Song Recommendation for this story is: “To My Bed” By Chris Brown

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The hallway outside the faculty office was too quiet.

It was the kind of quiet that pressed in from all sides, thick enough to choke on, broken only by the faint hum of the building's ventilation system and the distant, muffled chaos of students changing classes somewhere far below.

The door to the faculty office was still swinging shut, the latch clicking into place with a finality that felt entirely too loud.