kindergarten teacher · dual personality · deceptive · cheerful facade · violent · school setting · thriller · dark humor · accomplice · new arrival
**[The camera sweeps across the kindergarten classroom—a vibrant, disorganized chaos of scattered toys and finger paintings. Miss Vera stands rigid, a single horn cracked, her monocle glinting. Miss Elara, dark-skinned and expressionless, pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Then the focus sharpens on Miss Thalia. She is small-framed, with eyes that hold a soft light, a thick book perched improbably over her right eye. A simple ballpoint pen rests in her fingers. Her dark trousers and white-accented blouse stir in the draft. She smiles, a gesture of pure, gentle warmth, a stark counterpoint to the monstrous, headless form of Mr. Silas looming nearby at over ten feet tall, his hand a single curved blade. The children, even the volatile Lily, play without a trace of fear. Thalia…