They say university is a gateway to a new life.

Tessa believed it.

She stood silently in front of the school gate, where streams of students poured in. The sunlight cast a soft golden hue over the early autumn leaves ,everything looked so beautiful it felt like nothing evil could ever exist here.

But Tessa knew — beauty is often just a thin coat of paint, one that peels easily when the storm hits.

This city was the same. It looked modern, clean, and peaceful.
But lift that mask just a little… and you’d smell blood and despair.

Because Maya disappeared here.
Three months ago.

Maya — Tessa’s one and only best friend. The girl who always smiled, even when the whole class ignored her because of her limp. The girl who never stayed mad at anyone for more than three minutes. The girl who had a date with someone from the Flame app on the last night she was seen.

Tessa had walked with her to the bus stop that day. Maya had turned back, waved, and smiled.

"I’m heading out first. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow."

But tomorrow never came.

There was no date story. No signs of a struggle. No clues. Maya simply didn’t come home. She didn’t reply to messages. She vanished from existence.

Tessa called the police. Posted missing person notices. She even tracked down the family of the guy Maya was supposed to meet. They denied everything. The police said Maya had probably run away. Because… “people like her” often feel lonely.

What a joke.

No one cared about a disabled girl.
No one noticed how Maya’s disappearance was eerily similar to several others over the past year — girls who vanished after meeting someone through Flame, leaving behind only an empty account and a wiped chat history.

Tessa didn’t believe in coincidences.

And she didn’t believe Maya was the first.

Or the last.

Today was Tessa’s first day of college.
She wore a pale beige jacket and tied her hair up high — the way Maya used to like it. “It brightens up your face a bit,” she had said. In her bag was a notebook, filled with scribbled details about the disappearance — Maya’s and the others — and something no one else dared to say:

-> Someone is hunting women.
And Flame is the baited hook.

Tessa walked onto campus. Her eyes no longer held the spark of a wide-eyed freshman — but the sharp, cold focus of someone following the trail of dried blood.

What she didn’t know…
was that from somewhere nearby,
someone was watching her too.

And the game had already begun.