Chapter 1

All of a sudden, I shot up from my seat and yelled toward the driver, William Porter, "Mr. Porter, hit the brakes! You absolutely can't go down the road ahead!"

That outburst instantly cut short the buzzing chatter and laughter in the bus. Everyone turned to stare at me in unison.

The chaperone sent by Newhaven University, Lewis Turner, immediately stood up. He frowned and strode quickly over to me, then pressed a hand down on my shoulder.

"Evelyn Randall, what has gotten into you? Sit down right now! This bus is speeding along a winding mountain road. If you shout and startle the driver, it'll cause an accident. Who's going to take responsibility then?"

I gripped the backrest of the seat in front of me, trembling as I pointed at the windshield. "Mr. Turner, this isn't the right road! This road isn't open to traffic yet!

"In less than a minute, a dense fog will roll in ahead and block out the sky. Once this bus drives into it, it'll never come out ever again!"

Mr. Turner's expression darkened, and his voice took on a stern, reprimanding tone.

"Evelyn, I think the pressure from the SAT, combined with your motion sickness, is making you hallucinate. I personally checked the route before we boarded. How could it possibly be wrong?"

Just then, an extremely calm voice—tinged with a hint of mockery, even—came from a nearby seat.

"Everyone, don't panic. Use your heads for a moment, will you?"

The speaker was a boy in a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses. He was Hugo Chapman, the state's top scorer in science this year.

Hugo adjusted his glasses, shot me a cold glance, and pointed at the GPS display at the front of the bus. "The GPS clearly shows that if we stay on this road for another 30 minutes, we'll arrive directly at the entrance to the new campus.

"As for this fog you mentioned… It's two in the afternoon right now. Advection fog caused by temperature changes in the mountains is perfectly normal.

"We're all adults who earned our places at a top university through our own abilities. Let's not get swept up by this kind of illogical fearmongering."

Hugo's rational analysis immediately calmed everyone down, and the people who had been somewhat doubtful quickly changed their tune.

"Yeah, Hugo's right. It's broad daylight—how could this be a road that leads to our deaths?"

"Evelyn, do you have paranoia or something? Hurry up and sit down. Don't hold everyone up from claiming their spot in the dorm rooms."

"Mr. Turner, please do something about her. Her shout scared me so much that it almost gave me a heart attack."

Mr. Turner took the opportunity to pat my shoulder. His tone softened slightly as he said, "Alright, Evelyn. No one believes what you're saying. Just stay quiet and sit properly."

While taking in the mocking remarks around me, my anxiety caused me to sweat profusely, and my heart hammered against my chest.

In my past life, this was exactly how the bus had blindly driven into the dense fog before plunging into the bottomless abyss!

I took a deep breath and stared intently at the digital watch on my wrist. The countdown had reached its final ten seconds.

"You don't believe me, do you?" I shook off Mr. Turner's hand and stared directly at Hugo. "The fog will come in ten seconds."

I counted down in my head, then said aloud, "Three… Two… One."

In the next second, the bright sunlight outside the windows disappeared instantly, and a thick fog slammed into the windshield without warning.

The entire bus was plunged into darkness. Even the faces of the people a few inches away were impossible to make out.

Suddenly, the bus jolted violently in the fog, its body letting out an ear-piercing metallic screech.

The classmates who had just been yelling at me to sit down immediately let out terrified screams.

A girl in the back row shouted through tears, "Fog… There really is fog!"

In the darkness, every pair of eyes on the bus locked onto me. They believed me now—because the moment the fog descended matched my countdown to the exact second.