Thomas Reed had worked the late shift at Ridgeview Middle School for nine years. He knew every hallway, every echo, every flicker of fluorescent light. But on a Thursday night in early winter, something felt off the moment he stepped onto the second floor.
A single classroom light was on.
Room 214.
No one should have been there.
Thomas approached the door, expecting a teacher who forgot to turn off the light. Instead, he saw a girl lying motionless on the floor beside a desk—pale, still, and frighteningly quiet.