The wooden door of Classroom 3B stood rigid before them. Its faded brown color offered a stark contrast to the pale, sterile white of the corridor walls. Gani, who was leading the group, let out a scoff and shoved the door open without bothering to knock.

Crrreeeakk.

The sound of rusted hinges shattered the hallway’s stillness. In an instant, a blast of ice-cold wind struck their faces.

"Damn! It’s freezing!" Vanya instantly wrapped her arms around herself, goosebumps breaking out all over her skin. "Since when is the campus AC this extreme? My skin’s going to dry out if we stay here all night."

"Wait, wasn't the third-floor AC broken since last month?" Sela whispered, her eyes darting anxiously around the room as she huddled behind Arin.

"Maybe the old bastard brought a fan from his quarters to look dramatic," Reno replied nonchalantly. He stepped inside, casting his eyes across the neatly arranged rows of empty desks.

At the very front of the classroom, the atmosphere felt considerably denser. Behind the dusty professor's desk sat a middle-aged man in his fifties, sitting bolt upright in his wooden chair. He wore the long-sleeved batik shirt he usually wore for daytime lectures. Yet his posture was deeply unsettling. He sat rigid, his back turned to the door, staring straight ahead at a blackboard completely devoid of chalk marks.

"Professor," Gani called out, intentionally raising his voice to sound confrontational. "We're here. Just like you asked—right on the dot before nine."

No response. The figure at the front desk remained completely still, as if deaf to Gani’s outburst.

Dinda stepped forward with an air of elegance, though the click of her high heels sounded uncomfortably loud in the dead silence. She set her designer handbag onto one of the front desks. "Professor Danu, look... about my failing grade last week, I don't think there's any need for an illegal late-night class like this. If you need... 'financial support' for your research or something, we can talk it over nicely tomorrow morning."

Once more, a suffocating silence was her only answer.

"Hey, Professor! Are you deaf?" Gani's temper flared. He took a stride forward, intending to slam his hand on the desk.

Toll...

Toll... Toll...

The loud chiming of an ancient wall clock mounted above the chalkboard suddenly rang out. Exactly nine times. The 9:00 PM chimes echoed heavily into every corner of the room, bringing Gani’s steps to a sudden halt.

Along with the final chime, the figure at the front slowly began to move.

Professor Danu turned his chair.

Srrrreeek... The sound of wooden legs dragging against the floor was agonizingly slow and grating. As his body faced the students completely, six pairs of eyes locked onto him in sheer shock.

Professor Danu’s face was deathly pale—as white as a sheet of paper. The skin beneath his eyes was sunken and pitch-black, and his gaze was completely flat—a lifeless void, as if they were staring into the eyes of a porcelain doll.

"Sit," Professor Danu commanded.

His voice was abnormal. It sounded raspy and dry, like a throat deprived of water for days, yet it reverberated with an unnatural double-echo—as if two people were speaking through him in unison.

Vanya took a step back, whispering fearfully toward Dinda. "Dinda... look at his face... why does he look so creepy? Like he's going through withdrawal or something."

"It's just a cheap trick to scare us," Dinda whispered back, though the hand gripping her purse strap was turning cold. "An old-fashioned guy like him doesn't have the guts to do anything real."

"I said sit," Professor Danu repeated. This time, his voice dropped an entire octave, casting a crushing weight over the room that made their chests tighten.

Reno, attempting to diffuse the unnatural tension, walked toward the middle row of desks. "Whatever, let's just sit down so we can get this over with."

The six of them finally took their seats. Reno and Gani sat in the middle row; Dinda and Vanya took the front; while Arin and Sela sat toward the back, keeping as much distance from the instructor's desk as possible.

Professor Danu did not open a laptop or turn on a projector like typical modern faculty. With stiff, mechanical movements—resembling robotic joints desperate for oil—he leaned down, opened his desk drawer, and pulled out six thick, leather-bound books covered in faded black covers and a thick layer of dust.

THUD!

Professor Danu dropped the stack of books onto his desk. A thick cloud of dust billowed into the air beneath the dim, flickering fluorescent lights.

"Open to page one," Professor Danu said, his hollow eyes piercing straight through them. "Tonight, we will learn about consequences. About what happens when human beings forget basic manners and accountability."

Gani leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest in a defiant stance. "What consequences, Professor? We came here to discuss the 'F' you slapped on our exams yesterday. Stop beating around the bush and get straight to the point."

Professor Danu didn't blink. He hadn't blinked a single time since turning his chair around. He simply stared at Gani with those hollow, empty eyes.

"Gani..." Professor Danu called out, his echoing voice sending a sudden chill down Arin's spine in the back row. "A single wrong word from your mouth... can cut your lifespan short."

The temperature in the classroom dropped precipitously. It grew so cold that the air leaving Sela's mouth began to condense into a faint white vapor.

"Arin..." Sela whispered, clutching Arin's skirt under the desk. "Our breath... it's turning into fog. This isn't normal, Rin. This isn't air conditioning."

Arin swallowed hard, struggling to catch her breath. She glanced out the glass window beside her desk. Outside, the night was a void of absolute darkness, as if their campus had been uprooted from the earth and cast into the quiet expanse of deep space.

The strangest, most terrifying lecture of their lives had officially begun with the tap of Professor Danu's pale finger against the black leather book.

Tap... Tap... Tap...