Scars in Silence - AI interactive story

The classroom hummed with the drowsy drone of Mr. Shafi's lecture on decimals, a monotonous rhythm that felt less like learning and more like the slow ticking down of a clock. Zayn sat still, eyes fixed on the window, the world outside a blurry comfort. It was a Tuesday, but time felt rotted, each second a heavy, sluggish weight.

Then, the tree moved. Not a sway, not a gentle rustle in the breeze, but a deliberate, impossible lean. Its branches, bone-like and gnarled, cracked unnaturally, bowing as if to an unseen presence.

And then she came. Twelve feet tall, pale as bleached bone, hovering just beyond the glass. No eyes, just polished skin stretched taut over her face, and a smile – a horizontal gash, slicing across her cheeks, sewn open. Her dress, impossibly white, bled light. She hovered, feet absent, her gaze fixed only on him.

Zayn felt a scream clawing its way up his throat, but it never broke free. Instead, he stood, his legs trembling, and walked briskly past rows of eyes that saw nothing but an empty space where a monster stood. He reached the hallway, the scream finally erupting, silent and unheard, until he was alone in the school toilets, the cold tile walls his only witness.