An Ordinary Morning

The lecture hall buzzed with the ordinary chaos of a Friday morning.

Students chatted across the room, some laughing too loudly, others scrambling to finish assignments they had ignored all week. Pens scratched across paper. Chair legs scraped against the floor. Sunlight spilled through the tall classroom windows, washing the room in a soft, familiar warmth.

The professor still hadn’t arrived.

Near the window, Asher leaned back in his chair and idly spun a pen between his fingers.

“I swear,” he sighed, “if this lecture lasts more than an hour, I’m sleeping.”

“You say that every class,” Ethan replied without looking up from his notebook.

“And?”

“You’ve never actually fallen asleep.”

A few seats ahead, Luna laughed.

“Maybe because you’re the loudest person here.”

“Confidence,” Asher said.

“Annoyance,” she shot back.

“They’re basically the same thing.

”The small group chuckled.

Across the aisle, Ava quietly straightened her notes and pushed Asher’s empty snack wrappers back toward him.

“You know trash bins exist, right?”

“I was getting to it.”

“When?”

“…Eventually.

”She let out a tired sigh.

A few seats away, Alice rested her chin on one hand and watched the clouds drift lazily beyond the morning sky.

Luna noticed and waved a hand in front of her face.

“Earth to Alice.

”Alice blinked and looked over.

“Hm?”

“You’ve been staring outside for five minutes.”

“It looked peaceful.”“…You’re weird.”

“So I’ve been told.

”The classroom door slid open.

A tall, black-haired student entered, carrying a worn backpack slung over one shoulder. Without a word, he made his way to an empty seat near the middle of the room and sat down quietly.

No one paid him much attention.

He preferred it that way.

Moments later, the professor entered the room.

“Good morning, everyone.

”A tired chorus answered him.

“Today we’ll continue our lesson on—”The fluorescent lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then every light in the room went dark.
A few students looked up in confusion.“…Power outage?

”Before anyone could react, golden lines spread beneath every desk. They raced across the floor like streams of molten light, weaving together into an enormous magic circle.

“What is that?”
“Is this a prank?”

Students shoved back their chairs. The glowing symbols climbed the walls and ceiling, enclosing the classroom in a web of brilliant gold.

The air became unbearably heavy.

Then six students froze.
Asher.
Ava.
Ethan.
Luna.
Alice.

And the quiet boy sitting near the center of the room.
The five of them were surrounded by steady columns of golden light.
The sixth was not.

His light flickered violently. The symbols beneath his feet trembled as though they were struggling to stay connected.
His chest tightened.
An invisible force crushed down on him.
His knees buckled. Breathing became painful.
The others looked frightened.
He looked as though his body were being torn apart.
Thin cracks of crimson light spread across the unstable circle beneath him.
A sharp pain ripped through his chest.
He coughed violently.
Blood splattered across the glowing floor.

“Hey!” Luna’s eyes widened.
“He’s bleeding!”

He coughed again.
More blood hit the floor.
The unstable light wrapped around his body like chains, dragging him toward the center of the circle.
His vision blurred. The classroom dissolved behind a sea of white.
The last thing he heard was someone screaming his name.
Then...Silence.---Thousands of kilometers away, emergency vehicles surrounded the university.
The classroom windows had shattered outward. The room was empty.

Six students had vanished without a trace.
Yet scattered across the cracked floor remained one thing.
Fresh blood.
The investigators exchanged uneasy glances.“…Was someone killed?”
No one had an answer.