The Evidence Room door slammed shut behind them with a hollow metallic echo.
No one touched it.
The sound bounced down the corridor like a warning.
Arjun grabbed the handle instinctively and pulled. Locked.
Their phones buzzed together.
Proceed to Lecture Hall 3 — Attendance Verification.
One absence already recorded.
The lights in the hallway flickered back to life in a straight glowing path — guiding them forward like a runway they hadn’t agreed to walk.
No one wanted to be the first to move.
Ravi finally forced a crooked grin. “Okay… listen. Whoever’s doing this wants us scared and blaming ghosts. It’s probably one of us messing around to freak everyone out.”
Nisha turned on him instantly. “You think this is funny right now?”
“I’m saying,” Ravi continued, voice rising, “someone here knows more than they’re telling.”
The words hung heavy between them.
Meera’s eyes flicked toward Karthik — still quiet, still shaken by his name marked Present.
Karthik snapped, “Why are you looking at me?”
“Because you were marked present before we even entered,” Ravi shot back.
“I didn’t do anything!”
Their argument followed them into Lecture Hall 3.
The room smelled of dust and old plastic chairs. A projector glowed at the front, displaying the attendance dashboard in harsh white light.
Five names.
Four marked Absent.
Karthik — Present.
Behind them, the lecture hall doors closed softly.
Arjun scanned the room. Rows of empty seats. Curtains drawn tight across the windows. A single ceiling camera rotated slowly above the whiteboard.
Not aggressively.
Just… watching.
A faint sound echoed from the corridor outside.
Soft footsteps.
Then a voice.
Breathless.
Familiar.
“Seniors… please… I didn’t do anything…”
Everyone froze.
Ravi’s face drained of color. “That’s… that’s his voice.”
The junior.
The one from the recordings.
The voice drifted again from outside the hall — trembling, desperate.
“I’m locked… please…”
Ravi took a step toward the door. “This is sick,” he muttered. “I’m ending this.”
“Ravi, wait,” Arjun said.
But Ravi was already pushing the door open and stepping into the corridor.
His footsteps echoed away.
“Bro?” Arjun called.
No answer.
The junior’s voice continued faintly — leading Ravi farther down the hallway until the sound faded completely.
The group waited.
Ten seconds.
Thirty.
A minute.
Ravi didn’t come back.
Nisha’s breathing grew shallow. “Okay… enough. Call him.”
Arjun dialed.
The phone rang from somewhere nearby — muffled, distant — then went silent.
The projector beeped.
Attendance refreshed.
Ravi — Present
A cold silence spread through the hall.
Meera whispered, “That’s… that’s not funny.”
The screen switched automatically to CCTV footage.
A hidden camera angle from inside the lecture hall — showing all of them arguing earlier near the entrance.
Audio played back.
Their own voices accusing each other.
Ravi’s accusation:
“Someone here is behind this.”
Nisha’s response:
“Maybe it’s you!”
The footage looped again and again — amplifying tension, forcing them to watch themselves break apart.
Karthik shook his head. “Why are they showing us this?”
Arjun looked toward the hallway camera feed displayed in a small corner of the screen.
The corridor outside.
Empty.
No Ravi.
No junior.
No one.
The camera hadn’t moved once.
Didn’t zoom.
Didn’t follow.
Just… recorded a blank hallway.
Nisha’s voice trembled. “The camera didn’t even react when he left.”
As if answering her, a system notification appeared on the projector.
Attendance Updated Instantly — Subject Located.
Meera stared at the timestamp.
Updated within seconds of Ravi stepping out.
Before any search.
Before any confirmation.
Arjun felt something twist in his stomach.
The CCTV switched to another angle.
Main entrance.
Empty.
Side corridor.
Empty.
Stairwell.
Empty.
No sign of anyone entering or leaving the building.
No external intruder.
No prankster running away.
No senior hiding in shadows.
Just a hallway where Ravi had walked out — and never come back.
The room felt smaller.
Nisha’s voice dropped to a whisper. “If no one else came in…”
Her eyes moved slowly across the group.
Landing on each face.
Stopping.
Suspicious.
Afraid.
Karthik backed away slightly. “Don’t look at me like that.”
Meera’s voice shook. “Someone here knew that voice would make him follow.”
The projector displayed a new message:
First Absence Resolved.
Next Verification Begins.
The ceiling camera rotated slowly, capturing each of their faces one by one.
Arjun felt the weight of its gaze linger on him — not hostile, not angry — just quietly observant.
The system logs on screen updated in real time:
Subject Compliance — Recorded.
Group Conflict Level — Elevated.
Nisha whispered the realization forming in all their minds.
“There’s no outsider,” she said.
Her voice cracked.
“No prankster… no hacker… no senior hiding.”
Arjun swallowed hard as the empty CCTV hallway looped again — Ravi walking out alone, vanishing beyond the frame without anyone else appearing.
The room grew colder.
And for the first time, the real fear wasn’t something outside the group.
It was the possibility that the threat… was already standing among them.