Their pulses raced at a breakneck speed. The moment they burst through the shattered frame of Classroom 3B, the six students were greeted by the bizarre, suffocating atmosphere of the third-floor corridor. The air outside offered no fresh oxygen; instead, it felt heavier, choked with the pungent reek of iron-like blood and wet cement.

"The stairs! Take the emergency stairs near the elevator now!" Gani screamed louder than anyone.

He took the lead, sprinting like a madman without a second thought for anyone behind him. His pride and arrogance as the son of a high-society family had dissolved into dust, leaving only the primal, cowardly instinct of a survivor trying to save his own skin.

Behind him, Reno was half-dragging Vanya, whose legs had turned to jelly. "Come on, Vanya! Force your feet to move! We have to get out of this cursed building!"

"I can't, Reno... my legs feel so weak..." Vanya sobbed hysterically, her smeared mascara running down her pale cheeks in dark, messy streaks.

Dinda sprinted alongside them, her breathing short and ragged. Every few steps, she glanced back in sheer terror, terrified that the twisted figure of Professor Danu with his broken neck would suddenly materialize right behind her. Meanwhile, Arin acted as a shield for Sela. She threw her arm around her best friend's shoulders, forcing Sela—who kept muttering incoherently—to keep moving her feet.

They reached the end of the hallway. The dark green emergency stairwell door stood right before their eyes. Gani slammed his entire body weight against the heavy iron bar.

BANG!

The door swung wide open. Without waiting for the others, Gani leaped down the concrete steps, taking them two at a time. Reno, Vanya, Dinda, Arin, and Sela scrambled right behind him, their frantic footsteps echoing loudly within the narrow stairwell.

"Down! Keep going all the way to the first floor!" Reno barked in a hoarse voice.

They flew down the flights of stairs at maximum speed. One full flight down... they passed the wall sign reading 2ND FLOOR. Another flight down... they reached the exit door that was supposed to lead straight to the main ground-floor lobby.

Gani, filled with desperate hope, shoved the heavy iron door with all his strength. "Open up! Come on, we're free!"

SLAM!

The door swung wide open. Yet the second Gani stepped through the doorway, his feet ground to a sudden halt. His eyes dilated in absolute shock. His entire body trembled so violently that his knees buckled, hitting the cold floor.

"N-No... This is impossible..." Gani whispered, every ounce of stamina draining from his voice.

Reno and the others spilled out from the stairwell behind him, and instantly, Vanya's hysterical shrieks shattered the silence once more.

They were not standing in the spacious, brightly lit ground-floor lobby. They were standing in a narrow concrete corridor bathed in the flickering, erratic glow of dim red fluorescent lights. To their right was a room with a completely obliterated wooden door and shattered glass shards littering the floor. Mounted crookedly above the doorframe was a small nameplate: CLASSROOM 3B.

"We... we're back?" Dinda backed away a step, shaking her head in frantic denial. "We just ran down two flights of stairs! Why are we standing in front of this class again?!"

"It's a labyrinth! This whole building is cursed!" Arin held Sela tight as the girl went into full-blown hysterics at the sight of the death classroom.

"No! I don't believe it! There has to be another way out!" Gani scrambled to his feet, madness gleaming in his eyes. He spun around and sprinted in the opposite direction toward the left corridor, heading for the building's central staircase. "I'm taking the main stairs! It has to work!"

"Gani, wait! Don't split up!" Reno yelled, but Gani had already vanished into the dense darkness of the hallway. Left with no choice, Reno pulled Vanya along to give chase, followed closely by Dinda and Arin, who were still supporting Sela.

The campus corridor that night felt endlessly long. Every classroom door they passed looked identical, uninhabited, and seemingly looping on a loop.

CRACK...

CRRRACK... CRRRACK...

The sickeningly familiar sound of snapping bone echoed suddenly from directly overhead.

Reno instinctively froze. He looked up toward the dark concrete ceiling of the corridor. The erratic flicker of the red neon light illuminated a vision capable of stopping any human heart.

Up above, clinging to the concrete ceiling like a monstrous spider, was the spectral figure of Professor Danu crawling toward them. His batik shirt dangled downward. His broken neck was inverted 180 degrees, staring straight down at them with eyes continuously weeping fresh blood. The crimson fluid dripped onto the floor, emitting a corrosive hiss upon touching the concrete.

Drip... drip...

"Are you all... skipping class again?" Professor Danu's voice growled. The double-toned voice no longer sounded remotely human, but rather like thousands of agonizing souls screaming in unison deep within his throat.

"AAAAAHHHH!!! HE'S ABOVE US!!! HE'S ON THE CEILING!!!" Vanya shrieked hysterically, completely losing her remaining sanity. She tore her hand free from Reno's grip and sprinted blindly forward.

"Vanya! Don't go that way!" Reno tried to tackle her, but in a fraction of a second, the crawling figure of Professor Danu shot across the ceiling with unnatural speed.

WHOOSH!

The entity dropped from the ceiling, landing squarely in front of Vanya.

THUD!

Professor Danu hit the ground upside down on all fours, his knees and elbows contorted in impossible, backwards angles. His blood-soaked face was now mere inches from Vanya's. His torn lower jaw twitched violently, releasing a reek of putrid decay that instantly made Vanya gag.

"Return to your desks... The lesson is not over..." Professor Danu whispered, yet the sheer vibration of his voice caused hairline cracks to ripple across the surrounding corridor walls.

Vanya could no longer make a sound. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and her body crumpled onto the concrete floor, passing out cold from sheer, unadulterated shock.

"Vanya!!!" Reno screamed, surging forward to pull her away. But Gani, who was sprinting back from up ahead, collided straight into Reno, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Gani had evidently doubled back after finding the main central stairs blocked by another dead end.

"Run, Reno! He's everywhere! We can't get out!" Gani screamed hysterically, his face drenched in cold tears of terror. He scrambled wildly across the floor, trying to back away from Professor Danu's form.

Dinda slid down against the wall, slumping onto the floor as she buried her face in her knees. "It's useless... we're going to die here... my dad's money can't save me from this ghost..." she wept in complete resignation, her mental fortitude obliterated.

Meanwhile, Professor Danu's spirit slowly forced its contorted, broken frame upright. His silent steps began drifting steadily toward Reno, who was frantically attempting to drag Vanya's unconscious body away.

In that cursed, looping labyrinth of corridors, the time on their watches remained frozen dead at nine o'clock. No dawn would rise; no help would come. The fatal hunt intensified, eroding every last shred of hope left inside the hearts of the six students, now completely trapped beneath the terror of the Spectral Professor.