2025-11-28 03:15:20By morning, Uche’s body felt like he hadn’t slept in ten years.
His head pounded, his back ached, and his eyes kept drifting shut even while standing.
But he refused to sleep. Not in Room 49. Not after what he saw.The moment he stepped outside for class, Block C felt different. Students stared at him—not with pity anymore, but with a strange mix of fear and curiosity, like he had survived something he wasn’t supposed to.
Whispers followed him.
“That’s the new guy in 49.”
“He made it through his first night?”
“Is he one of them?”
He pretended he didn’t hear anything.
His brain couldn’t handle more fear.
Classes flew by in a blur. He wasn’t listening. His mind kept replaying the same things:
2:13 a.m.
The wardrobe opening.The note saying, WELCOME TO THE PROGRAM.And Seyi whispering, “Walls have ears.”What walls? What ears?
What program?
By afternoon, he had made up his mind.
He needed answers.Seyi returned to the room early, sitting at his desk reading a thick black notebook. He didn’t look up when Uche entered.
“We need to talk,” Uche said.
“No,” Seyi said simply.
Uche blinked. “No?”
“You’re not ready.”
“Guy, I saw things last night. I heard things. The wardrobe opened by itself!”
Seyi finally looked up—slowly.
His eyes held that same calm, heavy seriousness that made Uche feel small.“You listened,” Seyi said. “You watched. That’s step one.”
“Step one for what?”
“The Program.”
Uche threw his hands up. “Explain it. Please. I’m losing my mind here.”
Seyi closed the notebook gently.
He stood.He walked to Uche like someone preparing to say something that couldn’t be unsaid.Then he whispered:
“This room… is not cursed. It’s monitored.”
Huh?
“By what?” Uche asked.
Seyi tapped the wall.
Not hard.Just a soft knock.The wall answered.
Tap… tap…
Uche froze.
“Seyi, what was that?”
“The wall replying.”
Seyi picked up his notebook again.“There’s something behind these walls. Something old. Something the school pretends doesn’t exist.”Uche stepped back from the wall so quickly his heel hit the bed.
“What is inside?”
“We don’t know. We don’t see it. But it sees us.”
Uche swallowed. “Then why are you still here? Why hasn’t the school shut this room down?”
Seyi’s mouth tightened.
“Because they need it. The Program needs it.”
“For what?!”
“You’ll find out soon.”
Seyi walked back to his desk.“Don’t ask me anything more until tonight. If you want out, pack your things now and leave.”Uche stared at him.
Was that a threat?A warning?A choice?He didn’t know.
But something in Seyi’s eyes screamed:
If you leave now, you live. If you stay, you won’t be normal again.
Uche sat slowly on his bed.
“I’m not leaving,” he said.
Seyi looked up, surprised.
“Why?”
“Because I can’t run from something I don’t understand.”
Uche exhaled shakily.“And because I feel like… I’m already inside it.”Seyi stared at him for a long time.
Then nodded.
“Tonight then.”
Night dropped like a hammer.
No breeze entered the room.
The air felt dry, still, padded—like the whole atmosphere had been muffled.Uche checked the time.
2:00 a.m.
He didn’t lie down.
He sat upright on his bed, eyes sharp.Seyi sat across from him, legs folded, back straight, staring at the wardrobe.
“Don’t panic,” Seyi said quietly.
“I’m already panicking,” Uche whispered.
“Good. Panic keeps you alert.”
Uche frowned. “What exactly will happen?”
“Shh.”
Seyi raised a hand.
Uche listened.
At first—nothing.
Then—
Thump.
Uche’s heart skipped.
Thump… thump…
The wardrobe.
Again.
But this time, it felt angrier—harder—like something wanted to break out.
Then the knocking started inside the walls.
Tap… tap… tap… tap.
Soft but everywhere.
The entire room vibrated with quiet tapping.
Uche’s throat dried out.
“Seyi… the walls—”
“I know. Don’t respond.”
The taps continued, increasing in speed, sounding like dozens of fingers scraping the inside of the wall.
Then a whisper slithered under the wardrobe door.
A real whisper.
So faint, Uche almost doubted it.
“Ucheeee…”
He froze.
It said his name.
“Seyi—did you hear—”
“Don’t answer it,” Seyi warned. His jaw clenched. “If it calls you, ignore it. If it taps for you, ignore it.”
“What is it?”
Seyi didn’t blink. “A listener.”
“A WHAT—”
But then the wardrobe handle twisted violently, like someone on the other side was yanking it.
CLICK—CLACK—CLACK—CLACK—CLICK.
The door shook.
Then stopped.
Silence.
Cold silence.
Then—
CREAAAAAK.
The wardrobe opened by itself.
Wide this time.
Uche grabbed his bedsheet with both fists.
Empty.
Nothing inside.
Just like the last night.
But something changed.
On the wardrobe floor, instead of a note, there was a small mirror, old and cracked.
It faced them.
Reflecting nothing.
Seyi exhaled sharply.
“This is bad.”“What?” Uche whispered. “What is it?”
“They want to see you,” Seyi said. “Don’t touch the mirror.”
But Uche was already stepping closer. The pull was strong—unnatural—like the mirror was calling him.
“Uche, stop!”
He froze mid-step.
The mirror flickered.
Not like a reflection—more like a screen glitching.
A shadow moved across it.
Fast.Wrong.Like a figure crawling on a ceiling.Uche stepped back, trembling.
“Seyi… someone is inside the mirror.”
“No,” Seyi whispered. “Not someone. Something.”
The shadow paused.
Then leaned closer to the mirror, as if pressing its face against the inside surface.Uche stumbled backwards.
The shadowed shape formed the outline of a face but no features—just darkness shaped like a human head.
Then it whispered:
“Welcome… subject… forty-nine.”
Seyi’s face drained of color.
Uche’s entire body tensed.
The thing repeated:
“Subject… forty-nine…”
Then the mirror cracked straight down the middle.
Uche screamed.
The walls answered with a chorus of taps that sounded excited.
The wardrobe slammed shut violently.
Every sound stopped.
Every whisper died.Every tap went silent.The room froze in perfect stillness.
Uche fell onto his bed, shaking uncontrollably.
“What… what was that thing?”
Seyi didn’t answer immediately.
He sat down slowly, face pale, breathing uneven.
Finally, he whispered:
“You’ve been chosen.”
“For what?!”
“For the real Program,” Seyi said.
“The part no one survives.”Uche’s stomach dropped.
“I don’t want to be part of this. I didn’t ask for this.”
“No one asks,” Seyi replied. “The Program chooses. Room 49 chooses.”
“What does it want?” Uche demanded.
Seyi looked at him with pity.
“It wants to see what you fear.”
Uche felt sick. “For what purpose?”
“To decide if you qualify.”
“For WHAT?!”
Seyi stood and locked the door.
His hands were trembling.“Listen to me carefully,” he said.
“From now on, you cannot leave this room between midnight and 3 a.m. If you do, you will vanish.”“Vanish… like the others?”
Seyi nodded. “Exactly like them.”
“Who are the others?”
“My old roommates.”
Seyi inhaled shakily.“Four boys before you.”Uche’s heart skipped.
“What happened to them?”
“They didn’t follow the rules.”
Seyi took a deep breath.“And they didn’t listen when the room called them.”Uche sat down slowly.
“I need the truth,” he said. “Everything. Now.”
Seyi nodded weakly.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “I will tell you everything tomorrow. The full Program. The purpose. The history. The reason you were chosen.”
“Tell me now!”
Seyi shook his head.
His eyes were scared—really scared—for the first time.“If I talk now, the walls will hear.”
Uche stared at the walls.
He could feel them watching.Waiting.Listening.“Tomorrow, Uche,” Seyi repeated.
“Survive one more night. Then I’ll tell you everything.”Uche didn’t sleep.
He didn’t blink for long.And the whole time, deep in the wardrobe…
something breathed.Slow.
Steady.Patient.Waiting for 2:13 a.m. again.
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Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 18 — THE BOY WHO WALKED OUT
The ground didn’t stop shaking when they reached the tunnel.It got worse.Concrete split open behind them, the Origin Wing folding in on itself like a dying animal. Fire alarms wailed. Emergency lights popped one by one, plunging long stretches of the passage into darkness.Uche half-carried, half-dragged his father forward. Obiora was conscious now, barely, his weight heavy but real.Alive.That single fact anchored Uche.“Keep moving,” Uche said, voice steady even as his chest burned. “We’re almost out.”Obiora coughed, a weak sound. “You… you’re inside it now.”Uche didn’t deny it.“I know.”The hum followed them—low, constant, like a distant engine. The fear-feedback systems were collapsing, but fear itself wasn’t gone. It bled through the tunnels, thick and metallic, soaked into the walls.Uche felt it all.Every panicked technician.Every soldier realizing the guns weren’t enough.Every system screaming because its center no longer obeyed commands.He wasn’t controlling people.
CHAPTER 17 – THE DAY FEAR TURNED
The alarms didn’t just scream.They howled—a raw, metallic shriek that clawed through the underground facility, rattling glass, steel, and bone. Red lights spun violently, casting the halls in pulsing blood-colored flashes.Uche stood still in the center of it all.Calm.Terrifyingly calm.The mark on his wrist burned, spreading heat through his veins, syncing with the pounding hum beneath the floor. He felt the facility the way one feels their own heartbeat—every corridor, every door, every moving body.Fear wasn’t flooding him.It was feeding him.“LOCK DOWN THE ORIGIN WING.”The Director’s voice echoed through the speakers, sharp now. Controlled—but strained.Steel shutters slammed down across corridors. Armed units poured in from every access point, boots pounding in perfect rhythm.Uche turned slowly, eyes glowing faint gold.“Too late,” he whispered.1. THE FIRST STRIKEThe first Purge unit rounded the corner—six men, rifles raised, visors glowing.“TARGET ACQUIRED!”They opened
CHAPTER 16 – THE TRUTH THEY BURIED
The light burned.Not just his eyes—his mind.Uche stumbled forward as the white glare swallowed him whole, stripping away sound, gravity, even time. His thoughts fractured, memories slipping through his fingers like sand.Then—Silence.Absolute.Heavy.Oppressive.His feet touched solid ground.Uche blinked hard, vision slowly returning.He stood inside a glass chamber.Walls, floor, ceiling—transparent, spotless, cold. Beyond the glass stretched a massive underground facility, far larger than anything he had seen before. Rows of observation decks circled the chamber like a coliseum. Screens flickered to life one by one.Every screen showed him.Heart rate.Neural activity.Adrenal spikes.Fear response metrics.He staggered back.“No… no no no…”This wasn’t ancient.This wasn’t supernatural.This was designed.A voice echoed calmly through hidden speakers.“Welcome to the Origin Wing.”Uche’s blood ran cold.That voice.Older now. Colder. Controlled.“The Director,” Uche whispered
CHAPTER 15 – THE FALL AND THE FACE
Uche expected the fall to kill him.The wind roared past his ears as he plummeted downward, darkness spinning around him in a dizzying spiral. His arms flailed, reaching for anything—air, light, a ledge—nothing existed. Just the void.He screamed until his throat burned.Then—FWOOOM!He hit something soft.Not ground.Not water.Something… alive.He bounced slightly, tumbling onto a cold surface, gasping. His hands gripped the floor, feeling the strange texture beneath his palms—smooth, rubbery, pulsing faintly.Like skin.He jolted upright.He wasn’t in the chamber anymore.He was inside a long, dimly lit corridor—narrow walls arching overhead like the ribs of a giant creature. Blue veins glowed faintly inside the walls, pulsing in rhythm… like a heartbeat.An entire underground hallway made of a living organism.His stomach churned.The air smelled metallic, sharp enough to sting his nostrils. The floor beneath him vibrated softly with each pulse of the glowing veins.He forced him
CHAPTER 14 – THE WHISPERING STAIRS
The darkness swallowed Uche instantly.No lights.No walls.No sound except the faint echo of his own footsteps spiraling downward.The staircase felt endless.Cold, damp air wrapped around him like a second skin, making every breath heavy. The deeper he went, the more he felt the pressure—like an invisible hand was slowly tightening around his lungs. There was no turning back; the floor above had already sealed shut, cutting him off completely.Step.Step.Step.His footsteps sounded wrong—too loud, then too soft, as if the space around him kept changing size with every turn of the spiral.Then it began.The whispers.Faint at first.So faint he wasn’t even sure they were real.“Uche…”He stopped.The voice drifted from somewhere behind him.Or ahead?Or inside his skull?He listened.Silence.He kept moving.Then—“Uche… turn back.”He froze again. This time the voice was clearer, too clear.A voice he recognized.His father’s.His throat tightened painfully. “Dad?”A whisper moved
CHAPTER 13 – THE ROOM THAT BREATHES
Uche woke up gasping.Not because of a dream… but because Room 49 was breathing.The walls rose and fell like lungs expanding, slow and heavy, releasing a deep, vibrating hum that crawled across the floor and into his skin. For a moment he sat frozen, his chest tight, unable to tell if he was awake or trapped in another layer of the Room’s illusions.Then he felt it—a cold draft brushing his ankles.He looked down.The floor tiles had shifted halfway open on their own.A thin line of pale blue light spilled out from the cracks, pulsing like a heartbeat.No.Not a heartbeat.A signal.Uche swallowed hard, shoving off the bed. “Not now… not today…” he whispered, but Room 49 didn’t care. It never cared.The Program wanted him downstairs again.He crouched slowly and pressed a palm against one of the tiles.It was warm.Alive.As if something beneath the floor was waiting.Suddenly—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!Three violent knocks slammed into his door, loud enough to rattle the frame. Uche jumped
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