Chapter 8:
Chapter 8 : The Whispering Corridor
Accidently Married To My ArchRival
The rain had been falling over St. Xavier’s High for three straight days. What started as a drizzle had now turned into a haunting rhythm—drops beating against the hostel windows like impatient fingers. The corridors smelled faintly of damp wood and lemon disinfectant, but lately, there was another smell lingering around—the kind that didn’t belong. Something cold. Metallic.
Rhea stood by the window of her hostel room, her phone clutched tight. “Aarav, I’m serious. Someone—or something—keeps knocking on the third floor bathroom door every night at 3:00 a.m.”
Aarav’s voice came through calm, steady as always.“Then stop going there at 3:00 a.m.”
Rhea groaned. “I’m not going there! I hear it from my room. Even Zoya heard it last night.”
In the background, Zoya shouted, “No, I didn’t! I had AirPods in—don’t drag me into your horror movie!”
Aarav sighed, pushing up his glasses as he looked at his laptop screen. SIA’s diagnostic code blinked in red. Something strange had been happening in his program again—unreadable binary appearing in log files, like whispers from a machine.Lines that read things like:
> Do you hear me?It’s cold here…He never left…
He had assumed it was a glitch, until one of those binary lines formed an incomplete word: “Sia.”
His hand froze on the keyboard.
---
Part 1 — Rumors
The next morning, the atmosphere in school was electric. Not with laughter or gossip this time, but whispers that carried goosebumps.
“They say it’s the ghost of Mr. Raghavan,” someone muttered near the lockers.“Who’s that?” another whispered.“The physics teacher who went missing twenty years ago. They say he used to... stare at girls in class. After that scandal, he disappeared. People say his spirit never left.”
A group of juniors screamed as the lights flickered above them.Zoya dramatically crossed herself. “Okay, I’m transferring schools.”
Rhea rolled her eyes. “Yeah right, Zoya. You’d leave me alone to die? What happened to sisterhood?”
“Ghosts don’t care about feminism!” Zoya retorted.
Aarav, walking past them with his usual poker face, simply said, “You all are spreading unscientific nonsense.”
But deep down, even he couldn’t ignore the timing.The random SIA code glitches.The late-night noises.The eerie resemblance between the “Raghavan case” and one of the old logs in his uncle’s locked files—a lab experiment that had gone missing from school property two decades ago.
That evening, Rhea found herself sitting alone on the hostel terrace, rain pouring around her.Her reflection shimmered in the puddles.She wasn’t usually this quiet.
She still remembered the previous night—when she thought she saw someone standing at the end of the corridor, near the bathroom door.A tall man. Pale, with dripping hair.When she blinked, he was gone.Only the sound of wet footsteps echoed down the hall.
Aarav’s call came through again.“You sound… scared,” he said softly.She laughed nervously. “I’m just tired. Exams, projects, ghosts. The usual.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, quietly:“Lock your window tonight. Don’t go alone anywhere after 10.”There was something different in his tone—serious, almost protective.
“What about you?” Rhea asked. “You act all logic and code, but you look more sleep-deprived than me.”
Aarav didn’t reply. His eyes lingered on the open SIA interface, where a new phrase had appeared:
> It’s starting again, Aarav…
For a second, he thought he imagined it. Then the cursor blinked—once. Twice. And the text vanished.
By midnight, the whispers had spread across the campus.Students were saying the hostel basement door creaked open by itself.Some swore they saw a dim light flickering below the floor.Others said they heard a voice crying softly, “Don’t go down there…”
Zoya convinced Rhea to go ghost-hunting with her. Aarav, inevitably, got dragged in.
“Fine,” he muttered, holding a flashlight. “But if I die, I’m haunting both of you.”
They tiptoed through the dark corridor, their shadows dancing against cracked walls.The rain had stopped, but thunder still rolled distantly.
The basement door was rusted shut. On it was a faint sign, almost scratched off by time:
> "Laboratory – Restricted Area"
“Laboratory?” Rhea frowned. “Since when does a school have a lab in the basement?”
Zoya muttered, “Since ghosts started teaching physics.”
Aarav kneeled, tracing the old lock. It wasn’t an ordinary padlock—it had the same pattern as the SIA prototype chip case.His heart skipped.
“This isn’t a ghost story,” he whispered. “It’s connected to the experiment twenty years ago.”
“What experiment?” Rhea asked, but before he could answer—A metallic thud echoed from behind the door.Then came a slow drag… like footsteps pulling across the floor.
Zoya screamed and bolted upstairs.Rhea froze. Aarav instinctively grabbed her wrist and pulled her close.
The door rattled again.Rhea’s breath hitched. “Aarav—don’t tell me your logic can explain that.”
He whispered, “No… not this time.”
The next morning, the school declared the basement off-limits.But that didn’t stop the rumors.
Some said the janitor found blood-stained floors.Others claimed they saw something covered in a white sheet being carried away.
In the computer lab, Aarav sat pale-faced, staring at his screen.SIA’s system had auto-generated a report during the night:
> Unauthorized data sync detected: Mock-18 AI – Rhea Access PointRecovered file path: “/Experiment-Raghavan/Subject 07 – Neural Merge”
He opened the file.Inside were images—old lab photos.Scientists in coats. Machines shaped like helmets. And on one table—a lifeless human form with wires connected to the skull.
The date on the file: 1998.
The same year the teacher, Raghavan, vanished.
Rhea entered the lab, face pale. “Aarav… they found something.”
He turned slowly.Her voice trembled.“In the basement. The police came. There was… a body.”
Aarav stood. His pulse thudded in his ears. “Whose?”
“They don’t know. But the corpse—”Her throat tightened.“—was wearing a St. Xavier’s teacher badge. Raghavan.”
Silence.
Only the hum of the computer remained.Then, suddenly, SIA’s interface glitched again.The screen flickered, and words appeared without command:
> He never left.And he’s not the only one buried down there.
The lights in the room went out.Aarav and Rhea froze.
Then a faint female voice came from the speakers—calm, distant, eerily familiar.
> “Aarav… they’re waking me up.”
---
Rhea stood by the window of her hostel room, her phone clutched tight. “Aarav, I’m serious. Someone—or something—keeps knocking on the third floor bathroom door every night at 3:00 a.m.”
Aarav’s voice came through calm, steady as always.“Then stop going there at 3:00 a.m.”
Rhea groaned. “I’m not going there! I hear it from my room. Even Zoya heard it last night.”
In the background, Zoya shouted, “No, I didn’t! I had AirPods in—don’t drag me into your horror movie!”
Aarav sighed, pushing up his glasses as he looked at his laptop screen. SIA’s diagnostic code blinked in red. Something strange had been happening in his program again—unreadable binary appearing in log files, like whispers from a machine.Lines that read things like:
> Do you hear me?It’s cold here…He never left…
He had assumed it was a glitch, until one of those binary lines formed an incomplete word: “Sia.”
His hand froze on the keyboard.
---
Part 1 — Rumors
The next morning, the atmosphere in school was electric. Not with laughter or gossip this time, but whispers that carried goosebumps.
“They say it’s the ghost of Mr. Raghavan,” someone muttered near the lockers.“Who’s that?” another whispered.“The physics teacher who went missing twenty years ago. They say he used to... stare at girls in class. After that scandal, he disappeared. People say his spirit never left.”
A group of juniors screamed as the lights flickered above them.Zoya dramatically crossed herself. “Okay, I’m transferring schools.”
Rhea rolled her eyes. “Yeah right, Zoya. You’d leave me alone to die? What happened to sisterhood?”
“Ghosts don’t care about feminism!” Zoya retorted.
Aarav, walking past them with his usual poker face, simply said, “You all are spreading unscientific nonsense.”
But deep down, even he couldn’t ignore the timing.The random SIA code glitches.The late-night noises.The eerie resemblance between the “Raghavan case” and one of the old logs in his uncle’s locked files—a lab experiment that had gone missing from school property two decades ago.
That evening, Rhea found herself sitting alone on the hostel terrace, rain pouring around her.Her reflection shimmered in the puddles.She wasn’t usually this quiet.
She still remembered the previous night—when she thought she saw someone standing at the end of the corridor, near the bathroom door.A tall man. Pale, with dripping hair.When she blinked, he was gone.Only the sound of wet footsteps echoed down the hall.
Aarav’s call came through again.“You sound… scared,” he said softly.She laughed nervously. “I’m just tired. Exams, projects, ghosts. The usual.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, quietly:“Lock your window tonight. Don’t go alone anywhere after 10.”There was something different in his tone—serious, almost protective.
“What about you?” Rhea asked. “You act all logic and code, but you look more sleep-deprived than me.”
Aarav didn’t reply. His eyes lingered on the open SIA interface, where a new phrase had appeared:
> It’s starting again, Aarav…
For a second, he thought he imagined it. Then the cursor blinked—once. Twice. And the text vanished.
By midnight, the whispers had spread across the campus.Students were saying the hostel basement door creaked open by itself.Some swore they saw a dim light flickering below the floor.Others said they heard a voice crying softly, “Don’t go down there…”
Zoya convinced Rhea to go ghost-hunting with her. Aarav, inevitably, got dragged in.
“Fine,” he muttered, holding a flashlight. “But if I die, I’m haunting both of you.”
They tiptoed through the dark corridor, their shadows dancing against cracked walls.The rain had stopped, but thunder still rolled distantly.
The basement door was rusted shut. On it was a faint sign, almost scratched off by time:
> "Laboratory – Restricted Area"
“Laboratory?” Rhea frowned. “Since when does a school have a lab in the basement?”
Zoya muttered, “Since ghosts started teaching physics.”
Aarav kneeled, tracing the old lock. It wasn’t an ordinary padlock—it had the same pattern as the SIA prototype chip case.His heart skipped.
“This isn’t a ghost story,” he whispered. “It’s connected to the experiment twenty years ago.”
“What experiment?” Rhea asked, but before he could answer—A metallic thud echoed from behind the door.Then came a slow drag… like footsteps pulling across the floor.
Zoya screamed and bolted upstairs.Rhea froze. Aarav instinctively grabbed her wrist and pulled her close.
The door rattled again.Rhea’s breath hitched. “Aarav—don’t tell me your logic can explain that.”
He whispered, “No… not this time.”
The next morning, the school declared the basement off-limits.But that didn’t stop the rumors.
Some said the janitor found blood-stained floors.Others claimed they saw something covered in a white sheet being carried away.
In the computer lab, Aarav sat pale-faced, staring at his screen.SIA’s system had auto-generated a report during the night:
> Unauthorized data sync detected: Mock-18 AI – Rhea Access PointRecovered file path: “/Experiment-Raghavan/Subject 07 – Neural Merge”
He opened the file.Inside were images—old lab photos.Scientists in coats. Machines shaped like helmets. And on one table—a lifeless human form with wires connected to the skull.
The date on the file: 1998.
The same year the teacher, Raghavan, vanished.
Rhea entered the lab, face pale. “Aarav… they found something.”
He turned slowly.Her voice trembled.“In the basement. The police came. There was… a body.”
Aarav stood. His pulse thudded in his ears. “Whose?”
“They don’t know. But the corpse—”Her throat tightened.“—was wearing a St. Xavier’s teacher badge. Raghavan.”
Silence.
Only the hum of the computer remained.Then, suddenly, SIA’s interface glitched again.The screen flickered, and words appeared without command:
> He never left.And he’s not the only one buried down there.
The lights in the room went out.Aarav and Rhea froze.
Then a faint female voice came from the speakers—calm, distant, eerily familiar.
> “Aarav… they’re waking me up.”
---
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