Chapter 1

When I picked my son up from school, he told me he hadn’t been able to fall asleep during naptime.

He said he’d seen someone who wasn’t dressed like the teachers walking around the classroom, staring at each child while they slept.

I had access to the classroom cameras and checked them regularly throughout the day, so I figured it was just his imagination and didn’t think much of it.

Then Vivian’s mom, whose daughter was in the same class, suddenly messaged me privately.

“Vivian said she saw a teacher she didn’t recognize watching her sleep at noon. It scared her. But I checked the security footage, and no one entered the classroom during naptime.”

“I noticed David opened his eyes at one point, so I wanted to ask if he mentioned seeing anything.”

My heart skipped a beat.

I immediately pulled up the classroom footage again.

After watching it carefully and confirming I hadn’t missed anything, I was just about to reply to Vivian’s mom when the class group chat suddenly blew up.

“My child said there was a teacher he didn’t know walking around the classroom while they were sleeping. How are you people running this place?”

The teacher immediately responded, insisting nothing like that had happened, and posted the security footage in the group chat.

But then the parents of five other children began chiming in one after another.

“My kid said the same thing. He saw a teacher he didn’t recognize.”

“Then... what exactly is going on?”

Chapter 1

The fact that all the parents were saying the same thing left my mind completely blank.

“David, can you tell me again what happened during naptime?”

I crouched down in front of him, keeping my voice as calm and neutral as possible so I wouldn’t lead him toward any particular answer.

But David shrank back slightly. When he looked up at me, there was fear in his eyes.

“It was a teacher dressed all in white. But her eyes were red like a rabbit’s, and when she looked at me, they narrowed into little slits.

“Mommy, I was scared, so I squeezed my eyes shut really tight.”

My fingers curled into a fist.

In the security footage, there really had been a moment when David suddenly squeezed his eyes shut.

Then a message popped up in the class group chat.

“I heard this preschool was built on an old cemetery. You don’t think the kids saw some kind of ghost, do you?”

A chill crawled up my spine.

“Oh, and Mommy,” David added, “that strange teacher smelled really bad. Like dead fish. It was gross.”

My hands trembled as I typed everything David had told me into the group chat.

The other six parents went silent.

Then the chat exploded.

“Vivian said the strange teacher was wearing white too. She also said the teacher floated instead of walking.”

“My kid said she was hovering in the air like a kite while she watched him sleep!”

“Ms. Watson, what exactly is going on? Seven children are all saying the same thing. You need to give us an explanation!”

But Ms. Watson, who had been responding almost instantly before, suddenly went quiet.

About five minutes later, she added the principal to the group chat.

“Our preschool has been operating for twelve years, and we’ve never had any paranormal incidents. Please don’t frighten yourselves over this.”

“You can all view the classroom security footage yourselves, and there’s nothing unusual in it. Children at this age have vivid imaginations, and when they talk to one another, it’s very easy for them to blur the line between imagination and reality.”

“We’ll make sure the teachers keep a closer eye on the children from now on. We already have a field trip planned for tomorrow, so while the children are out, we’ll also do a thorough cleaning and disinfecting of the entire preschool.”

Several teachers quickly chimed in, promising they would pay closer attention to what the children talked about and telling us not to worry.

Even so, I deliberately took David to school half an hour early the next morning.

I wanted to speak to the teacher face-to-face.

To my surprise, Vivian’s mom had had the same idea.

She lowered her voice.

“You don’t know this, but ever since Vivian was little, she’s had times when she’d suddenly cry and scream that there was something in the corner. Every single time, she’d come down with a fever afterward. We’d have to bring in a spiritual healer before she got better. But this time, she isn’t sick at all.”

“I watched the security footage over and over all night. During naptime, aside from Vivian and David, the other five kids never even opened their eyes. So how could they possibly have seen anyone?”

She paused, suspicion filling her eyes.

“Do you think someone deliberately taught the kids to say all this? Otherwise, how could all seven of them give such similar descriptions?”

My stomach dropped.

I couldn’t understand why anyone would teach a group of children to say something like that.

But compared to the idea of a ghost, I was much more inclined to believe someone was doing this on purpose.

So I immediately gave up on asking the teacher about it.

Instead, I secretly hid a tiny camera inside the school badge pinned to David’s shirt.

Chapter 2

As soon as the school bus carrying the kids left for the field trip, I got into my car and immediately pulled up the live feed from the hidden camera.

After going over the safety rules for the trip, the teachers led the children in singing and told them stories.

Everything was lighthearted and cheerful, mostly little lessons about staying safe while they were out.

Nothing seemed unusual.

And yet, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in my gut.

Then, just as one of the teachers bent down to get something from her bag, everything changed.

David suddenly stood up and raised his hand, saying he needed to pee.

But the next second, he froze in place.

I couldn’t see David himself from the camera angle.

But I could clearly see the other six children turn toward the bus window at exactly the same time.

None of them moved.

It was as if something outside had completely captured their attention.

Or worse, as if it were commanding them.

The teacher straightened up and immediately noticed how strange they were acting.

She glanced out the window.

“There’s nothing out there. What are you all looking at?”

The children didn’t react.

They just kept staring blankly outside.

When the teacher spoke again, there was an unmistakable tremor in her voice.

“Kids, how about we sing another song together?”

“Come on, look at me. I’ve got some stuffed animals you all like.”

But for three whole minutes, none of the children responded to anything around them.

They sat there completely vacant, as if their minds had simply switched off.

My back was drenched in cold sweat.

I swallowed the scream rising in my throat.

Just as I stepped on the gas, ready to chase after the bus, the children suddenly moved.

They went right back to laughing and chattering as if nothing had happened.

David even hurried toward the teacher.

“Ms. Watson, I need to pee!”

I could clearly see the fear in her eyes.

Instead of responding to his request, she grabbed his little hand tightly and asked in a shaking voice, “David, what were you all looking at just now? There was nothing outside the window.”

“Didn’t you hear me calling you? Why didn’t you answer me?”

But David only shouted anxiously, “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I need to pee! I can’t hold it anymore!”

My heart sank.

I knew my son.

David always waited until the absolute last second before saying he needed to use the bathroom.

If he had to wait even one more minute, he’d wet himself, exactly like he did now.

So how had he managed to hold it for those three minutes?

I didn’t dare think about it.

Ignoring David’s sobs after wetting his pants, I switched screens and quickly called Ms. Watson.

The moment she answered, I heard her terrified scream through the phone.

“Vivian, no! Stop!”

“Ms. Watson, what happened?”

There was no answer.

I hurriedly switched back to the camera feed.

What I saw nearly made my heart leap out of my chest.

Chapter 3

At some point, one of the school bus windows had been opened.

Vivian was already halfway out the window.

Ms. Watson practically threw herself across the bus and grabbed Vivian by the legs, yanking her back inside.

But Vivian only whined in protest.

“Let me go! The teacher in white said if I jump, I’ll be able to float through the air just like her!”

Ms. Watson and I both went pale.

“Listen to me, Vivian. There is no teacher in white...”

Before she could finish, the children immediately protested.

“That’s not true! She’s flying right outside the bus! It’s so cool! I’m going to do what she says and jump out so I can fly too!”

“Me too! Me too!”

The children all started shouting at once as they rushed toward the windows.

They gritted their teeth and pushed at the windows with all their strength, trying desperately to open them.

Then something even more terrifying happened.

The camera started moving.

David was heading straight for the window too.

“Driver, stop the bus! Stop the bus!”

“David, stop! It’s Mommy! Pick up the phone and listen to me!”

I screamed so hard my voice cracked.

Thankfully, David picked up the phone from the floor.

He sounded thrilled.

“Mommy, the teacher in white said if I do what she says, I can fly like Superman!”

I was terrified of frightening him, so I forced myself to stay calm.

“Sweetheart, listen to Mommy. Sit down in your seat and don’t move. If you jump out, you’ll never see Mommy again.”

“Is that what you want?”

David hesitated. When he answered, he sounded hurt and confused.

“Why wouldn’t I see Mommy again? I don’t want that.”

I was just about to respond when Ms. Watson suddenly screamed.

A second later, the shriek of tires filled the phone.

Then came a chorus of terrified screams.

“David!”

Someone must have accidentally ended the call in the chaos.

The camera tumbled into the narrow gap beneath one of the seats.

My heart nearly stopped.

I slammed my foot down on the gas.

As I raced after the bus, I sent the footage from the hidden camera to the class group chat so the other parents could hurry to the scene too.

Then I immediately called my husband, Luther.

“Something happened to David. I think he encountered something... something supernatural. Don’t you always have someone come check the site before your construction projects start? Get that spiritual master to come to the house and take a look at David.”

But Luther’s voice came through the phone, low and irritated.

“Honey, you’re having another episode.”

I froze.

“What do you mean, another?”

I rushed to explain.

“I’m not making this up. Yesterday when I picked David up from school, he told me he saw a teacher during naptime who wasn’t actually there...”

Luther cut me off before I could finish.

“And now you’re going to tell me every parent in the class said their child saw the same strange teacher, and all their stories matched perfectly.”

My grip tightened around the phone.

He continued.

“Then you’re going to tell me that on the bus today, all seven kids froze for exactly three minutes. After that, they tried to jump out the windows, and eventually you couldn’t get in touch with Ms. Watson.”

He was practically shouting by the end.

I stared blankly ahead.

“How... how do you know that?”

Luther, who had sounded furious just seconds ago, suddenly let out a long, exhausted sigh.

“Honey, please. Just listen to me, okay?

“I’m already exhausted from work every day. If you’re sick, we’ll get you help.

“I really don’t have the energy to go through this with you again.”

Chapter 4

I instantly realized my husband didn’t believe a word I was saying.

Panic surged through me.

“You have to believe me. I’m not making this up! You’re in the class group chat too, aren’t you?”

I fumbled with my phone and switched back to the messaging app.

“You muted the group, right? Go check it! The messages are all there. That’s proof!”

I heard him tapping through his phone.

“Check what? You’re the only one in there going crazy about ghosts. All the other parents have been telling you that you’re just overly anxious because David only recently started preschool.

“And if you hadn’t kept calling Ms. Watson over and over and distracting her, the bus wouldn’t have crashed in the first place!”

But I immediately caught the most important part of what he’d said.

“The bus crashed? Where are the kids now? At the hospital?”

The moment he confirmed it, I slammed on the brakes, made a U-turn, and raced toward the hospital.

The second I arrived, Vivian’s mom slapped me across the face.

“Are you insane? Why did you keep calling Ms. Watson? If anything happens to Vivian, I swear I’ll never forgive you!”

The slap left me stunned.

“That’s not what happened,” I stammered. “I saw it through the camera. I sent the video to the group. Didn’t any of you see it?”

Vivian’s mom shoved her phone in front of me.

“Since last night, you’ve been ranting about ghosts at the preschool. We figured you were just anxious, so we spent half the night trying to calm you down. And you’re still not done?

“You even put a hidden camera on your kid. The footage clearly shows nothing unusual, yet you’re still making things up.”

Frowning, I opened the video.

My blood ran cold.

The three minutes when the children had sat perfectly still were now completely different.

In this version, Ms. Watson had suggested a pretend-sleeping game because she was worried the excited children would wear out their voices from shouting.

Vivian hadn’t leaned halfway out the window either.

She had simply been hanging over the back of her seat.

“That’s impossible...” My voice shook. “Am I really losing my mind?”

“You need treatment.”

Luther arrived just then and reached for me, his voice gentle as he tried to pull me into his arms.

I instinctively stepped away from him.

At that moment, the doors to the operating room opened, and I hurried over.

Thankfully, Vivian wasn’t in any life-threatening danger.

But when I saw the cut on her lower leg, doubt immediately crept back in.

It was clearly a cut from broken glass.

And I remembered exactly where she had been injured when Ms. Watson yanked her back through the bus window.

Luther frowned and told me the cut had come from glass that shattered during the crash.

Under the hostile stares of the other parents, I mechanically wrapped my arms around David as he came running toward me.

Then I instinctively checked him all over for injuries.

That was when I saw the yellow button clenched in his palm.

My mind went blank.

I remembered it clearly.

While I was watching the hidden camera feed, David had been crying and begging the driver to stop because he needed to pee.

In the commotion, he had torn a button off Ms. Watsons’s clothes.

I whipped around and stared at her.

Then I froze.

One of the buttons on her clothes was missing.

This wasn’t a hallucination.

I hadn’t imagined any of it.

If the video I was looking at now was fake, then why was Ms. Watson really missing the exact button David had pulled off?

A terrifying possibility took shape in my mind.

Ignoring everyone around me, I held David tightly against me and opened the hidden camera app.

I dragged the progress bar back and forth again and again.

Finally, I stopped on a frame showing the children’s blank eyes fixed on something outside the bus window.

My fingers trembled.

“I know who that strange teacher in white the children keep talking about is.”