The Origin (Part 1)
The University of San Antonio had its fair share of ghost stories. This are stories that float through the halls like old ghosts, whispered from one class to another, spreading between students like wildfire. Some are the usual harmless urban legends—the White Lady in the library, the crying child in the old convent wing passed down through generations. But there was one story that refused to fade, a rumor so persistent that even the most skeptical students lowered their voices when discussing it.
Like the story of Room 406.
It’s a tale that resurfaces every few years, mutating slightly with each retelling. Some say the room is cursed. Others swear it’s haunted. But the details remain disturbingly consistent—someone goes in, and for a time, they disappear.
The latest incident happened just last week.
Reina Santos, a second-year architecture student, was last seen leaving the library at exactly 11:30 PM on a Friday night. The library security cameras showed her stepping into the dimly lit hallway, clutching her books as she made her way toward the older wing of the university—a part of the campus that was supposed to be off-limits after hours.
No one knew why she went that way.
At 11:42 PM, Reina appeared on another camera feed near the stairwell leading to the abandoned classrooms. Her pace was slow, almost hesitant. The hall was empty except for her silhouette against the fluorescent lights. And then, she did something that set this rumor apart from the usual ghost stories—something that shouldn’t have happened.
She entered Room 406.
For nearly ten minutes, nothing happened. Then, at 11:50 PM, the hallway camera outside the room glitched for exactly thirty seconds.
When the feed resumed, Reina was gone.
Not a single trace of her remained.
For two whole days, no one knew where she was. Her friends reported her missing the next morning. Campus security checked the CCTV footage and found the same strange glitch. The administration downplayed it—maybe she had left through another exit that wasn’t caught on camera. Maybe she had simply run away for the weekend.
But then, on Sunday night, a janitor passing through the abandoned wing heard something unusual—a faint knocking sound.
It was coming from Room 406.
Security was called. The door, which had been locked from the outside, was forced open.
And there was Reina.
She was curled up in the corner of the room, her uniform wrinkled, her face pale and streaked with tears. Her lips trembled as she tried to speak, but all she could manage was a single, broken sentence:
“I don’t remember anything.”
The administration dismissed it as a prank, a case of a student being trapped and disoriented. But the rumor persisted. Some said it was a ghost. Others believed it was part of a hidden fraternity ritual. A few even suggested that Reina had witnessed something she was never supposed to see.
Aiah Reyes never cared much for ghost stories. But she cared about the truth. And this? This wasn’t just some urban legend.
This was a mystery.
-------
Aiah was halfway through her third cup of coffee when she first heard about Reina Santos.
It was Monday morning, and the cafeteria was already buzzing with conversation. Students huddled in groups, some whispering excitedly, others glancing over their shoulders as they talked. The energy in the air was different—charged, unsettled.
Aiah wasn’t one to involve herself in gossip, but even she could tell when something big had happened.
"Did you hear?" a girl at the next table whispered. "They found her. In the old wing."
Aiah absently stirred her coffee, pretending not to listen.
"Wait—who?" her friend asked.
"Reina Santos! The girl who disappeared last Friday. She just—showed up. Locked inside Room 406!"
Aiah’s spoon clinked against her mug.
The words made something tighten in her chest. Room 406. That part of the university had been abandoned for years. Students weren’t even supposed to go there.
"That’s not even the weirdest part," the girl continued, lowering her voice. "She doesn’t remember anything. Like, at all. No one knows how she got in, and security says the door was locked from the outside."
Her friend shuddered. "That’s creepy. What if—what if it’s the same as before?"
Aiah set her mug down. "Before?"
The two girls stiffened, suddenly aware of her presence.
"Uh—nothing," one of them mumbled. "It’s just… there was another case like this. Years ago. Same room. Same story."
Aiah’s mind was already racing. If this had happened before, why wasn’t it documented? Why weren’t people talking about it? Was it just another ghost story, or was there something real beneath all the rumors?
She had spent her entire life looking for answers, solving puzzles. And this?
This wasn’t just gossip.
This was a mystery.
And she was going to solve it.
-----------
After hearing about Reina’s disappearance in the cafeteria, she had spent the rest of the day caught in a cycle of fragmented conversations and conflicting theories. Every hallway she passed through seemed alive with murmurs—some claiming Reina had been found in a trance, others swearing that she had been taken by something inside Room 406.
Aiah wasn’t the type to believe in ghosts. But she did believe in inconsistencies, and this one was too strange to ignore.
By the time her last class ended, she had already made up her mind. She needed to see the security footage for herself.
That’s what led her to the dimly lit computer lab, tucked away in one of the quieter buildings of the university. Most students had long since gone home, and the only sound in the room was the quiet hum of the monitors. Aiah had deliberately chosen a terminal in the farthest corner, away from the entrance, where she could work unnoticed.
She knew she was technically breaking some rules. Accessing campus security footage wasn’t exactly allowed, but she had a few connections—favors owed to her from students who worked with IT. It wasn’t the first time she’d needed access to something hidden, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Aiah’s fingers moved quickly over the keyboard as she navigated the files, her face illuminated by the glow of the screen. She had managed to retrieve the footage from the night of Reina’s disappearance and was now watching the clip on repeat, eyes narrowed in concentration.
11:42 PM. Reina walks toward Room 406.
11:50 PM. Glitch.
11:51 PM. Reina is gone.
Aiah exhaled sharply, dragging the timeline back again. This didn’t make sense. The security logs had no record of the camera malfunctioning, and yet, the footage clearly showed a thirty-second distortion. It wasn’t natural. Someone had either tampered with it—or something else had caused it.
The lab was empty, silent except for the soft clicking of her mouse. She thought she was alone.
Until she heard the door creak open.
Aiah’s breath hitched. Instinctively, she minimized the footage and hunched over, her body language shifting into something more secretive. She had no idea who had just walked in, but the last thing she needed was a nosy professor or an overenthusiastic student questioning why she was poking around restricted files.
She didn’t turn her head. Instead, she kept her gaze locked on the screen, pretending to be just another student pulling an all-nighter.
But then, a voice broke the silence.
“You know, most people don’t look so guilty unless they’re doing something illegal.”
Aiah stiffened.
She turned her head slightly, just enough to get a glimpse of the newcomer. Colet Vasquez.
Colet leaned casually against the desk beside hers, one eyebrow raised in amusement. She was twirling a pen between her fingers, her expression effortlessly confident, like she had already figured out what Aiah was up to.
Aiah knew of Colet, but they had never spoken much. Colet was known for her sharp mind and even sharper tongue. A tech genius, if the rumors were to be believed, always tinkering with hardware and cracking codes like it was second nature. She had a reputation for being hard to read, always a step ahead in conversations, and never revealing more than she wanted to. If someone could figure out what happened to the footage, it would probably be her.
Aiah forced herself to relax. “Didn’t think anyone else would be here this late.”
“Same goes for you,” Colet shot back, her smirk deepening. “But you look like you’re trying way too hard to look casual.”
Aiah studied her for a moment. Most people would’ve ignored her entirely, or at least been polite enough to pretend they hadn’t noticed her tension. But Colet had walked in and immediately picked up on her energy. That wasn’t a coincidence.
“What are you working on?” Colet asked, nodding toward Aiah’s screen.
Aiah hesitated. She could lie. Say she was just reviewing an assignment, maybe researching some random topic. But something about Colet’s expression told her it wouldn’t work.
Instead, she turned the monitor slightly, showing her the paused security footage. “The night Reina Santos disappeared.”
Colet’s smirk faltered. She knew.
“Room 406?” Colet asked, her voice quieter now.
Aiah tilted her head. “You’ve heard of it?”
Colet let out a short laugh. “Who hasn’t? That room’s been the center of every creepy rumor for years.”
Aiah watched her carefully. Most people dismissed ghost stories as nonsense. But Colet wasn’t mocking her for looking into it. If anything, she looked... interested.
Aiah played the clip again, pointing at the glitching frame. “Something’s off about this. The distortion is too clean, too precise. It’s like—”
“Like someone tampered with it,” Colet finished for her, her eyes narrowing at the screen.
Aiah raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Colet leaned in slightly, her focus sharpening. “There’s no way a simple camera malfunction could do that. If it was a technical error, there would be random glitches throughout the night, not just at the exact moment she disappeared.”
Aiah nodded. “Exactly. Which means someone wanted this specific moment erased.”
A silence settled between them as they both watched the footage; the flickering glow of the screen casting shadows against their faces.
Then, Colet grinned. “You know... I could take a look at the raw files. If someone did mess with the footage, I might be able to find out who.”
Aiah smirked. She liked the way Colet thought.
“Alright,” she said, leaning forward. “Let’s see what we can find.”
---------
The next day, Aiah had barely settled into her usual seat in the university library when her phone vibrated against the wooden table. She glanced at the screen. Colet.
She hesitated for only a second before answering. "Yeah?"
"Where are you?" Colet’s voice was low, but there was an unmistakable urgency to it.
"Library. Why? Did you find something?"
"Meet me at the rooftop in ten."
Then the line went dead.
Aiah stared at her phone. Well, that’s not suspicious at all. With a sigh, she gathered her things and made her way through the crowded hallways of the university. As she climbed the stairwell leading to the rooftop, she couldn’t shake the feeling of anticipation clawing at her chest.
The rooftop was quiet when she arrived, save for the faint hum of traffic below. Colet was already waiting, perched on the edge of a bench, laptop open on her lap. Her fingers drummed against the metal railing; her expression unusually serious.
“You took your time,” Colet said, not looking up.
“Not all of us disappear after class to hack into security footage,” Aiah shot back, walking over.
Colet smirked. “Fair enough.” She motioned for Aiah to come closer. “I found something. Something weird.”
Aiah leaned in as Colet played the footage on her screen. The same clip they had watched last night.
11:42 PM – Reina walks toward Room 406.
11:50 PM – Glitch.
11:51 PM – Reina is gone.
“Watch this,” Colet said, rewinding and slowing it down frame by frame.
As the screen flickered, the distortion stretched unnaturally for a fraction of a second. Then, just for a brief moment—something appeared.
A shadow.
It wasn’t Reina’s.
Aiah’s pulse quickened. “What the hell is that?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Colet muttered. “I checked the timestamps. The glitch wasn’t random—it was manually altered. Someone went into the system and tampered with the footage to erase a specific moment.”
Aiah’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying someone wanted to hide this shadow?”
“Exactly.” Colet tapped a few keys, enhancing the image. The shape was still blurry, but it was undeniably human.
Aiah studied it closely. “That’s not Reina.”
“No,” Colet confirmed. “This person was already in Room 406 before Reina even got there.”
A chill ran down Aiah’s spine. “How many people have access to the security footage?”
“Campus IT, a few admin staff, and the university’s private security,” Colet listed off. “But here’s the thing—whoever edited this footage? They weren’t an amateur.”
Aiah frowned. “Meaning?”
Colet turned the laptop toward her. “I ran a trace. The alteration wasn’t done from the usual access points. It was done remotely—someone covered their tracks well, but not well enough. I found a fingerprint of the override command.”
“I can’t get a direct IP, but I can see the route they took to hide it.”
Aiah peered over her shoulder. “And?”
“And it’s complicated. The access point was rerouted through three different proxies before reaching the main server. This wasn’t some random student messing around.”
Aiah leaned closer, scanning the lines of code on the screen. She wasn’t a tech genius like Colet, but even she could tell that this was deliberate.
“What does that mean for us?”
Colet clicked her tongue. “It means someone—someone inside this university—knows what happened that night.”
A heavy silence settled between them.
Aiah exhaled. “This just got a lot bigger, didn’t it?”
Colet shut the laptop with a quiet click. “Oh, definitely.”
Aiah glanced over the edge of the rooftop, scanning the campus below. It looked normal—students laughing, professors hurrying to their next class, the world moving as if nothing had happened.
But someone was hiding something.
And they were going to find out who.
----------
The library was nearly empty, the usual hum of chatter replaced by the quiet rustling of pages and the occasional scratch of a pen against paper. It was the kind of silence that made every movement feel amplified—the turning of a page, the clatter of a keyboard, even the faintest exhale of breath.
Aiah and Colet had claimed one of the more secluded corners of the library, where the shelves cast long shadows over their table. Heavy textbooks were stacked around them like a fortress, an illusion of actual studying while their real focus remained fixed on Colet’s laptop. The glow of the screen reflected in Aiah’s glasses, illuminating her sharp gaze as she scanned the footage looping on the display. The security feed from Room 406 played in jittery frames, the timestamps flickering inconsistently.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Colet muttered, fingers flying over the keyboard as she toggled between different camera angles. “Why would only the timestamps in the footage from Room 406 be off? Every other camera in the hallway is fine.”
Aiah chewed on her lip, staring at the corrupted footage. “Because someone wanted it to be off.”
The words hung between them, heavier than the air itself. The more they looked at it, the more unsettling it became. The way the footage glitched at certain intervals, the strange static that crawled over the screen—this wasn’t just a technical issue.
Just as Aiah was about to say more, a loud scrape of a chair jolted them out of their thoughts. Their heads snapped up, muscles tensed, as someone nonchalantly slid into the seat across from them.
Maloi Fernandez.
She draped herself over the chair like she owned it, one elbow resting lazily on the table while the other hand twirled a pen between her fingers. A smirk tugged at her lips, the kind that sent a ripple of unease through Aiah. Maloi wasn’t just known around campus—she was infamous. She had a reputation for always being where she wasn’t supposed to be, knowing things she had no business knowing, and getting away with it every single time.
“You’re investigating the Room 406 thing, right?” Maloi said, resting her chin on her hand, voice light, almost amused.
Aiah forced a neutral expression. “That depends—why do you care?”
“Because you’re doing it wrong.”
Colet immediately stiffened beside Aiah. “Excuse me?”
Maloi didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she pulled out her phone and, with a few quick taps, turned the screen toward them. Aiah leaned in—and immediately felt her stomach tighten.
Anonymous forum posts filled the screen, each one detailing strange occurrence in Room 406:
“I heard whispers in there once.”
“Someone saw shadows moving when the room was empty.”
“A girl disappeared in that room years ago—maybe she’s still there.”
It was the usual ghost story nonsense… except for one particular post that made Aiah’s breath catch.
“Some students use Room 406 for secret meetings. Late at night. No one knows why.”
Aiah exchanged a glance with Colet. That wasn’t just a ghost story. That was something else entirely.
Maloi grinned. “Now, are you going to keep pretending you know what you’re doing, or do you want my help?”
Aiah narrowed her eyes. “And what exactly do you know?”
Maloi leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice. “Let’s just say I have sources. And I know that whatever’s happening in Room 406—it didn’t start with Reina.”
Colet hesitated, shooting Aiah a wary glance. Letting Maloi in was risky. But ignoring her? That was even riskier.
Aiah exhaled, steeling herself. “Alright, Maloi. Talk.”
Maloi’s grin was almost victorious. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
After a few moments...
The sound of Maloi’s pen tapping against the table filled the silence between them. She was clearly enjoying this—holding onto something valuable, watching Aiah and Colet’s expressions shift between skepticism and reluctant curiosity. She exhaled dramatically before flipping her phone around again, scrolling through the forum with swift, practiced ease.
“I did a little digging,” Maloi began, tilting her head slightly as she studied their reactions. “You’re both focused on Reina, right? The girl who vanished a week ago? But see, here’s the thing—this Room 406 story? It’s older than that.”
Colet frowned. “What do you mean?”
Maloi smirked, tapping on a post dated almost ten years ago. The forum thread was archived, buried deep in the recesses of the internet, but Maloi had managed to unearth it.
“A student disappeared after spending weeks sneaking into Room 406. No one talks about it anymore, but sometimes, people hear footsteps in the room when it’s empty. If you stay too long, you start seeing things in the mirrors.”
Aiah’s eyes darted across the screen, taking in the old, barely legible messages. The eerie familiarity sent a chill down her spine. She traced her fingers over the timestamp.
“This was before Reina.”
Maloi nodded. “Way before. And look at this one.” She swiped to another post, this one even older.
“A girl from the 90s disappeared. The school covered it up. They said she dropped out, but no one really believed that.”
Colet scoffed, crossing her arms. “That could be anything. Urban legends spread all the time. What’s your point?”
Maloi leaned in, lowering her voice. “My point is that this isn’t an isolated case. Reina wasn’t the first girl to disappear. And if I had to bet…” She tapped the screen again, bringing up another blurry photo of an old campus newspaper article. The headline was barely readable: ‘USA Student Missing: Last Seen Near Room 406’
Aiah read the article, her pulse quickening. “How did you find this?”
“I have my ways,” Maloi said smoothly, before finally sobering. “You guys were onto something, but you were looking at it too narrowly. This isn’t about Reina alone. It’s about whatever the hell is happening in that room.”
Colet shifted uncomfortably. “So what? You think there’s some kind of—what, pattern?”
Maloi leaned back, stretching her arms behind her head. “I don’t think. I know.” She placed her phone flat on the table, a finality in her voice. “And if we’re really going to solve this, we need to stop thinking of Reina’s case as a one-time thing.”
Aiah exhaled, the weight of Maloi’s words settling deep in her chest. The story they thought they were following was beginning to unravel, revealing something much more complicated, much older, and more complicated than they had expected.
The tension hung thick between them, the weight of Maloi’s discoveries pressing down on Aiah and Colet like a heavy fog. The more they uncovered, the more impossible it became to ignore the inevitable truth: they needed to see Room 406 for themselves.
The air was thick with unspoken thoughts as Aiah rubbed her temples, exhaustion creeping into her bones. “We’ve been going in circles,” she finally admitted. “We have leads, theories, and ghost stories, but no real answers. If we want to know what’s happening, we have to go inside.”
Colet, still fixated on the corrupted footage, let out a slow breath. “That room’s been sealed off for a while. Even if we wanted to, we can’t just stroll in.”
Maloi, who had been scrolling on her phone with an infuriatingly smug expression, finally leaned forward. “Who said anything about strolling in?”
Aiah narrowed her eyes. “You have a plan, don’t you?”
Maloi grinned, setting her phone on the table with a casual tap. “Let’s just say… I know someone who can get us in.”
Colet’s fingers hovered over her keyboard before she turned to Maloi with a skeptical look. “Who?”
Maloi tilted her head, as if considering whether to reveal the name. Then, with a shrug, she said, “Gwen.”
Aiah frowned. “Gwen? As in Gwen Siangco?”
“Bingo,” Maloi confirmed, drumming her fingers against the table. “She’s a student assistant for the Facilities Office. She has access to areas that are normally off-limits, and—more importantly—she owes me a favor.”
Colet folded her arms, clearly unconvinced. “And why, exactly, does she owe you a favor?”
Maloi smirked, leaning back in her chair. “Let’s just say I helped her out of a sticky situation last semester. She swore she’d help me with ‘anything, anytime.’ I think now’s the perfect time to cash that in.”
Aiah exchanged a glance with Colet. It wasn’t the cleanest plan, but it was their best shot. “Think she’ll agree?”
Maloi’s grin widened as she grabbed her phone. “Oh, she will. Trust me.”
She tapped out a message, the glow of her screen reflecting in her eyes. The room felt suddenly smaller, the realization settling over them like a cold breeze.
Room 406 wasn’t just a rumor anymore.
It was waiting for them.
--------
The next day, Aiah, Colet, and Maloi sat on a bench near the campus fountain, waiting. The air was humid, carrying the scent of damp grass, and students bustled around them, oblivious to the weight of their secret. The university grounds had a strange energy that day—maybe it was just their own nerves, but even the laughter of students passing by felt distant, like echoes in an empty hall.
“Are you sure she’ll show?” Colet muttered, tapping her fingers against her bag.
“She said she would,” Maloi said, crossing her arms. “She’s just being careful. You don’t just ask someone to break into a locked room without giving them time to think.”
Aiah watched as a figure emerged from the main building, walking toward them with a measured pace. Gwen Siangco was taller than Aiah remembered, her uniform crisp and her ID lanyard wrapped around her wrist instead of hanging from her neck. Her dark eyes flicked over them before she stopped in front of their bench.
Gwen had a reputation. She was known for being resourceful, the kind of person who could get things done with minimal fuss. An Architecture student, she was one of the few who balanced academics with a job in campus administration. She worked behind the scenes, ensuring the university ran smoothly while staying out of the spotlight. If something needed fixing, Gwen knew about it. If something was broken, she knew who broke it.
“This better not be a waste of my time,” Gwen said, adjusting her backpack strap. “You said you needed access to a sealed room?”
Aiah glanced at Maloi, who gave a small nod before speaking. “Room 406. We need to get inside.”
Gwen exhaled sharply, shaking her head. “Of course, it’s that room.”
“You know about it?” Aiah asked quickly.
“Everyone in Facilities does,” Gwen admitted, lowering her voice. “It’s been off-limits for years. Maintenance workers don’t go near it unless they absolutely have to. The locks get jammed, lights flicker—some say it’s just old wiring, but…”
“But?” Colet pressed.
Gwen hesitated. “Look, I’m not one to believe in ghost stories, but the last time someone went in there alone, they came out rattled. Wouldn’t say what they saw. Just quit their job a week later.”
Aiah felt a chill run down her spine. “Then why is the room still there? Why not repurpose it?”
Gwen shook her head. “No idea. The university just… lets it sit. I don’t know if it’s superstition or something more.”
Maloi leaned in. “Can you get us in?”
Gwen sighed, rubbing her temples. “You’re asking me to risk my job, you know that?”
Aiah, sensing hesitation, decided to push. “We’re not doing this for fun, Gwen. We think something happened in that room, something the school doesn’t want anyone to know. If you help us, you’re helping uncover the truth.”
Gwen studied Aiah’s face for a long moment before she exhaled, shoulders dropping in resignation. “Fine. I’ll help you.”
Colet’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “Just like that?”
Gwen smirked. “Like Maloi said—I owe her a favor”.
Months earlier, Gwen had been caught up in a cheating scandal—not because she was cheating, but because she had unknowingly fixed a classmate’s exam results by tweaking a system error. She had done it as a favor, thinking it was harmless, only to find out later that the administration had started investigating irregularities in the grading system.
Maloi, always knowing the right people, had helped her erase the digital footprint of the mistake before it got traced back to her. It had been a risky favor, but one Maloi had done without hesitation.
“You saved my ass,” Gwen had told her then. “If you ever need something, anything, you just say the word.”
And now, Maloi was saying the word.
“Besides…” She glanced back at the main building. “I’ve always wanted to know what’s inside that room myself.”
Aiah felt a mixture of relief and trepidation. The pieces were falling into place, and soon, they would step inside Room 406.
Whatever was waiting for them… they would face it together.
------
That night the air was thick with tension as Aiah, Colet, Maloi, and Gwen stood in front of Room 406. The hallway was eerily quiet, the distant hum of vending machines the only sound accompanying their hushed breaths. The fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting long, unsettling shadows along the tiled floor.
“You sure about this?” Gwen asked, arms crossed. “Once you go in, there’s no turning back.”
Aiah exhaled, gripping the strap of her bag. “We need answers. No one else is going to figure out what happened here.”
Colet knelt beside a small tablet, the glow of the screen casting sharp shadows across her face. She had set up on the floor, back pressed against the wall as her fingers danced across the keyboard. Aiah could see lines of code flashing rapidly on the screen, the blue light reflecting off Colet’s glasses.
“Give me a sec. I need to disable the CCTV feed for this floor.” Colet’s voice was steady, but the speed of her typing revealed the urgency beneath. “If security notices a blackout, they’ll check the system logs, so I’m looping a previous feed instead of shutting it down completely.”
Aiah glanced down the hallway, heart pounding. “How long will it take?”
“Almost done.” Colet’s eyes flickered with satisfaction. “There. We’re invisible for the next fifteen minutes.”
Gwen stepped forward, rolling her shoulders as she studied the door. It was an old wooden door with a brass doorknob, scuffed and worn down from years of use. She crouched, pulling out a thin metal tool from her pocket. “Looks like a standard classroom lock, but it’s been tampered with. Someone really didn’t want anyone getting in.”
Maloi crossed her arms. “Can you open it?”
Gwen scoffed. “Please.”
With practiced precision, she inserted the tool into the lock, tilting her head slightly as she worked it carefully. The others held their breath as soft clicks echoed in the quiet hallway. After a tense moment, there was a final, satisfying snap, and the door creaked open on its own, as if welcoming them inside.
The air inside was stale, carrying a faint, musty scent of dust and something unidentifiable. The darkness swallowed them as they stepped inside, their flashlights cutting through the shadows. The desks were still arranged in rows, untouched, but the atmosphere was heavy, as if the room held onto the echoes of something it had witnessed. There was a thin layer of dust covering most surfaces, except for a few areas where something had been recently disturbed.
Aiah directed her flashlight toward the blackboard. Faint writing was still visible, as if someone had hastily wiped it off but failed to remove the chalk completely. She stepped closer.
“What does it say?” Colet asked.
Aiah squinted. “No one was supposed to get hurt.”
A sudden rustling sound made them all freeze.
Gwen turned sharply toward the far end, where an old metal cabinet stood slightly ajar. Dust coated its surface, except for one area where it had been recently touched.
“Did anyone touch that?” Maloi whispered.
“No,” Colet replied, voice tight.
Aiah took a cautious step forward, her flashlight beam steady on the cabinet. She reached out, gripping the handle of the cabinet, and pulled it open.
Inside, a dusty timer device sat on the shelf, its numbers blinking faintly before glitching out. It had clearly run its course, but the display was cracked, and the buttons seemed worn from use. Next to it, a notebook lay open, filled with hurried, nearly illegible writing.
“What is this?” Gwen muttered, flipping through the pages. Diagrams of initiation rituals, instructions on “how to prove loyalty,” and a list of names filled the notebook. Some names were crossed out.
“There’s a name that keeps repeating,” Maloi pointed out. “Reina. The girl who was found here.”
Aiah ran her fingers over the page, her mind racing. If this was tied to an initiation, was Reina meant to be part of it? Or was she a victim?
Gwen moved to inspect the surrounding desks. She ran a gloved hand across the surface of one and frowned. “These desks have been moved recently,” she murmured. “See the clean streaks on the floor? They were rearranged. But why?”
Maloi suddenly let out a low whistle, drawing their attention. She had opened a small drawer in the teacher’s desk and was holding up a Polaroid photo. The edges were yellowed, the image inside slightly blurred. It showed a group of students huddled together in this very room, some flashing hand signs while others grinned at the camera.
“Secret meetings,” Maloi murmured. “These must be the initiates.”
Colet flipped the picture over. Scrawled on the back was a date—just two nights before Reina was found.
Aiah clenched her jaw. “That means she was here when this was taken.”
Next to the Polaroid was a folded sheet of paper. Aiah carefully unfolded it, revealing a time log listing different hours and initials. Some of the entries had been scribbled out violently, but one remained clear: 2:30 AM - R.S.
“Reina Santos,” Colet muttered. “She was here.”
Gwen, meanwhile, had been inspecting a shelf near the back of the room. “Uh… guys?” she called, holding up a small glass bottle filled with an unidentified liquid. The glass was dark, making it impossible to tell what was inside, but when she tilted it, the thick, viscous movement of the liquid sent a shiver down Aiah’s spine.
“What the hell is that?” Maloi asked, stepping back.
Aiah took the bottle from Gwen’s hands, inspecting the label—only to find it scratched out. The only thing left was the faint outline of something that had once been stamped there, but whatever it was had been intentionally removed.
Before they could process what, they had found, Colet's tablet vibrated, flashing a warning message. Her eyes widened. “The CCTV feed is coming back online. We need to go. Now.”
Maloi cursed under her breath. “Take the notebook?”
Aiah hesitated before shaking her head. “No, we can’t risk anyone noticing it’s missing. Just take a picture of the pages.”
Colet swiftly snapped photos with her phone, her hands steady despite the rush.
As she backed away, her flashlight caught something scribbled onto the desk near the back of the room. It was barely visible, carved into the wood: “They forgot about me.”
Gwen shuddered. “We should go.”
The group moved quickly, Gwen ensuring the door was relocked before they slipped away down the hallway. As they exited, the tension between them remained thick—what they had found wasn’t enough to give them answers, but it was proof that something bigger was at play.
As they reached the stairwell, Aiah exhaled. “We’re not done here.”
Gwen nodded. “Not even close.”
-----------
The air inside the library felt heavy, charged with the weight of the pieces they were trying to fit together. The dim glow of the library’s overhead lamps cast long shadows across the wooden tables as Aiah, Colet, Maloi, and Gwen huddled together in a secluded corner. The hushed whispers of students buried in their textbooks filled the air, but none of them paid attention. Their minds were occupied with something far more pressing—the mystery of Room 406.
Colet had her laptop open, the faint blue light from the screen reflecting off her glasses as she sifted through the pictures they had taken from the abandoned classroom. Aiah sat beside her, flipping through the hastily scribbled notes they had copied down from the notebook they found inside. Maloi was scrolling through the forum posts she had compiled, occasionally murmuring to herself, while Gwen leaned back in her chair, flipping through the pages of a worn-out notebook where she had scribbled her observations.
"Alright, let’s go over what we have so far," Aiah said, rubbing her temples. "We know that a student went missing for two days and was later found inside Room 406—locked, disoriented, and with no memory of what happened."
Colet sighed, clicking through the video files. "And we also know that the security camera outside that room glitched exactly during the time frame she was supposedly taken in and left there. Almost like someone tampered with it. But there’s no sign of forced entry in the footage. The only thing out of place was that flicker."
"Which is suspicious as hell," Maloi interjected. "And then there’s the forum posts… look at this one from two months ago. Some anonymous user claimed that ‘Room 406 is used for secret meetings at night.’ Another person wrote, ‘People hear whispers in there.’ Typical ghost story nonsense. But what if it’s not just rumors? What if people actually go there to do something?"
Gwen tapped her pen against the table. "Let’s not forget what we found inside the room: the Polaroid pictures, the time log, and that weird bottle. The photos were mostly blank, except for that one… the one with a group of people, faces blurred out. That has to mean something."
"And the time log," Aiah added. "It had multiple timestamps. But what if it’s not just a log of people entering? What if it’s a schedule? A planned set of times for something to happen?"
Colet leaned forward, her brows furrowed. "Then there’s the bottle. No label, no markings. Could be anything. A chemical, a drink, something else entirely. But it was left there for a reason."
Maloi exhaled sharply, drumming her fingers against the table. "So, let’s recap: We have a locked room, a missing girl, security footage that’s been tampered with, a cryptic time log, suspicious photos, and a mystery liquid. That screams frat ritual to me."
Aiah nodded. "It fits. An initiation, maybe? Some kind of test?"
"A test that went wrong," Gwen said. "Someone was supposed to let her out, but they forgot. Or worse, they left her there on purpose."
There was a heavy silence as they let that possibility sink in.
Colet exhaled, closing her laptop. "We need more than speculation. We need to hear from the victim. She’s the only one who knows what really happened."
Maloi pulled out her phone, already searching. "She’s back on campus. I heard she’s been keeping to herself, but I know where we can find her."
Aiah exchanged glances with Gwen and Colet. "Then it’s time we pay her a visit."
No one disagreed. They had too many questions, and now, they needed answers.
---------
The decision to visit Reina had fallen on Aiah and Maloi out of necessity. Colet and Gwen were stuck in back-to-back classes, leaving the two of them to take the lead. It wasn’t ideal—Aiah was methodical, preferring structure in her investigations, while Maloi thrived in chaos, always ready to provoke a reaction. But they needed answers, and Reina was the only one who could give them.
They walked through the busy halls of the university, their minds racing with everything they had uncovered so far. The polaroids, the time log, the bottle of mysterious liquid. But they still lacked the key piece of the puzzle: Reina’s account of what happened.
They found her sitting in the corner of the library, a book open in front of her, though she didn’t seem to be reading it. Her fingers toyed with the edges of the pages, her posture stiff. When she noticed them approaching, her expression flickered—something between caution and irritation. She looked better than she had when she was found—less pale, less dazed—but there was still a hollowness in her eyes that unsettled Aiah.
Reina blinked when she saw them, her expression shifting from confusion to recognition. "Oh. You’re… Maloi, right? And… Aiah?"
Maloi smirked. "The one and only. And yeah, this is Aiah. Hope you don’t mind us dropping by."
Reina hesitated before shaking her head. "No, it’s fine. Just… didn’t expect someone to approach me."
Aiah pulled up a chair across from her, while Maloi seats besides her. "We wanted to check on you," Aiah started, her voice careful, measured. "And… if you’re okay with it, we’d like to ask you a few questions about what happened."
Reina’s fingers clenched the page of the book she’s reading. "I… I don’t know if I can help much. I already told the staff—I don’t remember anything. One second, I was walking in the hallway, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in that room."
Aiah leaned forward, watching Reina’s every reaction. “What were you doing before entering Room 406?”
Reina’s fingers stilled. She looked past them, as if searching for an answer on the bookshelves. “I... I don’t know. Just hanging out.”
“Hanging out where?” Maloi pressed.
“Just around.” Reina gave a small shrug. “I don’t remember exactly.”
Aiah and Maloi exchanged glances. Her answers were too vague, too rehearsed.
“Why did you enter the room?” Aiah asked next.
Reina’s lips parted, then closed. She shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know. Maybe I was curious?”
“Curious about what?”
She exhaled sharply, frustration creeping into her tone. “I don’t remember, okay? I don’t even know how I got there.”
Maloi narrowed her eyes. “Did someone order you to go in? Or did you go in willingly?”
Reina’s jaw tightened. “No one ordered me. I—” She cut herself off, shaking her head. “I don’t know. It’s all a blur.”
Aiah exchanged a glance with Maloi, who tilted her head as if debating something. Then Maloi reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "We’ve been looking into it, and—well, this might sound weird, but we found some things in Room 406. Stuff that might have belonged to whoever was with you."
Reina’s expression flickered. "Stuff? Like what?"
Aiah carefully pulled out a printed image from her notebook—one of the Polaroids they had found. She slid it onto Reina’s lap. "Does this look familiar?"
Reina picked it up with shaky fingers, her brows knitting together as she examined the picture. It was a blurred image of what looked like students sitting in a circle, their faces indistinct. A shadow loomed in the background, almost blending into the dimly lit room.
She swallowed. "I don’t… I don’t know. I wish I could say I remember, but—"
She stopped. Her breathing hitched slightly. Aiah leaned forward. "What? Did something come to you?"
Reina hesitated before exhaling sharply, shaking her head. "It’s stupid."
"Let us be the judge of that," Maloi said, her voice uncharacteristically gentle.
Reina bit her lip before slowly looking up. "I don’t remember anything from that night. But I do remember something else. Right before I blacked out." She pressed a hand to her temple as if trying to grasp at the fading memory. "I was drinking something. I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t alcohol—I’d know if it was. But after I drank it… everything just… cut to black. Like flipping a switch."
Aiah felt a chill crawl up her spine. The bottle.
They barely begun testing what was inside it, but now Reina’s words confirmed one thing—it had been used on her.
Maloi clicked her tongue. "So someone gave you a drink, and next thing you know, you’re locked up in an abandoned room for two days? That’s a hell of a coincidence."
Reina’s fingers curled around the edge of the book. “Yeah... but I don’t remember who gave it to me. Or where.”
“What did it taste like?” Maloi asked.
Reina hesitated. “Bitter. Almost medicinal.”
Aiah’s brows furrowed. “And then?”
Reina shifted in her seat, her hands now gripping the book tightly. “Then everything felt... strange. Like I was floating. And then—nothing.”
Maloi studied her. “Did anyone else see you before you blacked out?”
Reina bit her lip, eyes darting toward the exit. “I don’t remember,” she mumbled. “I think I was alone.”
Aiah and Maloi exchanged glances again. It was a lie—her body language screamed it.
Aiah decided to push further. “Reina, are you sure you don’t remember? Or do you not want to?”
Silence. Reina’s gaze darted away. Her breathing was shallow.
“You’re scared of something,” Maloi said, lowering her voice. “Or someone.”
Reina tensed but didn’t reply.
Aiah leaned in. “We’re trying to help you. But if you don’t tell us the truth, we can’t.”
For a moment, Reina looked like she might crack. Her lips parted, but instead of words, she let out a shaky breath. “I— I don’t know anything else. I swear.”
Her vagueness made Aiah uneasy. It was as if she was holding something back—or someone had made sure she couldn’t remember.
Aiah sat back, processing everything. The missing hours. The staged setting. The bottle. Someone had planned this, but had it gone wrong? Or was locking Reina in there the real intention all along?
Maloi slid off the chair. "Alright. We won’t push you too hard today. But if you remember anything—anything at all—let us know, yeah?"
Reina gave them a small, grateful smile. "I will."
As Aiah and Maloi left the library, the weight of what they had just learned settled heavily between them. Maloi let out a low whistle. "Well, well. Looks like our little mystery just got a lot more interesting."
Aiah’s grip tightened around her bag strap. "We need to figure out what was in that bottle. And who gave it to her."
-----
The following day, the four girls gathered in a secluded corner of the library, away from prying eyes and curious ears. The heavy scent of old books mixed with the faint aroma of coffee from a distant table.
"Alright, spill," Colet said, leaning forward with her elbows on the table, fingers drumming against the surface. "What did she say?"
Aiah sighed, rubbing her temples. "Not much. Or at least, not much that makes sense. Reina’s memory is… hazy."
Maloi, sitting beside her, crossed her arms. "More like she’s choosing what to remember and what to forget."
Gwen frowned, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You think she’s hiding something?"
Aiah nodded. "Definitely. When we asked her about that night, she kept saying she didn’t remember. But then she let something slip. She remembers drinking something before she blacked out."
"Drinking?" Colet raised an eyebrow. "Like alcohol? Or—"
Maloi shook her head. "She didn’t say. Just that she remembers holding a bottle, taking a sip, and then—boom. Blackout."
Gwen tapped her finger on the table, thoughtful. "That lines up with the bottle we found in Room 406. Did she say what was in it?"
"Nope. And the moment we pushed her on it, she shut down completely. Changed the subject, said she was tired." Maloi rolled her eyes. "She’s hiding something, I’m sure of it."
Colet exhaled sharply, leaning back. "So let’s break this down. We have a missing girl who was locked in an abandoned classroom. No memory of what happened, except for drinking from a bottle. We found that same bottle in the room, along with the timer and the time log."
Gwen bit her lip. "The timer suggests something was being counted down. The time log shows someone was keeping track of when people entered and left the room. But the bottle… that’s the unknown factor."
"Exactly," Aiah said. "If we can figure out what was in that drink, we might get some answers."
Aiah drummed her fingers against the table. "What if it was some kind of ritual? Some weird hazing thing? The timer could have been counting down how long she had to stay in there."
"Or maybe it was a test," Gwen suggested. "Like she had to stay conscious for a certain amount of time. And if she blacked out…"
"Then she failed?" Maloi finished. "That’s messed up."
Colet scoffed. "You’re assuming it was something deliberate. What if the drink wasn’t supposed to knock her out? What if it was just an accident? Maybe they meant for it to be harmless, but someone messed up the dose?"
Gwen frowned. "Still, if it was part of an initiation, why lock her inside and then forget about her?"
Maloi leaned forward. "What if they didn’t forget? What if something happened to the person who was supposed to let her out?"
The group went silent, each one trying to piece together all the information they have gathered.
Maloi suddenly leaned back with a smirk. "Good thing I know someone in the chemistry department who owes me a favor. If we get them a sample, they can run tests on it."
Colet raised an eyebrow. "Who is this 'someone'?"
Maloi shrugged. "Let’s just say I helped them pass a class last semester. Now they owe me."
"Define 'helped'," Gwen said suspiciously.
Maloi grinned. "A little tutoring, a little creative problem-solving. Let’s just say they’d rather owe me a favor than retake Organic Chemistry."
Aiah exhaled, glancing at the bottle they had carefully stored in a ziplock bag. "Then that’s our next move. We get this tested and see what was really in Reina’s drink."
Colet tapped the table. "What if it turns out to be something normal? Like… an energy drink?"
Maloi snorted. "Then Reina has a ridiculously weak tolerance. But if it’s something stronger—something drugged—then we’ve got real trouble."
Gwen nodded. "If it was drugged, we’ll know exactly what we’re dealing with."
Aiah leaned forward, determination settling in her expression. "Either way, we need answers. We’re not letting this go."
Colet cracked her knuckles. "Alright. Time to see what’s really inside that bottle."
Maloi grinned. "Then let’s get to work. Time to pay the chemistry lab a visit"