Ava’s pov

“Professor Grant, the last section still needs the citation cross-check on the 2019 field notes. I can finish it tonight if you want.”

He looked up from the screen, glasses low on his nose, that deep voice rolling out slow. “Stay. The deadline is midnight and I’m not sending incomplete work out under my name. Close the door.”

I pushed it shut. The click sounded louder than it should have in the empty building. Campus was dead for the long weekend.

No footsteps in the hall, no voices drifting up from the quad. Just the hum of his desk lamp and the soft tick of the old wall...