking at Alexia for an explanation. "I have no clue," she thought for a bit. "It seems this year's examination will be harder than usual."
Paul looked back toward the Great Pentagonal building. "How are we supposed to pass this?"
"Calm down," Alexia said, her voice relaxed and logical. "I see about seventeen students ahead of us. It's definitely possible. We know a doll appears at a certain point. We just need to find the mechanism that triggers them."
"A mechanism?" Paul thought back to the woman and the way his mind had cleared. "It's a fear mechanism. It has to be."
"Fear? What do you mean by that?"
"I almost lost it when I looked at that woman," Paul confessed, feeling a bit ashamed. "But she was there before I looked. If it happened right after I reacted to her, then one of the possibilities I can infer is that the reaction was the trigger. The dolls appeared out of nowhere to force a reaction out of us, like jumpscares in video games."
"I see," Alexia said, assessing him. "Fear is the essence. The woman, the dolls, it's all to divert us. If we stay calm, we can break this loop of terror."
---
They walked forward again. This time, they crossed the twenty-meter mark with their heads held high. No dolls appeared.
"Why didn't they show up?" Alexia asked.
"Because we know they're coming," Paul said. "If I were the examiner, I wouldn't repeat a trick twice. I'd move to the next step."
They reached the sixty-meter mark. A group of seven students stood frozen in front of a translucent barrier. Inside the enclosure, a student lay dead on the ground. A terrifying doll stood over the body, its twin swords dripping with blood. To pass, you had to walk right through the doll's reach.
"They're fucking mad!" a student screamed. "They're actually killing their own students! I saw it with my own eyes!"
But Alexia didn't hesitate. "I'm going first. I'm not waiting for you lot."
She stepped inside the perimeter and a barrier appeared suddenly between Alexia and the other students. The world inside turned pitch black. There was no way to tell what was happening inside .When it cleared, she was gone, but the body remained. Paul's heart hammered, but he forced himself to think. Why would the school risk this? Why such harsh treatment? Wouldn't there be severe conflicts with the authorities? And why was she so confident? Was she dead or still alive?
After thinking for some time, he decided to step into the red ground of the enclosure. But just before he entered, a student grabbed his arm. "Wait! Didn't you hear me? I saw this mad doll kill a student. We don't even know what happened to your friend!"
With a chilled voice, Paul replied, "How did you see through the barrier? Doesn't it turn black when someone enters?"
Shocked, the student stammered, "It... it's a bait! They want to make you believe it's safe. It wasn't black before, I swear!"
Paul remained calm, his manner as relaxed as a monk's. "In which hundred are our student numbers, exactly?"
Before leaving home, Paul had checked his own number: 1789. He was a late admission, and there were about 80 first-years accepted each year. It wasn't difficult to deduce that all students had numbers between 1700 and 1800. The student didn't answer. instead, he looked at Paul with a sharp, aggressive gaze.
"Fine," the student spat. "Just go in if you want to die."
Paul stepped onto the crimson soil of the enclosure. The barrier hissed shut behind him like a trap. He felt a wave of hesitation as he looked at the doll. It was imposing, a silent sentinel of death that made his heart hammer against his ribs. Still, he forced himself to approach the body. He knelt slowly, reaching out a trembling hand to touch the fallen student. His fingers passed right through the flesh. "It is a hologram," he breathed, the relief flooding his system. "I knew it!"
The doll was nothing more than a static statue, a prop in a theater of cruelty. The corpse was light and data, a hologram designed to break their will. The only real obstacle was the terror he allowed to bloom in his own mind. He stood up and stepped past the doll's kill zone, nearing the edge of the barrier. He walked right past the metal statue, staring at the "blood" painted on the floor with a newfound clarity.
CRIIIIIIK.
The sudden screech of grinding metal echoed directly behind his ear, shattering the silence.