The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (8 page)

"How did she reach the top part?"

He looked up, frowned and cocked his head. "I
told ya who done it."

"What's that?" she said. She was pointing to a
spot on his pants that was different than all the other dirt.

He looked down. "What?"

"That!" she said. "It's chalk. I'm a teacher,
half of my life involves chalk. I know it when I see it."

He jumped up and grabbed her arm. "You ain't
blamin' me! You're one a them demons, too!" He raised his hand and
she flinched, but before he could land a blow, Steve landed a solid
punch to his stomach, dropping him instantly to the ground.

"I might not approve of your interfering, but
I'll be damned if I let a man hit a woman," he said.

The Principal acted as if he might faint, but
leaned on the wall and took several deep breaths.

"Thank you," Evelyn said. "How did you know what
was going on?"

"My class is just across the hall, he said, "and
you have a very annoying voice when you start yelling. Mac, call
Bernie at the sheriff's office and tell him we caught someone
vandalizing school property," he said. "That's settled it, right?"
he said as he looked at Evelyn.

She nodded. "Yes."

"Fine, fine," the Principal said. "See, Miss
Crone, I told you I'd get to the bottom of it." He let out a heavy
breath and picked up the phone. "Still, never thought Mister Allen
would have done something like this."

Evelyn could hear him talking as she left his
office and walked back to her classroom.

"What happened?" Susan said.

"They caught the guy," she said.

"Who?"

"The maintenance man."

A soft gasp came from all the girls as they
started to understand what had happened. "That creepy guy," one
said.

"Creepy?" Evelyn said. "How so?" She checked her
gradebook. "Tiffany. Do you know more about him?"

"He keeps asking us if we want a ride home," she
said. Several other girls nodded.

"He tried to pull me into his car, once,"
another girl said.

"All of you, come with me," she said, and walked
them all back to the Principal's office.

"Uh, is there another problem?" he said. Steve
was still standing in the corner, talking to someone on his cell
phone.

"I want my girls to witness this," she said.
"Why have you been trying to get them into your car?"

Steve looked up. "I'll call you back." He walked
over to where Mister Allen was sitting. "That true?"

"'Tweren't nothin' like ya think," he said. He
stood up and pointed at the girls standing in the doorway. "They
killed my boy! Sure as hellfire, them demons killed 'im!"

The girls seemed to part as a big man made his
way through. "What ya got, Mac?"

"Ah, sheriff!" the Principal said. "Fine, fine!
We'll get this over with."

"Are you the sheriff?" Evelyn said.

"That's what they pay me for, ma'am," he said.
"Bernie Combs at your service."

"This man threatened all of my students," she
said.

"Charlie?" he said. "Is that true?"

"I didn't do nothin' bad," he said.

"He wrote a foul message on the chalkboard and
filled it with religious symbols," she said. "Scared the girls to
tears."

"Sheeh!" he said. "I understand your concern,
but I ain't rightly sure I can lock a man up for that."

"What?" she said. "He terrorized these
girls."

"I understand that, and it 'tweren't right, not
one bit, but I don't know if it were a crime."

"How about assault," Steve said. "That's a
crime, isn't it?"

"Yep, that's a crime," the sheriff said.

"Mac and I both witnessed him grab Miss Crone
and try to take a swing at her," he said.

The sheriff looked at Charlie and shook his
head. "That true?"

"She's protectin' them demons so that makes her
guilty as they is a killin' my boy," he said.

"I gotta take ya in, then," he said. "I hate ta
do it, but ya broke the law. Even worse, you attacking a woman. You
weren't raised like that."

"And tell him how you've been trying to kidnap
my girls, Charlie," Evelyn said. "Tell him all about that."

"Charlie?" the sheriff said.

"That's bullshit, I ain't been tryin' ta kidnap
them girls," he said. "I just needed ta talk to them alone, get
some truth out of 'em."

"Were you going to beat it out of them?" she
said.

He looked her directly in the eyes and snarled.
"If that's what it took."

"You sick bastard," she said.

The sheriff grabbed Charlie by the arm and
pulled him toward the doorway. "Come on, Charlie. I know you've had
a rough time of it, but there ain't no justification t'all to hurt
no children." He looked back. "I'll send Jerod over soon as he gets
on duty ta take y'all's statements and sign the papers to file
charges."

All of the girls backed up into the hallway as
the sheriff led Charlie past them and out the door of the building.
They all began whispering to each other.

"Okay, fine, fine," the Principal said. "All
cleared up, now!"

Evelyn nodded. "Thank you, Steve," she said. She
nodded to them both, and walked out the door. "Come on, girls. I
just wanted you to see that no one will get away with hurting you."
They all seemed to swarm around her, touching her. "But I'm still
assigning you homework."

****

Two days had gone by without any further
problems. They were still being shunned by the other students, but
it had not progressed past a few whispers and awkward moments.
Evelyn was handing out the results of a spelling test. Everyone had
perfect scores. "You're all very good at spelling," she said. "I
was surprised. So, maybe I'll have to make the next test a lot
harder."

"Aww," came a collective grown from the
girls.

Suddenly a fire bell went off and everyone
jumped. "Oh!" Evelyn said. "I'm sure it's just a test, girls, but
let's line up and calmly leave the building." She stood aside and
let the girls walk by, and then followed the last one out of the
room and into the hallway. Other classes were coming out into the
hall as well, and though they stayed in separate groups, in an
emergency, simulated or not, everyone seemed to think less about
suspicion and more about safety. But as they got outside, the more
familiar
distancing
reemerged. "Ah, Principal Stevens, this
is
just a test, right?"

He seemed panicked and was literally walking
around in circles and wringing his hands. "I'm not sure! I'm not
sure!" He looked around at all the classes. "Is everyone out? Are
all students accounted for?" No one spoke up. "What should we do
now?" he said. "Is it safe? Was it just a false alarm?"

"Is that smoke coming from the second floor?" a
teacher shouted and pointed. It was the fifth grade teacher, Bea
Saunders, and the longer she pointed the more sure she seemed to
be.

"Oh god!" the Principal said. "It's real! It's
real, Miss Saunders!"

The first grade class seemed to be talking
loudly, and then they began shouting. "Mister Cross is
missing!"

"What?" Evelyn said.

"No!" Susan yelled and pointed at the main
doors.

"It's okay," he said. He was holding a huge old
brass fire extinguisher and had several black smudges on his
clothes and arms. "Fire's out, there's nothing to see here."

"Steve! My boy!" the Principal said as he ran
toward him and patted him on the arm. "Fine, fine!"

Evelyn followed the Principal. "There was a
fire?"

"A small fire, upstairs," he said. "It's out,
there's no danger now." He turned to face everyone else. "It's all
clear, everyone! You can go back to your classrooms!"

His class of first graders seemed disappointed.
"He's not dead!"

He looked at Evelyn. "Were all your students in
class?"

"Yes, of course they were."

"None went to the bathroom?"

"We all go to the bathroom together," she said.
"My girls were in our classroom." She narrowed her eyes. "Why are
you asking?"

He shoved Evelyn and the Principal a few feet
away from everyone else and whispered. "Charlie Allen is dead."

"What?" Evelyn said.

The Principal grabbed his forehead and wobbled a
bit before regaining his senses. "Charlie's dead?"

"That smoke you saw coming from up there was his
body burning," Steve said. "He was dead before I got there, I just
put him out."

"But what... who?" Evelyn said. "Wait a minute,
you were thinking one of
my
girls had something to do with
it?!"

"Shush!" he said. "Don't start a panic now. Mac,
as soon as everyone is settled back in, announce over the intercom
that everyone gets to go home early today because of safety
reasons. Then we'll get Bernie and Jerry over at the Lavlet fire
station to come over."

"Charlie, burned alive?" the Principal said.
"Bernie just let him out of jail this morning to wait for his court
date."

"It wasn't an accident, but I'll be damned if I
know what could have happened," Steve said. "I think he
could
have set himself on fire... maybe as a way to burn
down the entire school and kill as many kids as he could."

"And that could have happened if you hadn't put
the fire out quickly," Evelyn said. She walked away and back to her
girls. "Let's go back to class, girls. It's all safe, now."

They walked back through the entrance and down
the hall. There was no smell of smoke or burnt flesh, no sign at
all that a senseless tragedy had just occurred. Just as they all
shuffled through their classroom doorway, the Principal came on the
intercom. "Is this thing on? Oh, er... this is Principal Stevens.
Because we want to be very sure of everyone's safety, we are
suspending school for the rest of the day. Please gather up your
belongings and leave. Now! Oh. I mean, you're free to go as soon as
you can; all of your parents have been sent text messages. Thank
you. Er... this is Principal Stevens signing off. Ten-four."

"The man is an idiot," Evelyn said. She
chuckled. "You girls didn't hear me say that."

"Miss Crone," Susan said. "Are they sending us
home because of what Mister Allen did?"

"What?" she said, and then assumed she was
referring to what happened several days ago. "Oh, no, it's not
that."

"Because he's dead?" Betsy said.

"What?"

"We all know," Tiffany said.

Evelyn was shocked. How could they know? For a
brief moment a twinge of fear surged up her spine and settled in
her throat. "How?" She settled down. "Oh, I guess you could hear us
talking about it. I'm sorry, girls, you shouldn't have heard that.
It's a horrible thing that's happened."

Mister Cross wants you to believe one of us did
it," Susan said. "No more store discounts for him."

"He... I don't know what he thinks, girls,"
Evelyn said. "He's very hard to figure out."

"Do you think we did it?" a girl in the back
said.

Evelyn had finally memorized their names. "No,
Sienna, I don't believe that at all."

"But what if one of us
did
do it?" Becky
said. "What if one of us stabbed him?"

"Becky, sweetie, do you know something about
this?" Evelyn said. "If you know anything about it you need to tell
me."

"She doesn't know anything," Susan said. "She's
just being her usual weirdo self." She pointed at Becky. "Be good,
weirdo!"

"Sorry," Becky said.

The mood seemed to be unusually light-hearted in
the classroom and Evelyn was a bit confused. Were they taking the
news the only way their young minds could process it, or were the
actually happy that a man who hated them so much was dead? She
didn't know. "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow morning. Be careful.
Wait close to the building if your parents are picking you up;
otherwise be careful walking home."

****

"He's down here," Steve said, leading a small
group of firemen and law enforcement down the second floor hallway.
Several were carrying flashlights since the electricity had been
shut off on the second floor several years ago over safety
concerns. Evelyn was invited; she wasn't sure why, but she accepted
Steve's invitation and came along mostly out of curiosity. But a
part of her wanted to find clues to confirm exactly what had
happened.

"God! Stinks!" Bernie said.

"Burnt flesh," one of the firemen said. "Take a
good whiff, you can smell lighter fluid or some other
petroleum-based accelerate, too."

Everyone sniffed the air, looked at each other,
and shrugged.

Steve bounced the beam of his light around over
the floor and walls, then stopped on the blackened figure slumped
against the wall. Around him were twigs and other dry brush, and
several cans of charcoal lighter fluid.

"Looks like he was tryin' ta take the whole
damned school with him," Bernie said. "Stupid bastard." He shook
his head. "It looks pretty cut-and-dry. Suicide."

He got closer and his flashlight better
illuminated the scene. That's when they all gasped. Above and
around him, all over the wall he was leaning against, were crosses
intermingled with curse words. It was the work of madness, not
desperation.

"I didn't see this earlier," Steve said. "I
guess the fire blinded me a bit."

"The crosses are exactly like the ones he wrote
on my chalkboard a few days ago," Evelyn said. "But there was just
a single statement, '
demons rot in hell
'."

"You shoulda seen the jail cell he was in,"
Bernie said. "Filled the walls with this same shit. Like he were
possessed er something."

"I need to call in the county coroner," one of
the firemen said. "I'm not authorized to move a dead body until he
declares the cause of death."

The sheriff bent down and grabbed the burnt and
crumbling flesh of Mister Allen's chin and opened his mouth. "I
don't see none of the usual reactions to being burned alive," he
said. "They usually choke on their tongue... teeth explode." He
brushed his hands together.