The evening wind crept in cold, piercing through the thin fabric of the cheap coat wrapped around Liana’s body. Before her, the massive iron gates of Nocturne Academy stood firm, soaring high as though they meant to swallow the dull purple sky that was slowly losing its light. Carvings of winged gargoyles spread across the enormous stone arch above the gates, staring straight down with stone eyes that seemed eerily alive.
Liana squeezed the rolled letter in her hand. The paper was unlike ordinary paper. Its texture was incredibly thick and rough, like old leather, and it carried a faint scent of dried roses that somehow stung her nose. The scholarship letter was her only way out of the suffocating life at the orphanage. Yet standing directly beneath the shadow of a building this immense, fear began creeping up the back of her neck.
Nocturne Academy looked more like an isolated medieval castle than a place of learning. Its pointed towers pierced the overcast clouds, lined with rows of dusty stained-glass windows that reflected the last remnants of twilight. Liana pulled her coat tighter and stared at the tightly shut gates, which had no bell, chain, or door knocker.
“Are you coming in, or are you planning to stand there until you freeze?”
The voice appeared without warning, with no sign of anyone’s presence beforehand. Liana jumped in shock and spun around, her heart suddenly racing wildly.
A thin man dressed entirely in black was already standing behind the gap between the gate’s iron bars. His skin was unnaturally pale, like a corpse that had never felt sunlight in its entire life. His eyes were a dull gray—cold and utterly empty of emotion.
Liana drew a deep breath to calm her pounding chest. “I’m Liana Valeraine. I’m the new scholarship student for this semester.”
The man did not answer. His long, thin fingers hooked a large bronze key from beneath his thick black robe. Rust covered parts of it, and it gave off a sharp clang that shattered the evening silence as he extended it through the gaps in the iron bars.
“Take this key. Don’t lose it,” the gatekeeper said in a deep, rasping voice, like two rough stones scraping against each other.
Liana hesitated for a moment before reaching out. When her fingertips accidentally brushed the gatekeeper’s, an intense cold immediately spread all the way to her elbow. It felt exactly like touching a chunk of ice in the middle of winter.
The gatekeeper snatched his hand back beneath his robe as swiftly as a shadow. Then, without anyone touching the hinges, the enormous iron gates before Liana let out a piercing creak. The scrape of old metal echoed through the evening fog as the gates slowly opened, leaving a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
“Go in. Curfew hasn’t started yet, but you don’t have much time to wander around outside,” the man muttered flatly. Before Liana could reply, the gatekeeper had already turned away and vanished into the darkness of the narrow guard post.
Liana swallowed, the lump in her throat refusing to go away. She hugged her faded cloth bag tightly against her chest. Her legs felt as heavy as lead, but she forced herself to step through the gap in the iron gates.
Just as the heel of her shoe touched the stone courtyard inside the academy, a blast of cold wind swept in hard from behind.
Bang!
The enormous iron gates slammed shut with a deafening, heavy crash, cleaving through the courtyard’s silence with a thunderous boom. Liana spun around in shock and stared toward the gates. The iron bars had already locked themselves tightly again, completely isolating her from the path and the outside world.
Liana’s heart pounded. The sound of the locked gates was exactly like a judge’s hammer striking down a sentence of life imprisonment. There was no turning back now.
Liana turned toward the main building once more. The massive structure looked even more intimidating in the fading evening light. On the upper floors, the dark stained-glass windows seemed to conceal some great secret. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise; it was as if dozens of hidden eyes were watching her from behind those tall, shadowed windows. Invisible gazes followed every inch of her movements from behind the glass.
“It’s just a school. This is just an ordinary school,” Liana whispered to herself, trying to calm the survival instinct that kept screaming danger.
She tightened her grip on her cloth bag and slowly crossed the stone courtyard toward the massive teakwood door of the main building. Every step on the stone stairs felt as though it was carrying her deeper into the belly of a monster ready to devour her whole.
Liana stood before the main door, painted a deep black. When she extended her trembling hand to push against it, the carved wooden door slowly swung open without a sound, revealing the darkness of the vast main hall beyond.
Holding her breath, her heart pounding, Liana allowed herself to step across the threshold just as the room’s cold aura welcomed her body—and the main door behind her began sliding shut on its own.