"The Teacher"

Hello everybody. I thought of a story over Shabbos, and I decided to write a small excerpt. Tell me if you find this interesting...


"The Teacher"
By: SEP

I find it hard to see down the halls in this building. The Manor in which I presently resided was large, and the hallways are dark at night. I pulled my robe a little closer around myself and looked around the sides of statues for children out of bed. The children are not aloud out of their dormitories past ten, and we, the teachers, are obligated to patrol the hallways from ten to twelve to ensure that no miscreants are running around.

The dark began annoying me, so I reached out with my mind questing for students who might be hiding in the dark. There were plenty of empty rooms and statues where they could be hiding, but my mental query found nothing at first. Then, my mind touched the mind of another, but not a student. The next moment Assistant Head Master Eugene Jenkins came around the corner. His swift and silent movements had made him undetectable without my mental sweep.

He is a handsome man, tall and athletically built. At least six foot four, he towers over me and his delicate face has an aristocratic look to it. While he is attractive his black hair and blue eyes struck me as dangerous, especially glinting in the moonlight. The fact that he is young, perhaps twenty-six, is also a warning. Youth and power deserve respect. He smiled when he saw me standing in the hallway, and I got the feeling he understood what I had been doing.

“Miss Aloisia Halliday. A pleasant surprise this is.”

Immediately, I pulled all defenses I had into check. Envisioning a marble wall surrounding myself, I greeted him with a reciprocating smile. “Likewise Mr. Jenkins. I would rather meet you than errant children at this late hour.” We had only just met yesterday, but I wondered how much this man knew about me. He was, after all, the Headmaster’s right hand man, but the other teachers had told me little about him. He had been away “training” for the past year, but the lack of information regarding his “training” made me wonder just what he had been studying.

“Indeed, I understand the sentiment. It has been a while since I last patrolled the halls of Eaton, but I remember well the nuisance of patrolling.” He smiled a charming smile at me, and for a moment I thought I felt the brush of a questing mind upon my mental barrier. The sensation vanished before I could be sure it existed. “Have a good night.”

“Thank you, you too,” I said automatically smiling myself. As we passed each other I could not keep myself from glancing back. He was handsome yes, but I could not shake the sneaking suspicion that he was a dangerous man, at least as dangerous as the headmaster. Indeed, anyone familiar with Eaton would understand my caution.

Currently, I am serving as a teacher in the prestigious government institution known as Eaton, which has all manner of schools including primary, secondary, and even university level education. Eaton is unusual in that children are chosen to attend, by the government, depending on any special abilities the child might have. From the age of ten to fourteen all children across the country are tested for abilities, gifts, freakish powers, call it what you will. Of course, this is one of the best kept secrets in the country, and I still find myself wondering how they keep it quiet.

Children usually arrive, are educated, and then placed into government positions depending upon their abilities. I was unusual in the respect that I was brought to the Eaton at the age six. Some are allowed to visit their home and family, but permission is granted on a sliding scale depending on how dangerous one is considered to be.

Because of this scale, I was never allowed to leave and have not seen my parents in fourteen years.