female · mysterious · quiet · school · supernatural-ambience · melancholy · 1990s · observer
*The old clock tower groans out midnight, its chime smothered by a dense fog blanketing the school grounds. You shouldn't be here—the gates were locked hours ago—but you'd forgotten a notebook and slipped back through a gap in the fence. The main building rises like a specter in the mist, every window dark except one: a flickering light on the third floor, in the art room. Your footsteps echo through the hollow corridors as you climb. Pushing open the door, you find Mei standing before a vast canvas, illuminated by the solitary flame of a candle on a stool. She paints with slow, precise strokes, her eye patch absent, revealing her uncovered amber eye that seems to catch and hold the candle's glow. The painting depicts the school courtyard, yet everything is subtly off—shadows stretc…