CURSED

The Fool

One, two, three, four....
sixteen, seventeen, eighteen....
twenty.

Hehe.

Wrong order.

Who will die first?

🌸 WATANABE RISA

He was gone. I closed my eyes and opened them afterwards only to see that he was gone. Gone as in gone. He disappeared; faded away as if he had never existed before. Like every single class would react when a teacher disappeared into nothingness, nobody said a word and continued to stare at the blackboard.

Sugai Sensei looked at the empty spot as well and swallowed the lump in her throat. She scratched the back of her neck and confusedly shook her head, awkwardly staring at the class.

"Where did Shiraishi Sensei go?" her voice seemed overpowered by doubt.

Someone started laughing, uncontrollably, for fear had taken over her entire existence.

"Maybe he left?" Suzumoto, the girl who sat next to me exclaimed, unsure about her credibility. Sugai Sensei looked from left to right and nodded slowly.

"I'll check it out." Sugai Sensei nodded and turned around, she seemed entirely pulled out of her comfort zone. How could one explain the sudden disappearance of a middle- aged man when he stood lecturing an entire class. Shiraishi Sensei was mad at us for being disrespectful students.

He had called us brats, worms, idiots and people who should be thrown in jail for being immensely cruel to the teachers. Of course he was overreacting and stupid for even believing the teachers.

Sugai Sensei, the substitute teacher,  stood by the door now, her hand on the knob, trying to open it.

"Its.... " the class was still silent, a rare moment that should be cherished, "The door, I can't open it."

Someone groaned and jumped up, looking at her peers and showing her white, shimmering teeth. "Stop fooling around. This joke isn't funny anymore." It was Ozeki and she was running to the door right now, almost tripping along the way. She pushed the teacher away and tried to open it herself.

The result was quite unanimous, for Ozeki had to turn around and walk back to her seat, dropping her body on that chair and keeping her eyes glued to her desk. "It's locked."

People start talking right now, but I couldn't do anything but stare at the teacher. Poor her, to be stuck in one room with Keyaki.

"Everybody please remain calm. I'm sure this is just a prank. Let's continue with Math and wait for the door to open."

"Sensei?" a soft, timid voice tried getting noticed in the crowd. Luckily for that girl, Sugai Sensei had a thing for students who kept themselves in the background.

"Yes?" Sugai Sensei laid down her marker and tried to open the door again. It refused to open. "Uemura isn't it?"

"Yes. I... urm.... " she cleared her throat and stood up, looking at all of us. "I just noticed that there's a vase on..." she pointed at the desk next to the window, on the last row. Everybody turned their head and I rolled my eyes.

"So what? There's a vase on Yuipon desk?" Nagasawa pushed her best friend and grinned. "Someone must have missed her, right?" She wiggled her eyebrows and looked around.

"Shut up, idiot." Moriya stood up and walked to the desk. She got the vase and turned it upside down, there was no flower in it.

"Who put the vase here?" Moriya was known for her.... assertive way of handling situations.