How To Survive A Calamity

The walk back to my dorm room was uneventful — almost suspiciously so— considering every other thing that had happened to me throughout the day.

Or at least, that was what i thought.

But the moment I arrived at the entrance of my room, i found an anonymous envelope waiting for me, sitting against the ground just inches away from my boot.

There was no seal.

No sender's name.

No signature.

Nothing at all.

It was strange. The mysterious envelope held a weight that felt heavier than it should. Yet, despite all this, my intuition wasn't screaming of danger. Not even my passive Skill, Danger Sense, was reacting to it.

Maybe that was why I bent down and picked it up without hesitation.

After all, it was just an envelope, right?

Someone must've slipped it under my door while I was gone. That was all.

At least—that's what I told myself.

Yes, it was strange, but not unheard of. Letters were still a valid means of communication in this world. I'd used some myself in the past.

Aethoria was, after all, a peculiar blend of Victorian elegance and modern-futuristic innovation.

But ever since I'd entered the Academy, my primary form of contact had shifted to my cadet bracelet—or my communicator. Handwritten letters here were reserved for formal occasions… or for matters that demanded secrecy.

After all, I had no doubt that Aegis kept tabs on everything passing through a cadet's bracelet. And messages sent through my communicator could be tracked, traced, or intercepted.

Which meant this… this was different.

Who would go through the trouble of sending me a letter?

And more importantly—why?

For a fleeting moment, I thought of Adrienne. I'd been planning to reach out to her, so perhaps she'd decided to make the first move. Or maybe it was my family.

I hadn't kept proper contact with them since the Dungeon Incident. Maybe word of my recent… developments… had finally reached home. It wouldn't be the first time Adrienne and I had exchanged letters within the Academy—she'd done the same during her own time here.

But it wasn't her.

And it wasn't home.

The fact the strange letter had no name, seal or signature of any kind made it all the more bizzare. I was cautious despite the way i looked or acted.

I just had some unbiased confidence in my Skill. Plus this was the Dormitory in the Academy — this envelope or what it contained in it couldn't be a bomb, right?

No one was slipping a bomb into my room, right?

Right...?

Well... there was no point pondering too long or harder about it when the object in question was already in my hand, staring back silently as it waited for me to make a decision. It sat in my hand like it was daring me to find out.

Of course, i moved.

I locked my door behind me, flicked on the lights to my room, and slipped out of my blazer in a fluid motion.

I peeled open the envelope slowly. Deliberately. Sitting against the edge of my bed.

It was a piece of paper.

Inside was a single, folded sheet of paper. Nothing more.

Deliberately, with silent caution, i unfolded the piece of paper. It was a letter.

One just as mysterious as the envelope it came in.

No name.

No seal.

No signature.

Just a blank piece of paper...

With only four words scrawled in ink across on one side.

"I Know Your Secret."

"..."

The moment the words of the letter registered, my pulse skipped — then seemed to quicken.

What? Huh??

What the hell is this?

For a moment, my mind was slow to keep up. It felt like i was just waking up from a foggy dream, and the line between that and reality had been blurred like a cold breath against a smooth glass mirror.

At that moment, it didn't seem like was the one holding the letter. Didn't feel like i was the one reading the words.

It felt like looking through a pair of lense that weren't mine—

Like a faint wave of vertigo, but without the dizziness and sense of imbalance.

But of course...

This wasn't a dream.

I hadn't just woken up

There was no foggy glass window between me and the sheet of paper in my hands.

No matter how long and silently i stared at it, the four words didn't vanish. They didn't explain themselves or make sense.

They just ztared back.

And then...

"I Know Your Secret."

The words registered once again. This time, with the full weight of its implication slamming against my mind like a sledge hammer — unchanging, blunt, merciless.

And impossible to ignore.

"What..."

Shit—

I heard my heartbeat drum at the back of my head as my eyes widened. Reflex tooo over — my wrists snapped, flipping the piece of paper around to the back, trying to make sense of this. As if the answer might be hiding there.

Nothing.

My brows knitted, but I didn't stop. Couldn't. My mind clawed for reason, for something I was missing. Another page. A hidden message. Anything.

But...

Aside from the four words written on the front page — deas center — the rest of the piece of paper — blank.

My brows furrowed, but I didn't let up.

As if my mind was desperate to make sense of this, I dropped to a crouch, snatching up the peeled-open envelope from where it had slipped to the floor when I'd first pulled the letter out.

I brought it close to my face, eyes raking over every inch of its surface. Blank. Utterly blank.

Not a stray mark. Not even the ghost of a word.

No second page. No hidden note. No follow-up.

The envelope gaped open in my hand, weightless now—its only cargo already clenched between my fingers.

In the end…

My lips parted, but nothing came out—only a shallow, brittle breath I couldn't quite swallow.

Then my thoughts lurched into motion.

"What is this?"

I couldn't see my own face, but I felt it twist—tight, sour—like the paper in my hand was something rotten. Something that shouldn't exist.

My expression deepened as I felt my mood plummet even further

"Is this a prank?"

Some kind of sick joke?