As I heard the school bus pulling away from the driveway, Gregory burst through the door with much more energy than usual for an October afternoon.

“Mommy mommy mommy!” He called with excited urgency. “Look what teacher gave me! Look what teacher gave me!”

“Yes, Greg. Give me a sec,” I shook my hands to get as much dish water off as I could before using the towel. “Now, who gave this to you?”

“Teacher!”

“Who did?” I ask, squatting down to his level.

Gregory looked down at the sheet of paper as if he was reading the name off it. “Ms… Ms. Malindez!”

“Excellent!” I ruffled my son’s hair, encouraging him to keep remembering names. “Now, what did Ms. Malindez give you?”

“A scavenger hunt!” Gregory shoved the paper into my face, crunching my nose and knocking me off balance. It was indeed a scavenger hunt, titled, “Can You Put Me Back Together?” Underneath the title were five bullet points. The first read “To get ahead in life, find the intersection where the sky meets the earth.”

“Have you thought about this at all?” I asked Greg.

“Yeah!” He vigorously nodded. “I was talking about it on the bus with Billy and Mandy and Tony and-“

“What did you guys think it meant?” I interrupt him with a laugh.

“Well, Mandy lives on Terra Terrace, and Angelica lives on Stratosphere Circle, so Tony thought it was there!” That wasn’t too far down the road.

“Okay, pal! Let’s go see if they were right!” I took of Greg’s backpack and went to get my coat.

At the corner of Stratosphere Circle and Terra Terrace, we ran into a few of Gregory’s friends. Landon and his mom was there, along with Mandy as her two dads, Angelica was unsurprisingly alone, Billy and his father, and Tony with his mother was there as well. All the kids were gathered at the street sign with their scavenger hunt lists, reading them over and telling each other their ideas while the parents grouped up a few feet away on the sidewalk. I looked at the house on the corner of the streets. It had been abandoned for the better part of 20 years, or that’s what the long term residents had said.

“Can you believe this weather?” One of Mandy’s dads, Arnold, flamboyantly gestured to the orange and red leaves still hanging on the trees. “A little too chilly for me, but thank God it’s been dry. We have so much raking to do around the yard.”

“And a little hoeing around too,” Tony’s dad, Marcus, elbowed Arnold playfully in the ribs and everyone except Arnold’s husband, Arthur, laughed. Marcus and Arnold had been friends and neighbors since they were in elementary school so their banter was natural and almost expected.

“Oh sweetie,” Arthur said with a straight face, not looking at Arnold. “We don’t rake things anymore, remember? We blow things. With our Turbo Leafman 3000.” At that, everyone roared with laughter.

We parents continued to chat, but Arthur stayed quiet keeping his eye on the kids. After about ten minutes, he shouted over to the kids, “Hey, what’s that freshly tilled mound of dirt there by the bushes?” Every head swiveled towards where he pointed, and sure enough, there was a spot in the grass of the lawn just under the bush where it looked like someone had carelessly buried something. Immediately, the kids raced for the bushes, plunging their tiny hands into the cold earth.

“Oh great,” Kathy, Tony’s mother, rolled her eyes. “More dirty clothes for me.”

“Oh yes,” Arnold retorted. “Those stains will never come out of the stain resistant and waterproof jackets, surely.”

I notice the excited babbling of the kids has quieted down to whispers. “You guys find anything yet?!” I yell over, hoping to deter any fights about to start.

“Yeah! A box!” Greg calls back.

“Well what’s inside it?!” Landon’s mom, Trixie, calls over.

“Ms. Malindez’s head!” Landon answers.

“THE FUCK?!” Is the generalized response from us parents in unison as we rush over. The hole the kids dug with their bare hands was about the size of a large shoebox with a dirty cardboard box sitting on top of the new dirt pile. Inside the box was the decapitated head of their second grade teacher. Her eyes were open, exposing milky irises rolling in two different directions. Her tongue was blue and lolling out of her mouth.

Arthur immediately ran to the bushes and vomited. Kathy began screaming her head off. All the other parents grabbed their kids off their feet and carried them away from the box. I gently took Greg’s hand and turned him away from the head.

“Sweetie,” I squat down again and hold both his hands. “Who was your teacher today?”

Greg shrugged. “I can’t remember his name.”

“His name?” I urge. “There was a substitute?” Greg nodded. “And did he give you the scavenger hunt?”

Greg nodded again. “He told us she left it for us so we wouldn’t miss her.”

“Can I see your scavenger hunt list, baby?” I let go of his hands and hold mine out ready to receive the paper. He fished into his coat’s front pockets and pulled out the list, now covered in dirt. I skimmed through the rest of the location clues I didn’t bother to read back at the house. The rest of the clues consisted of phrases like “you have to hand it to” “you’ll have to leg it to” and “I expect your insides must be writhing with anticipation”. I gagged while reading, covering my mouth with the back of my hand.

Suddenly, someone’s phone began to ring, and Kathy shrieked again. Marcus scrambled to get his phone out of his pocket and answer it.

“Y-Yeah, sweetie? What- what is it?” He asked in a trembling voice. All us other parents held our breaths as someone was screaming on the other line. Marcus clapped his free hand to his mouth, a look of terror in his eyes. “It’s o-okay, sweetie. It’s okay. C-call the cops. We-e’ll be right over. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” Then he hung up the phone and wiped his hand away from his face. “Marcy went with Abigail to find another location. They- they just dug up a trash bag of… of internal organs.”

“Oh dear God!” Arnold dropped to his knees. “Who could’ve done this?!”

“I don’t know,” Marcus picked up Tony. “Someone call the cops. I’m going to Newport.” With that, he took off down the road with Tony on his hip.

I looked around. Arnold was kneeling and sobbing, Kathy and Trixie were holding each other also sobbing, Arthur was still headfirst in the bushes, and Billy and his dad were nowhere to be seen. So being the most in control but still extremely shocked, I dialed 911.

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” The female operator answered.

“Yes, hello,” I said, forcing my voice to stay calm. “I just found a head in a box?”

“I’m sorry, what, ma’am?”

“I and a few others found a severed head buried in a box on the corner of Stratosphere and Terra.”

“Oh my stars,” the operator said. Then after a few seconds pause she asked, “can you identify the head, ma’am?”

“Yes. It’s my- my son’s second grade teacher, Ms. Malindez.”

“Okay, sweetie, stay on the line. I’m sending a squad car over now.”

“Oh, and I think her organs were found on Newport Road,” I add in, remembering what Marcus said.

“Yes, honey, we got a call in just before you about that. And three other calls saying they found other dismembered body parts around your school district.”

With a shaking hand, I stare down at the eight locations the scavenger hunt lists. “I- I think you’ll be getting there more calls.”

“That’s what some of the others said.” The operator sounded disappointed. “Looks like we’ve got a real sicko on our hands.”