Chapter 8: Curiosity Leads To Regret

August 14th- Craig

Grey clouds completely cover the sky that Monday morning. News spread quickly throughout the small town, though that's nothing out of the ordinary. Craig boards the school bus, almost all of the children are talking about the murder that happened yesterday. He walks down the narrow aisle to his self-proclaimed, designated seat, which is on the fourth row on the left side of the bus. Sitting next to the window is a boy with spiky, blonde hair and blue-green eyes. He sits beside him.

"O-oh man, I wanna go home," Tweek whines as he grips the collar of his long-sleeved green shirt, which is incorrectly buttoned. "Our parents are crazy letting us go to school when a killer is out there somewhere!"

"I guess so..." Craig responds setting his red racer book bag on his lap. Ms. Crabtree drives off to the last stop. Craig looks around for Eric's three friends, but only spots Stan sitting in the fifth seat on the right. He looks dispirited, which isn't uncommon for a child to appear since waking up early to go to school every weekday morning can be a pain in the butt, however Craig believes that Eric's disappearance drained him of his usual enthusiasm, or perhaps he hasn't completely gotten over his cold. Craig also notices that Stan isn't wearing his red puff ball hat. Next to him is his blue book bag. Craig looks away.

"What do you think about the murder case, Craig?" Tweek asks.

"I just hope it gets solved soon, and they find Eric," Craig answers truthfully.

Tweek frowns, releasing his shirt and resting his hands on his lap. "Yeah, me too. He's mean, but he didn't deserve to get kidnapped...Umm..." He tenses up. "I think this murder case is very different compared to the other ones we've had. It...doesn't feel like a human killed that guy."

Craig raises an eyebrow at him. The bus comes to a halt at the last stop. "What makes you say that?" He asks.

"The police said that they found no evidence, the man was almost hacked to shreds, and the room was left all bloody," Tweek answers, sounding as if he's figured out the killer's undiscovered identity. "They think the woman in the picture was the culprit...but I don't think she is. I mean it's possible a human could've done all of that, but they would have to be mentally insane or..." He trails off, breaking eye contact.

It becomes silent between the two boys. Clyde boards the bus and bids them a good morning as he passes by, wearing a burgundy jacket with a blue-colored collar, dark grey pants, and red and white sneakers. Tweek is the only one who greets him back. "S-so...are you saying...that a monster killed him then?" Craig asks nervously, and also a bit skeptically. Tweek doesn't answer.

Ms. Crabtree transports them to the elementary school. Craig faces forward with an uneasy frown. He's known Tweek ever since last year, yet he has never talked a full sentence without stuttering at least once. Especially on a topic about murder and a classmate of theirs that had been kidnapped. Tweek spoke as if he was almost certain that a monster killed the man, not a human being.

Neither Craig nor Tweek speak to each other again throughout the duration of the bus ride.

/

Craig enters the school building with Tweek and Clyde by his side. "The news wasn't all that scary," Clyde tells them. "It's just freaky that the cops didn't find anything. But that just means the killer was really smart, right?" Craig and Tweek stay silent as they walk to their classroom. Clyde glances at them with confusion apparent in his lavender-colored eyes for their lack of a response, but doesn't question it.

In all honesty, Craig wants the subject to drop. It's only been one day and he's already tired of hearing about the incident. Nothing will change until the police updates everyone about the case, but who knows when that will be. Like his father said, this isn't an ordinary killer this town is dealing with. Craig grips the straps of his book bag, thinking back on what Tweek said on the school bus. "W-what if it really was a monster and it took Eric?" His body tenses up with dread.

Before long, both he and his two friends along with a dozen more students reach their class. Only to see some of their classmates standing outside of the door, which is closed.

"Why's everyone standing here?" Clyde asks.

A girl with black hair carrying a nighttime-themed book bag over her shoulders turns around to respond. "We don't know. The door was closed when we all got here."

"That's weird. Mrs. Wayford is never late to school," Tweek says observantly, Clyde nodding in agreement.

Wendy just shrugs, later taking notice of Craig's nervous mien. "Craig, what's wrong?"

Not wanting to receive any concerned stares from anyone, Craig heaves a sigh as he relaxes his posture. "Nothing. I'm just tired of hearing about the murder case already."

Wendy frowns in understanding, averting her orchid-colored eyes elsewhere. "Well, it is a pretty serious and scary topic..." she murmurs.

"H-hopefully, the police find the killer soon," Tweek says, trying to be a bit optimistic.

While the children wait on their teacher, a family of three walk up to the classroom. The father, a tall and couthly dressed man with brown hair and similar colored eyes, looks at the wooden door with distaste. "Is the teacher seriously running late? And didn't inform anyone either?"

"Seems so," answers his wife, who has wavy black hair that went a few inches past her shoulders and brown eyes. She's wearing a pair of pearl studded earrings, and red lipstick. Her long-sleeved white undershirt is exposing a bit of cleavage; her outer attire is a sleeveless orange dress with a white belt, and black high heel shoes.

Craig looks at their child, a brunette with brown eyes as well. His attire is simple, which is a yellow long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and black boots. One of his feet, though, looks broken, but he's not wearing a cast. Instead, he's just using crutches that are attached to his forearms. Craig hears a few kids snickering at the disabled boy, and it irritates him, knowing all too well who they are.

"I'm going to go get the Principal," the child's father states impatiently.

"There's no need for you to do that, sir." Everyone looks to who spoke just now, seeing a woman with a blonde afro and blue eyes behind black-rimmed glasses approaching them. Walking alongside her is a middle-aged man with balding grey hair, he's wearing glasses that are black, just like his eyes. He's carrying a brown briefcase. "I apologize for the wait."

The brown-haired man clears his throat, no longer looking displeased. "It's okay, Principal Victoria. I'm assuming this man is their teacher?"

"Their new teacher, yes," Principal Victoria says. "Their previous instructor, Mrs. Wayford, quit earlier and left town."

"On such short notice?" The older brunette asks in disbelief.

Principal Victoria nods her head. "The reason is because of the unsolved murder case. She feared for her safety and well-being. I had no obligation to stop her."

"...I see...That's justifiable," the man muses.

"Alright, children," Principal Victoria addresses the young students. "Give your new teacher, Mr. Garrison, a warm welcome."

"Hello, Mr. Garrison," the kids chorus obediently. Principal Victoria smiles in approval and goes to unlock the classroom door, Mr. Garrison greeting his students back with a smile and a nod. Once the door is unlocked, the children enter the classroom. Principal Victoria quickly asks both Mr. Garrison and the family of three for a few additional moments of their time.

The teachers desk is clear of Mrs. Wayford's belongings, only the school's computer and phone remain on the surface. There are two long, plastic tables - one near the left side and the other on the right side of the classroom, leaving a lot of space in the middle. Craig shrugs his book bag off and sets it beside him on the floor as he sits down at the end of the table on the left. Tweek, Clyde, Wendy, Bebe, Leopold, Stan, and eight more kids sit at the same table. Craig leans forward placing an elbow on the table followed by resting his cheek on his palm. The children at the other table can be heard talking among themselves, overlapping the hushed voices out in the hallway. There's an awkward silence at Craig's table.

"Sooo, ummm..." Clyde starts off saying, not liking the awkwardness around them. "What did you guys do over the weekend?"

"Oh, Aah was grounded for eatin' a bowl of cereal for lunch, so Aah had ta stay in mah room all weekend," Leopold answers whilst rubbing his knuckles together, his sky-blue eyes looking down at the table. Craig rolls his eyes. The boy's parents always grounded him for the stupidest things.

"As always," Clyde deadpans, not surprised in the slightest. "Anyway, what did you do over the weekend, Bebe?"

Craig rolls his eyes once again, this time in annoyance. It's no secret to him or anyone for that matter that Clyde has a crush on Bebe. The brunette's affection towards her has been blatantly obvious. Craig doesn't know when Clyde developed feelings for the girl, but he understands why. Both Bebe and Wendy are cute and pretty, however there is one thing Craig doesn't like about Bebe. It's that she loves to talk nonstop.

After Clyde asked Bebe about her weekend, the frizzy-haired blonde's indigo purple eyes lit up like today is Christmas. "Last Saturday, me and Wendy went shopping at the mall, and our moms bought us these bracelets." Both girls roll up their right sleeve a little bit, and place their arms on the table. On their wrists is a plastic heart-shaped bracelet; Bebe's is purple and silver while Wendy's is yellow and a lighter shade of purple.

"Wow! They're very pretty!" Leopold acclaims. Clyde shoots him a glare for complimenting his crush's jewelry before he did.

"Thanks, Leo," Bebe beams. She and Wendy roll down their sleeves. "We wanted to get our names put on them, but the lady working there told us we couldn't." She pouts at the memory, then starts rambling more about her and Wendy's weekend.

Craig groans and leans back against his chair, cringing at his lovestruck friend, who's eying Bebe as if she's a goddess. "Girls sure do love to talk a lot...I hope Tricia doesn't turn out like that." He almost shudders at the thought. He glimpses around the classroom, trying to distract himself from hearing Bebe's babbling. His eyes land on Stan, who's sat on the right side near the opposite end of the table. He really doesn't look too good. "How come his parents let him come to school if he's still not feeling well?" Craig thinks, now very concerned about Stan's health. But he doesn't want to seem weird for staring at the other noirette for too long, so he looks away and almost screams when he sees Tweek staring at him. "What?" He asks calmly, hoping Tweek hadn't caught him staring at Stan.

"I asked what you did over the weekend," Tweek says.

Craig's cheeks flush with embarrassment. "Oh sorry, I didn't hear you. I didn't do anything. I wanted to go over to Clyde's house yesterday, but thanks to the stupid murder case, I had to stay at home and be bored out of my mind," he grumbles in the end.

Tweek's blue-green eyes linger on him for some seconds, then he looks at the wall across from him. "Oh..." is all he says.

Well, that wasn't a reply Craig was expecting to hear. It can't be that Tweek is upset because Craig wanted to hang out with Clyde instead of him, it wouldn't have been the first time he hung out with them separately. Sometimes, Clyde and Tweek would spend time together without him, only if he's absent from school or was unable to go over either boys house. Craig sits up folding both of his arms on the table. "What about you? What did you do over the weekend?" He asks.

"Nothing...I just stayed at home," Tweek answers monotonously, still not making eye contact.

Craig frowns. Why is Tweek acting evasive all of a sudden? "Hey, what's wrong with-"

"Sorry about the hold-up, children," says Mr. Garrison as he enters the classroom, closing the door. Craig resists the urge to flip his teacher off for interrupting him. He's lucky he's new. Mr. Garrison walks over to the teachers desk, laying his briefcase down on top of it. He faces the children clapping his hands together. "So, the Principal filled me in on what yer previous teacher taught you all. But before that..." He holds off on his next set of words as he turns to his briefcase. He opens it, and after a bit of rummaging around, pulls out a hand puppet. He puts it on his right hand. The puppet's body is that of a humans torso. It has a brown beard and mustache. It's wearing a purple shirt, and a tall red and white striped hat. The puppet's big, googly eyes are on the brim of the hat. "Aah would like to introduce everyone to my assistant, Mr. Hat. Say hello to the class, Mr. Hat."

"Hello! It's a pleasure to meet such lovely children," the puppet says with its owner's Southern accent. But Mr. Garrison's mouth didn't move when it spoke.

Craig along with the rest of his classmates stare at them in stunned silence; Craig more creeped out than amazed by his teacher's ventriloquist skills. There's something unnerving about Mr. Hat...

"That's. So. Cool!" Clyde exclaims excitedly. "How did you do that without moving your mouth?!" Half of the children voice their agreement. Craig is once again dumbfounded that his classmates find this entertaining. He'll admit that it is indeed impressive that Mr. Garrison is a talented ventriloquist, but a murder just happened yesterday, plus Eric is missing...Now that Craig thinks about it, perhaps this is Mr. Garrison's way of ridding away the tension.

"Quiet down, everyone. Sorry, kid, but Aah cain't tell ya mah secret," Mr. Garrison says making Clyde pout. "Alright, before we begin today's lesson, Aah would like for you all to introduce yourselves, so me and Mr. Hat can know who's who." He starts with the table closest to his desk. Going first is an African-American boy named Tolkien Black. The rest of the children say their names one after the other.

It's half a minute later when it's the other table's turn. Mr. Garrison with Mr. Hat in tow go over to the other table, standing beside Stan since there's no one sitting opposite of him. "So, what's yer name?" Mr. Garrison asks, but Stan doesn't answer him. It's as if he hadn't heard him. "Excuse me? Helloooo?" Mr. Garrison tries to get Stan's attention by lightly tapping his shoulder with Mr. Hat. Craig sees Stan stiffen after the first touch, his eyes widening as if he's seen a ghost. Time mysteriously slows down the moment Stan cranes his neck to look up at Mr. Garrison. But then time flows back to normal when they lock eyes.

"Dear Lord!" Mr. Garrison cries out. He backs away from Stan, stabilizing himself against the silver steel bar below the whiteboard.

"T-that Lil' shit's a demon! A demooon!" Mr. Hat exclaims, pointing a small fingerless hand at the child.

Not fazed by the hand puppet's insult, Stan's eyes reduce in size, then he looks back down at the table.

"...W-what the heck was that all about?" Craig thinks, not risking voicing his thought out loud in this uncomfortable silence. He sees Leopold stand up and quietly move his chair closer to Wendy, afraid of being near the noirette.

"Umm, Mr. Garrison?" Wendy speaks up, brave enough to break the ice. "I think Stan's sick. I'll take him to the nurses office." She gets up from her seat and ambles over to Stan, contemplating tapping his shoulder for his attention. She decides against doing so. "S-Stan?" She utters his name nervously. "Let's go to the nurses office."

Without saying a word, Stan glances over at Wendy before rising to his feet, keeping his head held low as he opens the door and walks out of the classroom. Wendy grabs his book bag and trails after him, closing the door behind her.

Once the door shuts, Mr. Garrison stands up straight, awkwardly clearing his throat. He's still shaken up from the peculiar look he saw in the boy's dull blue eyes, but he has a class he needs to teach. "I-ignore what happened just now. Instead, Aah'll just check the attendance for the rest of the students' names Aah didn't get."

*Afternoon*

Curiosity gets the best of Craig once school is over. He couldn't stop thinking about Mr. Garrison abruptly freaking out when he made eye contact with Stan this morning. There's only one person he can talk to, to get answers from, and it's Wendy.

"Hey, what happened to your leg?"

Craig stops walking, just several steps away from climbing into the school bus. The children behind him walk around him as he turns to face his left side, glaring at three children surrounding the handicapped boy he saw this morning. Two of those boys have short, blonde hair, though one of the boys' hair looks unkempt and the other child's hair is neat. The third boy has black hair styled in a bowl-cut.

"Yeah, looks painful and nasty," the boy with the bowl-cut comments, grimacing.

"Ew, now that you mentioned it, it does," says the spiky-haired child, who's also the one who asked the rude query a second ago. All three boys burst out laughing.

Having heard enough, Craig storms over to the quartet, unaware that a certain brunette is watching him while nearing the bus. Craig steps in front of the boy on crutches, who appears taken aback along with the three bullies.

"Wha-what the heck do you want?" The boy with messy blonde hair asks, narrowing his black eyes at Craig.

"Leave him alone," Craig demands, hardening his scowl.

The slightly taller blonde smirks. "Or what? You gonna tell on us?" He taunts. His friends snicker at the possibility. Craig instantly retaliates by flipping him off.

"Oooo!" The other blonde-haired boy yells, sounding like a siren. His outcry alerts the few teachers outside. Craig quickly lowers his hand to his side.

"What's going on over there?" A female teacher asks before walking over to the group.

The black-haired boy points at Craig. "He flipped Trent off."

"N-no, he d-didn't! T-those three didn't stop p-picking on me, so he told them to s-stop."

The dark-haired woman gives the three nervous looking bullies a scolding look. She crosses her arms. "It seems each of your parents failed to properly discipline you three after the first few times you've been reported for bullying. Trent, Billy, and Ricky, come with me to the Principal's office. I will personally make sure you boys receive the punishment you rightfully deserve. Especially for poking fun at a child that is disabled."

The bullies pale. Trent opens his mouth to protest. "B-but-"

"Come with me, now."

Trent, Billy, and Ricky begrudgingly follow after the teacher, glaring hatefully at both Craig and the boy behind him. Grinning triumphantly, Craig briefly shoots them the bird, so he doesn't get into trouble as well for the crude gesture.

"T-thank you."

Craig turns around, giving the grateful child a smile. "You're welcome. Funny how their snitching backfired." They both share a short laugh.

"M-my name is Jimmy," the brunette introduces himself.

"Mines is Craig. I thought Principal Victoria had sent you home because you were injured."

Jimmy shakes his head. "N-no, I-I was born like this. I was just sent to a different class."

Craig frowns, feeling guilty. "Oh...sorry...I didn't know..."

"It's okay. At least you weren't mean about it like those other guys."

Craig appears relieved that he'd been forgiven for his insensitive statement, but he still feels a little contrite. He panics, though, when he sees some of the buses closing their doors. "Oh crap! I gotta go! Um, see you some other time!" He hurries off towards the bus that's first in line before Jimmy can bid him farewell. Jimmy watches him leave with a small smile, and continues to wait for his parents to come pick him up.

"You barely made it, kid," Ms. Crabtree says once Craig gets on the bus.

"Y-yeah," Craig pants. He walks down the aisle. The bus begins to move. Normally, he would sit with Tweek or Clyde, but Tweek has been acting weird towards him throughout the day for some unknown reason, and Clyde is sharing a seat with Tolkien. Though Craig plans to sit next to Wendy anyway. Whenever he questioned Tweek about his unusual behavior, his friend would ignore him. Craig found out that Tweek had been ignoring Clyde as well, snubbing him whenever he tried to talk to him. Tweek even sat at a different table during lunchtime.

Craig shakes his head, focusing on his current task. Even though he really wants to know why Tweek suddenly dislikes both him and Clyde, finding out why Mr. Garrison reacted the way he did when Stan looked at him this morning is his top priority right now. And besides, he can always try again tomorrow.

After walking past eight seats in total, Craig is surprised that he hasn't seen Wendy yet. He saw Bebe, but she's sitting with Heidi, and doesn't look too happy about it either. He walks all the way to the back, finally spotting Wendy in the last seat on the left. She's sitting on her book bag, looking out the window with a gaze Craig can't read, her hands curled halfway into fists on her lap. Taking his book bag off, he sits beside her setting his bag on his lap. Wendy doesn't acknowledge him.

Craig gets a fluttery feeling in his chest. Then, it dawns on him that he's sitting next to one of the cutest as well as smartest girls in Park Tree Elementary School. Hoping he isn't blushing at the realization, he takes a silent deep breath to calm himself down, then looks over at the female noirette. "Wendy?" He matched the volume of his voice with the loudness of the other children's voices. But it made no difference because the girl appears to not have heard him. "Wendy?!" He calls for her again, a bit louder this time, but he still fails to get her attention. The bus slows to a standstill at the first stop. "Crap, I need to hurry!" Craig quickly taps Wendy's arm for her awareness. He retracts his finger like he'd been burned when the girl flinches and gapes at Craig. She blinks, decreasing the size of her eyes.

"H-how come you're sitting back here?"

"There's something I need to ask you," Craig tells her, unable to hide his urgency. The bus drives off to the second stop. "Did Stan tell you anything while you were taking him to the nurses office?"

Nipping her bottom lip, Wendy looks down at her lap. "U-um..."

"Please tell me before my stop comes up," Craig pleads.

Releasing the light pressure on her lip, Wendy gives him a curious stare. "Why do you wanna know?"

Craig blinks, startled by the question. He was so avid on alleviating his curiosity that he never bothered to question himself as to why he was curious about the bizarre interaction between Stan and Mr. Garrison in the first place. However, he doesn't have time to think on it any longer for the bus deaccelerates before stopping. He frowns. "I...honestly don't know, but for some reason, I want to know. So can you tell me?"

Wendy's face scrunches up with uncertainty. Craig suddenly gets the feeling that she knows more than what he initially thought. "O-okay...I'll tell you," she concedes. "But don't tell anyone else, okay?" Craig nods his head in confirmation, both relieved and nervous, though he doesn't let neither emotion show. He waits for Wendy to tell him what she knows, gripping his book bag tightly when the bus drives off to the third stop. His stop. "I-I'm still confused and unsure about this, but...Stan told me about the darkness and...monsters called Beings of Darkness'. One of those monsters is already in this town...but...the look in his eyes made me think he was talking crazy." Clenching her hands into fists on her lap, she gazes out of the window again with a troubled frown, watching the buildings blur and whizz from her view. "When I asked him what was he talking about, he told me that a spirit told him all of that in a dream. I didn't bother to ask him any more questions, I just deemed him crazy. But...I can't stop thinking about what he told me for some reason..."

There's silence between the two. Craig experiences a mixture of confusion, uneasiness, and skepticism all at the same time. Stan doesn't seem like the type to spout nonsense out of the blue, but then again, he did look unwell today. Perhaps he was confusing his dream with reality because of his lingering cold, Craig figures.

Suddenly, his mind recalls a specific statement Tweek told him earlier. "I think this murder case is very different compared to the other ones we've had. It...doesn't feel like a human killed that guy."

Craig's eyes slowly widen with horror. "W-wait...could whatever this Being of Darkness is...be the one that killed that man yesterday, a-and took Eric...?" The very thought of a monster roaming around in their town sends shivers down his spine. He tries to reassure himself that monsters don't exist, that Stan had made them up... "M-monsters aren't real. They aren't!"

The boy nearly screams when he feels someone tap his shoulder. "We're at your stop," he hears Wendy say.

"R-right, thanks..." Still feeling the aftereffects of his turmoil of apprehension, Craig gets up from the seat, walking down the aisle in quick strides clutching his book bag close to his chest. His two close friends watch his small figure hurry off the bus, both boys appearing concerned, though one of them is more worried about Craig than the other.

Once his feet land on the sidewalk, Craig takes off into a sprint towards his home, chanting that monsters aren't real inside his head.