Chapter 3 - The Screen Came Back
Daniel Cole was not supposed to be watching Room 214.
He was supposed to be signing paperwork.
The forty-seven-year-old security systems contractor had spent the afternoon with the district’s facilities director testing a new backup network. Daniel’s company had installed redundant recording after a string of vandalism incidents, and the elementary school was the final building on the upgrade list.
At 4:18 p.m., one camera dropped offline.
Daniel noticed because the alert flashed yellow across his monitor.
ROOM 214 — SIGNAL LOST.
He frowned.
“Probably a loose cable,” the technician beside him said.
Daniel clicked into the device history.
“No. It was physically disconnected.”
“How can you tell?”
“Power loss at the endpoint. Network remained active.”
He initiated the secondary connection.
The monitor filled with static.
Then the classroom appeared.
Daniel leaned forward.
A woman stood beside a desk, ruler in hand.
A small boy sat below her, shoulders hunched.
The image was grainy for half a second while the feed stabilized.
Then the boy turned his face toward the door.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Ethan.
His son.
The technician glanced at him. “Daniel?”
On the monitor, Mrs. Vale reached toward Ethan again.
Daniel stood so fast the chair rolled backward and struck the wall.
“That’s my son.”
“What?”
“That’s my son.”
The ruler moved.
Daniel’s face went still.
“She hit my son?”
The technician stared at the screen. “I’m calling the principal.”
“Save everything.” Daniel was already moving. “Primary feed, backup feed, device log, all of it.”
“Daniel, wait. Security should—”
But Daniel was through the door.
He did not run often. Not in suits. Not through schools. Not in front of clients.
He ran now.
His shoes struck the tile hard as he crossed the first hallway and took the stairs two at a time.
On the second-floor landing, Principal Helen Ward stepped from her office holding a phone.
“Mr. Cole, what’s happening?”
“Room 214.”
Her expression changed.
“What about it?”
“My son is locked inside with Mrs. Vale.”
Helen went pale.
Not surprised.
Pale.
May you like
Daniel saw it.
And suddenly he knew this was not the first problem she had heard about.
