Blackwood Academy
When Eli is forced to enroll at Blackwood Academy, he thinks it is just another remote boarding school. But on his first night, he realizes the terrifying truth.
This school is a prison.
Trapped in endless, deadly time loops, students are forced to complete cruel, supernatural trials. Ghosts, cursed hallways, hidden rules, and unspeakable creatures hunt them after dark. The only way to stay alive is to solve mysteries, earn credits, and obey the academy's twisted commands.
No one remembers how they arrived.
No one has ever graduated.
No one leaves alive.
Eli must team up with other desperate students to uncover the academy's century-old secret. If they fail, they will be trapped in the nightmare forever.
At Blackwood Academy, survival is the only exam.
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Chapter 2
It was always dusk at Blackwood Academy.
The sky hung in a sickly orange-red, as if stained with blood. The sun never moved, fixed forever on the western horizon, casting a faint, cold light over everything.
The campus buildings were pure Gothic-spires, arches, stained-glass windows. But every window was pitch black, showing no light inside. Dead black vines crawled up the walls, twisting like serpents.
The air reeked of mildew, blood, and something indescribably rotten. From the distant main building came faint footsteps and dragging sounds, but when you listened closely, there was nothing there at all.
Their skeleton homeroom teacher led them down a long corridor. The walls were lined with yellowed photographs-graduation photos of past classes. Eli noticed that none of the students in the photos had eyes.
Their eye sockets were empty black holes, as if someone had dug them out.
Junior clung to Eli's arm, shaking so violently he could barely stand. Leah snapped photos as they walked, but every flash made the skeleton turn his head. The red glow in his empty sockets made her blood run cold.
They were led into a windowless classroom. The desks and chairs were black, covered in scratches and dark red stains. The green blackboard had a few words scrawled in white chalk: "Welcome, Freshmen."
The skeleton stepped onto the platform and turned to face them.
"I am your homeroom teacher, Designation 013." His cold voice echoed off the walls. "For the duration of your time here, I will teach you how to survive at Blackwood Academy."
"Before we begin, I will read the Blackwood Academy Freshman Code. Listen carefully. Every single rule is a matter of life and death."
He picked up a piece of white chalk and wrote three large words on the blackboard: FRESHMAN CODE.
The sound of chalk against stone was sharp and shrill, like nails scraping glass.
"Rule One: Credits are the only currency within Blackwood Academy. Each of you starts with 10 credits. Credits can be exchanged for food, water, medicine, weapons, survival information, lifespan, and anything else you might desire."
"But-" The skeleton paused, his glowing red eyes sweeping over the class. "Anyone whose credits reach zero is terminated."
Dead silence. No one dared to breathe.
"Rule Two: Every Monday at midnight, all students must participate in mandatory off-campus trials. Trials have clear objectives and time limits. Anyone who fails their mission, violates trial rules, or fails to return on time is terminated."
"Rule Three: Fatal private combat is prohibited on campus. However, the academy does not interfere with the theft of credits or items from other students."
The skeleton set down his chalk. "These are the three core freshman rules. You will learn the rest as you survive."
"Any questions?"
Before he finished speaking, a burly man slammed his fist on his desk and stood up. He had arrived with Kane, another gang member by the looks of him.
"Fuck your rules!" He roared. "This is kidnapping! I'm calling the police! Let me out!"
He charged toward the classroom door.
The skeleton raised his hand.
Without warning, the man's body began to twist. The sound of breaking bones filled the room-crack, crack, crack-as if a thousand hands were tearing him apart from the inside. His arms bent backward at impossible angles, bone shards piercing through his skin, glistening wet with blood.
He screamed, a sound of pure agony, but it lasted only a few seconds before cutting off.
Then his body began to melt.
Skin, muscle, bone... everything dissolved into black mist, which was absorbed by the classroom walls. Seconds later, he was gone completely, leaving only a pool of black blood on the floor and his black acceptance letter.
The letter crumbled to ash and drifted away on an unseen breeze.
The classroom was deathly quiet.
Someone vomited. Someone else began to sob quietly. Junior fainted dead away. Dr. Irene rushed to his side to administer first aid.
Eli's stomach churned, but he forced himself not to be sick. His nails dug deep into his palms. He saw genuine fear flash across Kane's face for the first time.
"Any more questions?" The skeleton asked again, his voice exactly the same as before.
No one spoke.
"Good." He nodded. "You now have one hour to familiarize yourselves with the campus. You may go to the cafeteria to exchange credits for food and water, to the dormitories to assign rooms, or to the administration office to learn more rules."
"But remember-" His gaze swept over them once more. "Do not go to the third floor of the library. Do not go to the basement of the main building. Do not leave your dormitory after midnight. Violators will face the consequences."
"Return here in one hour. At that time, your first off-campus trial will begin."
The skeleton turned and walked out of the classroom. The door closed automatically behind him.
Only when his footsteps had faded completely did the room erupt in suppressed sobs and panicked whispers.
"Oh my god... this isn't real... this is a nightmare..."
"We're all going to die here... every single one of us..."
"I don't want to die... I want to go home..."
Eli walked to the window and stared out at the eternal dusk. There was no fear in his heart, only a single, unshakable resolve: survive.
He had to survive.
For Lily.
He turned and saw Leah standing at the blackboard, staring at the three rules with a grave expression. Kane leaned against the far wall, lighting a cigarette, his face hidden in smoke. Dr. Irene had revived Junior, who sat in his chair trembling uncontrollably.
Eli walked over to Leah and spoke in a low voice. "We need to form a team."
Leah turned to look at him. "A team?"
"Yes." Eli nodded. "No one survives alone here. We need to watch each other's backs."
Leah was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I'm in."
"Me too." Dr. Irene joined them. "I know first aid and pharmacology. I might be useful."
Junior raised his hand quickly, his voice still shaking with tears. "I... I want to join too... I'll do anything... I can remember all the rules..."
Eli looked at them and nodded. "Good. From now on, we're a team."
At that moment, Eli glanced back at the blackboard.
He froze.
Beneath the words "FRESHMAN CODE" that the skeleton had written, a new line had appeared, scrawled in what looked like fresh blood.
The handwriting was messy and uneven, as if written with a finger:
NO ONE GRADUATES.
Eli's heart dropped into his stomach.
He looked up at the classroom door.
For a split second, he swore he saw the skeleton standing there, watching them through the crack, his empty eye sockets glowing red in the darkness.
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7.7
Nora's life turned into a nightmare after she was banished from her pack by her own husband. She was subjected to mockery, abuse and humiliation before being cast out with nothing.
Faced with the cruelty of a world that had never once been kind to her, the moon goddess decided to bless her with her fated mate.
The same man she watched slaughter others without a single trace of mercy. The man who was twice as cold and twice as ruthless as the husband who destroyed her.
Yet he would not let her go. She found herself stuck between the husband who used her and the ruthless mate who wanted her but refused to admit it. Two powerful men. One woman who was never supposed to survive any of it. And a moon goddess who was not done with her yet.
7.1
The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash of my starship crashing. But instead of a rescue crew, I woke up tied to a wooden post, surrounded by hostile beastmen.
My universal translator kicked in just in time to hear their priestess, Chelsea, declare that I was a cursed demon who ruined their hunt. To save the clan from winter starvation, I was to be burned alive.
The flames were already blistering my legs, and jagged stones hurled by the crowd gashed my forehead. I barely negotiated a three-day reprieve to find them food, venturing into the deadly primeval forest.
I found a massive supply of wild potatoes and even gained the protection of Bronson, a terrifyingly powerful saber-toothed tiger beastman.
But Chelsea wouldn't stop.
She labeled my food as poisonous, tried to sentence me to starve in a penitent's cave, and when my agricultural knowledge proved her wrong, she invoked an ancient law. She incited the tribe's savage warriors to fight over me, turning me into breeding property.
I was a scientist offering them endless food, yet their primitive ignorance and one woman's vicious jealousy kept pushing me toward a brutal end. I was terrified, completely powerless against their monstrous physical strength.
As five ruthless challengers drew their bone axes to claim me, I begged Bronson to leave me and run.
Instead, he pulled me against his scarred chest and kissed me fiercely in front of the entire clan.
"She is my mate," he roared, unleashing a soul-crushing aura. "Anyone who wants her, come at me together."
8.9
The Moon Goddess gave them a bond-Adrian gave his heart to someone else.
For three years, Luna Mira has lived in the shadow of her trauma, clinging to the comfort of an Alpha who felt like safety. until a grieving widow arrives and exposes the truth. While Mira struggles to heal, Adrian risks everything for another woman, showering her with the affection and gifts meant for his wife.
After a brutal betrayal on the streets of France, Mira learns that being a mate is destiny-but being a Luna is power. If Adrian won't choose her, she'll choose herself. and the most dangerous Lycan King in the world may already be waiting to claim what Adrian foolishly threw away.
9.8
When I woke up on the muddy bank of the freezing river, I unlocked a brutal, unfiltered preview of my actual future.
For the past six months, I had been the town's ultimate joke, chasing after a city boy who looked at me like a diseased insect. Everyone thought I jumped into the river because he rejected me.
But the nightmare didn't stop there. In the future I foresaw, my entire family was destroyed. My eldest brother was handcuffed and dragged into a squad car. My second brother died in a pool of blood on the asphalt. My parents passed away from sheer grief and humiliation, and our farm was foreclosed.
Meanwhile, Bart Hawkins—my family's sworn enemy, the boy everyone accused of pushing me, but who actually jumped in to save my life—became a billionaire tech mogul. I ended up starving to death in a damp, moldy basement, completely alone.
I finally understood that I was just a pathetic, tragic side character meant to drag my family into hell. My own sister-in-law, Felicie, had been stealing our food and money, laughing at my misery behind my back.
But right now, my mother was still alive, my brothers were safe, and the farm was ours.
When Felicie walked into my bedroom, playing the devoted sister-in-law with a bowl of clear, meatless broth while a stolen roasted chicken thigh leaked grease through her apron pocket, I didn't play along.
"What's in your pocket, Felicie?"
This time, I was going to tear that horrific future apart with my bare hands.
8.5
Sera was the obedient, spoiled Hollywood socialite of the Beaumont family, completely devoted to her fiancé, Ethan.
But her life ended in a freezing Eastern European warehouse, chained to a damp concrete floor.
Right before she died, her captors shoved the transfer documents in her face. Ethan had sold her to human traffickers to cover his massive underground gambling debts.
While she suffered in absolute hell, her adoptive mother went on national television.
She squeezed out fake tears, publicly framing Sera for stealing family funds and eloping with a secret lover.
Sera's reputation was completely destroyed, and she was left to die a miserable, agonizing death in the dark.
She didn't understand why her family treated her like a disposable piece of trash.
She understood even less how the man who promised to marry her could hand her over to monsters without a second thought.
When she opened her eyes again, the biting cold and heavy iron chains were gone.
She was back five years in the past.
She was lying on a hotel bed, her limbs heavy with date-rape drugs, while a predatory Hollywood director hovered inches from her face.
It was the exact "exclusive audition" Ethan had arranged to exploit her for the very first time.
Sera didn't scream. With lethal, practiced precision, she shattered the director's wrist and brought a heavy crystal ashtray down on his skull.
The bleeding man collapsed onto the carpet and whimpered.
"Ethan promised... he said you'd be compliant..."
Staring at his pathetic face, a cold, predatory smile stretched across Sera's lips.
This time, she was going to systematically dismantle their lives.
7.2
I was an Omega married off to the powerful Gamma Ryker Blackwood to save my dwindling pack.
But on our wedding night, he threw me into the spare room, declaring our bond a mere political alliance.
He refused to mark me, leaving me to suffer through my agonizing heats with nothing but toxic suppressants.
I soon discovered his heart belonged to a powerful Alpha warrior named Jessa.
They openly humiliated me at pack events, mocking my unmarked status and telling me to initiate a rejection.
When I finally found the courage to leave, his mother threatened my family's survival if I didn't produce an heir.
That night, a drunken Ryker came home and used the forbidden Alpha Command on me.
"Kneel."
My knees crashed onto the cold marble floor, the dark magic breaking my will and tearing our sacred bond apart.
I was trapped in a gilded cage, abused by my fated mate, and forced to bear his cruelty for the sake of my people.
How could the Moon Goddess shackle me to a monster who would profane our bond just to show his dominance?
The next morning, a terrified Ryker woke up realizing he could be ruined by the council for using the Command.
I didn't scream or report him to the Alpha King.
Instead, I wiped away my tears, gave him a gentle smile, and pretended to forgive him.
He gave me a crumb of remorse, and I will use it to bake a loaf of revenge.