Into the Darkness Second Draft

Vanished

Doug slouched in his seat, trying to hide from the wandering gaze of his English teacher, Mr. Baker.

"Who can tell me how The Jungle Book displays British Imperialism?"

A number of hands shot up, and Doug sank further into his seat. He had hated the book, thought it was beneath him, thought it was too much of a kid's story. Instead of focusing on the lesson, he half listened to Samantha's response as he worked on shading the dragon he was drawing in his notebook with his colored pencils.

"Baloo represents the British empire, teaching, and enforcing the British law on Mowgli, the..."

"That's a nice dragon Mr. Fent."

Doug started, not realizing that Mr. Baker stood over him. "Uh, thanks?" Doug offered.

"Are we boring you?"

"No sir, it's just-" Doug looked around at the other students in the room, all watching him. "I mean, I just didn't like the book."

"That's fine, you do not have to like every book you read, did you finish it?"

"Yes sir."

"That's something then. Seeing as you like to draw, maybe you'll enjoy the movie more. Disney took some liberties with the story, and Baloo seems more like colonial America than Imperial Britain, but I think most of the themes still show through."

Doug suppressed a groan. They were going to watch it now too?

Mr. Baker went back to his desk where he pressed a button. The projector whirred to life, and the familiar Disney Castle appeared on the projector screen. As their teacher took his seat behind his desk, Samantha poked him in the back.

"Wake me when class is over."

"K," Doug said and returned to the dragon before him.

After a few minutes, Jakob, who sat in front of Doug, stood up and walked to the back of the room, his hand drifting to the light switch.

Mr. Baker looked up from the paper he was grading and shouted "No!" but it was too late. Jakob flipped the switch, and the room plunged into darkness; only light from the projector provided illumination.

"But I can't see." Jakob's statement was punctuated by a piercing shriek and a loud thud. The young man immediately turned the lights back on, but Mr. Baker was gone, his wooden chair lying on its side.

As the children argued about what had happened, the classroom door opened to reveal Ms. Francis from the room next door. "What's going on in here? Where's Mr. Baker?"

Christen, one of the girls from the front of the room started to cry and three of the boys spoke at once.

"Ok, calm down," Ms. Francis said, "Jakob, why are you out of your seat?"

For all of his normal confidence, Jakob looked pale and confused. "Uh, we were watching The Jungle Book and I couldn't see it. I was, I was turning off the lights," he managed to stammer.

"Ok, take your seat. Does anyone know where Mr. Baker is?"

"He was right there when the lights went out," sobbed Christen.

"He couldn't have just vanished."

Ms. Francis walked further into the room, righted Mr. Baker's chair and et out a small shriek of her own as she caught sight of the paperwork on his desk. Visibly shaking, she directed the students to 'sit quietly and watch the movie,' and rushed out of the room.

Hushed whispers erupted throughout the classroom.

"What did you do, Jakob?" Christen accused, as she blew her nose.