My temper swelled inside of me, but I fought hard against my natural instinct to raise my voice. It was critical that I remained calm, and in character. Clearly the townsfolk knew something, but I did not know exactly what they knew and I didn’t want to be the one to give them any hints. I also had to work under the assumption that the Lockley I had met at school was the same man I was meeting now – a loud, dimwitted, egomaniac. I turned on the feminine charm, to test my theory.

Gently, I lay my free hand on the arm that was grabbing me.

“Mayor Lockley, you certainly have a strong grip! I guess running a whole town doesn’t prevent you from visiting the gym now and then!”

The mayor blushed slightly and puffed up his chest. Thankfully, he also loosened his grip on my arm. I pushed my luck a little farther.

“I doubt that my parents would mind if I popped by next weekend to get the car instead, just let me quickly call them so they don’t wait up and then I’d be happy to return to town with you.”

Lockley faltered slightly, and looked around him as if in search of confirmation that what he was about to say was okay. My sense was that Lockley was merely the body sent to apprehend me, but I doubted that he was the mastermind behind whatever was unraveling. The gears in his mind were slowly turning, calculating his response.

“Well, gosh, I reckon a quick call is fine. But I am going to need to keep holding you.”

Sticking to my role, I responded coyly, “Oh Mayor Lockley, I certainly don’t mind that. Not a cold night like tonight.”

I hit redial, hoping to be connected directly to Wilkes. A female voice answered the phone, saying only “How may I direct your call?” I crossed my fingers that this was an operator for the agency who would be trained at picking up subtle clues.

“Oh hi Auntie Wilkes, it’s Carol, can you put my dad on the phone?”

While I spoke I turned down the earpiece volume with my finger to ensure that Lockley couldn’t hear anything coming from the other end.

To my relief the operator responded immediately

“I’ll transfer you now”.

The phone beeped twice and then I heard Wilkes say his name. I knew I needed to be brief in order to avoid arousing suspicion.

“Hi dad it’s Carol. I am at the bus stop but the Mayor has come all the way out here in person to ask me to stay in town this weekend, so I think I will have to come and get my car from you next weekend, if that’s ok.”

“Agent, are you in immediate danger?”

“Ya, that’s right. Next Friday night or Saturday morning.”

“Understood, we will send immediate back-up. In the meantime stay in character and if you get a moment alone call back with more detail. We should have agents in town within the hour. Any idea where you are going? Where they are taking you?”

“Nope, he won’t tell me why he needs me to stay, but the Mayor is a very important man so I couldn’t possible say no. I’m sure it has something to do with my students. Tell mom I miss her. I will call you again as soon as I have a chance.”

With that I flipped my phone shut and turned the charm back on.

“Alright Mayor, I am at your service. Where are we headed?”

The Mayor seemed caught off guard by my cooperation. He guided me over to a car parked a short distance away and replied,

“Well I shouldn’t say just yet, they wouldn’t want me to ruin the surprise.”

As we neared the car I could see that the interior was similar to a police vehicle, with bars separating the front and the back. The Mayor hesitated as he reached the doors, and finally opened the back.

“I’m sorry Ms. B, I have to put you back here.”

“Oh I understand Mayor, standard protocol with official vehicles I am sure.”

The Mayor looked relieved and nodded, before walking around to the driver’s seat.

I knew that regardless of our final destination I had at least 15 minutes of alone time in the car, and seeing a crack in the Mayor’s armor I was determined to extract as much information as possible. I needed to appear oblivious, but I would be able to tell a lot from his reactions. Knowing that Wilkes had back-up on the way, my heart had slowed slightly allowing my brain to finally replay the last half an hour. Beyond the fear, I felt confusion at the sudden appearance and disappearance of the children at the bus stop.

“You know Mayor Lockley, it is probably best that I not travel tonight anyway. I think I must be coming down with something. I swear I was hallucinating back there at the bus stop. Would you believe I thought I saw a whole group of children appear out of nowhere across the street from me.”

In the rear-view mirror I could see Lockley’s eyes jump up to meet mine and then quickly jump back to the road. With an awkward laugh he attempted to conceal his discomfort.

“Appear? Children? At night?”

“That was my thought too, after they disappeared. Children wouldn’t be out this late. And they certainly couldn’t appear and disappear into thin air like that. At least not human children.”

At this a small gasp of air escaped Lockley’s lips and again his eyes darted back and forth from the road to the rear-view mirror.

“Not human?! Ha. Right. Like magic children…”

I had to push further.

“Well Mayor, I know it will sound odd for a teacher of facts to say something like this, but I certainly believe in the supernatural, don’t you?”

His negative response was immediate and sharp and I knew that I had reached the end of this line of questions. I was about to start mentioning names to see if I could determine who I was heading to meet when we pulled off the main road up a long, winding driveway that I had never noticed before.

A heavy fog covered the landscape making it impossible to see any detail of enormous house we were approaching until the car had come to a stop at its front porch.

Automatically I motioned to open my door, but realized immediately that it was locked from the inside. As Lockley stepped out of the car to let me out I reached into my jacket pocket and flipped open my phone. As a standard issue FBI phone, the redial button had a small indentation on it, making it easy to feel even when you couldn’t see. I pushed the button and hoped to hell that they would think to trace the call when I didn’t respond to their voice. The isolated nature of this house made me doubt that the back-up agents would find me time if not.

The Mayor opened my door and immediately reached for my arm. His grip was strong again, and I suspected that the presence of others would undo any of the progress my charm had made. He escorted me towards the front door and rang the bell. The door swung open and a man whom I had never seen led us through a great hall into a large dining room. A vast table took up the majority of the room, and only the far side of the table was lined with seated occupants. A second row stood behind them. It reminded me of The Last Supper. All eyes were on me. I recognized various parents and several other teachers. There were about 35 people in total. Marcus and Irene sat on the right hand side, and both avoided my gaze. Directly in front of me, at the centre of the table, sat Amy’s mother. Her cold eyes pierced through me, and she spoke.

“Mayor Lockley, did she give you any trouble?”

The Mayor’s voice was a little too loud, a failed attempt at appearing courageous in the face of this woman.

“No ma’am, I showed her who she was dealing with and she shut right up.”

“Well done Mayor. Ms. B, I assume you know why you are here?”

It was much more difficult to maintain my role in front of all these familiar faces, but I knew that I needed to stall as long as possible if I had any hope of being retrieved by my team.

“No ma’am. I have no idea. Mayor Lockley only said that I needed to stay in town. I assumed I must have been needed for the children…”

I was interrupted.

“Ms. B you may have been able to fool the dim-witted Mayor with your act but I assure you I will not be so easily tricked. We know that you are not who you appear to be. Somehow you seem to have won the trust of some of our children, and we can’t have that. There is too much at stake. We need to know what you know. We need to know everything you know. Once we are satisfied that you have told us everything we will let you go, unharmed.”

I did not believe for one second that they had any intention of letting me go unharmed, and frankly at this point I wasn’t sure what it was that I was supposed to know. Although I had been working in this town for a year I had only been able to uncover small petty crimes. I had noted bizarre behavior by parents and children which I reported back to the FBI, but had never been able to conclude what was causing it – or even whether it had any relevance to my investigation.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about. This must be a misunderstanding…”

Again I was interrupted.

“Ms. B you are either a terrible liar or a terrible FBI agent. For your sake I rather hope it is the first.”

Sh*t.

“FBI agent! Oh my, you must have me mistaken wit…”

“Enough. Mayor please lock her away so she can decide whether she feels like talking, or if she is ready to join her family up in the heavens. And if you haven’t had the good sense already, please ensure that she does not have a cell phone.”

My heart skipped a beat and I could not maintain my composure. I lowered my head and allowed Lockley to lead me out of the hall. As the door shut I heard a familiar voice.

“Maybe she really doesn’t know anything.”

It was Pete. My heavy heart fell farther knowing that he was involved, but I had to find hope in the fact that he was defending me. We walked down a maze of narrow, dark hallways and stairwells until we arrived at a steel door. Mayor Lockley reached into my pocket and seized my phone, and then shoved me into the small room behind. He was rough now, emotionally wounded by the “dim-witted” comment and taking it out on me. The door shut behind me and I heard a key turn in the lock. I tested the handle but it did not budge. Next I went over to the small window to see if it could be opened. I gazed out onto the vast property and from within the fog, before my eyes, I saw dozens of children appear out of nowhere. They were looked up at my window, with blank expressions.

I waved and shouted but they were like zombies. Some of them slowly walked forward, while others remained still on one spot. I looked at my students, past and present, and could barely recognize them. My gaze stopped on Jake, and as he blinked I felt sure that the color returned to his eyes and a small tear began to roll down his cheek. I raised my hand and saw his tiny hand rise in response. I was about to shout out, when I heard heavy footsteps coming my way.