*****

“—and to be honest, I don’t even know what a jerknut is. But yeah, long story short, that’s how you solve polynomials. Now who wants to learn how to make some Leyden cheese?! The secret is in the—” Patrick Wells cut his story short Eileen came back, repeatedly knocking—nearly punching—the door. He looked over and sighed, “Come in.”

“Thanks for covering for me, man,” she sighed.

“No prob. You should leave your room more often.” He turned to the class, “Take calc, guys! Peace!” He left and headed for the room across the hall, knowing that as soon as he got back to his desk, he could get back to his Shapeshifting Recluse.

“Okay!” Eileen returned to her class. “Erase everything you have written down, we’re adding some more characteristics to the board: glowing, sensory confusion, and emotional frazzle. And be sure to focus on how to deal with the encounter. That is our main goal in this class, after all.”

“White Demon?” “Marion Marley?” “Lectrica?” “Wait, emotional frazzle and sensory confusion could actually be combined into possession, couldn’t they?” “The sensory confusion could be an effect of the White Demon, though. That’s what it was mainly known for.” “Yeah, but Marion Marley fits everything. Plus, it’s had the most number of hideous encounters. “In that case, I don’t think there would be any way to deal with an encounter.” “Yeah, every victim just gets scarred for life.”

Eileen couldn’t decide whether to grimace, smile, frown, or bawl into a trashcan. Ever word shook and trembled. “Oh, it makes me so proud to see all my students showing such passion in a subject! Alright, for the rest of class, let’s get a start on chapter six, and keep our essential question in mind as you read, okay? I still have some Dorian Gray analyses to look over, so be sure to work quietly, ask your peers before me if you have any questions, and let’s keep the interruptions to a minimum, please and thank you!”

*****

“Alright Morgan, trivia question: what is the log-two of sixty-four?” Patrick sat back in the teachers’ lounge, feet up on the table.

“Ooh, fun! You’re grading papers? Let’s see how all your kiddos shine!”

“A few are doing well, but logs are tripping everyone up. I think I need to play more Math Rangers videos.”

“What episode are you on?”

“The Case of the Cannibalized Composite.”

“Ooh, I just watched that one! Sort of saw it coming that Seven ate Nine, he was the prime suspect after all.”

Their conversation had been cut short, as their train of thought derailed from the incoherent mumblings and scratchy scribblings of the spirits teacher across from them. She had been dwelling on the tiny details for the whole day, which wasn’t uncommon for Eileen to do; although this time, it was on a much more intense scale.

“What, she loves Vivian with all her heart but when it comes to me, I’m just someone she’d ‘hate to see something happen to’? Things happening are the best things to happen. What does she know? What does she even do? Supply tissues when we run out? I can do that without her! I’ve got tissues stuffed in my sock drawer at h—and now my freaking pen is out of ink, goddammit!”

Patrick muttered, “I can tell what you’re thinking, Morgan. Let it blow off. She doesn’t need any extra—”

“Do I hear the empathetic Practical Patrick” Eileen yelled. “What words of wisdom is he giving off today?”

Morgan slid a chair over and patted Eileen on the back. Her voice was calm and soothing, like a meditation instructor’s. “How’s it going, Eileen? You seem a bit high-strung.”

“I am—” her words were mixed in with emotional aspirations of crying and laughter “—the h-lowest strung I have ever been, Morgan. I don’t have any strings wrapped around me, thank you very much! I’m just a floppy ragdoll barely strong enough to keep her arms from h-unraveling!”

Morgan scooted in closer and touched Eileen’s back, resisting any attempt to drag it off. “Eileen, breathe.”

“I h-always breathe.”

“Okay, but this time let’s do it voluntarily. Breathe in.”

“I know how to breathe.”

“Just do what I say. Breathe in.” The two of them slowly inhaled together. “Breathe out.” And they slowly breathed out. “Breathe in—hands on your belly, ‘Leen—breathe in.” Sffffffff. “Breathe out.” Hfffffff. “One more time, okay? Breathe in.” Sffffffff. “Breathe out.” Hfffffff. “That’s how I always start my classes. Everything just slows down after that. Feeling any less tense now?”

“Yes,” Eileen admitted, still bouncing her leg out of instinct. Yet her tone grew more meek and meager. “Can I have one of your cookies? Please?”

Morgan had no time to react, as Eileen grabbed one and downed the entire thing, at which point she slowly returned to a calmer state.

“Everything’s just happening so fast. Everything was the same, day after day after day. School, Everoak, home, sleep. She comes in, it’s just—New things excite me. I mean, my only friends were Vivi and Matt before you and Pat came along, but now I’ve gotten so used to you that you’re getting as mundane as them.”

“Thanks maybe.”

“But now, things are happening to me, and I literally can’t rest because of it. I’m not obsessed, for your information,” she tapped her hands on the table, “I have good reasons to feel this way. Reasons I just can’t…” she paused for several seconds, either thinking of what to say or fearing what she would have said, “…think you’d care about.”

“You really are Matt’s cousin,” Patrick said.

“Last time I checked, Patrick, I didn’t ask for feedback from the dead subjects department!” She turned back to Morgan. “Some people have no respect for what’s going on in other people’s lives, you kn—I just felt that.” A shocked Eileen momentarily lost where she was. She jerked her head around the room, her voice rising and muscles tightening. “Did you feel something? It’s like when you’re just about to fall asleep and you’re starting to dream but like in your dream you trip on a curb and you fall over and you flinch and wake up for that second? H-what is going h-on?” She stood and swiveled her body around. Sweat poured from her forehead, everything inside her ran double-time. There was no use trying to breathe to calm down again; her breaths were faster than a panting dog’s. “H-excuse me for a second,” she squeaked, “I need to get a new pen for my notebook.”

Eileen blasted herself through the hallway at a speed that would make even the strictest hall monitor give up. She drifted across the corners of the hall like a racecar and slammed on her breaks as she got up to the cafeteria entrance. With her hands innocently folded behind her back, she kindly pranced inside and looked for that certain janitor again. Once she locked eyes, she picked up the speed but kept her innocent demeanor, masking any kind of horror that must have been brewing up within.

Natalie was in the corner, leaning against a wall, more confused than happy to see Eileen this time. “We just keep bumping into each other, huh?” Every time they did, Natalie’s surprise kept gradually lowering. This time, it was the surprise of getting socks on her birthday.

“Yeah, crazy. I…” Eileen looked up and squinted. “I forgot what I was going to say. …Mmmmmmmmmmar…ley. Marion Marley. That’s a person. You know? Do? You? Know? Of them?

Do Plainwooders just have a different language that just really sounds like English? “I mean…” Natalie trailed off. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m gonna be honest, I’m having trouble remembering what okay feels like anymore! Do you think it would suck to be an acrophobic acrobat?” Each word she strained out of her mouth was filled to the brim with audible pain and fear.

“Eileen! Do you need me to call Vivian?!”

“Of course you have Vivian’s number but not mine! I wouldn’t be surprised if you have Kyle’s too! No thanks, I’m not sick, just confused. Have you heard of the Marion Marley story? It’s a terrific story. Possessions were happening all over, sort it of just a like it now is blur, you know?” She burst out in one quick, abrupt laugh, then sharply exhaled. “I need another cookie!”

At that moment, Eileen promptly turned back towards the teachers’ lounge, trying to figure out why she wanted to go down and see Natalie again in the first place. Maybe it was the fact that facing your problems head-on would make them more easily digestible and confrontable. Maybe it was the fact that she was trying to get some more information on this mysterious new person in her life and to perpetuate her disbelief of coincidences. Maybe she was just in desperate need reassurance, in desperate need seeing something familiar she could rely on.