Chapter Text
A large clubbed hand reached up out of the darkness and grabbed the side of the lift tightly. The glass panels you stood on cracked as another large hand came into view, lifted high into the air.
And then there was a face.
The monster was about four times your size. Its skin was tightly pulled back, flush against its skull, or whatever lay underneath the sickly shade of green. Like the bird you’d seen before, its skin almost looked like rubber when shown against the lift’s fluorescent light. Large risen veins were scattered across its forehead and face, pulsating rhythmically. The skin around its mouth was pulled back into a grotesque smile, revealing a mouth full of teeth that looked as if they’d been jammed into the gums haphazardly, rather than grown. Its eyes were far too small for its head - a shiver ran down your spine at the chilling uncanniness.
The creature arched its body backwards, falling down from where it had climbed up the lift, pulling you down with it.
You gasped, too scared to scream, knowing death was quickly approaching you, and knowing, without a doubt, that you would certainly die without knowing what happened to your child.
You felt wind against your face as you fell, and then everything came to an abrupt end.
–
The house was newly refurbished - it was two bedrooms, one bathroom, and had brand new appliances in the kitchen.
It was almost a dream come true, if it weren’t for the high crime rates in the area. You knew the low cost of rent had to come from somewhere - but you’d have preferred it if it were from an old oven, rather than the high breaking and entering incidents that seemed to be frequent in this neighborhood. Despite your worry, you could tell that, thank goodness, your child seemed quite content. Excited, you could even say, seeing as a new opportunity for friends was just rounding the corner. But that did bring you to another concern.
Schooling. You had yet to enroll them in a decent school, which was actually the reason for the move in the first place. On your way to work (you worked retail - nothing glamorous) you always passed many highly accredited schools, ones that touted themselves as the top schools in Canada, and who prided themselves in their production of successful leaders and businesspeople. You wanted your kid to have that opportunity, the one you never had, so with a rigid budget you planned on sticking to, you gave up your old life and old home, packed everything up, and moved into the cheapest (but still livable) house you could find.
The couple hundred, plus what you were getting for overtime each week at work, all added up to just what tuition would cost them.
Moving day went smoothly, to your relief. Your child had never exactly been good with meeting strangers, but the three men you’d hired to help move your furniture and boxes were great with kids - and all three fathers themselves, you’d found out. They set your kid to work with menial tasks at first, (“Can you move this box of jewelry into your parent’s bedroom?”, “Help us move this box of clothes into your room, ok?”) and then when everything was in their room, they made sure the kid got busy with organizing everything so you had one less thing to worry about as the moving day began to wrap up.
When they left, you tipped the movers graciously. Perhaps a bit more than you had initially planned, but they had done such a good job, you didn’t really care. You watched the large moving truck slowly back out of your driveway and eventually drive off into the distance, giving you the go-ahead to close the door and begin settling in.
You closed the heavy storm door with a thud and fiddled with the lock, and after a bit of difficulty, you finally got it closed. With a huff, you pressed both hands against your face, attempting to decompress after so much had happened in the short span of a few hours. You’d been so busy the last couple days with moving that a moment to breathe was difficult to come by. The short moment of respite was more than welcome, but, against your better judgment, you decided to use it to grab your laptop and sit at the dining room table - to look for some schools for your kid.
You’d always had an odd talent for finding good apartments and jobs online. After doing some searching for a few minutes, you felt a strong sense of relief once you found out that it applied to finding schools as well - so it didn’t take you long to narrow your choices down to a few different places. Admittedly, nearly all of them caught your eye. Ones that specialized in certain subjects seemed to stand out in particular amongst all the others. You made a list and deliberated for an hour or so, knowing you needed to get it right.
You’d gotten it down to three schools. The ones you’d chosen were pretty evenly matched in both price and quality, and all focused on STEM subjects, which is what you knew your child would be most excited about. One in particular stuck out though, and they had a tour available for the next morning.
Maybe this is the one, you thought as you grabbed your laptop and walked to your kid’s room, knocking on the door a couple of times as you stepped in the doorway.
“Hey bud, I’m looking at new schools for you and I think I found a good one. Want to take a look?”
The kid’s eyes lit up - they’d been going through a box of toys on the ground, but immediately stopped when you mentioned school. “Yeah, sure!”
Your heart warms as you sit on the ground against their bed, and they scoot next to you, pressing the cheek to your arms as they try to get a closer look at your screen.
What a strange kid. No child you’d ever met was as excited for school as they were. You had no idea where they got it from - not you, that was for sure - but you were thankful they seemed motivated to study, at least in these early years.
“So,” You started, pulling up the review page to get some pictures of the school, “This is BanBan’s Kindergarten, they just started teaching kids like you a couple years ago. They’ll teach you a lot of science stuff. You like that, right?”
They nodded their head vigorously, excitement evident on their face. “I would get to do cool stuff with test tubes and stuff?”
“I’m sure you would.” You shrugged. They stood up and jumped up and down excitedly.
“Yes! Yes! I wanna!”
You laughed, standing and ruffling their hair. “Alright, we’ll go look at it in the morning, ok? You’ll have to be up early, though.”
“Ok! I’ll be up, I promise!”
The kid went back to organizing their toys, humming a song and looking happier than they had in months. You smiled and took your laptop back to the dining room table, ready to schedule that tour.
You didn’t really notice any red flags right off the bat. The school looked extremely clean - it had a very modern look, sleek and sharp, which was something you knew would benefit your kid. Much like you, they got overwhelmed quite easily, especially if there was clutter everywhere. The clean minimalist look would have certainly worked in their favor. Not only that, but it didn’t look like a very large place - there seemed to be only one classroom, with a cafeteria and play area, so having that connection with teachers would be good too.
… Your only reservation was with these characters you saw plastered everywhere.
You knew that a lot of schools had mascots, but none seemed quite this… interesting. It looked like they’d been done in Microsoft Paint, that drawing app you’d grown up with as a teenager. Instead of there only being one mascot, there were six of them, and instead of being normal animals (except for a pink bird and an orange jellyfish) they seemed like weird humans with rainbow colors slapped on.
It was a small detail, but it really put you off for some reason.
But you could ask the person at the school about it tomorrow. So you put aside that concern for the time being, and went ahead with scheduling the tour for the next morning.
Now, you could finally do some unpacking. You closed your computer and headed to your bedroom, starting with putting your mattress on your bed and going from there. You made some good progress, only left with putting clothes away, but you were never good at that anyway, so you ignored it and decided to get a move on in the living room. As soon as you decided on that, there was a little voice behind you, closer than you’d expected it to be.
“Pama?”
You look down and your kid was staring up at you, eyes wide and bottom lip sticking out pleadingly. It’s an expression they only gave you when they were about to ask you for something. You sighed, smiling.
“Yeah, what’s up?” You got down on one knee to be level with them.
“... Can we get pizza for dinner?”
“Too tired to handle my cooking tonight?” The kid stared at you meaningfully, as if to say yes, and you let out a bark of laughter. “Cheese pizza it is.”
“With stuffed crust!” They added, grinning.
Your evening after that was lovely. It was nice, after a long day of unpacking a bunch of boxes and being so tense, to finally unwind and just let yourself relax. Surrounded by boxes you had decided to ignore, you and the kid sat in front of the TV watching Bluey, eating pizza and drinking soda together.
Unfortunately, the next morning was not nearly as fantastic. It was a struggle to get the kid out of bed (being in a new place was tough, and sleeping there was tougher) and they had refused to eat breakfast, so the crankiness began early. It was your own fault for scheduling the tour for 9 AM, but you wanted to get this done and over with, and any more thinking about it had completely slipped your mind since you’d been so busy the day before.
“I know it’s early, kid, I’m sorry.” You sighed as you buckled them into their car seat. Their face was red and wet with tears. They squirmed in their seat, shifting back and forth uncomfortably as they huffed, preparing to let out another cry.
“We can get breakfast after the visit, ok? I can get you those frozen pancakes from the store that you like.” You attempted to bargain with them, to no avail. “...Ok. Deep breaths for me bud, ok? Ready, one, two,”
You inhaled loudly for dramatic effect, putting your hands on their shoulders. They stopped squirming a little, breathing in as deep as their little lungs could, then you exhaled. They followed suit. You felt your whole body relax a little, thankful it’s working, and so then you repeated the cycle three or four more times. The kid eventually sniffled, reaching out their arms for a hug. You obliged, holding them gently.
After a few moments you pulled away, using a hand to fix their hair a bit as you held their cheek with your other hand.
“You need a tissue?”
They nodded, so you produce one out from the seatback pocket, wiping their face dry.
“Ok, all set now. You ok?”
“Yeah…” They mumbled. They looked even more tired now, and you sighed, nodding once. You closed the door and sat down in the driver’s seat, pulling up the directions on your phone to BanBan’s Kindergarten. It’s not too bad - only about a twenty minute drive, so you finally put the car and drive and pulled out of the driveway.
The drive was silent - you forgot to put on music before pulling away, and there’s no way in hell you would be on your phone while driving, with or without the kid in the car. You didn’t really care for driving in silence, but after the chaotic morning you had had, it was a nice peaceful moment to calm down.
About five minutes out from the Kindergarten, you heard the kid whisper something from the back seat.
“Hm? What was that?” You adjusted your rearview mirror to look at them.
“I’m sorry for throwing a tantrum.” They mumbled. You smiled softly. They were always so good at apologizing without being told to - maybe it was something to do with how you always told them about your own grown-up feelings and how hurting other people’s feelings could make you feel bad. You didn’t tout yourself as the best parent in the world, but it was moments like this, when the lessons you taught came back later, where you felt accomplished enough to pat yourself on the back.
“It’s ok, bud, thank you for apologizing. That makes me happy. Are you feeling better?”
“I’m tired. And hungry. Can we still get pancakes from the store after?”
“After the tour? Sure.” You nodded, and just as you finished talking, you pulled into the parking lot of the kindergarten.
It was far smaller than you’d expected. Even though the photos had shown how small it was, the real thing was different. The building was sleek and white with big windows, one story tall. There’s some nice potted plants out front - perfectly green and spotless, so you assumed that they were plastic. You let out a huff of laughter as you looked up at the sign above the building and realized the logo was a weird amalgamation of all the characters made into letters. At least it was colorful. Maybe you’d even find it cute, eventually.
You got your kid from the back seat. The two of you held hands as you walked in.
The lobby of the school was just as the pictures had been, the hardwood floor and white walls were spotless. A mural of the characters that you had seen on the website was up on the wall, with some nice benches sitting, pristine in the center of the room. A logo like the one outside that read “BanBan’s Kindergarten” was up behind the secretary’s desk to your right. It looked like, just past the desk, there was a doorway to another room, but you couldn’t quite see, though you craned your neck uncomfortably to try to get a look.
It was very quiet, since school didn’t start up for another month or so, and the receptionist’s desk to your right was empty. You walked up to it, saw a small button on the surface of the desk, and pressed it. A buzzing sound came from behind the double doors that, you assumed, separated the lobby from the rest of the school. After a few seconds, a woman came out, wearing a yellow blouse with a brown pencil skirt. Her three inch heels clacked loudly against the tile floor as she quickly walked up to the desk, where she finally sat down in her chair and exhaled deeply.
“I’m so sorry about that. Busy morning. How can I help you?”
“Hi, I had a tour scheduled? We just moved to the area, so we’re looking for a place to have them go to kindergarten.” You gently motioned your head towards your kid, who stared at the secretary shyly. "And I’m super sorry for being a bit late, we had a rough morning.” You laughed uncomfortably. The woman waved a hand dismissively, moving her gaze to her computer screen as she spoke.
“No worries, no worries. I’m late for everything, so I completely understand. Let me just get you checked in here, ok?”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
You looked down at your kid, who’s looking up at you, and you gave their hand a reassuring squeeze. They seemed to relax a little, still looking a little antsy about the new place. After a few short moments, the woman stood up and clapped her hands together.
“Ok! Let’s get started, so, first off, my name is Seline, I work as the secretary here, so I’ll be taking care of registration, checking you in and out for the day, making sure everything is correct with your classes, all that fun stuff, ok?” She walked around the corner of her desk through a doorway next to it, and you and your child followed close behind. She gestured to the room with a hand. “This is the cafeteria - now, lunch and snack times are included in tuition, but if you want to bring lunch from home, then we can deduct that from tuition per your request. Cleanliness is one of our top priorities, so we have like, five janitors for this tiny building.” She laughed, and you made yourself laugh along though you can’t see why it’s funny.
Seline turned around, walking past you and the kid to the double doors she’d just exited from a few minutes prior. She scanned a key card next to a scanner against the wall next to the door. She motioned for you and the kid to follow, starting to talk backwards down the hallway through the doors.
“As you can see, we do require keycards to get into the facilities themselves, so we take security extremely seriously here.” She started. You nodded along as she continued. “Through the windows on your left you can see our classroom, and we only have about nine or ten students per class right now that learn on rotation. So while one class is here, the other two will be in the play area to your right, or at lunch depending on the schedule. Altogether, we have about thirty kids.”
She led you both around the corner into the classroom, which was completely clean and had no sign of any use whatsoever. You hummed thoughtfully to yourself.
“So this is a really small school, huh? Who runs it? Is there a parent company, or…? Sorry for asking, but I didn’t see it listed on your website.”
“That would be our principal, Dr. Adam.” Seline responded. “He’s the owner and main operator of this school. He’s just really great with kids, and loves what he does.”
“Oh! When will I be able to meet him? I’d love to ask some questions, if you don’t mind.”
“Ah, he’s on vacation right now, unfortunately.” Seline seemed to deflate at your question, but quickly perked up again. “But he should be back in a few weeks, and I assure you that in the meantime, I am fully able to answer any questions you have in his stead.”
You nodded, a bit confused. You found it odd that a principal (and owner, for that matter) of such a school would take a vacation a mere three weeks out from the school year beginning. But you were sure he did it for a reason - after all, he was the owner of the school, and you were not.
“Would you like to take a look at the play area?” Seline suddenly said gently, bending down slightly to talk to your child. They looked up at you, and you nodded.
“It’s ok. Do you want to go?”
They smiled, nodded once to you, and ran out to the play area immediately. You and Seline followed suit, entering the large room, seeing them just in time to remind them to take off their shoes before running in. They stopped running, turned around, and took their shoes off faster than you had ever seen before. It earned a good laugh from both you and Seline.
You scanned the room - the playsets looked a lot like what you had growing up. Rubbery and shiny playsets from the mall, the kind that would tug on your skin if you went down the slide in shorts. The room was big enough to have some swings, too, which you found particularly cool.
Something caught your eye from the corner of the room.
You thought it to be just a pink blob of some kind, but upon looking more closely, it was that pink bird you had seen on the mural of the characters. You felt uneasy, and it was evident that Seline noticed this when she put a gentle hand on your shoulder. You jumped in surprise at the sudden contact.
“Oh! I’m sorry. I just noticed you seemed a bit concerned. What are you…” She followed your gaze and noticed the bird as well. “You noticed Opila? She’s new, just had her made.”
Seline motioned for you to follow, and you obliged. You both walked up to the bird, and you gave her a confused face. “It’s… kind of scary, no?”
Seline shrugged. “That’s what I thought. But the kids seem to love it, you know? I can’t imagine what Dr. Adam was thinking when he bought it, but, I personally just think birds are just scary in general, so my two cents don’t matter.”
The two of you laughed, pretended to say goodbye to the Opila statue, and walked away to sit down while your kid played for a few minutes. Eventually, they walked over, ready to leave, and as you walked back into the lobby, you made your decision.
“Would it be possible to register today?”
“Of course! We would love to have you this year!” Seline smiled brightly, sitting at her desk again and pulling up the proper paperwork on her desktop. “I’ll get that paperwork printed out for you and then you can just bring it back in the next week or so, okay?”
“Sounds great. Thanks for your help today, Seline. We just moved in yesterday, so it’s nice to have one less thing to worry about, you know?”
“Mhm! I totally understand. We’ve had some other families move to the area for our program, actually, so I’m sure you’ll get along just fine.”
You continued making small talk, mostly about the move, where you moved from, what you did for a living, and eventually, Seline handed you the fat stack of paperwork that had finally finished printing off.
“Okay, you should be all set to go! Please, don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions about the paperwork before the school year starts.”
“Thanks again Seline! Say thank you, ok?” You looked at your kid, who nodded at you and waved to Seline.
“Thank you Miss Seline! Bye!”
You pushed the door open, making sure your kid got out okay, and smiled at them. “How do you feel? Do you like it?”
“Yeah, I like the playsets.”
“Yeah? The bird was pretty cool too, right?”
Not that you thought the same yourself, but you had decided it would be easier to gauge if they felt the same unease you did if you just directly asked them. They took a moment longer than you thought they would to answer, long enough that you were able to get them buckled into their car seat.
“... It’s cool. I think I like the green guy more though.”
“Oh yeah? That’s fine too! Maybe they’ll get a big statue of that one too for the play area.”
“Yeah! Then we can climb on it and stuff!”
“Mhm!” You shut their car door and got into the front seat, buckling your seatbelt. “Now what about we go get those pancakes I promised you?”
The kid cheered as you pulled out of the parking lot and turned up the music. On the way there, you knew you were initially going to the grocery store for one thing, you figured it would just be easier to do your grocery shopping while you were there, since the kid seemed to be okay for now and you needed to restock your cabinets after the move. You needed milk, eggs, mac & cheese… whatever, you could just go through every aisle and grab what you need.
At the frozen aisle, you sent your kid a few freezer doors down to get the pancakes. And then, as soon as they’re out of earshot, you heard it.
“... I’m telling you, Weverly! He’s not coming back!”
A woman’s voice came from around the corner. Out of habit, you eavesdropped, hoping to catch some juicy gossip.
“He went to run some tests, what, like, a week and a half ago? … No, I know he’s smarter than that, he has two fucking doctorates! … You’re not even allowed down there, don’t even think about it!”
Hmm.. sounds like a relationship gone awry. Maybe she was dating a doctor or something. That had to suck. Between working so much and having a kid, your dating pool was pretty small anyway, so you weren‘t super into it. But you did love a good rom-com.
“Wev. Wev, listen.” The woman sounded exasperated, and you began to wonder if it was more serious than you had originally thought. “If - ugh, Wev. Shush. If he isn’t back by the time the semester starts, then I’ll go down there with you. Ok? I’m just saying… don’t get your hopes up.”
The more you listened, the more confused you became. But then you felt a kick at your ankle and you jumped a little.
“Pama, help me!”
You’d been so engrossed in listening in on the conversation you didn’t notice that your kid had come back with the pancakes. They were struggling to lift the heavy bag of pancakes, grunting as they brought it higher, a feeble attempt to hand it to you.
“Oops! Sorry, bud. I got distracted.”
You had no idea what the lady was talking about, but you’d already orchestrated an entire storyline for it in your head. It was an elaborate world that made you want to write a script about it. Maybe make it into a video game or something. You silently laughed to yourself, amused, continuing to ruminate on your theories until you finally got to checking out your groceries.
Despite your reservations about the weird mascots, the school seemed like a great fit, for both you and your kid. You could only hope the paperwork would be easy to fill out, and that you’d be able to finish unpacking before the year started.
Thankfully, once you got around to it, the paperwork wasn’t too much of a slog to get through. It was mostly just answering questions about yourself and your child, but you did have to pay a visit to the local library to print out some records from where they attended pre-school. Overall, it wasn’t too much of a hassle, and you’re glad for that.
One week before school began, you received a letter with all the information about your child’s new class and what to expect for the new year. Any supplies they needed were included in tuition, including lunches and snacks like Seline had told you. Classes started September first… so everything seemed normal. Except the name of their teacher was Weverly. Weverly Mason.
Where had you heard that name before?
You wracked your brain trying to think of where you’d heard of her, but to no avail. You gave up, guessing if you couldn’t remember, it must not have been that important.
And then, finally, the first day of classes came.
You woke up - you’d never been able to sleep well the night before the first day of school as a kid, and it looked like it was no different when it was your kid’s first day of school either. Running on four hours of sleep, you rolled out of bed, surprisingly feeling well-rested for the amount of sleep you had gotten. Time to wake the kid up - they were always so pleasant in the mornings, and after hearing horror stories from other parents about how their kids were little monsters, you thanked god that yours was a sweetheart. You’d really lucked out with this one.
You walked into their room and turned on a small bedside lamp to start to wake them up.
“Hey bud, good morning.” You crouched next to their bed, pulling their baby blanket off them a little. They had slept with it their whole life, and always took it on any long trips they’d gone on. Once, they’d lost the blanket in a Wal-Mart at 2 AM and the two of you looked for it for two hours until finally recovering it. The kid and that blanket were inseparable. “Ready for your first day of school?”
Their eyes opened almost immediately. “I am…Hmm… Can I pick my own outfit?” They rubbed their eyes sleepily.
You internally groaned - they always chose outfits where the colors matched, but the shades were completely different. And the styles of shirts and pants were always mismatched and never fit the weather.
But you did want the day to go smoothly. And they seemed so excited about it.
“Sure. If you get dressed quick, then we’ll have time to watch an episode of Bluey before we leave.” You smiled, giving them a kiss on the forehead. They gasped and shot up from bed and went straight to their dresser. You chuckled, leaving them to get ready so you could get yourself ready for work. You’d scheduled your days so that you could drop your kid off, go to work, and then pick them up on your way home. It was a blessing that your employer was a parent themself - they were so flexible at every turn throughout this odd transition phase you’d been in lately.
By some miracle, you and your child finished getting ready with just enough time to eat breakfast and watch an episode of Bluey, as promised. On the way to the school, you listened to some pop music you’d grown up with, and after the tightest hug you’ve ever given them, you finally send your child into their first day of real school. Ever.
It’s a bittersweet moment. If you didn’t have to go into work immediately after, you would cry.
Your baby is finally growing up.
–
Weeks went by. Things fell into a comfortable routine with your work and the kid’s school. You never did get to meet Dr. Adam, like you had wanted. But everything seemed to be going just fine, so you didn’t bother. Your child had been so good at doing their homework and performing well in their classes, that their school bought drones about a month into the year as a reward, since everyone was doing so well. You couldn’t have been more impressed, really, so when your child brought home a flier for ‘Bring-A-Friend-Day’, you were more than happy to let them go.
The flier had two stickers on it, one for your child and one for the friend they’d bring with them. The back of the flier had all the information you needed.
“Do you want to bring one of the friends from your old school?” You turned the paper over in your hand then looked back up at your kid.
“Yea, I’ll make a list so you know who to call.” They responded matter-of-factly. You snorted.
“Ok, kid. You do that. Why’s it on a Sunday, though?”
They shrugged. You nodded back, unsure as to why you asked the six year old to justify the actions of their school, and turned to your calendar on the fridge to mark the 23rd of October.
That day quickly arrives, and mindlessly, you dropped your child and the friend they’d chosen off at school with their friend before work. You’d assured your friends, the parents of the other child, that yes, BanBan’s Kindergarten was a perfectly good school and completely safe to visit.
So you dropped them off, told them to have fun at the party, and drove home, ready to relax by yourself for the day.
Little did you know, this would be the last evening you would have to relax for a long, long time.
You initially felt something off when you got on the street of the Kindergarten and saw cars lined up on the side of the road.
Did you miss a memo? Were you supposed to show up early? Maybe there was something going on for the parents.
Your unease quickly turns to panic when you drove by the school and police and ambulances came into view. The whole block was illuminated in blue and red, and as you tried to piece together what was going on, you saw a woman sitting in the back of an ambulance sobbing. A blanket was draped around her as a paramedic attempted to calm her down and take her vitals, and a police officer scribbled something on a notepad. Police were walking in and out of the Kindergarten, all stern expressions and sweat. You swerved your car to the left, not caring that you’d just parked in the grass, and you threw it in park as fast as you could.
You rushed out of the car to where the other parents stood in various states of upset.
“Oh my god, what happened?!” You asked as you walked up. A father looked at you with a pained expression.
“They disappeared. There’s no one in the building. They’ve been looking for an hour.” He managed to say before his eyes well with tears, and he became an incomprehensible puddle of tears and apologies.
You slowly turned to the building, eyes wide. Everything seemed to quiet as you realized, this was real, it was really happening - what you’d heard in your true crime podcasts, what you’d watched in movies, it was all real.
A parent’s worst nightmare is real, and it was happening to you.
Over the next few hours, you were drip-fed information by the police like parched animals in the desert. It was torture, and as time went by, the small crowd of parents grew larger and more angry by the minute. The police grew more passive-aggressive, despite being just a crowd of worried parents and concerned passers-by, and they eventually demanded that everyone stay even farther away from the school than you already were.
You wanted to grab those pigs by the collar and shake them. You wanted to scream and cry and cuss them out. You wanted to take one of their weapons and go in there yourself, you wanted to see for yourself that it was real, that your child is missing.
Day became evening and not much more was found.
What you did find out was that that woman you had seen in the ambulance had a daughter named Claire, and had come by to pick her and her friend up early for a birthday party that afternoon. When she had found all the kids gone, dialed 9-1-1 in a panic, and completely broke down when they’d arrived. She was only rambling about notes all over the place… and a bird. Nothing of consequence, of course, since you knew about the Opila statue.
That was all of the information the police would tell you. The crowd began to calm, and your waiting outside the school began to seem like more of a vigil than a group of parents waiting for good news.
The guttural noises the other parents made when they called off the search for the night would never leave you. They told everyone that they needed to go to the station for questioning, and the crowd dispersed not long after. You didn’t remember much of the questioning, only that you had retold everything you knew to the police, then gone home.
The funniest part of it all was that you hadn’t felt much when the police said they couldn’t find anything. It didn’t hurt when your kid’s belongings were returned to you. Not even the silent drive home hurt, though you were far too aware of the empty car seat in the back and the lack of your child’s favorite songs on the radio.
But when you’d gotten home and went to place their items in their bedroom, you see their toys that they had just so recently organized. You saw their books, their little bed, their half-full glass of water they’d left on their nightstand. You saw their empty room, everything they’d left behind, everything they would likely never see again, everything you would never see them use again, and you felt your knees buckle. All you would do was fall against their bed and break down.
You were draped hopelessly across their mattress as tears welled up in your eyes. You gripped their baby blanket tightly like a lifeline, eventually taking it into your hands and holding it against your face.
You inhaled deeply, but when you exhaled, all that came out was a loud, strangled cry.
You tried to take deep breaths (one, two) just like you had taught your kid to do (one, two), but there was nothing you could do now to stop yourself (one, two). They weren’t there to teach anymore (one, two). Not right now, at least. But for all you knew (one, two), they were gone forever.
The next morning you woke up, body stiff from sleeping on the ground across their bed. You checked your phone, and there were no missed calls. You sighed, shaking your head, and stood, slowly standing up from your place on the ground and turning on your child’s bedside lamp.
You draped their baby blanket across your shoulder, shambled to the kitchen and opened the freezer. You decided to make frozen pancakes, their favorite, and put them in the microwave. You ripped a paper towel off the roll while you wait for them to heat up and dab all the tears from your face and snot from your nose, even though you knew there would be more in a minute. The rest of the morning, all you had the energy to do was cry, eat more pancakes, cry more, watch Bluey, call off work, and lay in bed watching movies to distract yourself.
Your phone’s ringer was on, sitting always in view, in case there was someone calling to tell you that, by some miracle, your child had been found.
The entire day came and went with no calls or emails. And then the day turned into a week.
You stopped answering the phone, seeing that you had received phone calls and voicemails from your friends, the parents of the other child that you had let go with yours to the party, begging for you to speak to them, telling you they knew what happened and didn’t blame you. But you blame you. You couldn’t even bear to text them, let alone meet up and talk.
After the first week you returned to work. Your manager asked if you needed more time off, but you retorted that staying at home would be worse than coming in, and that you need to pay rent, so he relented. Though you’re relieved, you were still so, so tired. You felt like a robot, a shell of your former self. You clocked in, scanned things, clocked out, went home, and repeated the cycle. You didn’t talk much those days, and you didn’t want to.
The week turns into a month.
The other people you’re close to had finally found out what happened (they have to wrestle it out of you), and one by one, they came by your place to try and console you, if at least just to keep you company. Christmas came and all the presents felt empty, like foam in a void. It meant little to nothing to you without your child, who should have been there to wake you up early and force you to open presents from Santa with them.
The new year rolled around, then January, and then, about halfway through that month, something in you changed.
Nightmare after nightmare, one sleepless night after another, you felt yourself begin to slip away. You started doing things you wouldn’t typically do. Arriving to work ten minutes late. Spending frivolously. Eating garbage that you had promised yourself you wouldn’t. You spoke less and less, until every time you did, it sounded as if you were gargling marbles.
And then the most abnormal urge came: the compulsion to drive by the Kindergarten. The urge to visit was strong and you gave in to it easily.
You planned ahead of time what you would say to law enforcement when confronted. There were surely police there, or detectives investigating at least. It had only been about three months, it couldn’t have been completely forgotten.
But it was.
You saw it in how the windows were boarded up haphazardly with nails, how the front door was coated in ice, how the sign above the building had fallen to the ground outside, and how the snow in the parking lot was left unshoveled, with no tire tracks or footprints to be seen. It had only been mere months since the incident, but based on how it looked, it could have been a decade since the building was occupied and you would have been none the wiser.
You didn’t live in a great area, but not a terrible one either. The buildings nearby were just average, they didn’t look this old and decrepit… Who could have done this?
Your confusion turned to anger. Abandoned? This building? No, no. There was something there, you just knew it. There had to be something inside that would tell you what happened, some kind of clue to explain all of this. There was no way that everyone had just suddenly disappeared like that. No, you had it in good faith that there was something behind this.
You’d never broken a law in your life. Except for going over the speed limit occasionally, you were a goody-two-shoes and refused to put yourself or your at risk like that. But as far as you could tell, no one would stop you from what you were about to do. And thank god for that.
You went in the evening, when the winter sky had just begun to turn from light to dark gray, and when snow began to obscure the vision of the school from the main road it sat next to. You went with nothing but your phone and all the anger of a parent whose child has gone missing.
When you approached the front entrance, you tucked your hand behind your neck, pulling back your elbow, rage threatening to overwhelm every other sense you had.
You inhaled deeply, preparing for the pain, and pausing for a moment before swinging as hard as you could right into the glass doors. The ice and glass both shattered on impact, and you let out a small hum of satisfaction. This satisfaction quickly soured, however, when the pain finally hit you and your elbow was left throbbing in excruciating pain. It wasn’t bleeding or broken, but it would definitely bruise pretty bad.
The building was teeming with dust. The light from outside illuminated the lobby, and with a pang of sadness, your mind went back to the first time you were here, learning about this place.
If only you had known what would happen. If only you’d felt something off.
… You shook your head dismissively. You weren’t at fault for this - no one knew what would happen, so how could you? You couldn’t let your own hopeless emotions cloud reality, so you pushed onward.
You grabbed a blue keycard off the front desk, though you doubted it would be of any help, and pocketed it. You silently thanked Seline for leaving something helpful behind. (You ignored the fact that you hadn’t seen Seline since long before the children dissapeared. She had likely just quit.)
Upon scanning the rest of the main lobby, there was nothing else of consequence for you to collect. You refused to believe it - there had to be some clues, something of use here. Something to explain why your child had been missing for three months.
You rounded the corner next to the desk and scanned the cafeteria area, but it’s too dark to see. You mentally kicked yourself for not thinking to bring a flashlight - you’d invested in a nice steel one after a particularly bad winter left your child afraid of the dark, and that definitely would have been helpful here. The idea that the power would be off had completely slipped your mind.
You left the entrance of the cafeteria and pushed through the double doors, down the dark hallway to the rest of the Kindergarten. But as soon as you entered, you felt a chill run down your spine. You suddenly felt the piercing gaze of something watching you, and you froze in place, sure that if you continued forward, something would happen.
And then you saw two white pinpricks from deeper in the hallway looking right through you.
There was a moment when all of the breath left your body. Any words you had wanted to say were lost; when you tried to call to whatever was looking at you, only a breathless exhale came out.
Slowly, hesitantly, and against all of your survival instincts screaming for you to stop, you decided to take a step forward and try to get a closer look.
Just as you approached, you saw the pinpricks disappear quickly around the corner. You had to be seeing things. Maybe the grief and being in this unfamiliar place had finally gotten to you. It was probably just dust reflecting off the moonlight behind you.
You pinched your hand, double checking that this wasn’t another nightmare. And so you shook it off, continuing onward and turning into the play area.
A loud click sounded from above you, and then another, and then a few more. You yelped, clamping both hands over your mouth as the lights in the area turn on row by row. The power was working here. Why? If this place was truly abandoned, why?
Something was wrong here. You can feel it. There was something more to this place that you needed to uncover.
Across the room, there was a familiar sight: the Opila bird statue, exactly where it had been, in exactly the pose it had been in. Its glassy, bloodshot eyes stared up at the ceiling, its beak agape, as if hungry, as if waiting greedily to be fed. You felt a chill run down your spine as you imagine if it were real - if this horrifying bird had really come to life. If any bird chased you, you would be scared, but this bird was twice your size and made out of - well, what looked to be - thick rubber. Even if it did attack you, you wouldn’t be able to hurt it, and…
You shook your head. What a stupid scenario. You’d caught yourself dwelling on impossibilities like this a lot lately, possibly due to your head constantly feeling as if it were in the clouds since your child’s disappearance. Or maybe it was just due to how lonely you had become in recent months.
You noticed something in Opila’s mouth. It looked like another keycard - one that went to something on this floor. It was orange this time - you didn’t understand why you would need another key card, or why there were so many levels of security to this school, but just in case, you pocketed it.
You decided not to dwell on the question of how it had gotten there.
“You don’t need this, right?”
You let out a weak huff of laughter after you spoke to the statue, feeling ridiculous. You went to turn and leave, but something caught your eye that you hadn’t noticed before. There was a room to the left of the statue, where boards were nailed into the wall, like someone had made a poor attempt to keep someone out of the area. There was no door, just an empty doorway, and when you walked over, you realized that if this had been here before, you would have definitely noticed. Maybe there was a door here before and it was removed for some reason?
You peered into the room between the gaps of the wood. From what you can see, it looks like a large room with a wide, gaping hole in the center. You couldn’t see the bottom from where you were standing, and you expected that the bottom was far deeper than you wanted to believe. The edge of the small path next to the chasm was all marked up with various digs and scratches, as if something was trying to get out. Or maybe they had just been doing a shoddy job at construction.
As much as you wanted to go into that room, you didn’t think it was worth it. After all, you couldn’t see a lift or another path to cross the pit, so once you got inside, your only options would be to look down into it or to jump in, neither of which you were too keen on doing.
Sighing, you stepped away from the door. When you turned around, you couldn’t help but let out a small gasp. You had forgotten Opila was there. Ugh, stupid bird.
You left the room, a bit uneasy with your newfound discoveries. Your plan was now to look into Dr. Adam’s office and maybe see if there were any pointers to what could have happened, but before that, you realized that there may be something of use on the desk in the classroom.
You quickly walked to the aforementioned room, wasting no time in going through each drawer perhaps a bit too hastily.
The drawers weren’t very well organized.
There were random paper clips and tacks that fell out as you pulled papers and file folders from the drawers. You did end up finding a plane ticket to Madrid for Dr. Mason and Dr. Adam (who, you’d found out, was named Uthman), and some papers from classes, which showed drawings from each child of their favorite characters in the Kindergarten. You shuffled through until you found your child’s, and held back tears as you saw they’d drawn you and them standing with the big green guy. Jumbo Josh? Was that his name? … You could hardly keep track of the main guy, let alone the other characters on the sidelines. But he was your kid’s favorite, and that made you want to remember more. Anything you could recall of your child’s favorite things was a welcome recollection.
You folded up the paper and pocketed it, sighing as you stood and rubbed your eyes.
And then you turned around.
The bird.
Your face flushed as panic punched you in the gut. You swallowed hard, because now you were face-to-face with it. At the entrance of the classroom, Opila stood, unblinking, before taking a couple of steps forward.
Just like before, it stared, but instead of at the ceiling, now it was at you. Like it was studying you. Like you were its next kill. You didn’t know what its intentions were by approaching you this way, but you didn’t want to find out.
Opila took another couple of steps to the side, its head swiveling to continue its piercing gaze right into you. You bit your lip, breaking out into a sweat as you weighed your options. You weren’t the fastest runner, but it looked like your only option was to bolt to Dr. Adam’s office with the orange keycard and hope for the best. Because you weren’t leaving now. Not when you had gotten this far.
You quickly jerked to the left, Opila attempting to follow, and you rushed to the right in a fantastic fake-out that you would surely praise yourself for later. Adrenaline finally kicked in as you rushed past the bird, who followed you quickly to the hallway. You stormed down, scanning your keycard and impatiently shoving through the doors as they opened, manually forcing them shut just as Opila was about to stick its beak through the crack.
You could hear it banging on the door, clawing at the base with its talons. You took a moment to do a once-over of the room, and realized there was nothing you could do. There weren’t even any windows to escape through. You could have almost screamed when you realized that this was it - there was no way out.
You figured, for now, you could hide under the Principal’s desk and maybe trick the bird into thinking that you’d left somehow. At least you could buy some time to mentally prepare for being murdered by a giant pink flesh bird. So you shuffled to your knees and stuffed yourself under the desk, but you were only about halfway in when you noticed a glowing switch on the ground underneath.
Your eyes widened a little. Could this be the answer you had been looking for?
Only one way to find out.
As soon as you pressed the button, there was a rumble, and the struggle at the door immediately stopped. After a couple of seconds, you poked your head out from underneath the desk just in time to see the floor of the other half of the office open up, and a lift emerged from the darkness below.
This is it. This is where your child had gone. You know it; you feel it in your bones.
You boarded the lift eagerly, feeling more awake than you had in months. You didn’t know what awaited you down below, but you were determined to push forward. Not just for yourself and your child, but for the other parents and children, and the teachers that disappeared alongside them.
There was a moment of peace where the lift was lowering and you swam in inky blackness, your only light from the small lamp in the center of the lift. The only sound came from the grinding of the lift echoing throughout the large area you were doing down.
There was a deep rumbling sound from below you, and you froze in place. You had never, not in your whole life heard a sound like that.
What in the world…
Your body was abruptly tossed forward as the lift lurched toward the rumbling sound. An alarm from the lift’s panel cut through the quiet, and you held back a cry as the lift rocked back the other direction, throwing your body against the railing.
The steel collided with your gut, and you gasped for air as the wind was knocked from you. You tumbled to the ground in a heap.
From your place on the ground, you struggled to stand, and just as you managed to do so, you saw a large clubbed hand grab the side of the lift tightly. The glass panels you stood on cracked as another large hand came into view, lifted high into the air.
And then there was a face.
The monster was about four times your size. Its skin was tightly pulled back, flush against its skull, or whatever lay beneath the sickly shade of green. Like the bird you’d seen before, its skin almost looked like rubber when shown against the lift’s fluorescent light. Large risen veins were scattered across its forehead and face, pulsating rhythmically. The skin around its mouth was pulled back into a grotesque smile, revealing a mouth full of teeth that looked as if they’d been jammed into the gums haphazardly, rather than grown. Its eyes were far too small for its head; a shiver ran down your spine at the chilling uncanniness.
There was another low groaning noise, and you realized it was coming from that creature.
Then came a momentary pause, where you looked into the monster’s eyes, and you couldn't breathe. Your heart thudded uneasily in your chest, and the thing rumbled once more, its skin peeling over its eyeballs and back, as if mocking a blink.
You blinked back, and the moment was over. The creature arched its body backwards, falling down from where it had climbed up the lift, and pulling you down with it.
You gasped, too scared to scream, knowing death was quickly approaching, and realizing that you would certainly die without knowing what happened to your child.
You felt the wind against your face as you fell, and then you felt nothing at all.