Although the little girl's playmates were afraid to face Creepy Valderos themselves, they couldn't overcome their curiosity.

So the children found a hedgerow from where they'd have a good view of the situation, without being too close. They crouched behind it and anxiously watched as Maya made her way towards the object of their fear.

The distance between them was too far to hear anything. But they could see she was uneasy from the way she'd started hopping from foot to foot.

They'd seen her do it before.

That was the way she'd behaved in front of her mom the time she threw a racket through a neighbour's window. Maya wanted to prove it was made of real glass and not plastic.

Her reward for being right was a round of spanking right then and there by her own mother.

The uneasy hopping was also the move Maya'd pulled in front of the principal when the latter called her to his office after Maya locked the physical education teacher in the toilets so they could play whatever game they wanted that period.

All of them knew Maya had been thrown out of her previous school for the same reason. Her mom had even threatened to send her to a special training facility for children instead of allowing her to continue her studies the last time she was called in by a teacher as a result of Maya's pranks.

As expected, the principal brought up expulsion after this hundredth transgression.

So, to sum things up: Maya dancing on her feet meant that she believed something bad was about to happen to her.

The kids pondered whether they should call a teacher over. However, the idea was dropped as soon as it came to mind. And for good reason.

Sure, Maya was annoying and loud. She often treated them like babies. Just like earlier when she called them a bunch of scaredy-cats just because they confessed they were afraid of what Creepy Valderos might do to them for disturbing him.

Nonetheless, they had to admit that Maya was one of the bravest humans they'd ever met. And she was also especially strong for her young age.

As such, seeing how she suddenly seemed scared in front of Creepy Valderos, the other kids couldn't help but be anxious.

Valderos was pretty famous in their year, after all.

Looking at the boy sit still on the grass with his arms wrapped around his knees as he stared up at Maya, his long hair hiding his eyes like those female ghosts in movies, they were once again hit by the reasons why he was so creepy in their eyes.

There were many strange things about Valderos.

Firstly, no one knew what his family name was since none of the subject teachers ever used his last name.

This was quite peculiar because it was customary for all teaching staff to address their students by their family names.

So when they learnt that Valderos was his first name and not his family name, they were both shocked and confused.

Even if he was an orphan with no family name, the orphanage name prefixed with "of" would have been used instead since it served to convey a sense of belonging as well.

Inevitably, many suspected that the teachers disliked him.

Addressing a student by showing they belonged somewhere was a sign of respect, after all.

That's where the second issue came.

Valderos couldn't have been mistreated by the teachers. It was clear in their behaviour. Most of them paid particular attention to him. They seemed to care for him more than they did the other students.

It was almost as though they were family members doting on their favourite child.

This unfair treatment caused some to be jealous, because Valderos had somehow obtained their favour even though he was terrible at studying, communicating and was overall an unattractive kid.

In their eyes, the way Valderos was treated didn't make sense. It was a private school. Even the grandson of the principal didn't receive such care from the teaching staff.

As if that wasn't already weird enough, Valderos always kept to himself.

It wasn't even like he was just quiet and timid.
Valderos stayed in a corner. He purposely isolated himself from everyone else.

He didn't talk to anyone. He didn't respond to the teachers verbally either. Furthermore, he never looked anyone in the eye. In fact, because his hair always covered half of his face, no one even knew what his eyes looked like.

This caused additional rumours to spread about him.

Eventually, the students evolved from giving him a mysterious background to creating a far more unsettling identity for the student named Valderos.

At first, it was said that he was a ghost and had possessed an innocent child to live amongst humans.

But then the children started noticing how he always seemed to be watching from a corner. They couldn't see his eyes, but from the direction his face pointed at, it was evident he was staring at them.

The more the students shared their doubts, the more children grew uneasy in his presence.

Word kept spreading and the rumours worsened.

In the end, most eventually agreed that Creepy Valderos was in fact a monster. He disguised himself as a child and went to school to find preys.

It became common knowledge that their teachers acted differently towards him because they'd looked him in the eyes. Valderos must have used his powers to trap their souls and make them his puppets. That was the most plausible explanation.

According to the stories going around, adults had a higher chance of catching him, so he neutralized them in whatever way possible before putting his plans in action. They even suspected he used those puppets to help him trap his preys.

When it came to children... Well, Creepy Valderos must have particular tastes in food. Maybe he was searching for one child specifically.

They'd heard from the principal's grandson that Creepy Valderos had been to many schools before theirs. They agreed that the reason for this was because once Creepy Valderos caught the child he desired, he left the school and enrolled in another one.

As a monster, he had to cover his tracks. He couldn't afford anyone obtaining proof that his kind still existed!

They'd told their parents about it before but none of them believed it was true.

Now that the children were aware that Creepy Valderos had the power to make obedient puppets of adults, they were relieved that their parents hadn't taken any action against him. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to them!

A thought suddenly crossed the children's minds. They looked at one another's faces simultaneously.

They'd often caught the Monster looking their way in school. Maya suspected he simply wanted to join them. According to her, he was probably too shy to make the first move.

Luckily, they managed to stop her from inviting him over to their friend group after much persuasion.

However, in his moment, after a month or so of being miserable from feeling the constant gaze of the school's Monster on them, they came to a frightening realization.

All this time, Creepy Valderos hadn't been staring at them.

Creepy Valderos had been staring at their friend.

Their eyes doubled in size. They stared at one another's faces with the same terrified expression.

In that exact instant, an ear-piercing scream rang out, causing the birds to fly away.

Maya!

The children immediately whipped their heads around.

The fearless Maya was running away at a speed they never expected possible even for her.

Her cries didn't stop no matter how far she'd gotten.

They slowly turned back to where she was standing.

Their breaths were shallow. Their faces drained of all colours. Cold sweat ran down their backs.

Creepy Valderos hadn't moved from his sitting position.

Their ball was still next to him.

However, the head of Creepy Valderos was no longer looking up. It was now tilted to the side as it faced the direction Maya had taken.

In the silence of the freshly fallen night, with a dim light shining on his small figure shrouded in darkness, Creepy Valderos looked exactly like what he was:

A monster trying to learn how to act humane.

The unsettling feeling of confusion this slight tilt of the head gave off caused shivers to run down the children's spine.

They had to tell someone!

Even if the other teachers were under the monster's control, Miss Betzy hadn't been caught yet. They were sure of it given that she was the only teacher who treated treated Creepy Valderos the same way she treated the other children.

It made sense. Miss Betzy was the only zostrek teacher in school; there was no doubt she was strong enough to fight off a monster.

It must have been her warrior strength that kept her safe to this point.

Now that they had evidence, they could tell her everything they knew. She would believe them and the monster wouldn't have time to target them since she'd have already defeated him.

None of them doubted that Miss Betzy would listen to them and do something to help Maya, who'd just been attacked by the monster.

Miss Betzy was the only one who could protect all of them from him right now!

Armed with this conviction, all of them ran to the teacher's room while making sure Creepy Valderos didn't notice they'd witnessed the entire scene.