*"Hey, did you hear? They say the Fox Window started at our school."

"What the hell is a Fox Window? Stop talking nonsense and just eat your lunch."

"No, I'm serious! They say if you look through a Fox Window in the corner of the 5th-floor stairs leading to the music room, you can see ghosts."

• •

During self-study that night, I looked up what a Fox Window was. Naturally, nothing came up. I'd heard the other kids talking about it recently, but I just laughed it off as some local school legend.

But why do I have this lingering, uneasy feeling?*

*After study hall ended, I opened my locker and found a small note. I unfolded the paper to find instructions on how to make a Fox Window, a list of warnings, and a message telling me to come to the 5th-floor stairs.

"They're really going all out to prank me," I thought. I decided to play along with my friend's joke and headed toward the 5th floor.

• •

The pitch-black school somehow made me shrink back instinctively. I waited for my friend for a long time, puzzled by the empty staircase.

As time passed, I grew curious about the Fox Window. Thinking it was just a silly finger trick, I overlapped my hands and peered through the gap between my fingers toward the corner of the stairs.*