Vacation

'''The following is a diary that was found on an I-pod. This I-pod was found in the basement of an abandoned Pre-school in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.'''

I don’t have a lot of time to type this all down but hopefully they don’t notice the I-pod in my pocket. I need this story to be sent to the authorities immediately! This is my only chance to expose this nightmare to the public! I need to hurry though… He said he’ll return if possible and I need to type before I bleed out.

I worked at Oxbow preschool. It is small school in Prince Albert Saskatchewan with around 30 kids. It had one large classroom, a gym and a bathroom. The other teacher and I, Jeff Sunderland took turns teaching throughout the week. I taught on Mondays and Wednesdays, he taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On my first day there, I was introduced by the superintendent to Jeff. He was a tall, quiet man in his late 30s. He was clean-shaven and had short brown hair. When I approached him and reached out my hand he simply glanced up at me and gave me a small smile.

“Jeff,” the superintendent said. “This is Christopher Hitchens. He will be replacing Mr. Townshend and teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays.”

Alexander Townshend was a man who had gone missing two weeks prior. Police hadn’t found any clues that lead to his whereabouts. I read in the newspaper that his apartment looked normal. Almost as if he had left his apartment for work the morning of his disappearance. When the police asked the children at the Preschool about Mr. Townshend, they claimed that he said he was going to quickly use the washroom but never came back. A mother of one of the children arrived after school finding the kids sitting in the classroom playing like normal. With no teacher in sight, she called the police. The police arrived and did a thorough investigation of the building but not a single trace of his wherabouts could be found.

“Pleased to meet you Chris.” Jeff said with a smile.

I walked over the mat where all the kids were sitting. They all sat in a cirlce and drew normal pictures that any pre-school kids would be drawing. It really was a nice Preschool. There were all sorts of toys and games that all looked brand new. Almost untouched! I approached the group and they all turned to look at me as I spoke.

“Hello, my name is Mr. Hitchens! I will be your new teacher for the rest of the year.”

"Hi Mr. Hitchens!" The children sang in unison as they turned to me with bright smiles and gleaming eyes. The superintendent approached me.

“I see you've become acquainted with the children. I hope they give you no difficulty this year. Anyway, I believe it's time for gym class so we must be going"

With a goodbye to the kids, the man and I left the building.

Wednesday, the next day, I arrived at the school at 10 AM. I walked into the classroom and grabbed a seat at the teachers desk. I took a sip of my coffee and waited for the children to arrive. The first to arrive was a blonde haired woman with her son. She was a tall woman with a very lively look in her eyes. She smiled and approached with her son. It didn’t take long for me to notice it was the same woman from the article.

“Hello, Mr. Hitchens. My name is Eileen Morris and this is my son James.” She said with a smile as she reached out to shake my hand.

“Hey, pleased to meet you ma’am.” I replied. “As you may have gathered, I’m the new teacher for the Monday and Wednesday class.”

“Yes, I noticed the moment I walked in.” She said. “It’s great to see that the school was able to find a replacement so quickly!”

“Well, I’ve taught at many different schools throughout my career so it must not have been too hard to find me.” I said

“That’s good” She replied. “It was nice talking to you, but I need to get to work. We’ll continue this discussion over coffee sometime.” She said as she reached for her purse and walked out of the class.

I grabbed a story book and waited for more kids to be brought in. When everyone settled down on the mat, I did a quick attendance then sat down on the reading chair. I introduced myself once more for the kids who weren't there the previous day and got acquainted with all the students. I asked them about themselves and such. It didn’t seem like a very strange day. I read the kids a story, they made arts and crafts, even sang while doing so. Naturally, I just relaxed. I didn’t get unnerved until I realized that a student named Jimmy was drawing a picture of a man who looked like Mr. Townshend sitting down in a stool with a smile on his face in a dark room. I asked the kid,

“What are you drawing?”

“It’s Mr. Townshend.” Jimmy replied. “He’s tired now so he’s on vacation.”

I thought to myself for a moment then quickly realized that his parents must have told him that Mr. Townshend was on vacation. They wouldn’t say that something bad had happened to him. I circled around the arts and crafts table, commenting on drawings. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Rabbits, TV show characters, things like that. There was another kid who drew a picture similar to the one of Mr. Townshend. This time, it was a man wearing similar colored clothing as me. He was sitting in a stool with a smile on his face. “What are you drawing, James?” I said as I approached him.

James looked at me. “It’s you, Mr. Hitchens.”

“Me?” I said with curiosity.

“Yeah.” He replied. “You’re going to be on vacation soon” He said as he gave me this large inhuman smile.

"Right..." I said as I shuddered and walked away back to my desk.

The bell rang and parents came to pick up their kids. When everyone was gone, I cleaned up the class, locked the doors and drove home glad that I had four days to think about what James meant about… Vacation.

The next day, the phone rang. It was the superintendent.

“Chris!” He yelled. He sounded as if he was in fear.

“What’s wrong?” I replied.

“It’s… It’s Mr. Sunderland. He’s gone missing. So have all the children!”

My face went pale.

“Wait, what!?” I said as I sat down.

“Eileen came to the school to pick up her son, James and found the classroom empty. She looked into both bathrooms and the gym and found nothing. We asked everyone in the neighborhood but no one saw anything! Everyone disappeared like magic!” He said in panic.

“How can this be possible?” I said in confusion. “There are 30 students in the class and you’re telling me the teacher and all those kids made off without anyone seeing them?”

“I don’t know…” He sounded as if he was in tears. “The police have searched everywhere but they found nothing. Chris… Do you think Jeff did something to them?”

I thought for a moment then said “Maybe… I’m going to go down there and see if I can find anything.”

“Chris!” he yelled. “You know this is a crime scene and…” I quickly interrupted him:

"Look, we have no time to argue, my students are in danger and It is my responsibility as a teacher to ensure their safety."

"... Very well." The superintendent replied. "Be very careful."

I got into my car and made haste towards the school. When I got there, there was police tape all over the place. I hopped over and made my way to the front doors of the school. The door was locked but luckily I had the keys. I went inside and turned on the lights. I did a thorough search of the classroom and the gym and found nothing. I went into the boy’s bathroom and looked around. Nothing seemed unusual. As I stepped into one of the stalls, I noticed the words “vacation room outside” scribbled on the floor with crayon. The floor in this stall felt very odd. Almost as if there wasn’t anything underneath it. Whatever the case, there was no way to move it but I was positive there was a way to get down there. As I went outside I noticed something quickly dart to the back of the school.

“Wait!” I yelled as I chased after it.

I darted around to the back of the school. The figure had disappeared but it did leave behind a note. I picked it up.

“Mr. Townshend, if you want to save us, the vacation room is open. You have 3 minutes to come down here or else our throats will be slit… One by one.”

Right off the bat, I knew this wasn’t written by any of the kids.

“Sunderland!” I thought. “That bastard. I knew it!"

I ran back into the school and found that the tile that covered up the stall was now opened. There was a staircase leading into a dark basement. There was the sound of some kind of metal scraping against the walls. I reached into my jacket and pulled out a match. I almost vomited. Blood and rust covered the walls and there were entrails, hearts, brains and all sorts of body parts scattered around the floor. There were maggots and cockroaches everywhere. They covered the organs and sucked out their rotten, foul juices. I knew I had to find that creep Sunderland and save those kids. I made my way through the dark basement and kept an eye open. It wasn’t a very large basement. There were two rooms. There was one that was directly underneath the bathroom and another underneath the classroom. As I entered the room underneath the classroom, I found the body of Mr. Townshend tied to a stool. His throat slit and his organs and heart ripped out of his body. Maggots infested his insides. I stood there as my face turned pale… I was in pure terror. How could anyone do such a thing? I wiped away some tears and continued into the darkness. I had to save those kids. I saw Jeff sitting in a stool with his head down. I walked towards him.

“Jeff! What the fuck is this!? Where are the kids!?” I screamed.

Jeff Sunderland just sat there with his head down so I started walking towards him.

“Jeff! Answer me! I’m not going to put up with this shit!”

Jeff continued to sit with his head down. “You piece of shit! I’m calling the police!”

As I reached for my cell, something stabbed me in the back of the legs. I yelped as I fell to the ground. I looked up and saw figures looming over me. Their murky eyes staring me down, their smiles, those unnatural smiles that made my heart stop in shock. One of the figures approaches me. I tried to crawl away quickly.

"No! stay the fuck away from me! Help!" I screamed

I was backed against the wall shrieking in terror as the shadow made its way towards me. He grabbed a blunt object out from behind him and the last thing I remember then was him swinging it at my face and I was knocked out...

I woke up. I was tied to a stool next to Jeff. There were candles surrounding us and this gave me the opportunity to look at Jeff’s body. Jeff’s face was mutilated and his intestines and heart were removed. I felt like vomiting but I was in so much fear that my throat simply choked. My heart was beating erratically and my mind was racing.

“What the fuck!?” I yelled as I tried to free myself.

At that moment, another shadowy figure approached from the darkness. It was James… Eileen’s son.

“James! Run!” I yelled.

“We tricked you Mr. Hitchens” Jeff said.

I looked at him with a puzzled look on my face.

“What are you talking about, James?” I said in a low tone; complexed and trying fit the pieces together.

Jimmy came out of the darkness with the other kids.

James looked at me. “Don’t worry, Mr. Hitchens. You’re going to be on vacation with Mr. Sunderland and Mr. Townshend!”

“What!?” I screamed. So you’re the ones who did that to Mr. Townshend!?”

Jimmy approached me and looked me dead in the eye.

“Yes. And let me tell you, his organs tasted delicious… I’m sure yours will too.”

He pulled a knife out of his pocket and was about to slit my throat when the sound of police sirens were heard. The superintendent came to look for me.

“I’ll be back.” Jimmy said. “If not, I guess the maggots will enjoy your flesh.

With that, he stabbed me in the stomach and slit my gut open. The kids left the room and I along with the stool collapsed to the floor. They may have crushed my cell but the fuckers forgot about my I-pod. If anyone ever finds this, thank god… May those little bastards burn in hell. I think that's enough now... Everything's dark, the dank smell of the room is congesting my nostrils, My heart is pumping slower and slower. My eyes darken as the final glimmer of light from the tiny crack in the ceiling eclipses over my line of sight.