Ruby S. “Her Again?!”

[“Her Again?!”]

Ruby S.

Chapter 1 “Her again?!” I yelled. Her necklace was still dangling from her neck, but this one was empty and waiting to be filled. I’m sitting on my gray stained couch watching the news, my black converse laid below my feet, I have a black hoodie and old jeans on. My brown, not brushed hair falls onto my face. Just recently I started watching the news but only to hear about the teacher’s disappearance. Teachers around my town are going missing. We are lucky if we find the body; they’re never found alive. None of my teachers have gone missing yet, I should say my old teachers. On Thursday I got expelled. I never really did anything wrong, maybe a couple physical fights here and there. People did not like me there so when someone was mean or annoyed me, I of course talked back and maybe got physical. Which apparently gets you expelled. What a stupid reason.

Chapter 2 Today is my first day at my new school. I get out of the car and mom says goodbye and I open the office doors to be met by a teacher. “Hello,” she says smiling. I wonder why she is so happy. “Hi,” I mumble under my breath. “Who are you?” I ask. “Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Ms. Abi-

gail.”

I nod. “I’m going to be your homeroom teacher.” She seems nice, I wonder why she works in this pile of dump. She leads me towards the classroom talking about some kids I could talk to and meet, I keep my head down, looking at my feet. After I get introduced to the class everyone is allowed to do silent reading or drawing, So I take out my sketchbook

and start drawing. Soon enough the bell rings and everyone grabs their backpack. Two kids pick on this one kid by throwing his backpack, but the teacher already left to go get water, so nobody dared to stop them. By the time I got home my back was in pain and my eyelids were struggling to keep open. I walked in to see my mom in the kitchen and the news blaring but something caught my eye. A picture of the odd substitute on the last day at my old school, but this one had no necklace and her face looked a bit different. I sat on the couch as they told her story. Finally they got to how she died. Apparently she was found in an alleyway with glove fingerprints all over, she was stabbed in the head four times and in the neck twice. I knew something wasn’t right but doubted my thoughts. Nobody was as observant as me, so if they asked the kids in my old math class questions nobody could even describe her hair color, fools. I got off the couch as the news has changed into what the weather is gonna be like. So boring. I walk towards my room to go to sleep for hopefully a full 8 hours.

It’s been 2 weeks since the first day of school. Today I walked into the classroom waiting for Ms. Abigail to greet everyone with a warm smile but she just sat at her desk with her computer in front blocking her face. After a few minutes she gets up and looks towards the class. She looked like Ms. Abigail, but again did not. I sat observing Ms. Abigail to see what was different, maybe a haircut, or makeup, or did she change her style? Then I noticed it. My eyes shot open and I gasped. Around her neck was a necklace with a bottle at the end, but this one was almost full. More red liquid than last time. I am no fool but don’t want it to be blood. Of course we are near Halloween, but is it really a coincidence that the last lady who ‘died’, or who I thought was in the classroom died was wearing a necklace, but her body was not? Then the thought entered my head and my hand shot up asking if I could use the bathroom. She nodded and I bolted out

of the classroom. Once I shut the door of the bathroom I let out a loud sigh but my breath was still fast and I started pacing around the room. While my thoughts were racing, the door to the bathroom shot open and two boys walked in one had brown hair, a black hoodie, and jeans and the other had brown hair with blond tips and a white shirt and jeans. They looked like eighth graders. They glared my way but continued walking towards the back of the bathroom to talk. I just stayed put, processing my thoughts. “Can you not hear me, kid?!” The boy yelled behind me. I did not answer. I hear his shoes clack on the ground. My back was met with pain. “I know you heard me,” He said, punching my back again. Not the time I thought as I swung my head and fist around me meeting his face. One hit turned into many and by the time we were done we both were on the ground. His friend ran out of the room and soon enough I was being pulled out by the arm by a teacher. I closed the car door then my mom locked the car. We walk into the house, I don’t dare say a word. I hear her sigh. “Suspended? Really. What’s next?! Expelled?!” She yells. I just look down. “They threw the first punch,” I mumble. My mom sighs. “I know...It’s just.” She sighs again not finishing her sen-

tence

“Am I in trouble?” I ask. “Yes. No cartoons for the night, turn the news on instead, it’s good you know what’s going on outside of SpongeBob,’’ She says. I groaned at her stupid remark, I dont even watch Spongebob anymore. I turn the tv on and change the channel to news. I sit on the couch waiting for something interesting to happen. Nothing did. So I got up and walked towards my room to soon be yelled at by mom. “Nathan, come here!!!” she yelled. I walked into the living room to see my mom staring at the TV. I walk around her to get a view of the television to only see Ms. Abigail on the screen with big bold words that spell out MISSING above her head. My eyes widened, I only just saw her yesterday, I thought. The man

speaking says she went missing on Sunday around 7 am even though she was at school on Monday. The gears in my brain started turning as I wondered who was impersonating Ms. Abigail. I know she was the same woman who pretended to be the substitute at my old school, but if I went to the police I have no evidence, no picture of the necklace.

Chapter 3 It’s been a week and we already have a new homeroom teacher, Mrs. Roberts. She is ok but I do miss Ms. Abigail. She has not been found yet. I walk into the classroom and see her again. I walk over to Mrs. Roberts. I know it’s not Mrs. Roberts, but I can see her necklace. This one is pretty much full, it could only hold about a drop now before overflowing. I walk over to her. “I like your necklace Mrs. Roberts, it’s pretty popular,” I say. Her eyes widened and her eyebrows furrow; she looks distraught. “You’ve seen it before?” she asks, playing clueless. “Yeah, Ms. Abigail wore it before she went missing, same with a substitute at my old school,” I exclaim. She glares at me then looks away. A few seconds later she looks at me then smiles. Her smile was not a ‘I’m happy to see you’ smile or a sarcastic one. This one, this one was a ‘I have a plan’ smile. It sent chills down my spine. I walk away with regret draped over my shoulders. Now she knows I’m onto her. Have I endangered myself? It’s the next day and I’m finishing it in my 7th period class. Science. I don’t hate this class nor like it. I sit in my seat watching the clock tick. Once the bell was heard I shot out of my seat which annoyed the person next to me and apparently the teacher. “Nathan! Don’t be disrespectful. You can be the last one to leave now,” he says, annoyed with my recent actions. I sit back down as I feel eyes stare at me, like lasers on my back.

Soon I hear my name being called. “Nathan. Nathan. Nathan!” my teacher yells. “Hm?” I answer. “You can leave now,” he says. I pick up my bag and leave the room heading towards the exit. I walk down the hallway, only a few kids are left. Most are already out the door. Soon I’m in view of the exit but behind me I hear a loud clacking. Heels. That’s the sound, they’re heels. I turn around and see… “Her again?!” I yell. Her necklace was still dangling from her neck, but this one was empty and waiting to be filled. My walking turns to fast walking and my fast walking turns to running. I ran down the hall. The clacking of heels became louder. She’s getting closer. When the exit is almost in reach, I feel a hand brush against my shoulder as if they’re grabbing me. I make it out of their reach and push the doors open. Nobody. Nobody is outside. I run. Faster than I ever had. Soon the clacking of heels stops. I look back. She throws her shoes on the ground and is running now. My side started to ache as I dipped into an alleyway hoping to lose her. My arm gets hit on a nail ripping my sleeve and cutting into my arm. I dont stop running. I look back for a second. She is by where I got hurt. I hide behind a box and observe what she is doing. She pulls out a dropper and takes a drop of my blood that was left on the nail. She places the drop into her necklace. Suddenly, her head whips around, and we make eye contact. My heart is pounding. My breathing is fast. She started running, so I turn around and book it. She is fast, but she is old. I can out run her. I think. I make it to my house and grab the key from in the pot and unlock the door. I slam it behind me and lock it. I grab a chair and place it on the door. “MOM!” I yell, my voice still shaky. No answer, She must be at work. I run to my room and close all the windows. I feel tears threatening to leave my eyes, there is no time I thought. There is no time to cry. I go to my mom’s drawer and rummage through her stuff.

I left my mom’s room and headed to the kitchen. I turn the corner and see me. I see myself sitting at the table. Though that’s not me. They have a necklace around their neck. I freeze. I just stand there not being able to do anything. I’m frozen. “Haha,” she says with a demonic laugh as if she has won. She walks over to the kitchen counter and grabs a knife off the counter. “Why look so scared? It will be over soon,” she says. I squint my eyes as I feel her grab my arm. “We can’t have anyone telling the cops about what I’ve been doing” she says smiling, no regret in her eyes. I watch her bring the knife up to my face. I close my eyes. I feel the knife slowly touch my face, barely breaking skin. A bang at the door made her jump. “What did you do?!” She screamed. She let go of my arm so I reached and yanked the necklace off her neck. I look down at it then look up to be met with a hideous woman. She no longer looks like me. She gasps, then bolts to the back door. She unlocks it and slams it open to be met with a cop. They must have surrounded the house. Someone breaks the front door open and rushes to me. I keep my eyes on the cop that’s arresting the woman though. “Are you hurt?!” A woman asks. I show her my arms. Only two cuts both not that deep. The one on my face though. That one hurt. She tends to my wounds.

Chapter 4 It’s a week later and I’m back in my house. I lay in my bed like always. I hear a knock at the door. “Come in!” I yell. My mom opens the door, she walks over and sits next to me on my bed. “I know you have already explained what happened but I was thinking. How did you have time to call the cops?” She asks.

“Oh. When I ran into your room I grabbed your old phone and dialed the cops. I quickly told them the basics and said to get here as fast as possible. Then I hung up and waited for her to arrive.” I answered. My mom’s face was confused, but I knew she understood. She just stayed where she was. We were both silent. My mom got up and left the room, leaving me with my thoughts. It seemed almost too easy to get rid of her. As I sleep sometimes I still have visions of her necklace, sometimes it’s empty, sometimes shattered. The police did an investigation on the necklace and found many different blood from her other victims. They thought it was just to feel the satisfaction of her murders, but I know it’s more than that. She turned into me and other people almost exactly. She wasn’t just good at disguise, she became those people. No cop would ever believe me though. I wrote everything down in an old journal I got for Christmas last year. Everything about her from the beginning to end was written down, no detail left out. I stuff the journal into a box labeled Nathan’s room. My mom thinks it’s better if we leave. She says it’s to help me forget what happened, I walk down the hallway and into the kitchen, I place the box on the counter and go outside to check on my mom. I see my mom talking to one of the movers. I’m gonna miss my home but I know it’s for the best. I walk towards my mom and give her a hug, maybe moving won’t be so bad.