Mr. Attwood walked the halls in the early morning as he sipped at his coffee. Before the students came in, during the faculty moving from the parking lot to their respective rooms. With each step of his foot he felt like he was home while walking through each hallway. Nodding at teachers morning gestures of social pleasantries as he moved by an open door of a class room. "Welcome back Ms. Young. Ready to start off another year?" His professional demeanor gave no hint as to his thoughts.

She rolled her eyes before turning to him with her usual fake smile. "Good morning Mr. Attwood. I'll be grateful for some cooler weather. This summer was particularly warm." She was younger then Mr. Attwood, in her late thirties. She had come from Chicago and wanted to leave city life behind her. Her black hair was pinned back as she usually wore it. Her pencil skirt and tight blouse had been the rumor of many a bathroom stall.

He nodded and clenched his jaw as he walked away from the classroom doorway. She would be missed and then questions would have to be answered. There was time, it was after all just the beginning of the school year. Stopping briefly to take another sip of the luke warm coffee. The principal heard the squealing from the brakes of the first bus to arrive. A thin smile slipped from his stone face. His watch chimed. Eight fifteen, he had the morning meeting with department heads today. Turning on his heel he walked to the conference room. There would be time, he thought....

She stopped breathing as he entered the room. Trying hard to suppress everything she had under gone. Everything she had become. There in all his subterfuge was the man for her. She tried to slow her heart as she spoke. "Mr. Attwood. Glad you could join us." She turned her back to begin the presentation. As her lips moved and she used the laser pointer on each slide her mind melted away. Like the person he made her become deep inside fell at his feet. Was he watching? Would he notice?

How long it had been since her training? Was it only a month? Was it the whole summer break? Her body didn't care anymore. She was a puppet, his puppet. The strings over her will stronger then the chains of the pit. Here she wore flats. Here she wore clothes. It was becoming hard to breathe. Stopping her presentation for questions she turned to face the staff. Never looking up while he was siting there.

"Very good, Ms. Walker." He stood at the end of the table. Her heart felt like it would burst. "Now I would like us all to remember that we are professionals. Everyday as we shape the minds of the next generation of world leaders. We are to leave this world better then it was when we got it. Have an productive school year!"

As he walked out they gave a brief applause. She could breathe again. Her heart slowed its sprint pace and eased into a gallop. Her eyes darted from left to right. No one noticed. The few eyes on her weren't anywhere near her face. As they stood and filed out of the conference room she stood there. Her hands on her hips. The bell for first period rang through the halls as she made it to the door and turned the lock.

Jessica was not happy about coming back to this place. All summer she had avoided it. Taken flights to visit relatives. Made excuses about the location to her parents. "The tiles were made of asbestos!" she'd claim. Or, "The locker room has holes in the wall!" Nothing really phased her parents.

"If they did the town would tell us." They would tell her, and forget the conversation the next minute. Her father was a paper pushing cog in the bureaucratic machine. Working for the city as a public defender. Her mom was a teacher at the school. Both had normal middle class upbringings and neither saw anything for what it was.

Jessica however knew there was something horrible beneath the surface. Her first year she just had a bad feeling that there was something wrong. A few time she talked about it the kids around her instantly called her the "psycho". The conspiracy nut, She would try to ask questions to people who worked at the school and get the usual eye roll or a laugh. She drifted out of the social spot light and into obscurity. She went to the internet. There was just a news article of the town remodeling a warehouse building that ran by the rail road. There was a second article on the opening ceremony for the new high school. Then she hit a dead end.

Her grades were good. The solid "B" made her parents happy. Her Christmas break was full of family. She left the house a few times saying she would, "Stay at a friends house". Using her dads key and a taxi ride to his office she started searching the town halls records for anything. On her third visit she was almost caught by a guard.

Jessica changed her routine and kept looking. After the second Thursday she found it. Well hidden in the archives, a few clippings. The article mentions a mental hospital that mysteriously shut down after a fever killed 37 patients. Then later a hospital located in the same area. It was closed due to "Funding". She had a trail.

Moving from the town archives to the library and internet Jessica used the old names of the building and found even more information. The more she read the deeper a pit grew inside her. Even though the mental hospital was shut down, the total number of deaths was one hundred fifty two. The hospital director was killed trying to escape capture. The Hospital in name only was actually a world war one Hospice. Over a hundred died with in those walls. The blue prints showed the cells under the structure to hold violent asylum inmates was converted into a makeshift morgue to hold the bodies until they could be sent to their final resting place. Although in a blueprint she found a location for a incinerator. Which lead her to a newspaper article. The News paper said the hospital facing multiple lawsuits filed for bankruptcy and shut its doors. The property returned to the city and the town later bought it to "renovate" the existing structure!

"Shit.."