Caitlin Jameson smiled as she closed the message from David. She was a little annoyed with herself for not checking her email before taking Lily to school earlier today. Lily had missed her daddy’s message, but she could listen to it after dinner tonight.
Hopefully, David would be back home soon, the news had announced this morning that the president signed the executive order bringing the soldiers home from overseas to help out here in the states. How soon her husband would make it home was up in the air. For all their skill at killing people and breaking things, the military always seemed like they took their time to bring everyone home.
Looking at the clock on her computer, Caitlin counted down the last few minutes on her shift. The admin job for the insurance company was perfect for her. Close to Lilly’s school, the company was flexible and understanding about her hours once they had heard her husband was deployed.
“Caitlin, want to head out with us tonight?” her coworker Nancy asked. Normally, she would go out with the girls for an hour or so, just enough time to have a drink and spend time talking to adults before having to pick up Lilly at the school’s aftercare. She almost accepted the invite until she remembered that the teacher covering aftercare today was notorious for charging the parents if they were even a minute late. Even with David’s separation pay from the deployment, money was tight, so she had to make sure Lily was picked up on time.
The teacher, Miss Pyxie, was also one of the few at the school that her daughter didn’t care for. For her daughter’s sake, she always picked her up as soon as possible when it was a day that Pyxie was there. Caitlin had never found anything wrong with the teacher except for her being a stickler for the rules.
From what Caitlin knew, Miss Pyxie was a recent college grad with a master’s in early childhood development. She knew the school was ecstatic to have signed on a teacher with a master’s degree, but Caitlan wasn’t impressed. All the accolades in the world meant nothing when a kid decides they don’t like you.
“Sorry Nancy, I’ve got to pick up Lily early. The rules lawyer teacher is in charge of aftercare again today,” Caitlin said.
“No worries, we’ll grab you another time. I’m so glad my kids are grown and out of the house,” Nancy said as they gathered their things from the cubicles and clocked out for the night.
The older woman had always been kind and friendly to Caitlin but could be a bit of an office gossip. With a wave, Caitlin headed out to her car. Despite all the attention the Upgrade had gotten, Caitlin hadn’t really thought about her build that much. David was supposed to work with her when he returned from overseas, and she saw no real rush to choose stats and abilities until then.
Like most people, she had been awarded several skills based on her experiences and abilities. Nothing that she had gotten was too exciting, a bonus for analysis had been given out due to her undergrad work as a statistician. When Lily was born, she decided to leave school to raise her, a decision she never regretted.
Perhaps she would go back to school once Lily was out of the house, but that was pretty far into the future. Sadly, she hadn’t received any cooking skills, so dinners when David was gone were typically easy to prepare things. She hadn’t gone grocery shopping yet this week, so it would be takeout tonight, something Lily would be happy about. She ran through their dining options as she drove the short distance to the school.
***
Amie Pyxie rubbed her head as she watched the clock count down. Her head had been pounding worse than it had been when she first underwent the Upgrade. That day had not been a fun one, the incident happening right in the middle of school and all the kids panicked when their teachers collectively began to squirm about in pain.
The Upgrade day had finally convinced her that she really didn’t want to be a teacher. Spending hours trying to calm down the hysterical students wasn’t on her list of things that she wanted to accomplish in life. She had envisioned her time as a teacher would have been spent transforming the classroom and implementing all the ideas she had learned in the university.
Her students would be inspired by her efforts, and the parents would heap praise upon Amie. Instead, the administration of the school remained stuck in their old habits. They were doing the same old things over and over, turning out one crop after another of poorly educated kids.
Perhaps that wasn’t fair, the education they received here exceeded the standards, but those standards were so much less than what could truly be accomplished if the administration and the principal that ran the school didn’t tie her arms behind her back. No, instead of implementing new learning techniques, Amie Pyxie was forced into the mundane teacher rotation of tasks that had nothing to do with education.
Here she was, sitting in a room of kids that were essentially warehoused until their parents could be bothered to come and pick them up. Of course, since her head was splitting, the kids wouldn’t shut up today and she just knew that a parent would be late, forcing her to stay here longer than she wanted. The parent would then, inevitably complain that they had a small fine for being late. To top things off, Amie didn’t even get a cut of the fine that the parents paid, she was the one forced to stay late, but the school kept the money.
But where to go from here? She felt trapped inside her career after spending so much time and money on her education. Perhaps she should angle toward a job in administration, at least there she didn’t have to deal with whiny kids.
Of course, being in administration often meant you had to deal with the parents, which was always far worse than dealing with kids. Opening her purse, Amie popped another aspirin into her mouth, washing it down with her cup of lukewarm coffee she had brought over from the teacher’s lounge when her shift in aftercare had started.
“Ummm, Miss Pyxie you’re not supposed to take medicine at school, I’m so going to tell on you!” Autumn said. The little kid was even more annoying today than usual. Pyxie frowned as the kid scampered off to play with one of the other brats.
“Great, now I’ll have some kid ratting me out for having a headache and the district will feel the need to launch an investigation into one adult taking an aspirin within sight of the children, just what I needed. I should just send them all into the shelter to be eaten,” she mumbled to herself, shocking herself with the last comment. Strange thoughts had been rattling around in her head for the last week, about the same time the headaches had started again.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The headaches were dull at first, but had intensified a little more each day she was at school. In the last few days, the headaches had been accompanied by thoughts, ones most people would consider dark, but ones that held a growing appeal for Amie. She had also heard the call, the call from below that beckoned her to join it.
She desperately wanted to meet this voice, to become one with the call, but at the same time, she feared for her sanity. There was no way she could see a doctor for this, they would pull her teaching license in a heartbeat if they thought she had mental problems. Two kids screaming in the corner triggered another spike of pain.
As she stood up to resolve the situation, the voice called to her, even more insistent than before. This time, she would answer the call. Amie Pyxie would join with the entity, become one with it.
“Ok kids, listen up. Today we're going on a field trip to explore the mystical world downstairs in the historic bomb shelter! It’s going to be so much fun; I guarantee you’ll have a great time,” Amie said as she tried to round up the twenty-two aftercare kids. She had to move fast, any moment now the front desk would send someone to pick up a brat to bring out to their parent.
“Miss Pyxie where are you taking the kids? You’re supposed to keep them in the classroom until the office lets you know their parents are here!” Someone tried to say to her.
Pyxie, yes, she preferred Pyxie to Amie. Her first name was no longer needed, lacking of any true meaning. Her last name was her calling. There would be no Miss before her name…she was just…Pyxie. It was the name she was meant to have. What did the person just say to her, no matter, they had to get the kids down to the basement, didn’t she?
Shaking off the hand on her shoulder, Pyxie continued her quest. The school was old, built at a time when the world was driving itself crazy with the possibility of a nuclear war happening. It had a level below the basement that led to an abandoned bomb shelter. It was there that the voice in her head resided, it was there that her destiny awaited.
Pyxie moved the kids down into the basement, ignoring a protesting janitor who was frantically calling the front desk for help. She led them down, her resolve and power growing with each step. The door leading to the bomb shelter had changed.
She had seen it once when they gave her the full tour of the building. It was old and made of thick steel. A civil defense sticker was on it, and she remembered thinking it might be worth something to an antique dealer. The door now was solid oak with a black finish. An iron ring was fastened to the center of the door. It would be locked, secured not just by wood and iron, but also by force of magic.
Pyxie focused on the old locked door, her mind connecting to something on the other side, something that needed her as much as she needed it. This door wasn’t going to stop her, this door was theirs to control, it was now part of them, of their dungeon. She motioned the now frightened kids forward, keeping behind the crowd so they didn’t try to bolt off and escape.
“Miss Pyxie, you have to stop, the kids can’t be down here. The office says they’re calling the police,” the janitor, whose name she never bothered to remember said. He was too late, the connection was complete, the awakening of their dungeon was at hand.
The door flew open, causing the startled janitor to lose his grip on Pixie. The man screamed as shapes emerged from her dungeon. Pyxie watched the things that ran out. They were now a part of her, they were hers to control for the greater good of their home. The creatures leaped on the janitor, ignoring the feeble blows aimed at them from the janitor’s mop as the man tried in vain to defend himself and the children.
She ignored the sound of the janitor screaming his last, and instead concentrated her attention on the creatures as they began to haul the kids down the stairs and into the dungeon. Pyxie watched as the body of the janitor was absorbed into the floor. She would be absorbed now too, the newborn dungeon claiming her not to feast upon, but to meld with. After all, every dungeon needed a pixie, didn’t it?
Pyxie was so enthralled with her ascension as a part of the new dungeon that she didn’t notice Lily slip away from the other kids and flee from the basement.
***
Lily didn’t like Miss Pyxie before, now she was terrified of her. Running down the hallway toward the office, she watched as the school began to change. The hallway, walls, and floor turned from drywall and linoleum into stone and dirt. The old buzzing fluorescent lights were broken down and transformed into flickering torches. The hallway twisted and contorted, changing to fit the whims of its new master.
Lily didn’t know what was happening, she just knew it was bad. The halls had changed too much, and she didn’t know which way the office was anymore. She had to hide from the mean things she could hear walking the halls. A large crate materialized on the side of the hall, along with other things that looked more at home in a mine than in a school. Lily pushed the lid to the crate and found that it could be opened, the hinge squeaking as she lifted it. The crate was empty and looked to be itchy inside, so she draped her jacket over the bottom and crawled in. She had just finished closing the lid when she heard movement from down the hallway.
It was that lady who’s name she couldn’t remember. The nice lady helped Miss Karen out in the front office with aftercare. She was the lady that would take you to your mom once your parents arrived. A wave of relief washed over Lily as she saw the lady, it meant it was time to leave this scary place and find mommy.
The lady also looked scared and was whispering into the walkie talkie she used to let the teacher know that a parent was there. The nice lady stopped, frozen in place and shaking the walkie talkie that was now making a screechy sound. Just as Lily was about to emerge from her hiding place, the nice lady began screaming as her eyes fixed on something in the hallway behind Lily.
The stupid box she was in didn’t have a hole on the backside so she couldn’t see what had scared the lady. When a hand with long claws reached out and dragged the screaming nice lady away, Lily found she was happy there was no hole in the back of the box. The sounds coming from behind her were gross and scary, but they stopped quickly.
Lily whimpered and started to cry, wanting to be brave just like daddy had taught her, but she couldn’t help it. After a final sob, she was able to finally become brave like her daddy. If he were here, the monsters wouldn’t be any problem for him.
Thinking about dad made her feel like she could be brave, but only if she didn’t see the monster things. The thing walked past her crate, claws scraping across the lid as it moved down the hallway. Lily tried to resist looking, but finally gave one last peek, seeing the hairy and scary monster walk further down the tunnel.
She didn’t know how long she had been in the box, but her legs were starting to get numb and she could feel all kinds of splinters. Just when she had worked up the courage to try and escape, a bunch of other things came charging down the tunnel where loud noises boomed out. Not wanting to see what was happening, she closed her eyes as more claws scraped against the lid.
***
My tale from Lily’s perspective ends here. Kids are hard to get a read on, their minds go all over the place at normal times and run a million miles an hour when in danger. The story of Dungeon Elementary, as the news called the place, doesn’t end here. The teacher in the office called 911 just as the rest of the school continued its transformation, the new dungeon was empowered by the lives it had already claimed and was growing at a frightening pace. The first responding officers entered the school, shooting was heard, but nobody exited the building. The SWAT team was called, and I was able to glean the last part of the story from an old interview I dug up online.