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 5
The sweeter the little girl's smile in the mirror, the colder the air in the foyer became.
Eli felt a chill shoot straight from his heels to the top of his skull. He grabbed Junior and hauled him behind his back, his grip tightening on the folding knife in his pocket, his eyes locked on the mirror. The little girl couldn't have been more than seven or eight, with golden curls and a deathly pale face, wearing a spotless white dress, holding a ragged doll with one eye missing. She stood in the mirrored hall, separated from them by only a thin sheet of glass, her smile growing wider, more warped, with every passing second.
In the real world, the hall directly in front of the mirror was completely, utterly empty.
"It's... it's the little girl from the painting!" Junior's voice cracked with a sob, his fingers twisted in the back of Eli's shirt. "That's Emily Black!"
Leah lifted her camera and snapped a photo. The flash fired, and the little girl vanished in an instant. When the light faded, the mirror only showed their own reflections, and the empty hall behind them. As if she had never been there at all.
"She's gone..." Irene's voice shook, and she stepped back, pressing herself tight to the group.
Eli's gaze never left the mirror, the line from the journal screaming in his head: It's in the mirror. Don't look in the mirror.
"Everyone, look away from the mirror, now!" Eli barked, his voice sharp and urgent. "Don't stare at it! Don't make eye contact with whatever's in there!"
Leah and Irene snapped their heads away at once, squeezing their eyes shut. Junior clapped both hands over his face, dropping to a crouch, his body shaking like a leaf.
That's when a snarl came from the top of the stairs. "Goddammit, you pussies. A beat-up mirror's got you shaking in your boots?"
Kane stormed down the stairs with Tucker and Rex on his heels, clearly drawn by the screaming. When he saw the massive mirror, he let out a scoffing laugh, completely ignoring Eli's warning.
"Boss, there was a little girl in there. It was messed up," Tucker said quickly, his voice tight with fear.
"Bullshit. It's all in your heads." Kane sneered. He'd run the streets for over a decade, done every brutal thing imaginable, and he didn't believe in ghosts. He stared at the mirror, his eyes hardening with mean-spirited defiance. "I'm gonna see what the hell's in here playing dress-up."
He spun around, hefted a heavy solid wood chair over his head, and hurled it straight at the mirror.
"NO!" Eli yelled, lunging to stop him, but it was too late.
A deafening crash split the air.
The chair slammed into the glass, and the massive mirror shattered into a thousand shards, spraying across the entire foyer floor.
The second the glass broke, a high, cold, childish laugh exploded through the room.
It was everywhere, coming from every direction, burrowing into their ears and making their skin crawl. Then, in every single shard of glass scattered across the floor, the little girl in the white dress appeared. Hundreds of her, in hundreds of shards, all staring back at them with that same twisted smile.
"Shit!" Eli's stomach dropped.
That's when Tucker, standing closest to the broken glass, let out a bloodcurdling scream.
The group spun around. A pale, ice-cold little hand had shot out of a shard of glass at Tucker's feet, clamping down hard on his ankle. Then another, and another-dozens of tiny hands burst from the shards around him, grabbing his arms, his legs, his waist, pinning him to the floor completely immobile.
Tucker thrashed wildly, swinging his dagger at the hands, but the blade sliced right through them like they were thin air.
"BOSS! HELP ME! BOSS!" Tucker screamed, his eyes wide with absolute, terminal terror.
Kane's face went white, and he lunged to help, but it was too late.
The little girl from the mirror crawled out of the largest, unbroken shard of glass. Her body moved like it had no bones, squeezing through the thin sheet of glass, her white dress stained with black, dried blood, her empty eye sockets glowing with sick, red light, her mouth still stretched into that sickly sweet smile.
She stepped slowly toward Tucker, lifting a tiny hand, and pressed it gently to his forehead.
Tucker's scream cut off mid-shriek.
His body shriveled up right in front of their eyes, his skin turning gray and tight against his bones, his eyes sinking deep into his skull, every drop of blood and flesh sucked out of him in the span of three seconds. The 6-foot tall, muscular man collapsed to the floor as a desiccated, mummified husk, dead before he hit the ground.
The wristband on his arm vanished, and the 5 credits on his screen split automatically between Kane and Rex's bands.
The little girl pulled her hand back, turning her empty gaze to the rest of the group, her smile growing wider.
"CLOSE YOUR EYES! EVERYONE, CLOSE YOUR EYES NOW!" Eli yelled, slamming his own eyes shut.
Leah, Irene, and Junior squeezed their eyes shut so tight their faces hurt. Kane and Rex, broken by what they'd just seen, did the same, pressing their backs together, their daggers shaking in their hands.
The foyer fell dead silent, save for their ragged, panicked breathing.
The little girl's laugh started up again, right in their ears, first on their left, then their right, then right behind their necks. Icy breath brushed against their skin, like someone was breathing down their spines, but no one dared open their eyes. No one dared move an inch.
Eli's mind raced.
The journal had said It's in the mirror. Don't look in the mirror.She'd been trapped in the mirror until Kane smashed it, until he looked right at her. She hadn't attacked until they made eye contact. She'd killed Tucker only after he'd stared at her in the glass. And after he died, she hadn't attacked anyone else-she'd just circled them, until they closed their eyes.
Her attacks relied on eye contact.
That was the rule. The spirit could only attack if she locked eyes with you through the mirror. If you didn't look at her, if you didn't make eye contact, she couldn't hurt you.
Eli took a deep breath, forcing his voice steady and sharp. "Everyone listen! The spirit's attack rule is eye contact! As long as we keep our eyes closed, don't look at her, don't lock eyes, she can't hurt us! Do NOT open your eyes!"
The second he finished speaking, the little girl's laugh turned sharp and furious, echoing wildly through the foyer. The icy cold in the room grew thicker, but she never made another move to attack.
The group let out the smallest, shakiest breath, still holding their eyes shut, frozen in place, terrified that one wrong move would end with them like Tucker.
Minutes ticked by. The girl's laugh faded, and the icy cold in the room slowly lifted. The foyer fell silent again, save for their breathing.
After another ten minutes, when Eli was sure the room was completely empty, he spoke in a low, tight voice. "I'm gonna count to three. We open our eyes slow. Remember: do NOT look at the glass on the floor. One. Two. Three."
They all opened their eyes, slow and careful.
The foyer was empty. The little girl was gone. Only the shattered glass across the floor, and Tucker's desiccated body, remained to prove it hadn't been a hallucination.
Rex collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, his face covered in cold sweat, his eyes wide with the terror of someone who'd just barely escaped death. Kane leaned against the wall, his face white as a sheet, his dagger still shaking in his hand, all his earlier arrogance gone.
"Thank you," Leah looked at Eli, her voice thick with leftover terror. "If you hadn't figured that out, we'd all be dead right now."
Eli shook his head, his brow still furrowed. He knew this was only the beginning. There was more than one spirit trapped in this house.
That's when they heard heavy footsteps from upstairs.
Thud... thud... thud...
The footsteps were massive, each one shaking the stairs, as if something unbelievably heavy was walking down toward them. The sound grew closer, thick with the overwhelming stench of blood, heading straight for the foyer.
Every single person froze, holding their breath, and snapped their heads toward the top of the stairs.
Eli's pupils blew wide.
From the shadows at the top of the stairs, a towering, 7-foot-tall shadow stepped slowly into view. He wore a butcher's apron caked in black, dried blood, and in his hand he gripped a massive axe, its blade glinting with cold steel and slick with fresh blood and bits of flesh. His face was crisscrossed with savage scars, and his eyes held nothing human-only cold, murderous rage, locked dead onto every single person in the hall.
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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.