Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

William breaks down the moment he locks the door of his home behind him. Great Expectations.  

He never wants to go through that again. 

His cats rub against his legs, doing little to ease the weight of the world that had settled on his chest with no intention of leaving. 

That could have been one of his students.

What is he thinking; he’s the vice principal – that was one of his students! Being buried so close, that boy probably went to Casper High. 

He was only a freshman. 

After taking an extremely long, extremely hot shower, William sinks into the couch in front of his television, a stack of essays ready to be graded on the table. Taking a sip of his tea – having decided that a real dinner wouldn’t sit well with him – he breaks out his “grading pen” and gets started. 

This assignment is from last unit: Harlan Ellison’s short stories. His students were to write a short essay connecting any of Ellison’s top hits to their own lives, explaining how what the characters went through is similar to their personal stories and how it has impacted them. 

He grades on six categories. Focus: Does the student properly answer the prompt? Title: Can he tell which story the student is referencing based on the title alone? Word count: Is the essay between seven hundred and one thousand words? Originality: Is the student sharing their own unique story and outlook? Grammar and punctuation: Self-explanatory. And, of course general content: Is the essay generally well-written?

Dash Baxter. Well, his paper is most certainly not in MLA format, but the title makes the essay quite obvious. 

“Repent, Dash Baxter,” Said the Teacher turns out to be a less-than-reviting piece, explaining how, despite how hard he tries, Dash Baxter just can’t be on time. While missing the point of Ellison’s story completely, he somehow manages to connect the Ticktockman to the teachers and family that push him to be responsible when he just wants to enjoy his high-school peak, brushing over his ADHD diagnosis in favor of focusing on his school life. 

Chatting with Death: a surprisingly well-written essay by Kwan, connecting Ellison’s Moses to his older brother and Anubis to a surgeon. He takes William through the tale of the time he and his brother were playing hockey – a game that ended with Kwan suffering a traumatic brain injury that nearly killed him. He offers genuinely heartfelt gratitude toward the surgeon that saved his life, saying that he doesn’t think of his brother as Ellison’s Moses, but merely as someone who caused an accident, contrasting the two very poetically. 

They Have No Voices, so I Must Scream: a rage-filled essay on activism and standing up for those who can’t by Samantha Manson. She connects the torture of the main characters to that of victims of rape, murder, and abuse, stating that no matter what the authorities do to silence her – a brilliant callback to AM – she will keep screaming and fighting for those unable to. 

The Whimpers in Plain Sight: Paulina’s title took him a moment, but her paper itself is extraordinarily clear in what it is referencing. The poor girl painfully drags William through her time working at a restaurant, sharing in excruciating detail about the time she got groped by a coworker in the middle of the establishment and no one did anything about it. She focuses on how even after she reported it, nothing was done. While William can see that she missed Ellison’s “whipped dogs” analogy, the essay is written very well, and very viscerally – linking her own tale to Ellison’s almost seamlessly. 

On a Downhill Slide: A clever pun but odd choice for Valerie, considering her hatred of ghosts. She walks him through her story of picking up multiple jobs and fighting when her father can’t. She discusses regret and love, explaining that, while she wants to make the best of her life, she worries that she’ll die regretting everything she didn’t get to do. Valerie doesn’t connect the ghosts’ motivations to herself so much as she desperately begs anyone listening to keep her away from that fate. She doesn’t want to leave behind unfinished business, but her responsibilities may not give her a choice in the matter. 

Paladin of a Stranger’s Fate: The essay William had expected Valerie to write, surprisingly being submitted by Dale. The young football player dives into his home life, discussing how he would love nothing more than to be an author, despite his parents’ insistence he be a lawyer. He connects Billy and Gasper’s friendship to the love he has for his parents, creating a chronological timeline for not only Ellison’s characters, but for his own life, furthering his thesis that while he respects his family, he isn’t sure he can pick up the responsibility Billy did.

How Interesting: A Laughingstock: A shockingly frustrated piece by Wes, expressing anger and betrayal at the fact that he became the boy who cried wolf. He connects the tiny man to his theories and the scientist to himself, almost ranting about the fact that the people that once listened to what he has to say now think him a nut; only good for spewing conspiracies. It is an… interesting piece, to say the least. But William knows how it feels to be disregarded.

“Repeat, Harley Quinn,” the Sad Ticktockmen: A bizarre title at first glance, that wound up making a lot of sense as Star recounts her time in school spent living with dyslexia. William would have to ask her about a 504 plan, but in the meantime, the essay is written – all things considered. He’d have to go back and regrade with this new information in mind. Star utilizes a unique style of writing, deliberately mixing up words and blending lines together in an attempt to portray her everyday life, and while he would usually dock points in the grammar category, the mess-ups are a stylistic choice and placed specifically to demonstrate the story she has to share. She narrates as Ellison did, putting herself in the position of Harlequin and authority figures in the place of the Ticktockman

Ghosts, and Chasing Fantasies: William tilts his head at the stray from the alcohol pun kids would usually jump at, but he can’t say he’s surprised; the Fenton parents are famous for their eccentric-at-best nature – it’s no wonder their son has something to say about their obsession. Danny speaks in the third person, following Ellison’s formatting as he speaks directly to William, just as the Danny in the story speaks to his psychiatrist. He talks about how he got in over his head with them, giving examples of how many times their “harmless” inventions have hurt him and his sister. That is… concerning. William will have to speak with Jasmine on the matter. Danny continues, drawing a connection between a seemingly innocent lamp and a seemingly innocent portal, furthering his essay by linking mindlessly rubbing a lamp to touching broken and unplugged machinery. The teen says that while no djinn came out of the portal, it – much like the lamp – was triggered by what should have been a harmless action, turning on, and shocking him. 

The essay ends abruptly after that, closing with a clumsy conclusion about how everyday decisions can alter the course of one’s life in an extremely negative way. 

Something about Danny’s essay feels… off. William doesn’t like that little factoid that his parents’ inventions have hurt him, and he definitely doesn’t like the fact that whatever happened with the portal had such a lasting impact, he continues to write about it. 

Come to think of it, the teen didn’t have such shaky hands and grades at the beginning of the year – in fact, Danny was shaping up to be one of William’s best students until Thanksgiving break! In the span of one week, he had gone from A’s to C’s, his handwriting had gotten incredibly sloppy, he went from having a steady hand to dropping every piece of glassware he touched, and transformed from a kid that genuinely enjoyed learning to someone jumpy, exhausted, and scared. 

William’s heart sinks to his gut. 

The kid had been acting weird during their little “conference” earlier too; twitchy, watching the door, itching to get out, avoidant of anything related to the news – he had been acting beyond weird.

He sighs, allowing his head to fall into his hands as one of his cats rubs against his chin, fur catching in his beard. William Lancer is scared, and he knows one thing for certain. 

Daniel Fenton is involved in something far bigger, and if he hasn’t gotten hurt already, William knows he will soon.