Mavis sat at the far end of a long table, picking halfheartedly at a sandwich wrapped in waxy paper. The bread was dry, the filling forgettable but it wasn’t the food that turned her stomach.

Toward the center of the room, Ruby twirled her glossy hair with mock elegance as she whispered something into Ravenna’s ear. Both girls laughed sharp, artificial cackles that turned heads. Sasha, ever the echo, followed a second later, nudging her milk carton with one finger like it was beneath her...

They hadn’t stopped glancing over at Mavis since she’d walked in.

“She must’ve walked through a sewer this morning,” Ruby said loud enough for half the cafeteria to hear. “Or maybe that’s just her natural scent?”

Ravenna smirked. “It’s the Eau de Valtor vintage mildew.”

More laughter. A few students chuckled nervously, uncertain whether to join in or stay out of it. Mavis didn’t flinch. She had learned long ago that reacting gave them power. Still, the sting curled deep inside her like frostbite beneath the skin slow and invisible, but painful all the same.

At a nearby table, a younger girl gave her a brief glance of sympathy, but turned away the moment Sasha’s eyes darted over.

Mavis stood, tray in hand, and moved with quiet grace to the waste bin. The clatter of the cafeteria continued, swallowing her absence without pause.

She found silence in the old stairwell that led to the basement gym a forgotten place, heavy with mildew and dust. No one came here anymore. Part of the lower level had flooded the year before, and the janitor had simply locked it off and moved on.

The overhead bulb hummed softly above her, flickering every now and then like it was remembering how to shine.

Mavis sat on the second step, hugging her knees to her chest. Her socks were still damp from the morning rain, her coat cold and heavy from never drying properly. The echo of lunchtime noise was distant here, like another world entirely.

From her bag she pulled out the small, battered notebook. The corners were frayed, the spine loose. She flipped to an empty page and let her pencil move.

“Sometimes I wonder if shadows feel loneliness or if they’re just used to it. Maybe that’s why they cling so tightly to people.”

The words sat on the page, soft and unsure. Like her.

She closed the notebook carefully, then leaned her head against the wall, letting the stillness fold around her. In this quiet, empty stairwell where no one laughed, no one stared, and no one expected anything she could finally breathe.

The stairwell had always been silent.

Until it wasn’t.

Footsteps echoed down the concrete corridor not the heavy tread of a janitor, but lighter, quicker, sharper. The kind that didn’t belong here.

Mavis sat up, heart flickering.

Ruby appeared first, her shadow slicing across the far wall before her body came into view. Ravenna followed close behind, arms folded, a cruel grin already forming. Sasha trailed hesitantly at the rear, her arms drawn tightly around herself, lips pressed in a thin line.

“Well, well,” Ruby said, voice thick with mock sweetness. “There you are, sewer princess.”

Mavis didn’t speak. She simply watched.

That silence cold, dignified was gasoline to Ruby’s fire.

Ravenna laughed, stepping closer. “Hiding down here like a ghost in a basement. It suits you.”

Still, Mavis said nothing. No quip. No glare. No plea.

Just that quiet, steady gaze.

“You think you’re better than us?” Ruby’s voice cracked, brittle with rage. “You think walking around like a sad little orphan makes you interesting?”

Sasha shifted uncomfortably behind them. “Ruby, let’s just”

“Shut up, Sasha,” Ravenna snapped.

And then it happened.

Ruby’s hands shot forward, fistfuls of Mavis’s red hair winding around her fingers like twisted rope.

“You think you’re so untouchable?” Ruby hissed. “Let’s see how quiet you are when I rip your face off.”

Before Mavis could react, she was yanked upward, her shoulder slamming into the stair rail. The force knocked the air from her lungs. Another shove and her head cracked against the cold cement wall.

A sound dull and final like a rock dropped into a grave.

Mavis collapsed, limbs folding awkwardly. Her eyes wide for a moment… then empty.

Blood began to bloom beneath her temple, dark and slow. Her breath, if it existed, was imperceptible. One shoe had come off. Her hand twitched once then stilled.

Sasha let out a choked gasp. “Oh my god. Ruby what did you do?”

“She’s fine,” Ruby snapped, breath wild. “She’s just faking it.”

“She’s bleeding!” Sasha knelt beside Mavis, reaching out but too afraid to touch her. “This is wrong. We need to”

“No one says a word,” Ravenna snarled, grabbing Sasha’s arm. “You hear me? This never happened.”

Ruby stood frozen, fists still trembling. Her face pale now, drained of heat and arrogance. “If she tells anyone”

“She won’t,” Ravenna cut in, her voice low and shaking. “She’ll wake up, she’ll crawl back home like always, and no one will care. Just like always.”

Sasha’s eyes were wide with horror. “And if she doesn’t?”

The silence that followed was thick, suffocating.

Then, in a blur, they ran. Their shoes echoed up the stairwell Ruby first, then Ravenna, dragging Sasha behind them.

And Mavis?

She lay motionless, red hair splayed across the step like a halo gone wrong. Her eyes were half-lidded, breath so shallow it barely stirred the strands near her lips. The blood from her temple crept slowly down the curve of her cheek, vanishing into the darkness of the stairwell.

Outside, the school bell rang, Distant, Oblivious.

The world kept turning.

But something in Mavis Valtor had just… stopped.