Carol Witmore was a tall gangly woman with long fingers. Her dark hair hung to her neck straight and even. She had deep set dark eyes that had seen more in her thirty odd years of life than she wanted others to know.
Carol was known to be brusque. It wasn't always the most favorable trait for a middle school teacher to have given the state of the education system. It was a nature that led to more than a couple of conferences with parents who didn't care for her demeanor. Among the students she garnered whispered nicknames of Mrs. Bitchmore and The Spider Queen. But short of talk little was done to her.
The rain pelted the windows of the classroom windows like small pebbles and cast it in a gloomy light. Carol didn't mind the rain. In fact she preferred it and gazed out the window as heavy drops of water distorted the view of the playground below. She gazed out the window in quiet wonder as the faint sound of one of her students reading from the state mandated textbook continued behind her.
'You're only young once,' thought Carol as her mind then slipped to the fifth of vodka she kept in a water bottle in her desk, a beverage she would finish before leaving for the day. She then thought about what it would be like to take that towheaded little snot Henry Durkin and splash him with the dirtiest water she could find. The image of him covered in filth made her think of what she'd say to him, 'It's not the end of the world Henry. Now you're your father's son. Just as dirty as he is the old reprobate. It would be a good lesson to him for cutting our funding this past year.'
While she thought the room grew quiet. Carol snapped her attention back to the class. "Very good Marissa," she said as she scanned the room her eyes quickly falling on a little brown haired girl who had taken it upon herself to stare out the window as well, "Mia the class isn't outside. Please pay attention. You know there will be a quiz after this. So, continue where Marissa left off."
Mia smiled sheepishly while ignoring the other kids stifled their giggles at her being caught looking. Carol watched her slowly move her head back towards the book as she settled back onto her chair. She'd read her passage then once she was done would likely resume staring out the window. She wouldn't call her a bad kid but Mia was certainly a handful just like the others.
Carol sighed as she patrolled the front of the class ready to listen to Mia continue a story she'd heard every year for the past twelve years she'd taught the seventh grade. It was a dull tale about a boy who loses his parents at the fair and has to wind his way through a bunch of weirdly costumed anthropomorphic creatures that represent his fears and doubts. Just once Carol would have enjoyed shouting, 'Plot twist he finds his fucking parents by the Ferris Wheel where they'd said they'd be.' Of course she didn't and instead waited for Mia to begin.
As soon as Mia's voice started up again Carol's gaze shifted to the clock on the wall. There were thirty minutes left in the class. Just enough time for the kids to finish, do the quiz and get out of her hair for the weekend. She'd grade the quizzes as soon as they left with the aid of her vodka. Then she'd go home and think nothing of the rest of the day or those kids until Monday.
"... the two little girls wandered deeper and deeper into the Everfree Forest with their new friend they had just met. She was a strange loud girl with light-blue skin and straight white hair that ended in a curl," read Mia robotically.
Carol's eyes darted to Mia as she read. It wasn't the correct text. "Mia what are you reading?"
"Her name was Trixie and she was a magician. Trixie told them she was from a faraway, magical place and she was sent to find new friends. The idea of finding new friends sparked the curiousness of the youngest of the two sisters. Without warning she dashed after the magician who danced...,"
"Mia this isn't the story we were reading, please go back to the section we were on and continue," She said puzzled knowing this wasn't in their textbook.
"Have you ever heard of Ponyville Ellie? There are so many new friends you will meet. So many games to play."
"That is not the story Mia go back to what we were rea..."
"I don't like this, whispered Carol the older of the two, trying to pull her sister away from their weird new friend. Let us just go back home. Nothing good can come from following her."
Carol's skin crawled and her stomach dropped at the mention of her own name. Quickly she hurried to Mia and ripped the book from her hands. She gazed at it and watched as the words quickly dripped off of the page and on to the floor. "What the hell?"
Mia continued to speak, "Tut-tut said Trixie twirling around the girls. I know it seems scary right now but we will be there shortly. Who knows what wonders are in store both of you. One of you might be my newest assistant. Wouldn't that be great Carol?"
"Principal's Office. Now," Carol said raising her voice in an attempt to quell the panic inside her.
"But Carol didn't want to go with Trixie. She didn't trust Trixie. Her smile was too wide. Her eyes too wild. Plus that smell that seemed to surround their new friend reminding Carol of dark, spoiled, things in some forgotten basement."
"Shut up!" shrieked Carol as she shook and backed away from Mia toward the window, "Shut the fuck up!"
Slowly the class turned to face her and in one voice said, "This is a magical land. Anything can happen. Who knows what you might find if you just turn around."
Carol's heart sunk into her feet. She didn't want to look behind her and yet felt every muscle in her body turn her to face the window. She tried to close her eyes but she couldn't and as she looked down toward the playground she saw it, a shadow on the swing set.
It looked vaguely like that of a little girl. Carol squinted to get a better look as it slowly pushed the swing it sat on and began to slowly and awkwardly ride it. "Ellie," Carol whispered and instantly felt regret at doing so. Slowly the shadow stopped swinging and turned its head to look up at her with hungry eyes. "Oh shit," muttered Carol.
THUMP! Came the noise of something hitting the window made Carol jump back in shock. Her eyes darted to the left and she saw the red eyes of a large cicada staring back at her. She watched as it crawled across the glass and stared into the room. "It knows what you know. It knows what you saw," whispered a familiar voice from behind her. Carol froze in place.
THUMP! Again another insect hit the school window followed by another and another until the windows were covered entirely in cicadas. "Oh lord," whispered Carol as she put her hands to her mouth as the rhythmic calls of the insects reverberated throughout the room.
Carol Witmore could feel the scream welling up now standing alone in the empty classroom. Threatening to leave her lips When icy cold hands wrapped themselves around her, Firmly covering her mouth while the stench of death flooded her nose transforming the scream into a choke as she found herself retching from the stench of death. "Did you know that in China cicadas symbolize resurrection," asked the voice of Ellie.
"How? But... you're...."
Then the pain began as teeth dug hungrily into soft flesh consuming all that was Mrs. Carol Witmore. She screamed but her voice wasn't her own. It was distant and electric. Screaming not from the pain or from her death but what was waiting for her afterwards.
Carol shot up in bed and smacked her alarm clock. She panted heavily and looked over at the tousled sheets next to her. She curled up in a ball and sat quietly staring out the window until the voice of her husband telling her to hurry up and get ready chimed in from downstairs.
It was the start of a new day but the continuation of an old nightmare.
