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Mrs. Fiona McDonald sighed thankfully has the last of her students ran out of her classroom on Friday afternoon. Spring had finally arrived after a very long and hard winter and every single student at Maple Grove Elementary School had a severe case of Spring Fever. Talking, fidgeting, whispering and note passing had been at all an all time high this morning and Fiona decided her students would have the rest of the afternoon off if they could behave themselves during Geography class. It worked like a charm.
It had been interesting to watch the students interact with each other. The girls had bee lined to the costumes and set up an elaborate princess tea party while the boys played with cars, dinosaurs and the army men, except for Dean Winchester. Dean Winchester had pulled out a battered book and disappeared into the reading nook, a small corner of her classroom that had a beanbag chair and two small bookcases crammed with books that she had bought over the years.
Dean Winchester had been a problem straight from the start. He moved into the school district after Christmas and made no effort to fit in. He didn’t make any friends and didn’t play with the other children during recess, lunchtime or after school. At first she thought the boy was shy because it wasn’t easy coming to a new school halfway through the school year and she had spoken to him, and that particular conversation had been an eye opener.
I don’t see the point in making friends. My dad told me we are moving to Texas when school finishes. No one is going to remember me next September.
Dean’s painful words rang true. He missed the classroom photos in October and her students would slowly forget him over the summer and by Halloween he would be completely forgotten. She made of point of taking a picture of Dean at Easter so she would remember him.
Fiona shook her head at the mess in the classroom; her students had been more concerned about escaping than cleaning up. Cars, dinosaurs, army men and assorted teapots went back into the toys bins and the princess costumes and assorted sundries were packed away in the small wardrobe she had bought a flea market several years ago.
She gave the reading nook a quick look and blinked in surprise when she saw a single book on the floor and frowned when she picked it up. It wasn’t one of her books. This book was very old judging by the cracked spine, faded words on the front cover and yellow pages. She flipped open the book and blinked in surprise at the detailed picture of a pentagram on the cover page. She frowned has she read the list of the previous owners: Bishop John Francis McKay, Andrew Turpin, Sister Marie Stillwell, Antoine Gallo, Pastor Jim Murphy and the book newest owner: Dean Winchester.
A chill went over her has she slowly started to flip through the book. It was filled with terrible pictures of humans battling monsters and demons and in turn, humans being tortured by monsters and demons. In the margins, there were tiny handwritten notes that she didn’t understand. What on earth is the Rituale Romanum? The Fifth Pentacle of Mars? A Devil’s Trap? The Key of Solomon? What in God’s name was Dean Winchester reading? This was the stuff of nightmares.
The classroom door suddenly crashed open and Dean Winchester flew into her room followed by a young boy, presumably his brother. Dean ran straight to his desk and emptied it out by dropping everything on the floor.
Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Dean cursed frantically as he pawed through his stuff. “Shit, it’s not here!” Dean suddenly kicked the pile and papers, books and pencils went flying everywhere. “Damn it! Dad’s gonna to kill me!”
“Dean, why don’t I tell Dad that I lost the book? Dad won’t hit me you know,” the younger boy said slowly twisting his fingers nervously. John never raised a hand to Sam but Dean was fair game as far as dad was concerned.
“Don’t you dare Sammy!” Dean snapped back at his brother. “Don’t you ever try and take a punishment meant for me. I’m the one who lost Pastor’s Jim book, not you. Dad told me not to take the book out of the apartment and I disobeyed a direct order and I deserve what is coming to me.”
Fiona went cold at the implication and alarm bells started to ring in her head and she decided to make her presence known. She cleared her throat and both boys jumped at the sound.
“Dean, I found your book. You left it on the floor in the reading nook,” she said gently holding the book.
“Thanks,” Dean muttered stuffing the book into his backpack and refusing to look her in the eyes, his face red with shame. Sam darted a quick look at her then looked away.
Fiona studied the two boys in front of her. Sam’s clothes were at least two sizes too big for him and Dean’s clothes were tight across the body and their shoes were worn and scuffed. Both boys looked tired with deep smudges under their eyes that spoke of sleepless nights and a hard life.
“Sam, why don’t you get some water?” Fiona suggested gently and Sam gave his brother an unhappy look before leaving the classroom.
“Dean you know you can talk to me or any of the other teachers if you are having problems at home, right? We’re here to help you,” Fiona said in a compassionate voice. She reached out to touch Dean reassuringly but Dean flinched violently and took a quick step backwards.
“Look, I over reacted,” Dean said in a panicky voice, his green eyes full of fear. “It’s a really valuable book and my dad doesn’t like it when I lose my stuff, okay?”
“Dean-”
“Look I gotta go. Dad doesn’t like it when we’re late from school; it’s not safe after dark,” Dean said abruptly, grabbing his backpack and running out of the room like the hounds of Hell were after him.
“Oh Dean,” Fiona said in a sad voice to an empty classroom. She ignored the mess on the floor and went to the Principal’s office to report a suspected case of child abuse.
Dean and Sam Winchester never showed up for school on Monday morning.
End