It was a normal night, September the first, nineteen twenty three. It had been raining since lunchtime and it made us all a bit on edge. The eight of us children were eating our supper of soup and peas, and talking about the day's events, complaining of the rain. A bit later, there was a knock at the door, Miss Seymour got up to answer it, and a short time later we heard a bang and a scream.

I got up to check, practically running to the door, I froze at the scene I saw before me. There lies our headmistress, lying on the ground unconscious, knife in her chest and the door wide open, letting in the pouring rain.

“Oh Miss!” I yelled, a hand over my mouth,

The other children rushed over when they heard my shout, Elizabeth first, as soon as she looked at the scene in front of her and she clung to my hand, covering her face with her other. The other children stood behind us in the hallway, rightfully mortified, our headmistress was just murdered by an unknown figure of the night. 

I suppose someone led me to the room we slept in, everything felt a blur, but I felt my soft mattress beneath me, a pillow under my head, a blanket over me. My ears were ringing and my heart felt as if it would beat out of my chest. Someone was shaking me, saying my name, it was enough to bring me out of my daze,

“What? Where- Liam?” I sat up, I Was caught off guard, for a moment confused where I was.

“You looked all spaced out, we were talking to you and you didn't answer.” He told me, talking softly, as if he was worried about startling me.

“No, no, I’m fine. What were you asking?” I questioned, still feeling tired and confused,

“We said, do you know what happened to her, you were there first, did you see the person who did it?” Theresa said, budding into the conversation loudly.

I winced at her voice, my head hurting, probably from being overwhelmed over this all, though I shook my head no. 

Everybody was looking to me for answers and I hated it, it was overwhelming and made my head spin.

“I think we should talk about this tomorrow, we should sleep, It's late.” Said Liam, and I could tell he said it because of how exhausted I looked.

I wanted to say I was fine, that we should keep talking, that I didn't need his help just because I was slightly out of it. Yet I couldn't bring myself to. I was so tired I just wanted to lie down and sleep forever. My head was pounding fiercely and I feared staying awake like this could cause fever, which was the last thing I needed. I hate being coddled, and that's all they do when I’m ill. 

Everybody else agreed, I simply nodded, not wanting to talk anymore after all that had happened. 

I fell asleep rather quickly, though I was plagued with strange and disturbing dreams. Dreams of a man in a long black coat, with a knife, but wait, I recognized that knife, that was the knife that Miss Seymour was stabbed with.

I awoke to someone shaking me,

“Cass you're keeping us up with all your sleep talking!” Yelled Annie,

The noise made me wince, my head was still pounding as I looked up at her.

I heard someone say, “quiet, she’s ill,” either my sister or somebody else. I suppose I was, I felt hot and I was shaky.

“What?” I mumbled, “I was talking in my sleep? About what?”

“Yeah, you were saying something about not hurting someone, and the rest was incoherent,” I was told by James, who was talking much more quietly than Annie.

“Mm, I dunno, I was probably dreaming,” I lied. I didn't want them to think I was crazy if I told them of the dream. I've already been labeled crazy when I was in Mrs. Harris’s home for orphaned girls, and it was terrible.

“Okay.” Liam responded, still sounded worried, though not pressing the matter, “just, get some sleep. I think you’re ill, Cass.”

I nodded, burying my face back into the blankets. It was cold at night, even though it was only September first. I heard one of the younger kids snicker, probably at Liam being concerned about me, like they always did, then everything whirled away into darkness.  

I awoke a bit after midnight to someone yelling, it was Charlie, probably with a nightmare.

“We're gonna die!” He wailed, “he’s gonna kill us all!”

I stood up, grabbing his shoulders. “What are you talking about, it’s just a dream.”

“No!” He cried, “no it wasn’t! There was a man, the- the one who killed Miss Seymour, oh God we're all gonna die!”

“Charlie. Nobody's gonna die. We’re safe here, you know that.” Finn said to him.

We managed to calm Charlie down and all went back to sleep, I lay awake for a while, though eventually fell back to sleep.

 When I awoke, it seemed to be late in the morning. Everybody was talking with each other about what happened, and the sudden volume made my head spin. They were all talking about last night. I didn’t sit up, I was too tired. I stayed lying down, staring at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes. 

I really came to my senses when Beth shook my shoulder,

“Cass, we're talking to you,” she complained.

I shook my head, trying to blink the sleep from my eyes. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“We were saying that none of us know what to do!” Annie whined, “And Liam and James and Finn won’t say anything and they're saying only the older kids are supposed to figure this out! But we wanna know!”

“Okay, okay, you’re being very loud, but I don’t know what to do either, sorry.” I responded.

We all probably looked utterly hopeless, and we were. We were eight children without our headmistress who had no idea how to navigate the world on their own. I felt so very close to tears but tried so hard not to. Crying would worry everyone, and I didn’t want to do that.  

We all eventually went downstairs for breakfast, I cooked some eggs -I really need to teach the others- and we sat around the table eating and talking about what to do, 

“We can’t just stay on our own, can we?” Charlie asked, sounding shaken. Probably from his nightmares last night.

“We're not supposed to, no.” I told him, “but there's no other children’s homes for miles to go, we have to stay on our own for a while.” 

Charlie sunk into his chair like he wanted to disappear, Theresa patted his shoulder.

We had the question of, could we stay in the house? The man could still come for us, but even if he didn’t, we all were dying to know what happened to Miss Seymour, we deserved the truth and for her death to not be a mystery. So it was decided. We would gather our important items and food, sleep the night, and in the morning leave in hopes we could find out wh0 this man was, and what his motives were. 

The house was in utter chaos once we finished eating. We had all packed bags full of food, clothing, and anything else important we might need, like money and water. I was going outside to get fresh air when I saw something, a note. I found the others and they all stood around me as I read it aloud. 

“What does it say! What does it say!” Annie yelled.

“I’ll read it, I’ll read it just give me a moment.” I unfolded the paper and began reading, 

“Well, children. It looks like your precious headmistress is dead.Utterly devastating, I know. Well, you have dealt with this so I suppose I will be nice and give you children something to go off of. I am in Maine, I hope you know where it is, because I do not plan on staying so nice. –Sincerely C”