Nobody at school really knew Alessa. They only knew her as the girl with the seizures. She has been having them since anyone can remember. For Alessa, having a seizure wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, nor was it scary. It felt as if waking up after an uncomfortable night of sleeping, usually with a sore tongue. At least, that’s what it used to feel like. Recently, she has been dreaming during the convulsions.

   “Alessa, finish your eggs, or you’re going to be late.” Alessa’s mother’s usual tone of the early morning.

   “I’m going as fast as I can!” Alessa responds, though she lied. She’s not going as fast as she can, in fact, she is going as slow as she can. Lately, Alessa would rather be anywhere other than school. The sixth grade has been the toughest for her; her classmates get meaner every year.

          Alessa and her mother finally leave their small apartment in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin and head towards school.

   “..Mom, can I ask you something?” Alessa says staring down at her untied shoes.

   “Of course, ‘Less.” Alessa loved being called ‘Less’, it was one of the few things in her young life that made her feel important.

   “Why do I have to go to school? Everyone is mean to me.” Alessa asked

   “I’m sorry sweetie, you have to. Next year will be better.” Her mother answered

   “That’s what you always say, it never is, it’s always worse.” Alessa whined

   “You will be at a new school, I promise. Everything will be different.” As her mother said it would be different, this time she thought it might. Maybe a new school is what she needed.

          Once Alessa walked through the school doors, she received the usual stares. Clasping on to her book bag Alessa walked to her locker. Her only friend, Charlie is waiting for her. Charlie started puberty at a much earlier age than the rest of his classmates, though he really wish he had not. He was only 10 when it started, becoming the first person in his class with acne, and a very bad case of it. Because of that, he was looked at with the same stares as Alessa.

   “Ugh, I hate it here even more when you’re not around.” Charlie says

   “I don’t think it’s possible to hate it anymore than I already do.” Alessa responds

   “I can’t wait for summer vacation, it’s so close!” Charlie adds, noticing that Alessa has that spaced out stare, piercing the wall.

   “Alessa, you ok?” Charlie is used to asking Alessa that.

Alessa looks directly at Charlie and smiles for a moment, and then screams while falling forward.

          Alessa realizes she is alone in the middle of a small classroom.

The teacher’s back is turned away from her.

   “Mr. Klein?” Alessa asks, only to be answered by complete silence.

   “Hello?” Her words fade. Is she making any sound, she wonders. Alessa gets up out of the old, scratched desk and walks up towards the front of the class.

The silence is deafening...

As she approaches the teacher, she feels an intense heat. She reaches for his shoulder. Before the tips of her fingers reach the teacher’s dusty shirt, he turns his head...

No face to be seen.

Thin hair dangles in front of the teacher’s head, strands begin to fall. A seam appears in a mouth-like shape across the mans blank face.

Almost as if it’s being unzipped, the seam cracks open, revealing a putrid-decaying smell.

Alessa steps back, legs shaking…

The silence breaks.

The man emits a loud piercing scream, black liquid dripping out of the seam...

Alessa turns to run, seeing an open field at the end of the room.

She starts to run, but her legs feel asleep. She’s moving away from the teacher as fast as she can.

The scream is getting louder...

As she makes it to the field, the noise stops. Alessa turns back to see that the classroom is gone. She is now in a dark, snow covered field, alone. The silence is back, louder than before. Barefoot in the snow, she walks.

Is it a dream? Alessa’s thoughts seem louder than anything else.

Alessa looks down, realizing she’s wearing a blood-spattered nightgown, frayed at the bottom show the age of the gown. She recognizes it… it’s her grandmother’s. She notices a faint red light in the distance, and has an intense urge to follow it. Eyes welling up, Alessa moves towards the light. She makes out the aura, it is the single brake light of a car that has crashed into a tree, with no tracks in the snow behind the car. The driver-side door is open, Alessa needs to go towards the door.

An old woman, naked, presses against the blood soaked steering wheel. Alessa tries to speak, noise non-existent. The girl in the nostalgic nightgown trembles in the quiet snow, recognizing who lays in the car; her grandmother, who died years ago. She closes her eyes as a last-ditch effort to awake. As she opens her eyes, her grandmother awaits standing in front of her, staring deep into the darkest parts of Alessa’s pupils. Alessa is unable to move as her grandmother reaches towards her. Blood runs down the old woman’s face, as she is smiling.

The silence fades... Alessa closes her eyes as the loud piercing scream returns... this time, from herself.

          Alessa jerks awake on the cold hallway floor. Mr. Klein looks down at her, this time with a face.

“Everything’s ok, you just had a seizure.” Mr. K has been in this situation numerous times. Mr. Klein and a few other staff work quickly to move Alessa to the nurse’s office.

Alessa’s mother, Janice arrives to the school and storms into the nurse’s office and sees Alessa sleeping on the uncomfortable and well used cot.

   “Did she hit her head again?” Janice asked the nurse

   “No, luckily her friend knew it was happening and caught her.” The nurse replied, adding

   “Thankfully, it’s a lot better than last time.”

Alessa had her last seizure during a class field trip to the Green Bay zoo, falling backwards and hitting her head on the sidewalk shortly before the class entered the zoo. It lasted longer than any of her previous ones, and was the first time she dreamed during one. Though, her dream was short, it stuck with her. It is an image she hasn’t forgotten.

          Alessa doesn’t remember much before her field trip seizure, vaguely remembering her mother’s famous scrambled eggs that morning, but she remembers the eyes. Those dark eyes, behind the smile. Even before her head hit the ground, she was already dreaming, staring into those eyes. Unable to advert her eyes, she was stuck in the gaze. There was nothing else, no head, no body, just the eyes accompanied by the wide, salivating grin. After she woke up from her seizure, she swears it was real. She told her mom that she could feel the air of the breath. Janice brushed it off, telling her that it was a bad concussion. That tone, the “everything’s fine” tone usually put Alessa at ease, but this time it didn’t. Alessa knew she was actually there.

          It has been a week since Alessa’s last seizure. She hasn’t returned to school, the seizure being a good excuse not to see any of her classmates. Knocks at the door force Alessa to get off of the couch. Looking through the peep-hole she sees her pimple covered best friend, Charlie.

   “Hey, Cha-”

   “Where have you been?” Charlie cuts off Alessa and lets himself through the front door.

   “Recovering.” she answers, closing the door.

   “Why haven’t you returned any of my calls?” he asks

   “I don’t want to go back to see any of them... and the last one really scared me.” she admits

   “It really scared me too… you smiled at me right before it happened.” Charlie says

   “Smiled?” Alessa asks, remembering the grin from the first seizure.

   “Yeah, you looked directly at me and smiled… it was the scariest shit that’s ever happened to me. They’re scary by themselves, but when you start fucking smiling at me, I get legitimately freaked out.”

   “Charlie, I need to tell you something.” Alessa starts walking upstairs towards her room, Charlie follows.

Alessa and Charlie go into her room as she closes the door.

   “What’s wrong? Your mom gets all weird when you shut the door.”

   “You can’t tell anyone.” Alessa says

   “Who am I gonna tell? My other friends?” he says

   “The last few times I had a seizure, I had a strange dream.” She says

Charlie looks at her, confused

   “And they feel so real. I’m just scared, I rarely dream when I sleep, and it actually feels like I’m there.” She says, losing eye contact with Charlie

   “Oh.. jeez you scared me. Dreams? Alessa, I’m sure you’re fine.” Charlie replies

   “Will you please come back to school? That place is terrible when you’re not there, I have literally no one to talk to.” Charlie says

   “Well… I guess you’re in luck. My mom is forcing me to go back tomorrow. Alessa says, standing up and opening the door. Charlie stands up smirking at her.

   “Good… alright, sorry for freaking out before…” He says as he walks through her door and proceeds down the stairs.

   “See you tomorrow, Charlie.”

   “See-ya” He says, closing the door behind him.

Alessa walks back toward the couch. She sits down, thinking about that smile.

Why did I smile at him?

          Alessa arrives at school the next day, earlier than usual to beat the majority of her classmates and avoid the awkward stares. To her surprise, Charlie is waiting for her at her locker already.

   “Woah, you’re early.” He says

   “Yeah, I couldn’t wait any longer to be here.” Alessa says sarcastically

They walk into the library together, getting ready to study before class. Alessa moves towards the back of the deserted library. Along the back wall is a old scratched desk, only big enough for the two of them. They slide themselves into the chairs, sitting across from each other.

   “Mr. Klein is making us do these group projects.” Charlie says, adding

   “I told him you were my partner.” he unzips his backpack and pulls out a lump of clay balled up in plastic wrap.

   “It’s the classic ‘build a volcano’ project.” Charlie says reaching in his backpack to grab the fettling knife.

   “Since you’re more artistic than me, you can design it. I’ll worry about the science.” He says as he lays his science textbook down on the old desk. Alessa unwraps the plastic wrap. Grabbing the knife, she starts on the volcano shape.

          After a while the volcano starts to take its shape and Charlie figures out exactly what to do to make the eruption happen.

   “Alright, class is about to start… should we test it first, and then clean it up so we can do it again for the demonstration?” Charlie asks

Alessa stares at Charlie and smiles, blacking out.

          Alessa is back in the silent, snow covered field. The car is in front of her, this time it’s empty. A trail of blood leads away from the wide open driver’s side door. She has the irresistible urge to follow as the snow comes down harder. She follows the bloody trail, and finally finds the end; a mirror leaning against a tall tree, blood dripping down it. She see’s herself in the reflection. Alessa inspects herself, and notices a set of eyes behind her reflection.

The mirror shatters.

Quickly turning around Alessa is once again in the gaze of the eyes. The smile is bigger than last time, salivating blood.

The smile moves closer to her, revealing the rest of itself.

It’s herself. Except, the eyes and teeth aren’t the one’s she is used to. They’re different. Claws protruding from the it’s fingers, while moving towards Alessa. Alessa is frozen with fear. The creature starts to move faster. Alessa looks around for a way to escape. Nowhere in sight, she looks down at the broken pieces of the mirror. She grabs a long, sharp piece and turns back around. Those piercing eyes are inches from her own, Alessa can feel the air from the smile. She thrusts the mirror shard upwards and slices the creature’s throat. The snow stops as the creature falls to the ground. It’s over she thinks to herself. Looking forward, the field fades away, revealing Charlie sitting across from her in the library, his face is white and his eyelids are hidden.

Alessa smiled at Charlie and slit her own throat with the fettling knife.. Blood flowing out of her neck, as she drops the knife and slides down the chair. The school bell rings.

“...her body was found in the school’s auditorium early this morning…” the car radio plays from the speaker. Jeff turns it off mumbling “God damnit…”. Jeff Marquette is a gym teacher at Windcreek High School. Jeff’s 1996 Volkswagen Jetta turns into the long driveway of his co-workers house.

A larger man walks out of the house shortly after Jeff arrives. The man is well over 6 feet, out of shape, hair unkempt and looks as if he just woke up. As he tucks in his too-tight shirt he approaches the car. He swings the car door open and sinks into the car.

“Jesus, Oliver… you look terrible.” Jeff says concerned.

“...long night, couldn’t sleep” The man replies.

Oliver Goode is the science teacher, recently divorced. His aroma quickly fills the car, it’s a strong smell of last nights alcohol.

“You can’t keep coming to work like this, man.” Jeff says concerned.

Oliver sits in silence, eventually turning on the radio.

“..econd murder this month.” Jeff quickly turns it off.

“God damnit.” Oliver says quietly

Squad cars and News crews litter the school parking lot. As the teachers approach the school they are stopped by an Officer.

“Faculty badge?”

Jeff and Oliver extend their WCHS lanyards.

“Please report to the gymnasium.”

Loud chatter fills the small gym. There are three men in uniform in the middle of the gym. One man stands out among the rest. He’s recognizable due to his last visit to Windcreek. His name is James Weatherford, the Lieutenant of the WCPD.

“Teacher’s and staff, thank you for your time today. As we all know, another murder happened on school grounds. Unfortunately, we have to do the same drill as last time. We have More officers here today to speed up the questioning process. Please see an officer, after that you are free to go about your day. Thanks again for your time.”

The staff stands up out of the bleachers and creates lines in front of the officers.

“Jeff what did you do last night?” Oliver’s query comes quickly yet quietly.

“It was Sunday night, dinner and bowling with my brother. You know that.” Jeff says sharply

“Tell them I was there.” Oliver demands, wiping the sweat off of his brow.

“What? Oliver, tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“Jeff, calm down man, I didn’t kill anyone. I’ll tell you about it after this. Just please…” Oliver quickly retorts.

After a long thought, Jeff nods.

“Fine.”

Jeff arrives to the car first. Quickly taking out his phone, he pulls up his contacts and sends a text to Cindy.

[Hey I’ll be over soon, I have to take this idiot home quick.]

                                                                  [ Ok! Can’t wait to see you ;) xoxo]

As Jeff sees Oliver walking out of the school, he deletes the texts. Opening the door, Oliver exhales heavily entering the car.

“D-did you mention that I was with you?” Oliver is clearly stressed out.

“Yeah dude, just tell me what the fuck is going on.” Jeff demands.

“I can’t really tell you, I just have to show you. It’s something I’ve been working on since the divorce. Last night I was somewhere acquiring parts if you know what I mean.” Oliver has a smile on his face.

“Oh fuck, you just stole something? Damn dude you had me fucking scared.” Jeff laughs

The teachers arrive at Oliver’s house and exit the car, talking about the recent Packer game while laughing.

“Alright man, I’ll be honest, I’m excited to see what made you steal.” Jeff chuckles.

The guys both walk into Oliver’s house. The living room is filthy, bags of fast-food are stuffed full of garbage, scattered about the floor. The kitchen is worse. Oliver has resorted to paper plates, instead of washing any of his. Jeff doesn’t mind, understanding that Oliver has had a rough time since the divorce.

“Alright, it’s all set up downstairs. She’s a beaut.” Oliver excitedly proclaims.

The basement is unfinished, cement floors and walls. Dimly lit, with a smell of dank mildew. A large box of some sort is being covered by a tarp. “Go on, pull it off” Oliver says to Jeff.

Jeff pulls off the tarp, revealing a cage. A woman is naked, laying on the floor of the cage, hands and feet bound by rope. It’s Cindy, Oliver’s ex wife. Her mouth is taped shut, though there is no way of her making noise anymore.

Oliver throws her cell phone towards Jeff’s feet.

“Ain’t she a beaut?”