Chapter 3: The Blood That Writes Back

The darkness inside Room 313 swallowed sound.

Jae-min tried to speak but no words came out.

The voice repeated, softer this time. “You shouldn’t be here.”

He turned to run, but the door behind him had vanished.

Mira was gone.

The only thing left was a desk at the center of the room, lit by an unnatural red glow.

Something moved atop it.

A quill. Writing by itself on a piece of parchment that bled ink like blood.

He crept forward.

The words on the parchment formed his name.

Over and over again.

[Jae-min Park. Jae-min Park. Jae-min Park.]

And then they changed:

[You are the flame.]

[She was the match.]

His heart thudded in his ears.

The parchment tore itself down the middle.

The blood-ink rose off the page, taking shape—tall, faceless, burning from the inside.

It screamed with no mouth.

He stumbled back.

“Speak your curse,” it hissed. “Or be consumed by it.”

He clamped his mouth shut.

Remembered the warning on his dorm wall.

[Never speak your curse aloud. Or it will answer.]

The creature lunged.

Jae-min raised his arm on instinct—and the room erupted in flames.

But the fire didn’t burn him.

It burned the creature.

And it smiled as it turned to ash.

“You’re waking up,” it whispered.

He found himself lying on the hallway floor.

Mira stood over him.

“You lasted longer than most,” she said.

“What was that?”

“Your curse knocking.”

He sat up. “And what happens if I let it in?”

She didn’t smile.

“You stop being Jae-min.”

In the distance, bells rang.

Class was starting.

And his next subject was Curse Ethics and Containment.

Whatever that meant.

But something told him…

This was just the beginning.