Battle Cry

A dark cloud on black winds, I swept into the classroom moments before the bell and clanked my bag on the floor beside my desk. The students were already trickling into their seats and the cooperating teacher was tappity-tapping on the computer.

I turned on the whiteboard with a vengeance, drawing black blood with every rise and fall of the pen. I sheathed the pen with a quick SNAP! and pivoted back towards the students, taking careful measure not to look at a single one of them. "The assignment is on the board. You may begin."

A winter gale, I breezed towards the door and called my first victim of the day, "Isiah." If voices could peel paint mine would have.

His head rotated, Exorcist-like, his back had been facing me while he chatted with his friend who sat behind him. "Come with me."

Moments later his once leering figure shrunk to the size of a small boy, as the hallway opened up and swallowed him. I cackled sinisterly inside myself. The war had just begun.

"Let's take a walk."

Three walks later I returned to my post inside the classroom. The students who needed to be spoken with individually had been dealt with. The room was quiet as the tomb except for the random whispers of pages being turned and the faint scratches of pencils on paper.

I heaved a mental sigh and tried not to slump against the desk. Breathing so deep I think my toes lifted a little, I called out, "Okay, so who can tell me what antagonist means?"

Battle two complete. Score 1 to 1. And the war rages on...