Page 23 of Defined and Defiled
If confronting Mike/Matt alone was number two on the 'ways to assure you die first in a horror movie', allowing him to bring me back to the scene of the crime is a solid number one. Thetrek down to the basement is as dirty and long this time as it was the time before. Only this time, instead of being on the search for school supplies, I'm on the hunt for answers.
Mike removes the chains and gestures for me to go first. I'll break a lot of safety rules, but allowing him to get behind me is not one of them. When he realizes I'm not moving forward he steps around me and pulls the chain so the dusty bulbs can light up the space. The faint red outline I noticed before is there, but now that I know what to look for, I can make out the shape.
“My coven and I were messing around, hoping to cast a spell to help with exams, but we weren't all on the same page.” He pauses looking back at me, “No pun intended.” He coughs and looks around the room.
“We'd done a few small things, but this one would have been so much bigger. Guaranteed scholarships for me and Wren, perfect scores for Nina and Thea, and a job offer for Zachary. We were almost done when Mr. Diction, or Richard, came in.” Mike runs his hand through his hair and the ends stick up. “I liked him. He was a great teacher, always letting me come into his room for lunch. I yelled out to warn him, but the rest of the coven didn't notice, or didn't care, I'm not sure. Whatever we did, it made him disappear.”
“Disappear?”
Mike nods.
“Or at least that's what I thought. Obviously, that's not what happened.”
He watches my face, but I keep my mouth shut. Mike’s eyes never leave mine as he continues.
“The spell went... wrong. Maybe it's because I lost focus, I'm not sure. I passed out, when I woke up everyone besides Zachary was gone and I was like this. The spell stole ten years from me.” He gestures to his body. “I had to change my name, I couldn't get a job anywhere until Zachary took over and offered me the position here. It's been a nightmare.”
“So if you were a teen in the nineties, you should be about forty-five years old.”
“Yes.”
“So why have you been hitting on me?”
“What? I mean, Richard is fifty-six and you seem to like him just fine.”
“You see the math just feels different since you're a grown ass man, and he's mostly a book and on that note, why would you even let me down here with you?”
“I don't think I'll win any points if I say I wanted to get laid.”
“No. Not really.”
“If I had known, that was his book. I never would have let you borrow him. Truth is I didn’t know until Zachary informed me.”
Mike scratches his face and looks down at the floor.
“And what about the other teachers?”
Mike looks back up at me.
“What other teachers?”
“Marge mentioned that other teachers went missing.”
Mike blinks at me before he frowns.
“Marge doesn't know what she's talking about.”
If anyone in this situation knows more than they should, it’s probably the ghost that’s been eavesdropping on principals since the dawn of time.
“I kind of think she does.”
Mike opens his mouth, but shuts it without saying anything. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he pulls it out. Whatever he sees on the screen seems to give him a new resolve and he straightens up as he types out his reply.
“That was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter now. If you could just tell me where Richard is, we could all just move on from this.”
He takes a step towards me, but I retreat.
“I can’t do that Mike.”
