The Pupil’s Plight

• Fiction

								
3:23 PM, March 02, 2016
	The walls of the Madden household were used to absorbing the marital banter that would occur between Julia and Alan. Today was no different. Upstairs, Mike, their only son, sat with his head in his hands, unable to focus on his homework. 
	“You promised you’d quit!” Mike’s mother spat in his father’s face. She jabbed a finger at his chest, her eyebrows furrowed and a look of deep concern in her eyes.
	“You file our taxes. You know how bad off we are yet you still go out and fuel your addiction every night. I can’t keep living like this!”
	Mike’s father, Alan, stared back, no thoughts behind his eyes. 
	“Alan!”
	He blinked and rubbed his hands on his face, readjusting his eye patch in the process.
 “Ok, Julia, ok. I’ll quit,” he sighed. 
	“That’s what you say every time,” Julia said. “Either you quit or I take Mike and leave.”
	Alan’s face shifted from overwhelmed to hostile. Delivering a sharp blow to Julia’s face, he scowled at her, watching her stumble back and lift a hand to her blooming cheek.
	He advanced towards her and she stepped back until her knees hit the side of the couch. He grabbed her face, and spit at her. 
	“You take my son and leave and I’ll call the police, you understand?”
	Julia glared at him, her chin quivering, and pushed him away, yelling for her son.
	“Mike!”
	“Leave him alone. This is between you and I.”
	“Mike!”
	“Julia enough. Sit down.”
	She turned to him, having grabbed her keys and phone while yelling for Mike, pushing him out of the way once more.
“I’m leaving this place,” she huffed, and turned towards the stairs. “Mike, let’s go!”

3:07 PM, March 02, 2016
	Mike sat at his desk working on his homework. He whispered to himself,
	“If you have Na, Cl, Li, and Br, which one has the largest atomic radi…”
	He was interrupted by the quarrel occuring on the first floor. 
	Not again.
 He tried to regain his focus but the yelling intensified and so did his patience. He got up from his desk, the chair scratching against the wooden floor, and headed towards his closet. The bickering continued on for several minutes while Mike busied himself stuffing clothes, toiletries, and snacks into a duffel bag. 
	“Mike!”
 Shoot. 
	Mike rushed to his window and pushed it open. He slammed his hand against the edges of the window lining and pushed the wire mesh screen out onto the grass below his window. Climbing out, he barely registered his mother yelling his name a second time. Making a run for the nearby forest, he didn’t think to look back. 

3:13 PM, March 02, 2016
	Mike ran until he reached the edge of tall, oak trees that would lead into miles and miles of a vast green forest. He stopped to rest, his hands on his knees as his lungs drowned in a lack of air. He stood upright and wiped a line of sweat dripping down his forehead.
	Taking one last deep breath, he wandered cautiously into the mass of trees. Venturing through the forest proved to be a difficult task. He was tired, sweaty, and had more insects sticking to him than he could name.
Several minutes into his journey, he arrived at the shed he recalled his dad telling him stories about. It was the same shed that his dad would go to when he was a scientist. One experiment, though, cost Alan his left eye, and he’s never returned to the shed. 
Despite its uncomforting surroundings and previous history, the shed was in good condition, standing tall with a door that had a pad bolt and a small square window on its side. 
Mike slowly held onto the handle and pulled the door towards him, cringing at the creaking sound it made, and looked inside. There was a table with a white table cloth that had blood splattered across it and some shards of glass, along with blood splattered across the walls of the shed. In the corner was a two drawer file cabinet. 
No wonder he doesn’t come here anymore. 
Mike gulped at the terrifying sight, but facing no choice, he got to cleaning. He folded the tablecloth onto itself and used the clean bottom side of it to wipe what he could off from the walls. He stepped outside the shed and threw the tablecloth next to a tree stump, kicking leaves over it.
 Back in the shed, he pushed the table into the corner opposite the file drawer, and started unloading his backpack. He placed his sleeping back in the center of the shed and slid his toiletries and snacks under the table. 

7:02 PM, March 02, 2016
Letting out a breath of relief, Mike laid on his sleeping bag, slowly succumbing to the temptations of sleep. A crinkle of leaves near the shed and he bolted up, alarmed. Grabbing the pocket knife he set beside his sleeping bag, he stood up and looked around the shed until he looked out the window. Staring at him was a human head with blood pouring out of its eye sockets, nostrils, and mouth. It was pale and had one brown, bushy eyebrow above the waterfalls of blood. It was adorned with numerous eye appendages sprouting from its neck, the eyes all emitting an eerie glow. While Mike was paralyzed in fear, the head seemed to not be, getting closer to the window as Mike stepped back. Bumping into the wall behind him, he jumped in horror and screamed. Looking back, he realized it was just the wall. 
Phew. 
Looking back outside, he saw the creature extend two of its appendages away from its body and attached them to the window, trying to get in. The window didn’t have an opening, so the eyes slid down, leaving two long streaks of residue on the glass. 
Mike’s eyes widened. 
So, I’m not just imagining this.
Mike considered running back home, but the flashbacks of the constant bickering brought him back to reality. 
I can’t go back home. 
He looked back at the creature, making eye contact with the two eyes that left the slimy residue. 
“You’re such a failure!”
“If your Mom and I divorce, it’s your fault.”
“Mike, I’m really disappointed. I expect better.”
Woah.
Looking away, the judgemental comments of his father, mother, and math teacher faded away like fog. 
Left with no choice, Mike stayed in the shed on the floor, avoiding the creature’s gaze as it loomed in front of the window. 
Hours later, as the sun began to rise, Mike watched as the eye appendages on the creature turned towards each other, silently communicating, and turned, crawling like a spider into the trees, using its eye appendages to step back and away. 
Huh?

6:42 AM, March 03, 2016
	The monster had slipped away, but its presence and eyes left behind a print of its eeriness. Mike thought about the night’s events while he chewed on a stale granola bar.
	What even was that? 
	He took another bite, wiping off the crumbs that landed on his shirt. 
	I need to be better protected. 
	Finishing his granola bar, he got up, and headed out the shed. Cautiously, he looked around to make sure the creature was really gone, and got to work. He picked up broken branches, leaves, and stones. 
Back at the shed, he weaved the leaves through the branches. Sticking the branches into the crevices between the wall and ceiling, he had a curtain that would cover the windows. Using the stones he gathered, Mike placed them next to the door in case the lock ever broke. 

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