Lancer sat hevily into his car. The school day had finally ended. He was pretty certain that nothing he had said today had stuck in anyone's minds. Not one of them had been paying attention. He had barely been paying attention himself. He rested his head on the wheel.
Danny Fenton had been missing from school for almost a month but he had only been declared missing last week. Tucker Foley and Sam Manson had skipped school every day since, but they still popped up now and then, insistingthey would find the boy. Lancer had assumed they were grieving.
This whole ordeal wasn't new by any means. Lancer had been a teacher at Casper High for over 20 years. In that time 16 students had died or gone missing. It never got easier to deal with. 7 died slowly to diseases like cancers, leukemia, and heart disease, 3 committed suicide, 3 were never found, 2 were murdered, 1 was an accident, and now Danny was missing. It was only a matter of time.
Lancer picked his head up off the wheel and looked around. All the other cars were gone. He must have gotten lost in thought. He started his car. A gut feeling made him turn his head toward the forested area close to the faculty parking lot. There was nothing there. Just some trees. Still, he stared as though something would happen. "You're losing your mind, Lancer." He said to himself.
A car door closed, and Lancer started driving. He drove for a while before he got to a red light. There was one car in front of him and none on either side where it was green. Wasn't the mayor boasting about these new automated lights that can "sence the cars"? So much for- wait a second. There were no other cars in the parking lot. Lancer looked in the back seat. So, who closed a door? "Is someone there. He tried to twist himself to look at the floor behind him when he suddenly heard a loud beep. The driver behind him was telling him the lights had turned green. Lancer drove forward and turned in to the nearest lot to check out the back seat.
"Mister Fenton?" He gasped.
Danny sat on the floor in the back, covered in some kind of green paint. He looked like he had just been cought committing a crime. Which he kind of had. "Please, I can explain, but we have to keep going. Don't tell anyone, please." He sounded panicked, like he was on the verge of tears.
"I have to get you to the police station."
"No, no." Danny poked his head out like he was expecting someone. "No cops, they'll tell. I just need to get out of town. Can you just drop me off at a bus station or something?" He had his left arm pressed against his abdomen. It made his t-shirt look even baggier than usual. His pants were also torn and he wasnt wearing any shoes.
"No, absolutely not. I'm taking you to my house and you're explaining everything." Lancer compromised.
Mr Lancer gestured to one of the chairs at his kitchen table but Danny went straight for the sink instead. He turned it on and drank straight from the tap like he hadn't seen water in days. The sight made Lancer even more suspicious. "What happened to you?"
Danny looked up, briefly revealing the green now leaking out of his hair, then put his head under the current. He didn't come back up until all his hair was wet and no more green was leaking but this time he didn't look at Lancer, he just stared down into the sink. "I, I don't wanna talk about it."
"If you won't tell me what's going on, I have to assume it's a police matter."
Danny still didn't look at him. He held himself, which is the universal body language for "I am not ok".
Lancer took a few steps closer. He reached out a hand but Danny flinched when he touched him.
Danny leaned over the sink. He braced himself on the edges. Then suddenly, a flood of the same green paint, now watered down, spewed out of his mouth and into the sink. Lancer grabbed the boy's forehead and back to keep him still. It just kept coming. As the sunlight dimmed Lancer noticed that the green paint glowed in the dark. It smelled harsh and chemically. Did he drink a bunch of glowstick fluid? There was no time to ask because shortly after he spat out the last bits, Danny became heavier. Lancer quickly realized what had happened and supported his student over to the couch where he passed out after one last request.
"Please don't make me go back." He coughed and small green specks landed on Lancers shirt. "He'll kill me."
