Jun fluffed up the pillow in his coffin before climbing in. After gorging on his lunch more than he should have, he needed a nap. Luckily his roommate was busy somewhere else in the school, leaving him with no one to judge him for his eating and sleeping habits.

As a vampire he preferred not having any witnesses to the less human-typical aspects of his lifestyle. Though that was more of a quirk than a necessity. Everyone in magic school was understanding about his special, mostly nocturnal needs.

He hopped into his box and was just about to close the coffin lid, when he remembered that he had forgotten to set the alarm on his phone. If he slept through his afternoon classes, he’d never hear the end of it.

Minghao barged in without knocking. He spoke in rapid Chinese, making Jun’s mind spin.

The vampire was still in Korean mode. Despite sharing the blonde wizard’s mother tongue, he had taken to thinking mostly in Korean these days, as it was the language of the people around him. Switching languages – even into the one natively spoken– was always a jarring experience.

Finally entering the right 'mode' he gathered the rest of Minghao’s rambling.

“-so of course I wanted to know if Hoshi had an idea where our sandwiches had vanished to, but once I came back from the kitchen I found everything had changed.”

Greatly exaggerating the effort it took to leave the coffin’s gentle embrace, Jun faced the boy he sometimes considered his personally entrusted Dongsaeng.

“What was different?”

“The room that was there. It was now the entrance to the north east wing of the school.”

“Minghao, the school has no north east wing.”

“Exactly. That’s what’s so weird about it.”

“Listen, buildings don’t just grow new wings. Not even this one, strange as it behaves sometimes.”

“But-“

“Why did you even bring this to me? I think the janitor is the one who has to know if the campus suddenly sprouts a few rooms. I just ate and I’d like to- What is it now?”

Minghao pointed to his lip. “You still have a little… um…”

Frowning, Jun wiped the red drop from the corner of his mouth.  “As I was saying, you don’t have to relay everything that ever happens to you directly to me. How about you go practice your Korean by annoying someone else for a change.”

“Come on. Just take a look with me.”

It became clear to the vampire that he wasn’t going to get his nap until he had proven that the wizard boy had fallen for an illusion. Or walked to the wrong floor or whatever else had made him see new buildings were there could be none.

“Well, what do you know? He was right,” mumbled Jun to himself, unwilling to concede defeat aloud.

The boys had made it to the end of the north tract where, on any other day, they would have encountered a solid wall, separating them from the outside. Now, however, there was as corridor. With windows and lights and the same ugly, dated PVC floor as in every other hallway.

It all looked a little run down, but otherwise, indistinguishable from the rest of the school.

Minghao tried to drag his friend into the new wing, but the he leaned against the pull with all the strength of a creature of the night. “Okay, this is weird. But I guess whatever this is, we’re probably not supposed to be here.”

“Nonsense,” said Minghao right away, “it’s part of the school, isn’t it? We’re students, aren’t we?”

“Yes and yes, but still.”

“Maybe we’re finally going to find this school’s chamber of secrets.”

“That’s not a mandatory room in magic schools, Minghao. Read some non-fiction.”

“But you have to admit, it’s very secretive.” He gasped dramatically. “Maybe we’ll find the headmaster’s childhood drawings… or dream journals… or magazines.”

“Seriously, read something else. Anything other than what you’re apparently reading now that’s giving you these ideas.”

The vampire huffed one last time before ceasing his resistance. If he allowed the boy to peek inside a few rooms in the new wing, he’d get bored for sure. So Jun decided to play along for the time being.

There was exactly one door, right at the end of the short corridor. Presumably it lead into the north-east wing proper and whatever was inside.

Passing the line between the school they knew and the freshly grown one, Jun almost out. The force with which his mind was assaulted knocked the breath from his lungs. Minghao shivered slightly and Jun could guess that that wizard boy felt the security wards tickle his spine. Whatever they were entering, the vampire understood that it was bad news.

As the boys held up at the door, Jun felt for the presence he that had punched him in the brain. Something wild and primal had stretched its metaphysical tentacles but had retracted so quickly that he barely felt the remnant of the dark creature in the magic field around.

“Minghao, there’s something weird going on. Tune in and help me find it. I guess it’s roughly at fifty milliThaum.” As an inherently magical creature, Jun had an intuitive understanding of magic that didn’t always easily translate into the human mage’s technical terms.

Less excited and visibly worried, the younger boy whipped out his wand and pronounced an analytic charm. His results would be precise and systematic. The vampire’s intuitive approach was much more limited, but ultimately highly superior in flexibility.

As a creature of – some – darkness himself, Jun could easily feel ahead. “There is a manaflux covering the whole wing. It’s like a storm with the eye at the center of the tract. I’ve never felt anything like it. But if that’s what had been hiding the building, why have we never been told about it?”

Minghao frowned for several seconds, unable to put into words what he was seeing. “The wards are the same. As far as the magic in the school is concerned this wing is part of campus. But not for the wards with the signature of the current headmaster.”

“Do you think it’s old?”

“Sure, I’d say that. But I can’t tell you how old.”

“I feel something similar. A lingering presence of sorts. Should we take a look?”

The boys found each other’s eyes. When had they ever past up on any real adventure? Or on going through with bad ideas?

Minghao opened the door and waved his companion through. The next room was much, much older, full of dust and detritus. It had the atmosphere of a spooky attic at night. Precious little sunshine fell through the crusted windows.

A curious force rammed unceasingly into Jun. It was not physical, even though it was strong enough to make him feel the push against his skin like horizontal raindrops.

Jun called a mystlight into existence. It was a simple orb of black flame that he barely had to control. His intuitive reign over his body’s magic took care of it. As the door closed behind him, he remembered that wizards did not share his ability to derive sight from black light and tried to adjust the orb. He overcompensated and neon white flames blinded him before he waved the mystlight out with a swear that started in Korean and finished in Chinese.

By now, Minghao had incantated his own spell and shot an orb above his head where it lingered to mock Jun. The light was a soft orange, perfectly attuned to the human eye to create minimal reflection and glare.

Jun’s superhumanly sensitive eyes had not been considered by the charm’s original creator, but he had to admit its practicality. With a defiant huff, he walked away from the grinning Minghao.

“Let’s see. We are on the upper floor. Right below us should be where the unicorn’s grazed. I sure hope they weren’t crushed by a house suddenly popping up on top of them.” Jun turned in all directions to make sure he wasn’t missing any clues about the huge room. What had its purpose been?

Minghao looked pensive. “I’ve done some more analyses and my spells are all being redirected. We’re right in the manastorm. If I try to move a charm any more than a few meters from my person it goes into a void I can’t call it back from.  Do we tell the headmaster what we found so far or do we look further?”

Jun shushed his younger friend non-verbally. His vampire ears had picked up the sound of steps. They were not alone.

Slouching; hunched over; arms unmoving. The zombie approached the boys with low groans, its dried up, pale brown skin casting deep shadows onto its wrinkly face.

Minghao whispered “Ew, there are zombies in here. Just what is this place?”

“Let’s just deal with it and turn around. I really don’t like the feel of this.”

“Sure,” the wizard said, shrugging. He whirled his wand a few times, powering up a binding spell. Yellow, jiggly lines grew from the tip of the wooden stick and made their way towards the continuously marching undead. Falling over it like a birdcage, the lines bounced closer until they didn’t leave enough space for the creature to slip out.

“One undead curtain, as ordered. Junnie-hyung, let’s get going.”

“Yeah, we should leave. I can’t even feel the outside anymore. This manastorm is the weirdest-“

The floor cracked under them. Centimeter by centimeter, the blocks that made up the ground bent down. Before either boy could react, they fell. The orange light wasn’t able to follow them fast enough and left them in dimmer light as they fell through the floor and broke their way further down into the basement, the collapse making its way through two layers of concrete.