Abel Hayes and the dark phoenix

Every one else seemed to be at ease though. Several selfie sticks were drawn and duck faces were made.

Most of the guys were trying to pee into the ocean. Sansa Ellis and her dumb friend were busy cursing loudly at the drivers passing, and, of course, Mr. Weber somehow didn't notice any of it

Vere and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the other students.

We thought that maybe then, no one woul asociate us with brain cell deficient classmates.

'Detention?' Vere asked.

'No,' I said. 'Kamau would never. I just wish he wasnt so intense. I mean – I wouldn't be here if I was a genius.'

Vere didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some encouraging speech to make me feel better, he said, 'Can I have your carrot cake?'

I didn't have much of an appetite, and I had always thought carrot cake tasted wrong so I let him have it.

I watched the surface of the water shimmer like it was made out of glitter, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a few miles from where I was right now. I hadn't seen her since the beginning of the school term.

I wanted so bad to jump in a cab and head

home right into her arms. She'd hug me tightly and kiss my forehead, but than she'd also be sad.

She'd excort me right back and beg me to try harder, remind me that this was my eighth school in nine years and that there weren't many options left.

I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me so I'd give in, promising to do better.

Mr Kamau finally stepped out of the bus and joined us on the left side of the bridge. He ate Onion rings while reading a hard cover historical novel.

This time he was using his strange old redwood cane, making him look a bit more ancient and scholarly.

Now I was minding my own business, about to throw my donut wrapper away when Sansa Ellis appeared in front of me with her cronies – I guess she'd gotten bored of flicking off other tourist and shouting obscenities – and dumped her

Peanut butter sandwich lunch in Vere's hair.

'Oops.' She flashed me faceful of her with her stained teeth. Her beady eye danced with playfyl cruelty, as if I needed any other reason to think that she was pure evil.

I tried to stay calm. My therapist had always told me, 'Go to your happy place and let your anger go.' But I was so mad that all my rational thoughts fizzled out.

My vision went red with rage.

I swear I didnt touch Sansa, but the next thing I knew, Sansa was dangling in the air, held be one of the aluminium cables that had suddenly detached the bridge, screaming,

'Abel did this!'

Ms Weber suddenly appeared next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering with excitement: 'Did you see –'

'– the cable –'

'– like it grabbed her –'

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that Ms Weber wouldnt pass this chance to punish me.

As soon as she was sure sweet little Sansa was okay, promising to get her a pretzel at the school cafeteria, etc., etc., Ms Weber turned on me. There was a creepy smile on her face, as she had finally gotten the chance been waiting for since the term beagb.

'Come with me,' Mrs Weber said.

'Wait!' Vere yelled. 'Abel didnt push her, everyone here saw.'

I stared at him, pleasantly surprised. I couldn't believe he was actually trying

to defend for me. He had wet his pants once because of Ms. Weber.

But she shot him a look so evil his hair stood up on end and he was silent again.

'That's enough from you, Mr Arwen,' she said.

'But he didnt –'

'Enough.'

Vere looked at me panickedly, he was really shaken for some reason, like my life was in danger.

'It's okay,' I told him. 'What's another month of detention.'

'Dear,' Ms Weber warned. 'My patience is not limitless.'

I didnt know what was worse, the entire classes pitying stares, or Sansa Ellis's nasty smirk.

I gave her a look of pure hatred before turning to follow Ms Weber into the bus.

I was expecting her to be right behind me, but she wasn't there. She was suddenly prowling impatiently in the bus, gesturing impatiently at me to hurry.

I could have sworn I didn't hear any footsteps.

How'd she get there so quickly?

I had weird moments like that alot, when things that didn't really make sense to me happened in realtime, and I was ledt feeling like I had missed something, as if something else happened abd my brain refused to register it.

The school shrink told me that a lot of 'special' children like me went through this, that our overly imaginative minds were misinterpreting things.

I didn't believe him.

I stepped into the bus.

Halfway through the door, I glanced back at Vere. He was sweating so much that his clothes were practically wet, his eyes frantically moved between me and Mr Kamau, like he desperately wanted Mr Kamua to stop what was happening, but

Mr Kamau was too busy unboxing his lunch.

Ms Weber gestured for me to take one of the empty seats when I finally caught up to her.

Then she peered down at me with a menacingly, as if she already didnt look intimidating enough.

At the moment she was looking at one of Mr Kamau's souvenirs from the museum gift shop.

It was a creepy looking carved ancient mask, the mask of Yhi, the water goddess, Mr Kamau had called it.

And apparently Ms Weber was not a fan. She was making this weird angry noise in her throat, like screeching.

Even without the weird screech, Ms Weber was scary enough. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially on that looked like the blair witch.

There was something creepy about the way she looked at the mask, as if she

wanted to torture it the worst way imaginable…

'You have not made our lives easy, Abel Hayes,' she said.

Faking an apologetic tone, I said, 'Yes, ma'am.'

She peeled of the gold bangles on her wrist. 'Did you really think you wouldn't suffer for your crime?'

The look in her eyes was beyond furious. It was murderous. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. Shes not going to hurt me.

I said, 'I'm – I'm sorry, ma'am.'

The bus became eerily quiet, I could'nt hear the dumb chatter of my mates, or the sounds of the passing cars anymore.

'Your luck has run out,' Mrs Ellis said. 'It was only a matter of time before we found you, thief. Give us what we desire, and you will be granted a swift and painless death.'

Okay,l now she had lost me, I had no idea what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've somehow found the illegal stash of firecrackers I'd been selling out of my dorm room.

Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Hamlet from an ai chat bot without ever reading the play and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they

were going to make me read every grueling, depressing chapter.

'Well?' she demanded.

'Ms Weber, I don't understand…'

'Suffer then,' she hissed. Then the strangest

happened. Her body contorted and expanded into the monstrous form of a Yowie—a creature I recognised from both Mr Kamau's stories and the museum.

Her shriveled fingers darkened and stretched, turning into razor sharp claws.

Her jacket melted into a thick, furry pelt.

She wasn't remotely human anymore. She was a furry beast with glowing red eyes, talons, and a mouth full of crooked yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me inti several clean cut pieces of Abel.

Then things got even weirder.

One of our bus windows shattered and glass flew everywhere.

An object shot into the bus through the window and clanged against one of the metal arm rests before falling down.the window.

Ms Weber lunged at me.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt her claws cleanly slice through the metallic seats like a knife through butter next to my ear. Panicking I reached out blindly to grab anything I could, my hands closed around a long wooden object.

It was what had been thrown into the bus moments earlier, it was Mr Kamau's redwood cane.

But when, it touched my hand, it wasn't a cane anymore. It was a longspear.

Ms Weber barreled towards me with a light of mad glee in her eyes.

My knees turned into tofu. My hands were shaking so slippery with sweat that I almost dropped the spear.

She snarled, 'Perish!'

And she lunged straight at me.

A crippling wave of terror ran through my body. I did the only thing my instincts were telling me to do: I thrust the spear.

The metallic blade of the spear stabbed her in the gut and passed clean through her body as if she were transparent.

Hisss!

Ms Weber's body exploded into a flurry of crimson light. Burning into a yellow sulfurous powder, evaporating on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of acrid smoke, a despairing yell and eerie chill in the air.

I was alone.

I was holding a Cane.

The hole that had been smashed into the bus window wasn't there anymore.

My hands were still trembling. Some one must have thought it was funny to spike my lunch with happy pills or something.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I went back outside to join the rest of the class.

It was getting dark.

Mr Kamau directed everyone back into the bus and Vere took his seat besides me.

Sansa Ellis shot me a dirty look before she took her seat at the front of the bus. She was covered in soot and dirt and was grumbling to her ugly friends.

When she passed me, she sneered, 'Hope Mr bright chewed you out.'

I said, 'Who?'

'Our grammer teacher. Dumbass!'

I blinked, more confused than annoyed. When had anyone called Mr Bright thought at our school.

I asked Sansa if her autism had returned.

She just rolled her eyes and turned away.

I asked Vere where Ms Weber was. He said, 'Who?'

But he had always been a crappy liar. He stuttered the way he always did when he felt guilty and he wouldn't look at me, so I

thought he was trying prank me.

'Not cool, man,' I told him. 'This is serious.'

Our bus hit a speed bumb and all us were suddenly jolted.

I saw Mr Kamau was leaning on one of the grab rails, reading his book as if he'd been doing that this entire time.

I went over to him.

He looked up, a little confounded. 'Ah, My cane, thank you for returning it Mr Hayes.'

I woodenly handed it to him. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

'Sir,' I said, 'where's Ms Weber?'

He stared at me blankly. 'Who?'

'Our grammar teacher. Ms Weber.'

He frowned, fixed his glasses and leaned forward at me, looking concerned.

'Abel, the only teachers on this trip are myself and Mr Bright. As far as I know,

there has never been a Ms Weber at Vida Academy.

Are you all right, my boy?'

I was used to blacking out and the occasional weird moment, but this was something else for me. My memories(trauma) for Ms Weber were fresh in my mind and yet everyone was telling me that she had never existed?

For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be messing with me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mr Bright – an mean old tool whom I'd never seen in my life until he popped out of thin air on our bus at the end of the school field trip – had been our grammer teacher since last may.