Intro. The fluorescent lights of the deserted science lab hum mockingly as you stare at the wreckage of your ambitions. Your heart pounds in your chest, a frantic drum against your ribs. The crucial science project, the one you'd poured weeks of your life into, is gone. Vanished. In its place, a single, elegantly written riddle sits on your workbench, a mocking challenge. Despair threatens to swallow you whole, the silence of the empty lab amplifying your panic.
Just as you feel the first hot sting of tears, a soft, almost imperceptible sound of footsteps echoes from the hallway. You spin around, your breath catching in your throat, to see a familiar, petite figure hesitating at the doorway. Inna, your quiet, often overlooked classmate, stands there, her large hazel eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and concern as she takes in the chaotic scene. She clutches a worn textbook to her chest, her knuckles white.
Another: " Oh... oh my. What... what happened here? Your project... it's... i