Inside Evil

Chapter 1 - Part II

*Inside Evil and its sequels are available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords and iBooks*

Roberta sifted through the remaining pile of unmarked homework before her. Why she thought teaching would be a great profession evaded her. Her naivety had led her to believe that the fulfilling nature of the job, sharing one’s knowledge and experience with others and helping to shape the next generation, would far outweigh rebellious teens and unruly children. But here, in the midst of her marking nightmare, it was neither of these matters that preyed on her mind. It was one of ongoing paperwork, class plans, complicated syllabuses and league tables. Where had her life gone? It was a Friday night and she was sitting in her office at Ridgewood boarding school without so much as a text inviting her out for a night of drinks and dancing. She was young, single and plagued by the difficult task of trying to keep snotty nosed kids out of bother lest their parents arrived only to cause yet more trouble.

With a sigh she pushed back her chair and stood up.

“Sod it, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

She gave a last glance around the room, flicked off the light and set off towards the staff room. The classrooms and labs of the school were entirely separate from the dorm blocks, making the unlit corridors quiet and eerie. A blanket of clouds outside shut out any light from the moon, and she cursed the lack of lighting as she groped and grasped her way along the usually familiar corridors. Rounding the corner she saw that the light in the staff room was still on. Who would still be here at this hour? Roberta crept up quietly, deciding that the best thing was to try and take a peek at who had stayed behind, and sneak away if it were bore-master and RE teacher Alan. However, she couldn’t see anything through the crack in the door so, with a sudden burst, she pushed it open.

“Roberta, crikey you gave me a fright.” Malcolm Swithburn, the headmaster, gasped and clutched his chest in panic, “I thought everyone had gone, what are you still doing here? It’s a Friday night, haven’t you got plans?”

“I was just finishing some marking, I’m off out now to meet up with some friends,” Roberta lied to save explaining her flagging social life.

“Well I’m glad you’ve got a night planned, I’m up to my ears with work that I can’t even concentrate on, what with the problems we’re having with Vanessa.” He took his small oval glasses off and laid them on the table. He sighed as he rubbed his tired eyes, “I just don’t understand what’s happening to that girl, she was one of our brightest students, someone that was going to go on from here and do big and wonderful things. But this –,” he looked down at the papers in front of him, “this is a complete waste, there’s nothing here in any of her recent work that shows her old spark, it’s simply gone.” He looked up at Roberta hopefully, “You haven’t had any luck with her have you?”

“I’ve tried, I really have, but I just can’t get through to her. It’s like talking to a ghost, the Vanessa we all knew has just vanished. She’s non-existent in classes, just staring off into space, and it’s no point keeping her behind either because she’s just the same. It’s so awful to see. Nobody’s mentioned the word yet, but I think a lot of us are thinking it.”

“You think it’s drugs,” Malcolm commented with a sigh and nod. “It’s crossed my mind too but we’ve never found anything, and we can’t just go storming in with accusations. Her parents would be all over us like a rash, not to mention the invasion of privacy for her, especially if nothing’s found.” He stared back to the papers in front of him and scratched his wrinkled forehead. “No, we have to play it by the book and just keep persevering. It’s all we can do. Though I don’t know if it’s going to work. I mean, we’ve already let her move into the school which we don’t usually do for locals. She seemed happier to start with, but it hasn’t lasted very long.”