Her Curse, Their Claim

he house was gone - the only thing left was smoke, ruin, and a silence too loud to bear. Her mother was dead. The fire had taken her five days ago. Now, there was nothing left but this... and the st

t in. The door shut with a soft click that sounded far too final. Inside, the car smelled like leather, old books, and something faintly floral - like lavender and ash. The man didn't speak again. He simply drove, long fingers tapping the wheel to a rhythm only he could hear. Seren clutched the folder to her chest and watched the world blur by. The city thinned. Then disappeared. Asphalt gave way to cracked gravel, then dense trees. Forest swallowed everything - light, sound, sense of direction. Her signal vanished two hours ago. Not even a bar. "I should've brought pepper spray," she muttered under her breath. The driver cracked the smallest smile. "It wouldn't work here." She blinked. "What?" But he said nothing more. Three hours later, just past dusk, the trees broke open - and there it was. Ashmoor Academy. A towering, ancient castle-like structure carved into a cliff, wreathed in ivy and fog. It looked less like a school and more like a haunted cathedral - the kind built to keep things in as much as to keep people out. Turrets jutted like jagged teeth. Windows glowed golden behind wrought-iron bars. Thunder cracked in the distance, but the sky above the school remained moonless and still. Seren stepped out of the car and stared. "This can't be real." "Oh, it's real," the driver said. "And it's waiting for you." A bell tolled from somewhere deep inside the stone. She swallowed. "Waiting for what, exactly?" "You'll find out soon enough." He handed her a suitcase she didn't pack. "Everything you need is inside." "I didn't bring anything." "You did. You just don't remember packing it." Before she could ask what the hell that meant, the car was gone - just like that. No headlights. No sound. No tracks in the gravel. She turn