Basics in Teaching

Chapter 5 - Basics in Behavior (2/3)

Rip eventually arrived at the school and quickly parked, remaining in his vehicle for a little while. He turned to face the box of cigarettes that he still kept and scoffed, remembering how he was nearly tempted to take a drag from the death stick. He made a mental note to throw the box away later since it was obvious that he would never need it again.

With that out of the way, he exited his car and approached the double doored entrance in a scene that reminded him of when he arrived at the school for his first tour. As he motioned to swing them open, mentally prepared to get back to work, it didn't budge. It was locked. A little strange considering that it normally was never locked since the security guard stationed there was very dutiful, but he supposed that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary in any case.

Mister Holmes motioned to knock a couple of times, resonating several large clank sounds, and then waited a couple of seconds for any type of response.

...

Nothing.

"Ey, Mister Lerrab! Lemme in already, mate! Class is about to start up—I can't be late! ...Wait, you got me rhyming now!"

...

No response.

"Awh, come on... I leave for a measly thirty minutes and things start to-"

CLANG!

SWAAAAH!!

THUNK!!!

CRAK!! CRAK!!

A newfound sense of terror and horror found its way onto Mister Holmes' countenance. Was this a byproduct of his imagination? Could it be a small remnant of what he left behind in his dream? No, it couldn't be—what he heard was far too real for that.

Within moments, he crashed himself into the double doors, impacting them with an unforeseen force that sent the doors flying open in an instant. He then ran inside and immediately darted his eyes across the stetch of the hallway he found himself in... and nothing. No corpses, for neither teacher nor student, so while this calmed his nerves slightly, he was still very on edge.

The first thing that he noticed that was off was that it was uncharacteristically dark. He didn't recall a time ever seeing the school in this light, or rather lack thereof, so it was slightly disorienting. However, that didn't matter to him now—something was obviously going on, and he needed to figure out what.

Flashbacks to his dream invaded his vision, merging with reality. He only hoped that what was happening, wasn't what he thought it was.

A prank, surely? A ploy from Oliver and his friends, like what Rebecca told him-

BA-THUMP!

BA-THUMP!

BA-THUMP!

Mister Holmes groaned in pain, losing his balance as he tried to keep himself from keeling over. A horrid, pounding sensation tore through his head like a bulldozer, far stronger than any headache he recalled ever having. As soon as it arrived, however, its effects appeared to dwindle drastically, becoming somewhat of a lesser version of the headache he received in his dream.

Reorienting himself back upright, the teacher momentarily shook his head in shock and daze—this happened, at least somewhat, during his nightmare. Still, it was no more obvious what this was, and who did it, than his previous tries at shoddy detective work, but some ideas began to come together in his head.

But that's all they were: ideas.

CRAAAASH!!

"EEEK! HE'S GOING TO KILL US!!!"