Welcome to Nightmare Academy

The Envelope That Shouldn’t Exist

The rain was hammering my bedroom window like it wanted inside.

I was halfway through shoving cold pizza into my mouth when the knock came. Three sharp raps. Too polite for this neighborhood.

I froze. Mom was at her night shift. No one else ever came here.

“Probably a wrong address,” I muttered, wiping my hands on my hoodie. But when I cracked the door, the hallway was empty.

Only a black envelope lay on the welcome mat.

No stamp. No return address. Just my name in silver ink that seemed to… shimmer.

*Liora Vale.*

My stomach did a weird flip. I picked it up. The paper was thick, expensive, and ice-cold even though it had been sitting in the rain.

I should’ve thrown it away.

Instead I tore it open right there in the doorway.

Inside was a single sheet of cream paper and a black iron key on a thin chain.

**You have been selected.**

**Nightmare Academy awaits.**

**The gates open at midnight. Do not be late.**

**— The Headmaster**

A laugh bubbled out of me. “Yeah, right. Some prank.”

But the key was warm now, pulsing against my palm like a heartbeat.

I told myself I wasn’t going.

Yet at 11:47 p.m. I was standing at the bus stop in my only decent jeans and a backpack full of clothes I probably wouldn’t need. The night air tasted metallic, like blood and fog.

The bus that arrived wasn’t normal. No lights. No driver visible. Just black windows and the door hissing open like it had been waiting for me.

I stepped on anyway.

Because what else did I have? A dead-end town, a mom who barely remembered my name, and a sister who disappeared last year after getting the same kind of envelope.

The ride was silent. Too silent.

I stared at my reflection in the dark glass. Pale face, messy dark hair, eyes that looked way too wide. “You’re being stupid, Liora,” I whispered.

The bus stopped in the middle of nowhere.

Fog so thick I couldn’t see my own shoes.

And there they were—massive iron gates twisted into screaming faces, creaking open on their own.

Behind them, a castle rose out of the mist like it had clawed its way up from hell. Gothic spires, black stone, windows glowing blood-red.

A sign above the gates read in flickering letters:

**NIGHTMARE ACADEMY**

**Survive the Trials. Or Become One.**

My heart slammed against my ribs.

I took one step forward—

And the key around my neck burned hot enough to make me gasp.

That’s when I felt it.

Eyes on me. Dozens of them. From the shadows between the trees. From the windows of the castle.

Watching.

Waiting.

A low voice slid through the fog, smooth as silk and twice as dangerous.

“Fresh meat.”

I spun around.

He was leaning against the gatepost like he owned the night itself—tall, dark hair falling into cruel silver eyes, tattoos crawling up his neck like living shadows. A black uniform hugged muscles that definitely didn’t belong on a teenager.

Kael Voss.

I didn’t know his name yet, but something in my bones already did.

He pushed off the stone and stalked closer, stopping just inches away. The air between us crackled.

“You’re early, little echo,” he murmured, voice low enough to make my stomach tighten. “Most new bloods cry by now.”

I lifted my chin even though my legs wanted to run. “And most gatekeepers don’t look like they eat souls for breakfast.”

His lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile.

“Careful. I might like the way you taste when you scream.”

Behind him, the gates slammed shut with a sound like bones breaking.

The fog swallowed the road back home.

No way out.

And that’s when the first scream ripped through the castle—high, broken, and far too familiar.

My dead sister’s voice.