1 The Teacher That Drank Iced Tea

It was early morning, approximately 8 AM when a local high school teacher, James Umbral, woke up. An average Saturday for him, he would get up from bed, stretch, then open the blinds from his window. The sun would pierce his eyes at first, but he would endure the pain of sunlight, then walk away from the window.

From his window, he walks past his desk, his papers nicely stacked in two piles. One pile neatly labeled with 'Graded' and another pile labeled 'Not Graded', his 'Graded' pile was bigger than his 'Not Graded' pile. He then walked out of his bedroom, and into his bathroom that was down the hall. He had a 2 story house with a basement, but he presumably lived alone.

In his bathroom, he would wash his face, brush his teeth, shaved his growing beard back to his perfect designer stubble, that many of his students knew him for. He would then comb his hair, and gel it slicking it back. His black hair complimented his blue eyes and his amazing jaw. After finishing his bathroom routine, he would grab a bath robe from his bathroom and wrap himself inside of it. Slip on his slippers that were left inside the bathroom, then walk down to the first floor of his house.

He then turned on his television, picked up the remote after, switching the channel from a late night movie channel to the news.

"Today will be a nice 69 degrees, with a 42% chance of having 0% rain, so make sure when you go out today, you bring an umbrella just in case," the weatherman laughed after he said this, "Back to you Rebecca." the weatherman pointed to someplace off screen, the camera switching to a woman who had long straight black hair, with a blue dress on.

Mr. Umbral, watched closer as the woman appeared on screen. With a close eye, he inspected her from head to torso, as her lower off was cut off by a desk. "She's definitely younger than me, mid-twenties perhaps? So young so successful." His inspection however is cut short, by a sudden breaking news.

He scuffs, annoyed at the interruption, walking away from the television and into his kitchen. He grabs himself a cup from his cupboard, and ice tea mix. He prepares himself ice tea as the news reporter reports on the breaking news.

"This just in, authorities have cornered a suspect in the disappearance of 5 high school girls."

Mr. Umbral, pours water into his cup, then grabs a spoon putting spoonfuls of the ice tea powder into the cup. After the liquid inside the cup turns a dark reddish brown, he begins stirring the cup with his spoon.

"The police force is now surrounding the suspects house. It is said that the suspect is an empowered. So the roads have been closed off and sectioned off. With an anti-empowered field. Until the suspect has been apprehended there will be traffic along the following roads on screen now."

Mr Umbral, hums as he finishes stirring up his ice tea. He places back the mixture, and puts the spoon in his sink. After cleaning up he whistles as he goes back to his television in his living room. He sits down on an empty couch, and begins sipping it. He continues watching the news, as he smiles.

"New information revealed! It seems as though one man has gone into the suspect's house. The house seemingly belongs to..."

BLIP

The TV shuts off, "James Umbral, 34 years old, born 1985, class of 2003. Began teaching math and literacy at the age of 26. You've kept your empowerment hidden from the world. Even listing as normal in all of your job applications," a man with messy brown hair, a black coat with a white button up shirt underneath, sits down on a couch next to James.

"Breaking and entering is against the law. Do you even have a warrant," Umbral says, turning his head toward the man, "Who are you anyway? I don't recognize you from any policeman or detective I've ever saw."

"Issac, that's my name. How about I ask you a question instead? Do you remember a student of yours by the name of Nicole Silverman?"

Umbral takes another sip of his ice tea, "Yes, she was in my last period class, I feel for the family she's been missing for months now."

"Have you talked to the family?"

"No, not since she was present for a report card. I don't associate with my students after class. I actually hate them all to be honest with you, Issac."

"You don't associate with them after class you say?"

"Yes, that is what I said."

"So tell me why you have an after school study group."

"Well of course it is to help students to not fail my class."

"Is that so, even though you only allowed girls into the study group. One of them being Nicole Silverman."

James puts his cup of ice tea down, with a nervous sweat on his face. How could he possibly know that? Not even other teachers know that I only accept girls, James thinks as he gets up from his seat. "If you'll excuse me, you must be thirsty, I'll bring you a drink."

"Make sure, it's something with alcohol," Issac says smiling. James leaves to the kitchen, as he does Issac looks around the living room. Under the couch, TV, table, and rug. He couldn't find anything suspicious. But his suspicions grew once he saw that the cup of ice tea was completely empty.

He was only taking sips how did he finish it, Issac thinks. "Unless he-"

"SUSPECT HAS LEFT THE HOUSE," Issac could hear the shout from inside, as heavy footsteps can be heard on the grass surrounding Umbral's house. Followed by the screams of men, and the slicing of flesh. Issac runs to the kitchen, the backdoor flung open, he runs out the door and sees 3 men on the ground holding onto their arms or throat.

Issac examined everything and rushed to the nearest and less injured man, "What happened," he asked.

"That bastard had some kind of blade on him. Could be his empowerment, he ran into the shed. He should be cornered, we checked it there was nothing in there."

Issac nods, tapping the man on his shoulder, signaling a good job. He looked at the shed, and began walking to it. As he walked over to the shed, the sounds of an ambulance, a news helicopter, and more police running to the backyard overcame Issac. He becomes annoyed, but keeps moving, holding on to his head, as though he was having a headache. He opens the shed, nothing, he saw nothing inside.

There were the average arrangement of tools, but other than that there wasn't anything. Issac, walked in, tapping the floor of the shed, and putting his ear to the floor. After doing this he felt around all of the tools, lifting them up and inspecting them. Finally he picked up an axe inside and began swinging at the floor. After only one swing, the floor gave way to a ladder that led underground.

He placed the axe back at it's original position, then began climbing down. Through all of his experiences, he knew that an empty room or shed was never truly empty. By the time he reached the bottom of the ladder, he was in what seemed to be a catacomb styled basement. Not very popular, but strange nonetheless.

"We're sending down a team to follow you Issac, be careful down there, he is an empowered," an officer yells down.

"Tell that to that team of yours Charles," Issac yells back.

As he walks through the single hall in the catacombs he could hear voices. Some feminine, another of James.

"Please, my darlings. They are closing in on us, we must leave now."

Groans are heard from the majority of the girls, Issac closes in, making sure he isn't seen from anyone. He pulls out his phone, making sure that the flash was off as he opened the camera. He began recording, slowly getting closer.

Umbral's Hand becomes covered in a dark reddish brown ice like substance, shaping it like a small blade at the ends of his fingertips. He cuts through metal bars, like it was paper. Bars that held 5 high school girls, the ones that went missing months ago. Issac's eyes sharpen as James brings out two girls in their underwear. One of them Issac immediately recognizes, Nicole Silverman.

Her mother had hired Issac, a private detective, to go look for Nicole. She trusted Issac more than the police, due to the police's amount of time looking for James. Months had passed with no news from the police, she was forced to go to someone with an extremely good track record of 99% cases solved successfully. What had taken the police months to figure out, Issac figured out in weeks.

"Now, let's get out of here darlings," James forcefully pulls the girls along by holding Nicole's hand and Nicole holding the other girl's hand. While James' other hand still formed the blade. They began running further down the catacombs. Issac followed closely behind, ignoring the other girls and staying mostly hidden.

They continued running down the catacombs until James and the girls arrived to a ladder. "Quickly, up the ladder girls," he said. The girls with no hesitation followed his command. It was as though they were brainwashed with how mechanical they moved.

After the two girls and James climbed the ladder, Issac followed suit.

Above ground, James and the two girls seemed to be resurfaced in a neighboring house. He didn't check the make sure no one was following, he was too panicked to think straight. He grabbed the girls he kept a hold of the longest, and who was his favorites. His life was going downhill right before his eyes, yet he continued moving with the girls by his side.

"After we get out of here, I'm going to introduce you two to my mother, she's a lovely woman honestly if you look past her negative aspects. She would love to meet you two. You can even call her mother if you want," James says, his hair falling from the perfect gel he had. He speed walked down a street that was blind to the police who was more focused on his house, then the surrounding area.

Despite him being in a rush to leave, he is stopped by the girls who stops walking. "What's wrong darlings," he slowly looks back, but once he turns around fully he could see that the girls had turned around staring at Issac. "Fuck, I forgot to-"

"Don't say another word!" Issac shuts James up, "You are currently surrounded by NJPD, any use of an empowerment will be considered resisting arrest. Let go of the girls, and put your hands behind your head."

James lowers his head, Nicole letting go of the other girl. Both of their eyes lightened up, one word ran across both of their minds. Free. Free at last.

"Nicole, darling. I'm sorry."

James lifts his blade shaped hand up and quickly stabs Nicole in the chest. Catching himself and everyone who witnessed off. Nicole's barely lifeless eyes that desired freedom, that grew in the light of freedom, had quickly darkened to the containment of death.

James cried, as he absorbed the blood from Nicole. The other girl who was close to Nicole not only position wise, but emotionally, screeched in terror, finally coming back to reality. Her best friend potentially just died.

Issac grew in anger, clenching his fist, attempting to keep his composure.

After James was finished, he gently placed Nicole on the ground, caressing her face, with tears landing on her cheek. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

The screech alerted the police, who circled the three. However before they could all get into formation, James launched himself to the other girl, bringing his blade to her throat, that grew in size in the color of the blood he had just drained from Nicole. He then wrapped his arms around her, while keeping her in front of him.

"Shoot me! I'll kill her too. My darling will come to hell with me! Go on! Do it!"

James came closer to the other girl's ear and whispered, "Rachel, darling, soon the devil will be telling us to profess our marriage vows to each other. It will be wonderful. My mother and father will be thrilled to know that I'm finally getting married. Don't worry, they will attend the wedding, but your parents... Too bad I cannot give them the invitation."

Rachel's eyes lighten up, the mention of her parents brought her closer to reality. She noticed the amount of police that surrounded her, the man that had kept her captive for months. Forcing her to perform unspeakable acts. Tears fell faster than Niagara Falls, as she screamed for help. The police hesitant to act in fear of another young girl's death.

"They won't help you! They can't help you! May God put pity on your souls. Someone else's death will be on you."

BANG

A sniper from James' own house roof shot at his foot. James screamed, losing a bit of grip on the grab.

This was Rachel's chance, her only chance to escape. She had other chances in the past, but was too scared to take them. Worrying about what would happen to her family if she ever escaped. What James would do to them. She no longer held back, she did not have a single worry or doubt in her mind.

Once it loosened enough, Rachel stepped on the hole in his foot. After the grip loosened even more, she turned around kicking him in his groin. She broke free, and started running, James got up and went after her in desperation, lunging his blade at her.

The clocks of the police guns rang throughout the whole neighborhood. However the empowerment of his blades made him faster than any of the police when it came to shooting. Even if they could open fire, and kill James, James would still kill Rachel.

The only one who could prevent the death was Issac, who was more alert to James' attempts. He dashed between them at the speed of lightning. The blade broke as it attempted to pierce Issac's skin. Once James' fingertips were revealed, Issac took his clenched fist and rammed it into James' face.

Punching him straight into the ground, breaking his straight jaw.