Read The Slender Man for Free Online Page B

to my desk, but I can sense more than one pair of eyes on me.
    It's five minutes till class starts and it looks like Ms.
Alder is in a hurry to prepare something. She looks away from her work just
quickly enough to see me about to sit at my desk.
    “Welcome back Alyssa,” she says.
    “Th-thank you,” I stammer. I'm a little nervous about Ms.
Alder, hoping that she won't bring up the creative history essay that's
overdue. I look around at the other students and see that most of them are
looking at the books on their desk or whispering amongst each other like
normal. So that helps my mood a bit. I just hope that the gossip of the week
isn't on me.
    “Alright class, it seems that many of the students still
haven't returned, but we can't delay any longer. Please open your books to
chapter thirty,” she says. I realize that I don't know which book she means,
but rather than asking on impulse, and drawing attention to myself. I steal a
gaze to my right and see that everyone is opening their literature books. It's
a good thing I looked, because if I had to guess I would have opened grammar
    Ms. Alder is a stout woman, but not really fat. She looks
like a woman that simply doesn't have the will to exercise but still doesn't
eat too much, and at her age it's starting to take its toll. She has short
sandy brown hair and bangs that cover half of her forehead, which is a little
too big. She wears contacts, but with her physique, she'd look better off with actual
glasses. She acts as both our history and our English teacher, which is where
my whole dual-subject assignment comes from. She leads us through the next
chapter, which is on multicultural literature, a topic that generally bores me.
Her class isn't very interactive as she reads from the text verbatim, so my
mind wanders. I guess that's why my grades are falling.
     I look around and see Jason Larch just about as entertained
as I am. Didn't he get arrested ? I think. Why did the sheriff let him
off so easily? He's normally not a pushover. I notice that Jason has a little
bruise on his nose, but it doesn't look broken. Something peculiar about that
bruise is how visible it is from ten feet away. I realize that his skin has
paled a bit, quite like Leanne's. She had a nosebleed, and so did Lionel, who's
also paled. Is everyone getting sick? I take my attention from him and notice
that very few of the other students appear sick. In fact, even Lindsay Willow
isn’t sick looking, and she has been around Lionel. Must not be a very
contagious thing though, otherwise I'd have it by now, because my immune system
is terrible and I get sick at least every quarter.
    After Ms. Alder reads the chapter to us, she stands up and
offers a fifteen minute break to everyone. Most of the kids jump up as they
have a sudden realization that they are about to wet themselves and they're
dying of thirst, and pretty soon, it's just Ms. Alder and me. I should get
up and go too, I think, but as I do she addresses me.
    “Hey Alyssa, we missed you this week,” she says.
    “Yeah, sorry,” I say, even though we did have permission to
skip school due to the accident.
    “It's not too much to hope you've finished your essay?” she
asks. I cringe, that's the subject I've been dodging.
    “No, Shana and I were gonna work on it, and make stories
that work together but-,”
     “Don't worry, only three students have turned in their
essays on time, but I do need yours by the end of the week, and Shana's too,”
she says, and that reminds me.
    “Oh, um, Shana won't be able to,” I say.
    “Her family is sitting shivah- in mourning and it's a custom
that they don't leave the house for a week,” I continue.
    “Well if she's at home she can work on it there, and you can
bring it for me?” she suggests.
    “They're really not supposed to do any work during the
shivah,” I say.
    “Well just run it by her,” she says. I nod.
    “Can you help me with this?” she asks, opening the classroom
closet. I stand up