I Loved the Monster. Then I Blew Him Up.

Calla's POV

It's supposed to be our last class trip before graduation. The bus loses control on a mountain road and goes over the edge.

I think we're all going to die.

When I open my eyes again, I'm sitting in a classroom that looks like it's been rotting for decades.

A system alert blares through my skull:

【Welcome to Ravenwood High. Unnameable creatures roam the campus. Survive 7 days. Uncover the truth behind the campus Boss's death. Every player who dies adds $800,000 to the prize pool. Make it out, and the money is yours.】

Everyone loses it. Screaming, crying, total chaos. The first thing Brett does is shove me toward the door to check the hallway. Because of course he does. I'm the class punching bag. The girl nobody would miss.

Everyone assumes I'll be the first to die.

What nobody sees is the smile pulling at the corner of my mouth as I stand at that door, staring at whatever is writhing in the shadows of the hallway.

The smell hits me first. Thick, rotten, wrong. I jolt awake.

I'm not dead. The bus went off the cliff, but I'm not dead. I'm sitting in a decayed classroom, walls streaked with old dried blood, my classmates sprawled unconscious all around me.

On the blackboard, chalk is moving on its own, scratching out line after line of red text.

【Welcome to the Ravenwood High Instance.】

【Players currently alive: 45.】

【Base prize pool: $5,000,000. Every player who dies adds $800,000 to the prize pool.】

【Main objective: Survive 7 days and piece together the truth behind campus Boss Emerson Shade's death.】

【Completion reward: Exit the instance with the full prize pool.】

【Warning: Unnameable creatures roam this campus. Follow the rules. Stay alive.】

The mechanical voice detonates inside everyone's heads at once.

The room erupts. Screaming, sobbing, cursing, all of it bleeding together.

"What the hell is this place? I want to go home!" Lacey Voss, queen bee, covers her face with her hands and screams, mascara running down her cheeks.

Brett Calloway, star linebacker and full-time asshole, kicks a desk clean across the floor. "Okay, who's pulling this crap? Show yourself!"

I stay in my corner, head down, hair falling over my eyes.

Nobody notices me smiling.

Every player who dies adds $800,000 to the prize pool.

I think about the bathroom floor. The cold tile pressed against my cheek. My textbooks shredded and tossed in the trash. Teachers walking right past me like I wasn't even there. Not one person ever said a word.

For everyone else in this room, this is hell. No logic, no mercy, death lurking in every shadow.

But me?

I've been living in exactly this kind of place for three years.

For me, this is paradise.

The rusted classroom door slams open with a force that rattles the walls. Beyond it stretches a long, black hallway. Something thick and dark drips from the ceiling. The air carries the smell of rot.

"The door's open! We can make a run for it, call 911!" one of Brett's guys yells.

He's already moving when Brett grabs him by the collar and yanks him back. Brett's not the sharpest, but he's not totally stupid either. He clocks the red words still crawling across the blackboard, then looks out at the dark hallway, and then his eyes land on me.

"Calla."

He crosses the room in a few strides and grabs me by the hair, hauling me out of my seat.

Pain rips across my scalp. I do what I always do. I let my face crumple. I let my body shake.

"Brett, please, don't—"

"Shut up." He shoves me toward the door. "Go check the hallway. Tell us what's out there."

Lacey leans against a desk, arms crossed, enjoying every second of it. "Seriously. You've been dead weight in this class for three years. Time to finally be useful."

The rest of them nod along. Nobody thinks twice. In their world, I exist to be used.

I bite my lip. Let my eyes go glassy. Walk toward the door one reluctant step at a time.

Right before I cross the threshold, I spot it. Up near the ceiling, half-swallowed by shadow, something fleshy shifts and pulses. No eyes. Just a cluster of feeler-like organs sweeping slowly through the air.

The system pings: 【Blind Creature. Detects sound and heat.】

I stop. Lock my jaw. Press my back flat against the wall and go completely still.

"What are you doing? Move!" Brett's guy storms over to push me from behind, sneakers squeaking against the floor in the silence.

He steps through the doorway.

The shadow drops.

The thing opens a mouth ringed with hooked teeth and closes it around his head. His body takes one more step forward on its own before the blood comes, and then he goes down.

The warmth hits my face before I even process what just happened.

The classroom goes dead silent.

Then everyone starts screaming.

I reach up, wipe the blood from my cheek, and look across the room at Brett, who's collapsed against a desk, too scared to move.

"Brett," I say. "I think it's raining."