Chapter 8 - Serena
1071 Words
The alarm Serena had set for the class exam rang out through the classroom. She was glad she had set an alarm; her mind had been preoccupied with everything that had happened over the past few weeks.
Monday mornings were usually pretty boring, but waking up with Ethan wrapped around her, as he had been pretty much since she practically moved in three weeks ago, made it all the more exciting. Her lady parts were sore but in a good way. A very good way.
The police had cleared her home after a few days, but she didn't want to return there. Not with Keith still out there. Detective Peter's had managed to get some partial fingerprints from the rocks that had been thrown through her window. They matched Keith's perfectly since then they had been hunting for him. But he hadn't been found. He wasn't abiding by his bail conditions. They were tracking all his cards; his mobile had been disconnected and his boss at the garage hadn't heard from him. They admitted to letting him go when he had been taken in for questioning.
The fact he was nowhere to be found frightened her so much. She'd begun to have nightmares of shadows creeping up on her and suffocating her. She'd woken up numerous times crying and sobbing her heart out. She'd never been more grateful to have Ethan there. He held her tight whenever she had nightmares.
The school had been put on alert and had been looking into getting security hired for the building. Unfortunately, they were having some security and maintenance difficulties at the school and Joe had been working hard on them.
About a week after the attack on her home, she'd come to work to find newspaper clippings stuck along the walls. As she looked closer, she was horrified to see they were all the same article she received in the package.
Joe hadn’t been able to get the systems to work, the cameras hadn't picked up who had done it. As well as the cameras not working, for the past week, the alarms had started going off randomly. A private company had been called in to get it sorted as soon as possible.
There hadn't been enough time to hide all the clippings and it wasn't long before all the staff and students knew of her history. She kept her head high and even though her colleagues seemed okay with her, she was sure there had been whispered conversations.
That same day Chloe had come to see her and tried to apologise for what happened. Serena realised the girl blamed herself for what Keith had done and instantly dismissed her apology. She had insisted that she was not to blame.
She would do anything for her class, and she hated to think any of them would ever blame themselves for something like this.
She looked over her students as they finished up on their exam and took a moment to study her classroom; she loved every inch of it.
There were twenty-four tables and they were set out in four rows of six. Up against the window and back wall, she had cupboards and display boards with all the work from the year. The door to the corridor stood in the bottom right-hand corner. At the front of the class sat her desk. Behind that, there was her blackboard and the interactive whiteboard. In the top right-hand corner of the room, she had a storage room where she kept all of her supplies. Just outside the storage room, there was a second desk for Tina who had already left today as she volunteered every evening at the local Retirement Centre.
"Pencils down. You all worked hard today. Can you please ensure your name is at the top of the paper? Then the back table passes it forward and so on. I'll collect them from you four at the front in a few moments."
There was the shuffling of paper and the scraping of chairs as the students did as she asked. It only took a few moments and once they were done, she went along the top row and collected the papers.
"These will be marked by the end of the week. In the meantime, you will have a break from homework. So, with that being said, I'm excusing you all early for today. The bell is going to ring any moment so you can start collecting your things together and I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow for assembly. Please do not be late," she instructed and smiled at each one of her students.
The class cheered and there was a hurried feeling in the air as they all gathered up their belongings. Chairs were tucked under desks and all materials put away in the correct places. Rubbish was removed from desks and placed in the correct recycle bins.
Then there was a loud bell that rang throughout the school.
She held the door open as the class stampeded out, they all squeaked goodbyes as they passed.
Once the room was empty, she walked around each desk making sure each one was tidy. Yes, they had Joe who would pass by shortly to clean. However, she didn't like to leave too much mess.
Finally, she collected the papers off her desk and took a seat whilst she quickly rifled through. At first glance, it seemed her class had all done well.
She got to her feet and went into her cupboard, placing them all on a shelf at the back where she had made space earlier. She planned to take them home later in the week to mark; she had too much marking to catch up on already. She had to prioritise. These could wait especially if what she saw so far was any indication. She wanted to be surprised at the quality of the work.
She stepped out of the cupboard and closed the door, as she turned around something struck her on the head. She cried out and collapsed to the ground.
She blearily opened her eyes as she spun her head to look around and screamed as she caught the sight of a boot coming towards her face.
She couldn't move fast enough. She heard the crunch as the boot collided with her face but saw and heard nothing more as her mind became a void of darkness.
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