She knew the story so well she could actually quote most of it, but for some reason, this time, it sounded totally different to her.

The students in the class were staring, looking at her oddly. Something wasn’t right.

“Are you okay, Beth?” the teacher asked, starting to rise.

Beth wanted to speak, she could feel the words inside her, but she couldn’t say anything.  She nodded and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“Well,” the teacher said, hesitantly, “why don’t you start again?”

Taking a deep breath, Beth lifted the poster board and started to recite her story, again.

“When he was little, his name was Malcolm Little.  But then he got bigger and got…different…and then there were sheets and shotguns and…”

The room started spinning and she wanted to puke.  The last thing Beth saw before she hit the floor was the teacher and a couple of students on the front row running over, trying to catch her.

On the floor, she felt like she was dreaming, hearing the conversations around her.

“Call the school nurse, quick!”

“Look at how pale she is!”

“Somebody get me a jacket or a shirt for her head!”

“What’s wrong with her eyes?”

While Beth’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, her body started convulsing, violently.  The students and teacher backed away as she lay shaking, not knowing what to do.  Gentle sobbing started among some of the students at the brutal site.

Then it stopped.

Beth’s body lay, peaceful, eyes closed, as if she were sleeping.  The group around here, breathing heavy and uncertain, started moving closer to see if she was okay.

Beth’s eyes opened suddenly and the group flinched.

Then she screamed, loud and piercing, everyone in the room covering their ears.

When her body started rising off the floor, floating, those who were slowly backing away started to run out of the classroom, screaming.  Other students fled from their chairs past Beth, now hanging in the air as if suspended by a string, had and feet dangling, still omitting a piercing scream.

The teacher backed up to her desk, dread and fright in her eyes.  The few students that remained seemed paralyzed, unable to move.

In an instance Beth’s eyes closed and her screaming stopped.  Her body fell hard to floor, but before it touched the laminate, it disappeared.

All that was left in the room were random bursts of terror and tears, piercing through a dreaded silence.  The teacher walked over to where Beth’s body had been.

It was not there.

She looked at the students.  They looked back, blank.

The assistant principal appeared in the hallway, out of breath.

“What is going on in here?”

The teacher turned to him, “She just…disappeared.”

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First sentence of this story submitted by Toni S. It received the second most votes for sentences submitted the week of September 24, 2012.  

Please leave comments below on if you liked the direction I took the story, or if you would have personally went a different way.  I would love to know!