Chapter 6 The Terrible Search
Elias pov
"Have you seen her? Her name is Marn Cooper, sixteen and brunette,"
This was the time that I was still looking for my classmate, and that morning I had already shown about four students, and the most I got was a brief reaction: a student's eyes focusing on the printed picture for a moment and then it looked like a curtain had closed behind their eyes.
"She really doesn't look that familiar.." the student said and started sweating even though the temperature of the hallway was artificially controlled and cool at that moment.
"Are you sure she doesn't look familiar at all take another and you might-"
"Why don't you just quit? I told you that I don't recognize the girl in the picture, why are you trying to force it into my mouth?" the other student said hysterically and then without even waiting for a response from me, ran down the hallway as if he was infectious.
I did not want to give up, I kept moving from one student to the next and when it was time for class he settled down at his desk and asked the teacher if I could hold up the picture to see if anybody might have seen her recently.
The calculus teacher took off her glasses and said; "Mr Hale, we are currently learning right now I can't have you interrupting the class for something like that,"
I felt something go tight and rigid inside him when she said that. As if I had asked to interrupt the class in order to tell a joke rather than announce that one of their classmates was missing and if anybody had some info on her.
" It won't only be for a minute, ma’am. Nothing more than I just want to know if somebody can tell me-"
" Didn't you hear me the first time, young man? I am not letting you interrupt my class What I am teaching right now is going to go into your final grade so maybe you should be more worried about that instead of-"
" Mrs Gables..." Haley said from her seat, where she was filing her nails and not even looking up from them when she regarded the teacher And almost immediately the teacher reflexively turned to Hayley as if a string had been pulled
"Yes?" Her voice was so low you would think that she was learning how to use it for the first time. There was a stark difference between the way she spoke to me and how she spoke to Haley, and I had a good feeling that it was part of her intention when she called out to the teacher.
" Why don't you let him make the announcement, teacher? To roll, all of us are really worried about Martha... What was her name again? Anyways it won't be any harm and it will just take a minute just like he said right Elias?"
She looked at me with a smile that he had filed in my head as something far too similar to his snake learning how to smile like a human, and for some unexplainable reason she was actually on my side. I knew better than to believe that she was doing this for good but I had to take advantage of what had been given to me.
I stood up and he went to the front of the classroom holding up the picture of the missing student and showing it to the others that were present at their desk he held it up so that everyone could get a better look and then he said; " If anyone here has spoken to her Before she went missing or has any idea of where she could be I would really appreciate it if they came forward and told me. I'm worried about her,"
"Why are you so bothered about this chick? Is she your girlfriend or something?"
"No, she isn't She is a friend and a classmate who has gone missing, and like any other normal person I am worried about her and her whereabouts since nobody seems to know where she is,"
The longest silence took over the classroom, nobody whispered to each other and I was about to drop the picture when somebody said; " Didn't you pick on her before?"
Again there was this ridiculous assumption first from the private detective and now from a classmate, Had they all simultaneously decided that they would go on hallucinogens because that was the only explanation?
"... I never bullied Marn, I was the one who-"
" Okay maybe you didn't exactly bully her but there were some times that your teasing went a little too far didn't it?" Another student chipped in an imaginary piece of info that never happened.
" Um I don't understand what you are saying, I didn't pick on her I never-"
" Okay, that is enough Mr Hale, and also more than one minute might I add, Go back to your seat and I don't want any more disturbances after this."
I returned to my seat, but from the corner of my eye I could catch Haley wearing a smug smile. It hit me like a Thunderbolt that this was her intention in the first place For me to step up and then be humiliated with lies that were completely fabricated.
I thought then that if I couldn't get the truth from people then I would have to find it somewhere else, in records that had not been manipulated yet.
Went to the library that night because I knew that I was going to be up for a long time going through the schools archive, Most of the database Existed in software But some diligent Workers were determined to keep as much as they could on paper And that was what I was scavenging through until I found a clue, It was an article from the school newspaper marked a year ago and it read; Students found in the auditorium have fallen into a coma.
