The entire hallway was filled with children. Too short to be seen from the vents. They all pointed and screamed at once.
“MOE!”
The gymnasium door slammed open. Christopher saw Ms. Lasko enter the hallway. But she was all wrong. Her eyes glowed green like the fakest of green contact lenses. Like no color an eye should be. A sick puke green. A broken-arm green. She stared at him and smiled, revealing dog’s teeth.
“YOU’RE OFF THE STREET!” she cackled.
She ran at him.
Christopher fell down in the hallway. He couldn’t get up.
With every step, he heard a sick click as her neck began to break. It was like a giraffe’s neck growing out of her shoulders one vertebra at a time. The children parted like the Red Sea as she moved at him with a click. Sick. Click. He could smell her breath. Hot and rancid. There was no more Ms. Lasko. There was only this woman in her true form. Covered in burns. Her hair matted and insane. A silver key hanging from a little string noose around her neck.
She launched herself at Christopher, digging her nails into his neck. Suddenly the nice man sprang out of the locker. The two collided and fell to the ground.
“I knew it was you!” she hissed.
That’s when Christopher realized that it was a trap. But the trap wasn’t for him. The lady reached her dirty fingernails and grabbed the nice man. The children jumped up and down. Howling. All except David Olson, who stood as far away as he could down the hallway, then slipped into a locker out of sight. Hiding. The nice man tackled the woman. She opened her mouth, baring her razor-sharp dog teeth. She was stronger. Faster. Her eyes glowed. Screaming and licking and hissing. Hiss. Hisssss!
The nice man looked at Christopher.
He was about to speak.
“STOP HELPING HIM!” the hissing lady screamed as her dog teeth buried themselves into the nice man’s neck.
Chapter 40
Christopher was screaming before he even opened his eyes.
He looked up and saw the face of Ms. Lasko, rushing at him. There was no time to lose. He got up and pushed her.
“Get away from me!” he screamed.
“Christopher, calm down!” Ms. Lasko said.
“You’re going to kill me!” he shrieked as he grabbed her arm. His forehead became hot with fever, which he immediately pushed down his arm through his fingers. His fingers heated up like little ovens through the fabric of Ms. Lasko’s cotton blouse.
“Christopher, stop! You’re hurting me,” she shrieked.
“Please! Don’t let them eat me!” he said.
The laughter was what finally snapped him out of it.
Christopher looked around the auditorium. The kids were all sitting at their desks, taking the state exam. Their mouths were no longer sewn shut. They were wide open and laughing at him.
“Please! Don’t let them eat me!” Brady Collins mocked.
“Shut up, Brady!” Special Ed said.
“If they want to eat someone, Special Ed is the juiciest,” Jenny Hertzog said.
The kids laughed harder. Christopher looked back at Ms. Lasko. Her fingernails were clean. There was no more dirt. No more puke-green eyes. No more hissing lady. This was the real Ms. Lasko. And she was…
Terrified of him.
“Christopher, you had a nightmare. Please, let go of my arm.”
Christopher let go. Ms. Lasko quickly pulled her blouse off her arm and looked just as little blisters began to form. She turned back to Christopher, who seemed even more terrified than she was.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Lasko,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s just a brush burn. Let’s take you to the nurse.”
“I don’t need the nurse,” he said. “I’m fine now.”
“For your neck,” she said.
Christopher didn’t understand what she meant until he noticed the little smears of blood on her white blouse in the shape of his fingers. Christopher looked down at his fingernails, raw like hamburger. Then, he reached up and felt his neck. The place where the hissing lady scratched him was the same place that it seemed he’d ripped his own neck with his fingernails.
“Come now,” she said kindly.
The minute Christopher stood up, the laughter began anew. It started as little snickers from the kids around him. Within moments, it had spread through the entire auditorium as kids laughed and pointed and whispered. Christopher looked down at his pants and saw it.
The urine stain.
It had spread over his corduroy pants, turning the tan color into a dark chestnut brown. He had wet the bed in front of his entire school. He looked up at Ms. Lasko, who quickly snapped