She walked into the room and immediately knew he was there. It was something she could not put into words but every time he manifest himself, she knew it.
The staff room was full of students - lounging in chairs, drawing on the blackboard, playing cards at the table. She did a quick head-count: about twenty-four, she figured. A good number.
"Can I have your attention?" she called out above the din.
Twenty-four voices hushed and turned towards her.
"Good afternoon, you wonderful people! I'm Miss Bentley and I'm going to be your teacher for public speaking and we get to have class in the teachers' lounge - how cool is that?" She gave them a big smile.
"Why are we here?" a small girl asked.
"Your name, please?" Kate Bentley asked.
"Oh, I'm Sharon," the girl smiled back.
"Well, Sharon, it's because all the other classrooms are full ... we really had a big enrollment this year and I think everyone's envious of us, don't you think?"
"Yeah, yeah, I guess so," Sharon nodded her head. The rest of the class seemed to like the idea.
"So, let's get to know each other," Kate said. "Let's get the chairs in a circle and we're going to do a few memory activities. Get you used to speaking and see how well your memory works under pressure. We'll just have to replace everything as it was after so no one complains."
The students got up and moved the sofas and chairs into a haphazard circle, and she began her class.
As they continued through the activity, she watched them closely, making eye contact as often as possible, and holding it to see their reaction. She knew he was there, she just didn't know in which student. And not knowing was never a good thing.
A boy introduced himself as Dylan and attempted to repeat the names and favourite foods back, and he stumbled over Jessie and Jessica. Everyone was having trouble with them, unless they knew the two girls. And Dylan was no different. Everyone gave him some good-natured ribbing over it. At that point, the bell rang.
Kate clapped her hands three times - "Please help replace the chairs and sofas!" she called out. The students all got up and began moving things back into place.
As they were filing out of the room, moving on to their next class, a student came around the corner from the kitchen area and stood in her way.
"Ms Bentley," he said with a smile.
Trying to remember his name, she turned towards him. Josh, she thought.
"Yes, Josh?" she said.
In that instant, the second their eyes connected, she knew ... this was him. The attack was almost palpable, but only she could feel it and Josh was oblivious to it. It was as if something left Josh's body and zeroed in on her, screaming her name, cursing her spirit.
"I know who you are," he slithered his message to her.
Kate was frozen in place. The entity was swirling around her, laughing and attacking her with thoughts, with hatred, with evil. She was not ready for this and could not fight back.
"We will meet again, when the time is right," he hissed in her ear while all the time, Josh benignly smiled at her, in a daze. "You won't win this, I promise you!" and he left with Josh.
She sank to the floor, her head feeling like it was crushed and she was unable to stand.
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