The Voice In The Walls
Rain beat on the roof of Black Hollow High School, sounding like someone was pounding on it.
It wasn’t a soft rain.
It wasn’t a comforting rain at all.
This was mountain rain – harsh, cold, and never-ending – the kind that turned streets into rivers and made the old mining town feel like it was slowly drowning under the heavy storm.
Inside the school, the overhead fluorescent lights hummed faintly.
Lockers clanged shut.
Shoes squeaked across the wet tile floor.
Students yelled over each other while teachers tried, and failed, to get things back in order after the emergency lockdown alarm messed up for the third time that month.
Evelyn Vale kept her head down as she walked through the crowded hallway.
That was pretty much how she got through most days.
She was unseen.
Quiet.
Easy to forget.
Her dark hoodie felt damp against her arms from the rain outside. Wet strands of black hair stuck to her cheeks. She pulled her backpack strap tighter and avoided looking anyone in the eye as football players pushed past her, heading for the gym.
Someone nearby laughed.
Someone else let out a joking scream.
A locker door slammed shut, sounding like a gunshot.
Evelyn flinched.
The sound hit her deep in her chest.
It wasn’t exactly fear.
It was more like recognition.
That was the part she hated the most.
Sometimes sounds came with feelings attached.
Not memories.
Not voices in her head.
Just feelings.
Certain sounds left marks under her skin, like fingerprints on glass.
Her therapist called it anxiety-linked sensory projection.
Her father just called them “those episodes.”
The kids at school called her psycho behind her back.
Evelyn preferred not to give it a name at all.
Because giving things names made them real.
And if what she was experiencing was actually real—
No.
She pushed that thought away.
“The lockdown drill starts in three minutes!” Vice Principal Hargrove yelled over the intercom system. “Students, go to your assigned classrooms right now.”
Groans echoed all the way down the hall.
Evelyn turned towards the science wing.
That’s when she heard someone crying.
She stopped walking.
The sound came faintly through the wall next to her.
A girl was crying.
Softly.
Brokenly.
Totally terrified.
Evelyn frowned a little.
Nobody else seemed to notice.
Students kept moving around her like normal.
The crying continued.
Please…
The voice was very weak.
Barely loud enough to hear.
Help me…
A cold feeling slowly spread down Evelyn’s back.
No.
Not again.
Her breathing got tight.
She instinctively pressed her sleeve against the wall.
The second her skin touched the brick—
A sharp pain exploded in her head.
The hallway disappeared.
Darkness swallowed everything around her.
And suddenly—
She wasn’t standing there anymore.
She was somewhere else entirely.
Some other time.
A girl was hunched down in a narrow concrete space.
Dark hair.
School uniform.
Blood on her mouth.
She couldn’t have been older than sixteen years old.
The space around her looked incredibly cramped – like some hidden spot inside the walls themselves.
The girl was crying so hard she could barely breathe at all.
“They said nobody would hear me…” she whispered out.
Then she looked right at Evelyn.
Not through her, like she was a ghost.
But directly at her.
“You have to tell my mother where they put my body.”
Evelyn stumbled backward violently.
Reality snapped back all at once.
The hallway came back into view in a blur of fluorescent lights and shouting students.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
Someone bumped into her shoulder.
“Watch it, freak.”
Evelyn barely heard him speak.
Her hand tore away from the wall as if she had touched fire.
The crying was gone completely.
But one thing stayed there.
A stain.
Dark brown in color.
Wedged deep between the painted bricks near the floor.
Old blood.
Her stomach twisted uncomfortably.
No no no—
“Vale?”
Evelyn jumped a little.
Mr. Corbett, the science teacher, stood in the classroom doorway, frowning at her.
“Lockdown drill,” he said, sounding impatient. “Get inside. Now.”
The hallway was almost empty by then.
Evelyn forced herself to move forward.
One step.
Then another.
Her knees felt weak and shaky.
The classroom smelled like dust, dry erase markers, and damp jackets. Students shuffled toward the corners of the room while Mr. Corbett locked the door, just like they were supposed to.
“Put your phones away,” he barked at them.
The lights switched off.
Darkness settled across the room, except for the gray light from the rain leaking through the windows.
Evelyn sat near the back, next to the supply closet.
Her breathing still hadn’t gone back to normal.
Across the room, two girls whispered and quietly laughed while looking at social media under their desks.
A boy near the windows pretended to shoot his classmates with his finger guns.
Everything seemed normal.
Everyone else looked perfectly normal.
Evelyn pressed her trembling fingers into her palms.
You just imagined it.
You always imagine these things.
But deep down inside—
she knew for a fact she hadn’t.
A sharp knock hit the classroom door.
Everyone jumped in surprise.
Mr. Corbett frowned.
“That’s not how we do things.”
Another knock.
Three slow bangs.
Then it was silent.
The room became completely still.
The rain battered the windows even harder now.
Mr. Corbett carefully walked up to the door.
“Who’s there?” he asked.
No one answered.
Students exchanged nervous glances with each other.
Another knock.
BANG.
This time it was much harder.
A few kids laughed nervously.
“It’s probably Coach trying to scare us,” someone whispered.
Mr. Corbett looked more annoyed than worried. He unlocked the door halfway.
The hallway outside was empty.
Completely empty.
Cold air immediately drifted into the room.
It was too cold.
Like winter itself was breathing down the corridor.
Evelyn sat up straight.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong, indeed.
Mr. Corbett leaned out into the hallway. “Hello?”
The overhead lights beyond the classroom flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then they died completely.
Darkness swallowed the corridor whole.
Several students murmured nervously among themselves.
“Okay,” Mr. Corbett mumbled. “Maintenance again, I guess.”
He started to close the door.
Then he froze in place.
Evelyn saw the exact moment his face changed expressions.
Confusion first.
Then fear.
Pure terror, actually.
Something moved in the darkness outside the door.
It moved fast.
Mr. Corbett stumbled backward violently.
The door slammed shut with a loud bang.
A scream ripped through the hallway outside.
Not inside their classroom.
Outside.
It sounded raw.
Human.
And in agony.
Students shot to their feet instantly.
“What in the world was that?!”
“Someone’s out there!”
Another scream echoed.
Closer now than before.
Followed by the sound of pounding footsteps.
Then—
silence.
Absolute silence.
Rain hammered on the roof.
Nobody moved a muscle.
Mr. Corbett stood pale and shaking near the door.
“What happened out there?” a student whispered softly.
He didn’t answer them.
Evelyn realized his hands were covered in blood.
Fresh blood.
A girl near the front of the room screamed.
Panic immediately broke out.
Students rushed for their phones.
Others started crying.
Someone began pounding on the locked windows.
“EVERYONE SIT DOWN!” Mr. Corbett shouted as loud as he could.
But fear had already taken over the room.
Then Evelyn heard it again.
The crying girl’s voice.
Only now the voice was coming from above them.
Inside the ceiling itself.
“You have to RUN.”
The fluorescent lights exploded.
Glass rained down across the classroom.
Students screamed.
Darkness swallowed everything around them.
And somewhere above them—
something started crawling through the walls.
