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Grace Chasity knew three things for certain.
First: Hatchetfield High School was cursed.
Second: she was going to fail her chemistry exam tomorrow.
And third—most horrifying of all—Ruth Fleming kept smiling at her like she knew something.
The hallway lights flickered overhead.
“Cool,” said Max Jägerman, kicking his locker shut. “That’s definitely not ominous or whatever.”
“It’s literally midnight,” Stephanie Lauter snapped. “Why did we agree to meet at school at midnight?”
“Because,” Max replied, “the creepy anonymous text said we’d die if we didn’t.”
Ruth adjusted the strap of her bag nervously. “Technically it said someone would die.”
Grace immediately looked toward the dark end of the hallway.
The lights flickered again.
Then all at once—
BZZZZT.
Every locker in the corridor rattled violently.
Stephanie cursed under her breath.
Max actually took a step backward.
And Ruth—
Ruth grabbed Grace’s hand.
It was probably accidental. Reflexive. Temporary.
Which would have been fine if Grace’s brain hadn’t immediately stopped functioning.
Her entire body locked up.
Ruth looked at her with wide eyes. “Sorry—I just—”
“No, it’s fine,” Grace said way too quickly. “Totally fine. Completely normal hand-holding situation.”
Max stared at them.
“…Are you having a stroke?”
Somewhere down the hallway, a locker door slowly creaked open by itself.
Inside was another phone.
Its screen lit up with a single message.
YOU FOUR SHOULD HAVE LEFT HATCHETFIELD WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE.
Stephanie groaned. “I hate this town so much.”
The phone screen went black.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then Max Jägerman pointed at it. “Okay. Nope. Absolutely not. Horror movie rules say we leave immediately.”
“The doors are chained shut,” Stephanie Lauter replied.
Max blinked. “...What?”
“I checked before you got here.”
“You checked BEFORE we all got threatening ghost texts?!”
Stephanie crossed her arms. “I like being prepared.”
“That’s not prepared,” Max said. “That’s serial killer behavior.”
At the end of the hallway, something slammed against metal.
All four of them jumped.
Ruth Fleming instinctively moved closer to Grace Chasity again.
Grace pretended this did not affect her psychologically.
It affected her psychologically.
Another bang echoed through the hallway.
This one closer.
Stephanie grabbed the glowing phone from the locker. “Maybe this thing can tell us who’s doing this.”
The screen glitched violently beneath her fingers.
Then words slowly appeared.
TELL THEM WHAT YOU DID.
Silence.
Max frowned. “Okay, dramatic. What does that even mean?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Grace felt her stomach twist.
Because for just a second—
she could’ve sworn the message was looking directly at her.
Ruth noticed.
“You okay?”
Grace nodded too quickly. “Fine. Totally fine.”
“You look pale.”
“I’m always pale, Ruth.”
“That’s true.”
Somewhere above them, the school intercom crackled to life.
Static screamed through the empty halls.
Then a distorted voice whispered:
“Grace Chasity.”
Everyone froze.
“Oh, HELL no,” Max said immediately.
The voice crackled again.
“Tell them.”
The lights shut off.
Pitch black swallowed the hallway.
Ruth grabbed Grace’s sleeve.
Stephanie swore loudly somewhere nearby.
And from deep inside the darkness—
came the sound of slow footsteps.
The footsteps stopped.
Nobody breathed.
Then the emergency lights flickered on, bathing the hallway in dim red light.
Everything looked wrong.
The lockers stretched too long down the corridor. Shadows twisted across the floor like moving water. The exit sign at the end of the hall buzzed violently.
And standing beneath it—
was someone wearing a Hatchetfield High hoodie.
Their face was hidden in darkness.
Stephanie Lauter narrowed her eyes. “Do we know them?”
“Nope,” Max Jägerman whispered. “And I’d really like to keep it that way.”
The figure tilted its head slowly.
Then it spoke in a warped, crackling voice.
“You lied.”
Grace’s chest tightened.
The figure pointed directly at her.
“You told them God forgives everything.”
Ruth looked over immediately. “Grace—?”
“I don’t know what that thing is talking about,” Grace snapped.
The figure twitched unnaturally.
Then—
it sprinted toward them.
“Oh my GOD RUN,” Max yelled.
All four of them bolted down the hallway.
The lights overhead exploded one by one as the thing chased them.
POP.
POP.
POP.
Stephanie grabbed Max by the back of his hoodie before he slammed into a janitor cart.
“You are unbelievably bad in emergencies!”
“I’m pretty in emergencies!”
“That’s not HELPFUL!”
Ruth and Grace ran ahead, shoes pounding against the floor.
Behind them, the thing let out a horrible static-like shriek.
Grace risked a glance backward—
and immediately wished she hadn’t.
The figure’s face was changing.
Every flicker of the lights revealed a different expression.
Crying.
Smiling.
Bleeding black tears.
Then suddenly—
Grace recognized it.
Her breath caught.
“No way,” she whispered.
Ruth grabbed her wrist. “What?”
But Grace couldn’t answer.
Because for one horrifying second—
the creature had looked exactly like her.
The four of them burst through the library doors.
Stephanie slammed them shut while Max shoved a chair under the handle dramatically.
“You know,” Max panted, “I’m starting to think this school might not meet safety regulations.”
Nobody laughed.
Ruth turned toward Grace carefully.
“You recognized it.”
Grace stared at the floor.
The red emergency lights painted strange shadows across her face.
“…No I didn’t.”
Static crackled softly from the library computer speakers.
Then every monitor in the room turned on at once.
And across every screen appeared the same message:
GRACE CHASITY IS A LIAR.
Grace stumbled backward so fast she nearly knocked over a chair.
“No,” she whispered immediately. “No, no, no—”
The computer screens flickered violently.
LIAR.
LIAR.
LIAR.
Max Jägerman looked between the screens and Grace. “Okay, usually I’d say haunted demon computer messages are fake, but this feels… weirdly specific.”
“Max,” Stephanie Lauter warned.
“What? I’m just saying!”
Grace wrapped her arms tightly around herself.
The room suddenly felt too hot.
Too bright.
Too small.
“I’m not lying,” she said, though even she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince.
The monitors buzzed louder.
One by one, the screens changed.
Now they showed security camera footage.
The church parking lot.
Late at night.
Rain pouring down.
And Grace standing there crying.
Ruth frowned. “Grace…”
“I said I’m not lying!”
The lights burst overhead.
Glass rained across the library floor.
Stephanie ducked instinctively while Max yelled something deeply unhelpful.
The speakers crackled again.
“Tell them what you prayed for.”
Grace froze.
Because suddenly she knew exactly what this thing was.
Not a ghost.
Not a demon.
Something worse.
Something from Hatchetfield.
Something that knew.
Ruth stepped closer carefully. “Grace… what’s going on?”
Grace looked at her.
Really looked at her.
And realized she couldn’t keep pretending anymore.
Not with the walls shaking around them.
Not with monsters crawling through the school.
Not when Ruth was looking at her like she mattered.
Her voice came out small.
“I prayed for these feelings to go away.”
Silence.
Even the static stopped.
Grace laughed weakly, like she hated herself for it. “Every night. For months.”
Ruth’s expression softened immediately.
“Oh.”
“I thought if I prayed hard enough, God would fix me,” Grace admitted quietly. “And then every time you smiled at me, it just got worse.”
Max blinked.
Stephanie slowly turned toward him. “If you say one thing—”
“I wasn’t gonna say anything!”
“You looked like you were about to.”
“I contain multitudes, Stephanie!”
The library suddenly shook violently.
The monitors flashed white.
Then the distorted figure appeared outside the glass doors again.
Only now—
it wasn’t wearing Grace’s face anymore.
It was wearing Ruth’s.
And it smiled.
“Liar,” it whispered.
Ruth looked terrified.
But Grace stepped forward anyway.
“No,” she said, voice shaking. “You don’t get to use her.”
The thing tilted its head unnaturally.
Grace grabbed Ruth’s hand tightly.
And this time—
she didn’t let go.
The emergency lights stopped flickering.
For the first time all night, the creature hesitated.
Stephanie noticed immediately. “Wait.”
Max pointed dramatically. “Oh my god. The power of lesbians.”
“Max,” Stephanie groaned.
“I’m right!”
The creature let out an awful screech as cracks spread across its body like broken television static.
Grace held Ruth’s hand tighter.
“I’m done being scared of this.”
The figure screamed—
and shattered into darkness.
Silence flooded the library.
Nobody moved.
Then Max slowly looked around the destroyed room.
“…So are we all emotionally traumatized now or what?”
Stephanie sat down hard in one of the library chairs. “I’m going to fail algebra because of this.”
And Ruth—
Ruth was still holding Grace’s hand.
A tiny smile appeared on her face.
“You know,” she said softly, “forbidden supernatural confessions are kind of romantic.”
Grace stared at her for a second.
Then, against all odds, she laughed.
Outside the library windows, Hatchetfield High remained dark and quiet.
But for the first time that night—
it no longer felt hungry.