Dream felt her heart stop altogether. "What are you talking about?"

"From time to time, her students...well actually, not just her students. Students at Pebblebrook Creek High in general. They...disappear."

"Well, you have no evidence that it was her," Dream said.

"Look at it rationally," Zac said. "Every time a student disappears, they go to school in the morning. Everything seems normal. Then, they attend a few classes in the morning. Or in the afternoon. But by the end of the school day, they're gone."

Dream shook her head. "You're crazy. I don't believe you."

Sighing, Zac shrugged. "You don't have to believe me. No one does. But I'm telling you. Watch your back." With that, he closed the window and the curtains to his room.

Dream rolled her eyes. Zac had seemed nice enough at first, but it was clear he was nothing but a lunatic. Sure, Mrs. Woods wasn't an ideal teacher, with her very strict rules and oddly excessive homework. But that didn't make Mrs. Woods a criminal, either. Still, she had an uneasy feeling.

There was only one thing to do then.

Dream looked through the contacts on her phone before finding "Chloe Scott".

Dream: Chloe, can I talk to you?"

Chloe immediately called her.

"Chloe!" Dream squealed.

"OMG Dream! I've missed you so much!"

"I know, I've missed you so much too!"

"Ok this is sappy, haha. What did you want to talk about?"

"My new history teacher is horrible!"

"Ew. I feel so bad for you!"

"She has the worst classroom rules that are so unrealistic, there is not a single student in my history class who has less than a month of detention already, and she assigns math homework!"

"OMG. That is horrible!"

"Yeah, anyways, I was talking to a guy in my class."

"And?"

"And he said Mrs. Woods - that's my history teacher - was secretly a kidnapper."

"What? Gasp! No he didn't! Accusing a teacher of being a criminal?"

"IKR! That was my first thought! But..."

"But what?"

"Now that I think about it, it kind of makes sense."

"How?"

"He said that students disappear during the day. No students are allowed to leave campus during the school day. And no visitors are even allowed on campus except volunteer parents, teachers, and other staff members."

"That doesn't prove anything."

"But think about it! There are almost never volunteer parents around the school. Additionally, the other staff members don't hang out around students during the day. They usually just stay in their offices. That just leaves the teachers. And Mrs. Woods is the nastiest teacher."

"Just because she's a terrible teacher doesn't make her a criminal. You're making a huge assumption here, Dream."

"I know, I know. And I thought Zac - that's the boy who brought this up - was kind of crazy too. I don't know why I suddenly started believing it."

"It's probably just rumors."

"Yeah." Dream hung up. "Just rumors," she said to herself.

---

A/N

Kind of a boring/short chapter, I know...

But more drama is about to unfold, I promise 😊

Btw from now on I'll update about once or twice a week, or three times if I'm feeling nice. Thanks for reading/voting/commenting everyone!!

💙, Stella Rose