A Collection Of Psychological Thrillers That Reality Can No Longer Be TrustedBy George Graveweeds
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Length1h 49m
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The Attendance
The roster says twenty-four.
I count twenty-three.
It’s the second week of term, which should be enough time to memorize a room. Names settle into faces. Faces into seats. The back left desk is always empty after lunch. Or it has been. I’ve been marking it absent without thinking. That’s routine. Routine is safe.
Twenty-four names printed in clean columns. Twenty-four small boxes to tick.
My pen hovers over the last line. The name is there. It has always been there. I think. I run my finger along the list, touching each one as if contact will make it more real.
“Present,” I say, moving down the rows.
Voices answer. Some too loud. Some barely. A few don’t answer unless I look at them.
Back left. I look. The chair is pushed in. No bag hooked over the side. No scuff on the floor that wasn’t there yesterday.
“Present,” I say anyway.
A girl in the second row turns her head. Not toward the empty chair. Toward me. Like I said something wrong.
