The morning light filtered weakly through the tall windows of Alderwood University's journalism hall, turning dust motes into drifting sparks of gold. Liora sank into her seat near the back of the lecture hall, notebook open but mind elsewhere. Her dreams or what felt more like memories not her own still clung to her: the blurred girl, the darkness, the sense of being watched.
She shook her head, trying to push the visions away. Focus on today. Class. Deadlines. Not ghosts.
But even as Professor Langford droned on about investigative ethics, her eyes were drawn to the doorway. A figure leaned against the frame, tall and immaculately dressed, yet casual in a way that demanded attention. His gray eyes scanned the room and, for a moment, locked on hers. Liora felt a flicker of recognition, though she had never seen him before. A shiver ran down her spine not fear, exactly, but awareness.
He stepped in. The lecture hall seemed to breathe with his presence. Aiden Crestfall.
He walked to the front of the room with the careful precision of someone trained to notice everything every exit, every shadow, every vulnerable spot. When he spoke, it was to introduce himself as a guest lecturer on investigative techniques, yet the depth in his gaze suggested he knew far more than he let on.
Liora's notebook lay forgotten. Her pulse quickened. There was something about him like a storm beneath calm waters.
After class, she lingered by the lockers, scribbling notes she could barely decipher. A voice startled her.
"You're not like the others," said a girl perched on the edge of the hallway bench. Hair wild, eyes sharp, lips curled into a mischievous smirk. "You see things, don't you?"
Liora froze. "Excuse me?"
"Don't play dumb," the girl replied, standing. "I've been watching you notice… oddities. Shadows that move, echoes that linger. You're not imagining it. I'm Seren Duskwood."
Before Liora could answer, a commotion echoed from the campus quad. Screams, a flash of something bright, then silence.
Seren grabbed Liora's arm. "Come on. You need to see this. Something's happening and it's the reason you're not imagining things."
As they ran, Liora couldn't help but glance back. Across the quad, at the edge of the crowd, Aiden stood. Watching. Waiting. Calculating.
And in that instant, she knew with an unshakable certainty: the city had just drawn her deeper into its secrets, and nothing no lecture, no ordinary day would ever be ordinary again.