Waking Up

## **EPISODE 4, SCENE 6 – “Waking Up”**

[NARRATION] A sharp gasp tears through the dormitory air.

[SFX: _GASP. SHATTERING GLASS._]

Ash Stonefist bolts upright, sweat-slicked and shaking, seated in the center of his dorm room. Shards of mirror glint around him like the aftermath of a failed divination. His chest heaves. His hands grope at nothing. For one impossible moment, it seems like the void followed them back.

**ASH** (hoarse): “…Balance.”

[NARRATION] Around him, the others stand in stunned silence. Maine’s eyes glow with residual magic. Nick grips a robe too tightly. Jonah stares at the space where the portal once was—now just cracked tile and twitching air.

Victor is the last to speak, his voice breaking the trance.

**VICTOR** (cheerful, too cheerful): “Well, that was... a lot.”

**JONAH** (quiet): “Where’s Darius?”

[NARRATION] The question hangs like smoke.

The room answers in absence.

**MAINE** (moving to the dorm door): “No one’s back from the festival.”

[SFX: _CREAK._ DOOR OPENS TO EMPTY HALL.]

[NARRATION] Silence spills in.

Maine walks into the hallway—barefoot, blinking. A strange quiet has settled over the floor. No laughter. No spells fizzling. Just the echo of a moment out of joint.

He reaches the elevator.

[SFX: _METALLIC GRIND. CRUMPLE._]

The doors hang loose. The lift shaft is ruined—scorched, clawed, collapsed. Whatever came through didn’t knock.

**MAINE** (to no one): “Something happened.”

[NARRATION] Back in the room, Ash is on his feet. The tremble in his voice is new, but the fear in his eyes is not.

**ASH** (urgent): “Where’s Eveline?”

[NARRATION] No one answers.

Nick doesn’t wait.

[SFX: _CLINK._ The sound of chain, steel, scythe unsheathed.]

Nick throws the scythe upward into the elevator shaft. The chain snakes and bites into the metal above.

**NICK** (grim): “I’ll find out.”

[SFX: _CLINK._ _SCRAPE._ _RATTLE._] He begins to climb, one arm over the other, scythe embedded like a climbing pick in a world they no longer trust.

[NARRATION] The others watch him ascend—up into the hollow, broken dark of Von Queef University.

[NARRATION] Ash stares at the mirror shards.

Jonah sits where Darius once stood.

Victor gently places his disguised egg under a folded towel.

Maine folds his arms.

Outside the window, something distant crackles.

Not fireworks.

Something worse.

**END OF EPISODE 4.**