Episode 3 – Scene 7: Victor

## **Episode 3 – Scene 7: Victor**

**[NARRATION]** The egg was restless again. Every eighteen minutes, it shivered inside its disguise — just enough to remind Victor that whatever was inside it was not interested in patience.

He’d been perfecting the concealment for hours, layering cloth over paint over harmless clutter. A little stagecraft for anyone who might wander in and notice what they shouldn’t.

**[NARRATION]** Rumors had been moving faster than the wind today — whispers about a secret hidden somewhere in the school. The dangerous kind, the kind that drew predators as easily as curiosity. Victor listened to all of it from behind other people’s faces.

When he arrived back into his room, Exaba was there again —the satyr with a face Victor wished he wouldn't forget.

**[NARRATION]** Exaba didn’t arrive so much as appear. She spoke of an attack coming, told him to keep Walter safe, kissed him like someone trying to make the clock stop.

And then she was gone.

**[NARRATION]** The memory of what she’d said went with her, leaving him with the vague knowledge that something important had just slipped through his fingers. He finished disguising the egg without thinking about it, the motions more muscle memory than plan.

Ash’s voice called down the hall for a meeting. The kind of call that carried the weight of a problem already in progress.

**[NARRATION]** Victor stepped into Room 3B and found them all there already — Nick, Darius, Jonah, Maine, each wearing the same look of confusion. They were gathered in a semicircle around Ash, who lay unconscious on the floor, one hand clenched around the HypnoHelix.

The mirror above him was cracked in a way that didn’t belong to glass. The center had bowed inward, spiraling into something liquid and dark. Not a reflection. Not a shadow. A hole.

**[NARRATION]** The group stood there, frozen by the questions they hadn’t even formed yet. Victor didn’t wait for the answers.

He grinned. And without hesitation — without even glancing back — he dove headfirst into the spiral.

**[NARRATION]** Outside, the Unity Festival fireworks cracked open the night. Inside, the portal swallowed him whole.

**[END EPISODE]**