The Sub

“Beep, beep, beep.”
Daniel’s alarm clock beeped loudly, echoing through the house early on that Monday morning. It was the first day back to school from the long three-month summer vacation, and Danny found it hard to awaken. After hitting the snooze button numerous times, he took a shower and got ready for his first day of junior high school. Daniel ate a quick breakfast, kissed his mother as she read the missing person news article, and ran off to the bus stop around the corner. When he arrived, his best friend, Michael, allowed him to cut in front of him in the line so they could talk.
“Hey Dan! What’s up? Who is your main teacher this year?”
“Nothing much Mike. I really do not feel like going to school; I wish we had more time off. Anyway, I have Ms. Shiner as my homeroom teacher.”
“I feel bad for you Danny. I heard she never comes to school in a good mood, and she has these very creepy-looking beady eyes.”
Danny rolled his eyes as the bus pulled up next to the development’s stop sign and let him and his neighbors get on. At school, Daniel and Michael parted ways, and Daniel found his classroom. He was the only one there so far, so he decided to sharpen some more of his brand new pencils. Dan had just finished the rest of the box when he heard the thunderous clacking of heels on the hard linoleum floor coming from behind him. He slowly turned around finding a tall slender woman with crescent-shaped glasses behind the teacher’s desk. Ms. Shiner wore an all gray outfit; her hair hung limp over her face, and a prominent scowl was present. Daniel returned to his seat as the final morning bell rung; all of his other classmates came in shortly after. Ms. Shiner turned to face her class and greeted them emotionlessly. Danny noticed that his new teacher had extremely mysterious blue-black eyes.
“Hello class. My name is Ms. Shiner, and I will be your homeroom teacher for this year.
With that, she sat down in her swivel chair, instructed her class to introduce themselves, and buried herself in an already overflowing stack of paper. Daniel finished introducing himself to his classmates, and when he sat back down, he noticed that Ms. Shiner was staring at him intently. At first, he was slightly alarmed, but he quickly forgot about it throughout the course of the day.
When Daniel got home, he decided to start on his small project for English class because he was bored. He had just finished working on it when he heard a small but distinct rustling noise coming from outside of his window. Dan swiftly pulled the curtains away and got a glimpse of a pair of midnight blue eyes peering in from below before they disappeared. Suddenly alarmed, he threw open his window finding nothing out of the ordinary and decided to forget about it.
The next morning in homeroom, Ms. Shiner had seemed in a bad mood, but that was nothing new. After pledging their allegiance to the flag, the class was told to work on an information card for emergency purposes. The teacher walked around the room to make sure that everyone stayed on task, but when she reached Daniel’s desk she stopped. He cautiously looked up at her, and she did something no one thought she was capable of: she smiled. Indeed, she smiled at him with her off-white jagged teeth, but she still had that dark mysterious gleam in her very dark blue eyes that indicated a different unknown meaning. Before, Daniel could even think about returning the smile, she walked out of the aisle and back to her desk.
That night, Dan had finished taking a shower and was about to go to bed, but he forgot to turn his light off. He hurriedly flipped it off, and as he made his way over to his bed, he realized that he did not completely shut his closet doors. In the dark, he walked over to his open closet, but just as he was about to shut the door, he caught a glimpse of those same mysterious blue-black eyes brightly shining through the crack in his closet. A little bit afraid, Danny flew over to his light switch, hastily flipped it on, and threw open his closet doors. Nothing abnormal was evident in the space, so he closed the doors, turned off the light, and jumped into his bed.
The next morning, Daniel met up with Michael on the bus.
“Mike, you’ll never believe this but hear me out. You know how Ms. Shiner has those blue-black colored eyes. Well, I keep seeing them in the most random places in my house!” said Daniel.
“Whoa Dan! That is freaky! Ms. Shiner is creepy and all, but I don’t think she would show up at your house like that,” replied Mike.
Daniel stayed quiet realizing that his friend wouldn’t ever understand. It felt like he was under surveillance by Ms. Shiner; the way her eyes always appeared in the most secretive places. That day, Daniel had a substitute teacher who was in for Ms. Shiner. He told the class that she had taken a personal day off.
That evening, Dan ate dinner, finished his homework, and retired to his bed early. After he made sure his doors and windows were closed, he promptly got under the covers and went to sleep. At around 1:30 in the morning, Daniel woke and decided to have a midnight snack. He then got back in his bed and shifted to make himself more comfortable, sensing a movement on the other side of the bed. Danny carefully opened his eyes finding a large lump underneath blanket next to him. Fearful, he slowly lifted up his quilt to find nothing underneath it. Letting out a relieving sigh, he turned back around and tried to go back to sleep. A couple of minutes later, Daniel heard a light but distinct scuffling sound originating form under his bed. His heart began to race as he lowered himself headfirst to look underneath the bed. By then, the scuffling had come to an end, but now, those mysterious midnight blue eyes peered from where Dan was looking. Before he could even react, a long-fingered bony hand reached out, grabbed Daniel’s pajama shirt and pulled him underneath the bed.
The next morning, Daniel’s mother angrily stalked into her son’s bedroom, getting ready to yell at him for waking up late when she noticed he was not there. She checked everywhere that he could possibly be, but she never found him. Daniel’s mom filed a missing persons report to the police when she arrived. The clearly exhausted police officer allowed her to report her son missing, and while she was waiting, she overheard two police officers’ conversation.
“We just got report of an early teenage boy who went missing as of this morning.”
“A couple of hours ago, someone called in saying their neighbor went missing also. Do you think they could be related?”
“I don’t know. Possibly. Maybe I should go ask the boy’s mother; she is waiting in the other room.”
“That is a good idea. Maybe she can give us a lead.”
The police officer walked into the other room where Daniel’s mom sat waiting impatiently.
“Ma’am? Do you know of a woman by the name of Rose Shiner? She was teaching at the junior high around the corner.”
“Yes. She is my son’s homeroom teacher. She went missing also?”
“I’m afraid so. We will call you in later if we find anything; you can leave now.”
Daniel’s mom made her way through the busy police station, but just before she walked out of the door, she saw a familiar set of dark blue eyes peering at her through a dark custodial closet.