It's Only Skin Deep

Chapter 2: No Woman Left Behind

October 29th, 11:58 am

The late bell gave a shrill screech that echoed across the school grounds. Students took seats while others rushed to make it in time. I slid into my desk by the window and waited for the teacher to start instructing. "Good morning students," an unfamiliar woman greeted as she took a seat on Mr. Moore's desk.

"It's afternoon!" came a sarcastic back of the room comment. The class snickered.

"True," the woman's blood red lips stretched into a smile. She pulled a folder off of the desk and flipped it open. "I'll be your substitute for Mr. Moore today yada yada yada... so on and so forth. I'm sure you get the drill." Her matching red heels clicked against the floor as she slid off of the desk and began moving about the room.

Licking her index finger, she pulled apart a worksheet and laid it across a student's desk. "Your lovely Spanish teacher left each and every one of you a worksheet to translate." She began as she passed the worksheet around the classroom, "He said that he wants it completed by the end of class-"

A chorus of groans filled the room.

A worksheet was placed on my desk and I looked down at the dizzying amount of Spanish that covered the page. I sighed. This was going to take awhile.

A few minutes later I was daydreaming while staring blankly out of the window. It was my favorite pass time and I often did it during Spanish because all of my friends had different classes.

Something moved on the school grounds below, catching my dreaming mind's attention. I leaned closer to the pane of glass to get a better look. A ghostly form was slowly floating across the campus. The form turned its head toward me.

Long straight hair fell around ghastly eyes, hollow cheekbones and a narrow face. The person looked vaguely familiar-

"Ms. Collette!" the substitute snapped beside me.

My gaze shot to her face, ready to make up any excuse needed. The color drained from my face. Long straight blonde hair, light blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a narrow face. The sub stared back at me with the same face as the one I had just seen outside the window. Both women looked exactly the same.

My eyes darted back to the window. The woman was gone.

The sub's eye were narrowed on me when I looked back to her. Her eyes flashed purple, as if in warning, and then settled back into their natural blue.

My blood chilled at the unnatural sight. People's eye colors didn't just change like that.

Another student called the sub over to them. The strange woman gave me a final suspicious glance before going to the student's desk.

My mind was whirling and my pulse raced. I didn't know what was happening. First, I had seen a man turn into a child, and now, I thought that I had seen my substitute teacher's eyes turn purple after seeing a ghost of her outside the window. Maybe I was losing my mind.

For the rest of class I kept a watchful eye on the substitute, making sure she didn't do anything else out of the ordinary. The bell rang and all of the students, myself included, scrambled from the room. I could feel the woman's eyes burning into the back of my head as I left.

***

October 31st, 7:36 a.m.

Dust moats floated in the early morning light streaming through the opened curtains. The smell of sizzling bacon and fresh toast drifted to my nose from the kitchen. I peeled my eyes open with a contented sigh. Breakfast.

I dragged myself out of bed and, without bothering to change out of my pajamas, headed toward the delicious scent of food.

The kitchen tiles were cold against my unprotected toes when I stumbled into the room. Mom was at the stove, with her back toward me, cooking. "It's about time you rolled out of bed sleepy head." she greeted sweetly.