The Haunted School
Remembering what you learned from watching Kung Fu movies on Saturday mornings, you try to pivot quickly away from the contact, thinking to bring up your left forearm to free yourself, and your knee to viciously emasculate the attacker, but the hand is like a vise. The fingers squeeze your shoulder tightly enough to prevent you from turning at all.
"Easy there," says a deep, resonant voice. "I didn't mean to alarm you." The voice is calm and friendly, but underneath you sense that it is as hard, as unyielding, as the hand that still grips your shoulder.
The pressure on your shoulder eases and you turn to face the intruder.
Goatee.
Goatee is standing there smiling at you. The smile, you notice(or imagine), does not reach his eyes.
"It is time you got back to the group, don't you think?" he askes.
"I was using the bathroom," you manage to say. Goatee has taken his hand off you. He is still smiling slightly, but it is clear that he is not amused.
"It is back that way," he says. "As you know." His smile takes on a knowing quality, as if you two share a secret, now.
"Right," you say. "I thought I...," you begin to say. You thought you what, you wonder? What can I say? You thought he heard a monster eating a human corpse in the darkened bathroom? You thought you heard ghosts laughing in one of the empty classrooms?
"I'm on my way," you say. He walks back with you to join the rest of the group.
"Easy there," says a deep, resonant voice. "I didn't mean to alarm you." The voice is calm and friendly, but underneath you sense that it is as hard, as unyielding, as the hand that still grips your shoulder.
The pressure on your shoulder eases and you turn to face the intruder.
Goatee.
Goatee is standing there smiling at you. The smile, you notice(or imagine), does not reach his eyes.
"It is time you got back to the group, don't you think?" he askes.
"I was using the bathroom," you manage to say. Goatee has taken his hand off you. He is still smiling slightly, but it is clear that he is not amused.
"It is back that way," he says. "As you know." His smile takes on a knowing quality, as if you two share a secret, now.
"Right," you say. "I thought I...," you begin to say. You thought you what, you wonder? What can I say? You thought he heard a monster eating a human corpse in the darkened bathroom? You thought you heard ghosts laughing in one of the empty classrooms?
"I'm on my way," you say. He walks back with you to join the rest of the group.