Unexpected

• Aliya Mccormack, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2021

Pauline was a short, petite girl. No one was suspicious of her, for her warm smile and calm words could make anyone feel like they were loved. But she also had horrifically black eyes. Looking at them would send a shiver down your spine. But everyone ignored it, for she seemed too charming. She would look at you with those beady black eyes of hers like she could see all the mistakes you’d ever made, but then she would quickly cover it up with a swish of her black hair and a smile on her cherry red lips. No one really thought twice about her. And then there was Leo. The sweetest boy you’d ever meet.
Leo looked towards Pauline as she swung on the monkey bars with her friends, her almost fake twinkling laugh ran throughout the playground. Leo had soft brown eyes that were always filled with understanding, but right now they were filled with confusion. What did people see in her? Sure, she was nice and sweet, but her eyes gave off a look of hatred that almost seemed nonhuman. The bell rang, and the students rushed back to class.
Their teacher, Ms Loraine, entered the classroom. “Hello children, let’s start today with a question. How do you spell bicentennial? Yes Pauline?” She answered immediately. “B-i-c-e-n-t-e-n-n-i-a-l, Ms Loraine.” The teacher smiled at her and continued the lesson.
Suddenly, it was home time already with children bustling out of the classrooms. But Pauline stayed behind. Leo held back, curious about why she was still there. “What are you doing?” he asked as Ms Loraine left the room. Pauline’s head turned and he screamed… for where her eyes used to be, were pits of darkness.
The next day everyone arrived at school with baffled and scared looks. For young, little Leo Pire and Pauline had gone missing. “Where could they be?” the whispers said. “And why are they missing?”
Soon the detectives arrived asking for information about Leo and Pauline. Leo’s parents had called them last night after Leo hadn’t returned home after school. The detectives asked questions about where he had last been seen and who with. Ms Loraine only knew that Leo and Pauline had stayed behind in class yesterday, and that was where her knowledge ended.
The only thing that the children had ever found weird about Pauline, is that the day before Leo had gone missing, even though they ignored it, the whites in her eyes had been getting smaller and smaller so that her black irises and pupils were covering most of her eyes.
****
Pauline sat chanting by the fireplace, binding Leo’s soul to her necklace. She needed his soul to keep up her loving and unsuspicious persona. Better than living isolated. An old witch entered the room, her deep, dark endless pits for eyes meeting Pauline’s “Be careful dear,” she warned. “Yes mother,” Pauline replied, as she put on the necklace and her eyes returned to normal.