With The Roman Number

By Marcus Jones

Tony's up and ready to go to school today, excited that there's an assembly this morning. He's washed up, dressed and out the door with his bookbag. During the ride on the school bus he and his friend are going over the possibilities of what their grades might look like, which they're going to see after the distribution of the third report card for this school year next week. Tony's not a bad kid, just hyper active a lot, ADHD will do that. When there's gonna be a PTA Meeting the parents are notified by a given letter to take home, and by phone call. Some of the students get nervous when a parent or parents are gonna come to the school to discuss their status. Tony needed to talk about it to his classmate who feels that same awkward way he does.

-THE ASSEMBLY

While the morning assembly was going on, 

Tony (an 8th grader) was made to stay in the classroom because of his behavior. He got caught in the stairwell for the second time this week, when he was supposed to go straight to the bathroom and come straight back, as told. He heard Mrs. Getts, talking in the stairwell on her cellphone, telling someone, “not to send the books here.” He crept to the doors, opened them slowly, and stood hidden, listening for a few minutes before getting caught. 

Now, talking during class cost him the joy of attending the 10am Assembly about, ”What you'd like to be when you're an adult”. The teacher, sitting at his front desk, knew it was something he was looking forward to, that's why he made this his punishment.

“You can do your work while you're here,” he said. Tony's been begging the teacher to let him go downstairs to the assembly. “For the last time, No!” he yells. “Now stop asking and do your damn work.” Tony can hear the distant sound of clapping that's coming from the auditorium, making him distracted and frustrated that he's not down there. 

The teacher (Mr. Peterson) looked at him with contempt, “Why've you been getting into so much trouble boy?” “If you would be a good student you'd be down there AT the damn assembly.”  

“The assembly is about what you want to be when you're an adult and, out of school, that's if you finish school and graduate.” “What do you want to be?” “What does Tony want to be, huh?”

Tony, in a soft small voice said, “I want to build buildings, the person who draws how they will look.” “An architect?” said Mr. Peterson. “You, an architect?” yeah sure.

“Why not?” “Why? because you're a bad little boy, that's why.” Tony pounded his small fist on the desk, “So what!” he shouted. “That has nothing to do with me when I'm older!” “It has everything to do with when you're an older dummy.” Mr. Peterson said.

Tony inhaled and exhaled, then asked, “How do you know?” “Because I know, little boy,” he said. I'm grown and you're not!” “You want to be an architect?!, fine!.....” “Draw a building on the back of your work sheet!” “OK!”, said Tony, with pride.

Mrs. Getts, who was walking down the hallway, opened the classroom door. She put her hand on her hip, “Everything ok?” she asked. Yeah, Peterson said. “The boy's telling me I'm wrong for not letting him attend the morning assembly, even though he got in trouble.” “He cursed at me too, can you believe that?”

“Where's YOUR class?” he asked her. They're in there with Ms. Williamson’s class, “I think we're the only ones on this floor.” “I'm down here cleaning out this closet in the back of my classroom, we're gonna use it for a book room.” “Oh yeah?” he said. “You want some help?” That's up to you, she responded, and left.

Mr. Peterson got up anxiously. “Stay in here and do your work.” he said to Tony. He left the classroom, with him unattended.

-THE SNEAK AT 10:35AM

Tony continued to work on the drawing. He paused for a moment and looked out the window, the circular sunshine of the clear day had him hypnotized; orange, yellowish, and when he shut his eyes, a brief red. It's where he'd like to be at a time like this; or downstairs at the assembly rather. He got up and hurried over to the classroom door, opened it and peaked down the hallway in the direction they went. He walked past the empty classroom next door, then scurried past the next three and stopped at Mrs. Getts's classroom; near the end of the second floor. The door was propped open.

The door to the closet room in the back was  open a little more than a crack, he can hear the teachers talking. 

He crept silently in and over by the door, close enough to listen while hidden. Mr. Peterson's flirting with Mrs. Getts, who's laughing and enjoying it. He asked for a hug and maybe, “a little peck?”, he said. She hugged him with her arms up around his neck, and HIS arms around her waist. He kissed her cheek then moved around to her lips and then, she said, “Okay, that's it.”

Peterson noticed some strange looking books sitting stacked on the small desk in the corner. They were 9x7, old looking with a little wear. He picked up the five books, which were in another language, and flipped through them; over under, over under. 

He sneezed into his shoulder as she said, “Those arrived here a couple days ago.” “They were used in rituals.” “I'll probably throw ‘em away.” “They make me uncomfortable,” she said, then she continued organizing. With their backs to each other, Peterson flipped back to the one with the roman number “XVl” (16) in its title. He opened the book seeing a blank page, then the title page in which someone had written across the bottom in red ink, “XXXV(35), XXXVlll(38), XL(40).” He flipped through it to the back where he saw eleven names written in red ink with a line drawn through them all.

The first nine names were in foreign language, the last two were in english-language.

He turned to page XXXV(35), all he saw there, in English was, “Your Signature Here…”, in the center. He took a pen out his pocket and wrote his signature on the line. There's a faint sound of chanting that's persuading him.

He turned to page XXXVlll (38), in English it said, “YOU SHOULD ASK FOR ANOTHER KISS, SHE'S READY FOR ADULTERY.” “REMOVE TONY FROM RIGHT THERE WITH THE KNIFE IN YOUR POCKET.”

Peterson looked to the cracked door, then walked towards it with the book in his hand and whispered, “Tony?” Tony had hid quickly in the open locker. Peterson went back to the closet room, with the door kept wide open. Tony came out the locker and ducked down behind Mrs. Getts's desk. She turned around as Peterson stepped, gently, passionately towards her and said, “Another kiss, or more?” She moved in closer and kissed him, started making out with him. Suddenly, Peterson is stabbed in his abdomen, the knife is in her hand. She charged forward, knocking him backwards and onto the floor, she's on top of him slashing right and left. Tony’s face is mute and terrified.

Peterson flipped her over off of him, reversing the position. He took the knife and slashed at her fighting hands, and at her face. He jarred the knife into her chest. They both, simultaneously, passed out. 

“Oh…..shhh”, Tony said under his breath, as he tiptoed past them and ran down the hallway towards the stairway, he stopped and thought to himself, then went back into Mr. Peterson's classroom and sat down; unsure what he should do…

Mr. Peterson slowly regained consciousness and saw Mrs. Getts lying underneath him with her eyes closed, either dead or unconscious, he didn't know. He pulled himself up frantically. He saw the cuts, the blood; he felt the pain from being stabbed. He looked around, “Oh my……God”, he mumbled. He got up holding his stomach, and looked in the closet room afraid and squinting. He turned around and saw the strange book with the roman number, lying by the teacher's desk. He picked it up and opened it, the numbers that were written on the page in red ink were gone; except for the third roman numeral he hadn't turned to yet….. XL(40), indicating page XL(40). He, nervously, turned to the 40th page. It said, “GEORGE PETERSON SEES THE DEAD BODY AND KNOWS THAT PRISON IS COMING SOON, UNLESS HE GIVES SUFFICIENT BLOOD TO THE PAGE.”

“What the hell?” he said in his head. He looked towards the classroom door, then at the clock, wondering how he would explain this. He wiped some of the blood from his wound on the XL(40th) page, to see what would happen. Some of the blood vanished. While feeling edgy, he wiped some more, again, some vanished. He sat the book on the teacher's desk and approached Mrs. Getts’s body. He hears the chanting. He stooped down and froze, entranced as her eyelids flew open, she looked at him. She wiped her face, grabbed her chest and stuck her hand out to give him the blood. He grasped her bloody hand and smeared the blood onto his hand.

When he wiped it on the page Mrs. Getts's body turned transparent as it was being sucked into the book by a surrounding dark greenish light, along with a hissing sound. The book then closed by itself. 

He heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway, it's Tony who's returned with a security guard. “Mr. Peterson, Tony here said, you and Mrs. Getts were down here fighting.” “What!” Peterson said, “Fighting?” “Of course not.” “Tony, why the hell would you tell him that?” “Because I know what I saw,” said Tony. “I saw y'all hugging and kissing, then y'all were fighting.”

Peterson denied all of what Tony said he saw; claiming, dramatically, that Tony was angry because he wasn't allowed to attend the assembly. He quickly assembled an explanation for the red stain on his shirt, and wound on his stomach. He told him that he fell while holding his pen, and punctured himself. He persuaded the school security guard to believe HIM, and that Tony was lying. Tony got into more trouble, and Mr. Peterson stopped the bleeding himself, put the book into his briefcase and went to the hospital to get stitches. He thought about what the book did, he thought about Mrs. Getts who's gone. The assembly's been over for almost a half-hour and Mrs. Getts is nowhere to be found. She's been called to the office three times, now they're assuming she's not in the building.

A substitute took Mr. Peterson's class, with Tony at his desk still head swollen about what he'd seen. During the assembly dismissal he tried telling it to the office staff, but they didn't believe him.

On his way home Peterson is envisioning the numbers from in the book. He knows this is some kind of mysticism, diabolical, supernatural, that if proven, he could get a lot of money for. 

While in his home in the afternoon, he looked through the book but was unable to read the unknown language. The eleven names that were in the back are now twelve, the twelfth one at the bottom said, “Kylene Getts”, with a red ink line crossing it out. When he adjusted himself in his chair he felt a sharp pain from the wound on his stomach; he touched it gently and thought of Getts's blood, and HIS blood which, when he turned to the XL (40th) page, was still there. He got a rag from the kitchen and tried quickly to wipe it off, regardless of it damaging the book’s page. A hissing sound started coming from the book making him afraid. He tore the page out of the book, bawled it up and tossed it into the trashcan. The book continued to hiss and then started making a humming noise. He felt the book pulling him in. When he closed it it reopened with a burst of that dark greenish ray and a dark red skinned demonic claw at the same time. It blew furniture over.

Peterson ran to the front door then got yanked back and across the room by the pulling. The demon's claw went back down into the book. He got up holding his stomach and head, and ran towards the stairs. The dark green and red aurora-like aura essence from within the book tailed him, in the form of concentrated wind with that humming and hissing sound. He ran into the bedroom to climb out the window but it caught him. Peterson screamed, “Help me!”, as it wrapped around him, turned him transparent, bawled him up and took him into the book.

-NAMES

The school's been phoning Mrs. Getts's cell but getting no answer. Tony was given, “After School Detention”. He pleaded with the substitute that, “He knows where Mrs. Getts was last”. He pleaded sincerely and convinced her to let him show her. While walking down the empty hallway he asked, “What'll they do if they don't hear from her?”

“(Sigh) Well Tony, they'll get in touch with her husband.” “If he hasn't heard from her, or anybody else by tomorrow, they might have to notify the authorities.” 

It's 3:31 in the afternoon. They went into Getts's classroom, “Over here!” said Tony. “In the closet room.” “Her and Mr. Peterson were talking, then hugging.”

“Then what?” she said. “Mr. Peterson was looking at a book in here, it had a roman number on the front.” “That one over there,” he said. “Yep, this one.” “Wait a minute Tony.” “Why were you in here?” “I was punished, made to stay up here and not see da assembly.” Tony told her. “I walked down here to tell him, I'm going to the bathroom.” “Okay”, she said. “What else happened?” 

“Mr. Peterson was acting weird, like he heard someone talking.” The substitute teacher (Ms. Johnson) picked up the book and opened it. The title page had three roman numerals written across the bottom of the page in red ink, the same way. Unable to read the book's language, she flipped through the book taking her time, all the way to the back where she saw thirteen names crossed out. She saw Getts and Peterson's name, and she recognized the tenth and eleventh ones that were in English. They were two missing people from two years ago. Why they're in the back of this strange book, along with Getts and Peterson's name baffles her. A book that, obviously, has no place in a middle school. 

“Tony told her about the fight he saw and the wound on Peterson's stomach.” “That Mrs. Getts was gone when he brought the school security in there.” He showed her two small drops of blood on his shirt, and said “he thinks they're from when Mr. Peterson was slashing at her with a knife.” “Are you sure Tony?” Ms. Johnson said. Tony shook his hands in seriousness saying, “Yes!” “I'm not making this up!” 

“Can't the police identify it proving what I said I saw?” “I hope so,” she said. Ms. Johnson took the book, and she and Tony went back to Peterson's classroom that was being used for Tony’s detention. “Wait here,” she said and left. Tony picked up the book and opened it. He turned the page and saw the roman numerals V(5), Vlll(8) and lX(9). He turned to page V(5), “Your Signature Here” it said. He wrote his signature and turned to page Vlll(8). It said, “A THREE FLOOR HOUSE WITH SLIDES, WITH RIDES, YOU COULD BUILD IT TONY.” “SHOW ME SOMETHING HERE…”

Tony (entranced) drew a house with slides coming out the windows on the page. It looked good and neat. Then he heard the approaching sound of Ms. Johnson’s heels tapping the floor. He closed the book right away. Debra (Ms. Johnson) thought It would be better and more respectful to take Tony home for the day. While at Tony's home she had a talk with his parents about his after school detention, and told them that, “The school is having trouble locating a teacher.” She was also able to get their permission to let Tony, “who was the last to see her”, she said, accompany her to the police station tomorrow morning. They showed concern and unease but decided it was OK. She told them she'll pick him up tomorrow at 8:30am. 

“Are you okay?” His father asked, “yeah” he said. “I just want to go lie down.” “We'll talk about that detention later” his father said with a bass. Tony shut his bedroom door and laid in his bed. As he dozed off he heard a chanting in his room, a whispering, and fell into a deep sleep. Debra on her way home, called the school and got Peterson's home phone number. She called him but didn't get an answer. 

The school's still unable to get in contact with Mrs. Getts, still blank about her whereabouts.

Later that night in bed, she researched “blood rituals & sacrifice” on her laptop. There was some familiarity, and some similarity, but she preferred the benefit of the doubt. Though there's names she knows that are crossed out in red, still, “it couldn't be.” When she opened the book the three roman numbers at the bottom of that page were, Ll (51), Llll (53), and LVl (56). On page Ll she wrote her signature, page Llll said, “A LITTLE MORE BLOOD ON IT, ONLY IT BELONGS TO HER.” She heard the humming sound that made her drowsy and fall asleep. 

In the morning, Tony is washed up and ready to be picked up by Ms. Johnson. He has the shirt with the blood droplets on it in his bookbag. 

Debra has showered and dressed. There was a cut on her arm when she woke up, which she wiped and bandaged. She took the book with her out to her car, and is on her way to pick up Tony. More than halfway there, she gets a call from another of the school's teachers telling her, “They still haven't reached Mrs. Getts.” “Okay” she said. “Let them know I won't be in this morning.” “Ok” he said. The thought that something feels peculiar about this book has a troubling hold on her. “Maybe it should be disposed of, yeah, it should.”

Tony hears the chanting and whispering that's entranced him again. He walks upstairs to his bedroom and looks out his window where he sees a red sliding board leading down to the front lawn, only HE sees it. He looked out his other room window and saw another red slide with a twist leading down on the side of their house, going over the metal gate into the neighbors yard. He smiled as he raised the window on the side of the house to the top. He backed up a good distance and ran and jumped feet first out the window, onto the sliding board that took him halfway then vanished, dropping him onto the top of the gate which punctured and cut his leg, and fractured it. 

As Tony is lying on the side of the house screaming and crying, Debra is pulling up in front of the house. She heard the crying and rushed around there seeing him lying there on his back, his right leg up and caught on the pointy top of the gate. His father heard the screaming and rushed out the back door and around to where they were. “What happened!” He said. Tony screamed, “The slide, I fell out the window!” “My leg!” “Dad, my leg!” Tony's mother had the car. Debra drove him, with his father, to the hospital. His father (Carl) got a call on his cell, by their neighbor. “I saw your son jump out of the window!, it looked like he ran and jumped!” “That's ridiculous,” said Carl. “Ok, I'll see you later.” 

Before being taken in for medical attention, Tony told Debra, “The shirt’s in my bookbag.” Debra went back out to her car (entranced) and got the shirt out of the bookbag. She wiped some of Tony's blood from her hands onto the book's page and onto his shirt. She pressed onto the shirt to imprint it enough to look like there's more. She grabbed the book, went back into the hospital and sat in the waiting area with Tony's father. She came out of the trance. “You OK?” he asked. “Yea” she said.

“So, a teacher's missing?” Said Carl. “Well, not exactly missing yet, but if they still haven't heard from her, and her family hasn't, then she could be missing.” She opened the book and turned to the back page to look at those crossed out names, then closed it. “Carl,” she said. “Do you remember the names “Darlene Nolls”, or “Von Baker”, who went missing two years ago?” “Uuh yeah.…I do remember “Von Baker.” “They found his semi abandoned at a truck stop.” “What's that you holding?” he asked. “A book and a shirt,” she said. “Feed 16.” “What?” “The name of the book,” he said. “Feed XVl(16)” “Oh, is that what it says?” “Yeah” he chuckled. “You didn't know?” “Nah, I didn't.” “Wanted to wipe your hands?” “No, this is Tony's shirt, and I'm gonna share something with you.” she said.

She told him about what his son saw in Mrs. Getts's classroom during the assembly. That If she could prove that the blood on the shirt belongs to her it would be evidence that she and Mr. Peterson were indeed fighting like Tony said he'd seen, and that Mr. Peterson lied. Carl paused for a moment. “Ohh, really?" “Well, you know, I have a close friend who works here.” “I might be able to get him to help you with that?” “Can you?” She said, “Yea come on.” They walked down the busy hospital hallway.  “I don't know how soon you'll get the results but, he can do it.” He and Debra stood by the restroom. Carl called his good friend who, after a few minutes, came downstairs on the elevator. She gave Carl the shirt, he showed it to his friend (Mike) and explained. Mike said “Okay” and took it upstairs. Carl and Debra went back to the waiting area and sat. 

“I'm gonna get a soda, then use the bathroom,” said Debra. “Okay, I'll be right here.” “Can you hold my book?” “Sure,” he said. “I'm throwing it away before we leave here.” Carl opened the book and saw the roman numbers XXX(30), XXXll(32) and XXXV(35) at the bottom.

He turned to page thirty “Excuse me, do you have a pen?” He said to the guy sitting across from him. The elderly man gave him a pen. He wrote his signature on the page, then started hearing the chanting.

Page thirty two said, YOUR SON IS DYING, AND ITS THEIR FAULT. ACCEPT IT.

Carl went to the emergency room area holding the book, hearing in his head, Tony screaming, seeing the doctors cutting into him. A staff member is saying, “Sir you can't come into this area!” “Sir!.....Sir!” He grabbed her by the throat tightly with one hand, he dropped the book and pulled a scalpel, that appeared, out of his pants pocket and stabbed her in the eye shouting, “You murderers!” Other nearby hospital workers are shocked. Some turned their heads and shouted, “Oh my God!” Debra heard the commotion as she was exiting the bathroom. Coming back to the waiting area, Carl is gone and people are looking towards the ER area. Security is now rushing down there. A nurse is on the floor holding her eye screaming in pain. Carl stabbed her again and again. Security shouts, “Put down the weapon and get down on the floor now!” “No!, you murderers!” He yelled. “Do it now!” Carl dropped the scalpel and put his hands up. 

“How's this!” He shouted. He turned around and looked towards the operating room. Suddenly, he shouted, Tony! He picked up the scalpel and charged at them. They shot once, hitting him in the stomach, dropping him. He got back up and they fired again. One in the chest and one in the throat. The book blew open with a blast of red and dark greenish light that knocked everybody down.

It could be seen outside the hospital. The loud humming and hissing made some of them cover up or cover their ears. Debra stood back shielding herself while watching. Carl's blood was being sucked into the book along with the dead nurse's. The greenish aura essence slithered out like a serpent, it wrapped around both of them, turned them transparent and took them into the book.

It went through the wall and doors towards Tony, who screamed, “Daddy!” It bawled him up, turned him transparent and took him into the book. It closed and vanished with a pop of dark reddish glittery dust that lingered for a few minutes. The security guard said, “What the hell was that?” The people nearby got up slowly and aghast. Debra backed away and left the hospital. Mike came down and into the ER area and asked. “What happened?”

-THE REPORTS

Two days later. Mrs. Getts and Mr. Peterson, have been declared missing by their families. 

Witnesses were questioned about what happened in the hospital. Tony and his father's whereabouts are unknown, along with the nurse who was stabbed to death.

Witnesses said, “they saw the stabbing.” They couldn't explain what happened afterwards.  

Debra hasn't gone back to work yet. The blood on the shirt that Carl gave to his friend Mike, got analyzed thanks to Tony's info. Mike told them what Carl said when he gave him Tony's blood stained shirt. “That there was a violent fight between two teachers, one whom the school is unable to get in contact with.” The police gained legal access to Peterson's home. They found the living room a mess. 

It's 10:51pm, Debra is in bed getting ready to go to sleep for the night. She's unaware that the book made her cut herself and wipe blood on its page during that past night. She hears a faint chanting in the room, now it's coming from the hallway. When she went out to investigate, it stopped. When she went back into the bedroom the book, “Feed 16”, was sitting on her bed. She walked up to it and opened it, flipped through to the last page where the names are. There's sixteen names with a red line drawn through them. The bedroom door slammed shut and a dark red demon's claw reached out the book. She ran to the door, turning and pulling the knob. Its arm and shoulder is out, now it's monstrous animalistic head. The door opened and she ran towards the stairs, there's two more identical demons walking up on two feet. Their bodies are dark red, with broad hunched shoulders.

She ran to the bathroom but the door slammed shut. She opens the other bedroom door, there's more of them approaching so she runs back to the bedroom that looks empty, the book is gone. She runs in and shuts the door. The power in the house goes out, a house blackout. Scared and terrified, she gets under the bed. The sound of breathing and feet approaching the door can be heard. The door opens and one walks in and to the bed. It kneels down and looks under. Debra screamed!

In the morning, Debra is gone…

The telephone rang several times then stopped…

The school's been calling her house phone and cellphone most of the day. A few friends of hers have called too, “maybe she's very busy”, is what they're saying, even though it's a little strange to them. Now, the school is more understandably concerned and frustrated. She hasn't come in to work and she hasn't been answering her phones. There's over a dozen messages in total left by the school, by friends, neighbors and now family members. Her next door neighbor went over and knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. 

Over the next few days there's been quite a number of violent reports, sporadic around the town. Some of them are domestic and the authorities were told specifically, “The person has never been like this.” Tony's mother, moments after reading a bible, is sitting in front of the tv watching the news. After it went off she turned off the tv and said a prayer for the friends and families that she knows in the area. She said a prayer for her brother who lives on the other side of town. 

The reports continued coming in for another week, there were a half dozen homicides before it died down. “Possession by some kinda spirit or something,” was mentioned once but, who'd accept that as a reason? 

Debra was officially declared missing. Her sister, whom she gave a key to, went into the house late in the evening. She tried flipping several light switches but they wouldn't come on. She used her phone's light to look around as she walked through the living room and went upstairs where she flipped another light switch. “Strange” she said, when she realized the power was out. She shined the light in the bedroom where she saw the book, “Feed 16” lying face down closed. She had a talk with the police the next day in regards to Debra being missing. She told them “she had a key that she gave her, and she went into her home.” 

“All the lights were off, and this book was lying on her bedroom floor.” “Maybe you can try dusting it for prints.” The officer opened it, examined it briefly. He looked in the back, all the names were gone. “I saw a book like this before.” he said. “And don't worry, we'll do our best.” Later that day, while sitting at the computer. 

He heard the sound of a chanting and humming….

By Marcus Jones