Grade: DECEASED

Chapter 1 "Flashback."

Elijah's pov:

Then

I walk into class and towards my seat.

I noticed the table beside mine was empty today. The boy who sat there his name was Marcus I didn't know him very well but I remember him because we had art on Tuesdays, and Marcus always finished first. He'd hold up whatever he made and grin at the others across the class like it was the greatest thing anyone had ever created. A lopsided bird. A handprint sun. It didn't matter. Marcus made everything feel like it counted.

On Tuesday he wasn't there.

I asked Mrs. Calloway where he was. She smiled the way adults smile when they've already decided not to answer you.

"Marcus has moved on to a different program since he does not require this one anymore," she said.

She said it the same way she'd say good morning. The same way she'd say line up quietly in a sickening sweet voice. Like it was nothing. Like Marcus was nothing.

I was seven. I didn't know what that meant yet.

I just knew that his stuff was gone. That his backpack was gone. And that nobody else asked about him.

Not even once.

On Wednesday I kept looking at his seat for the rest of that week.

I don't know what I expected. Was it for Marcus to walk back in with his backpack and hold up some lopsided drawing and grin at me like nothing happened? But the seat stayed empty and by Friday Mrs. Calloway had pushed it closer to the wall like it had never belonged to anyone.

I started watching the other kids to see if any of them noticed.

They didn't. Or if they did they didn't show it. That was the thing about Vanguard. You learn pretty fast not to show things. Not when something scared you. Not when something hurt. You kept your face the way Mrs. Calloway kept her voice — smooth, and sweet, and completely closed.

I was still learning that part.

During play time I walked up to her desk to ask about Marcus again I couldn't let it go It was all suspicious. it felt all wrong. When I opened my mouth to speak I noticed she was writing something, not looking up, and I saw it before she covered it with her arm.

A piece of paper with a lot of words I didn't know yet. But at the top, in letters bigger than the rest —

Subject 001: Deceased.

I only knew one of those words.

Mrs. Calloway looked up. She smiled.

"Is something the matter Elijah?" She asked in that voice that always sent shivers down my spine

I shook my head for some reason everything in my body told me not to ask.

"Well then go back and play with the others." She says

I nodded and walked back to my table I didn't ask what deceased meant because something in her smile told me I already knew.

But I didn't go back to play with the others.

I sat at my table and stared at my hands and tried to remember how to make my face do nothing.

The classroom felt different after that. The walls the same blue and yellow they'd always been. The alphabet strip above the board the same. But something had shifted the way a room shifts when you realize someone has been standing behind you the whole time.

After a while I heard it.

Down the hall. Past the bathrooms. A sound like a machine breathing — low and steady and wrong. I had heard it before but always told myself it was the building. Old pipes. That's what my mom said when our radiator made noise at night. Just the building talking.

But buildings didn't talk in patterns. This did.

I looked at the door. I looked at Mrs. Calloway.

She was writing again. Not looking up.

I don't know why I stood up. I don't know why I walked toward the door instead of away from it. Maybe I thought if I found where the sound came from I'd find Marcus. Maybe I just needed one thing in that building to make sense.

I made it as far as the hallway.

That was enough.

The door at the end of the hall — the one that was always locked, the one the teachers walked past without looking at — was open. Just a crack. But a girl. Same age as me was by the door like she was trying to take a peek inside.

Hey. I called out to get her attention. When she turned to look at me I immediately recognized her. Nilah, She was the school's favorite. Hell the principal even loved her. I stared at her for a moment as my cheeks flushed red . It was like all my breath was caught in my throat.

. . . Weirdo. Do you always stare? Nilah says bluntly which makes me snap out of it but left me embarrassed

Uh— no— I just uh.. heard a sound from here.. I say nervously scratching the back of my neck anxiously while mentally kicking myself in embarrassment.

Nilah immediately ran towards me and leans forward into my personal space and that makes my whole face turn red. "She's so small." I thought to myself.

So you heard it too!? I thought I was the only one. Stupid bastards. I swear half the students here have terrible hearing but I'm happy I'm not the only one who heard the strange sounds. Nilah says with slight annoyance but happiness too.

suddenly Mrs. Calloway was behind us.

"There you are," she said. Smooth. Sweet. Closed. But she notices Nilah and her voice immediately turns genuine you know not the scary uncomfortable kind. "Ms. Nilah! Aren't you supposed to be with your papa right now?" Mrs. Calloway says looking at Nilah with a fond expression.

Well yeah . . . But he was being a meanie again! He told me he'd give me candy if I took the needle like a big girl. He lied. Nilah says with an angry but adorable pout

Mrs. Calloway smiles softly at her. "Oh sweetheart I'm sure he didn't lie to you. He's probably getting them right now." Mrs. Calloway says softly but then she turns her gaze to me giving me that scary. Sugary sweet but obviously fake look that others never notice.

"Elijah. Get back to class or I'll put you in timeout for leaving without permission. And go tell the class that I'll be back in a few. I'll be taking Ms. Nilah back to her papa. Mrs. Calloway says in that same uncomfortable sweet tone of hers.

I nodded. As I turn away I see Nilah waving me goodbye as Mrs. Calloway holds her hand taking her back to her papa. As I walk back to class I think about what Nilah said about needles it was something we all had to take. None of us knew the reason — just that it was a rule. But it always hurts like hell.