Erich Turner or simply known as his students as Mr. Turner was the North Ridge High School's computer science teacher in the Seattle suburban school. Growing up in San Fransisco he listened to a lot of punk and ska music as a teenager, which lead him to hardcore punk, into metal and eventually the death metal realm. Mr. Turner had always had an interest in the computer sciences, holding a few jobs at tech firms as a junior hardware designer. While he had a wonderful mastery of the basic principles of hardware design and it's endless variables, his personal designs never developed as nicely as he'd anticipated. While he still did an occasional freelance hardware consultation on the weekends, he had turned his attention towards teaching. He'd aimted teach something in the computer realm, but he had to get through about 4 years of becoming a qualified high school teacher--while most were able to get their certifications in about 2 to 3 years, he did extra work to ensure of landing the specific position he wanted. He simply wasn't able to teach math, or English, despite he being talented at both fields, he couldn't break it down those more abstract ideas into teachable segments. Despite his efforts to try and land himself the exact teaching job he wanted it took him two additional years to land the job at North Ridge High.
Now at the age of 33, Mr. Turner, finally was teaching, earning a very modest salary, that he supplemented with his freelance work. He was especially happy that his salary included a nice 2 and half month vacation every summer. Erich worked learned fast his very first year of teaching, it was completely different having to teach 6 rotating set of 30 students--he made friends with many of the veteran teachers, who gave him wisdom that he used to lessen the work and stress on himself. By the end of last year, he was starting to think he was finding his momentum, and that the following academic year would be a fantastic one.
Holding jobs at generally corporate places, he always had to dress with a collar and long pants; not that it bothered him any, he cleaned up very well. He never got any tattoos or piercings, keeping a more subdued appearance. Only people who really got to know him more than acquaintances would learn of his taste in extreme music. He was very well mannered and so polite nearly everyone shocked when they learned his favorite band was
Angelmaker where two vocalist usually are doing the harsh screams on top each other. Creating some of the most chaotic 'music' Most would argue it was anti-music, but Erich could hear the heavily buried rhythms and distorted grooves beneath the crunchy walls of sound.
The older Erich got, the few friends that he had who were passionate about all death metal slowly faded out of each others lives. They ended up moving across the states, but they all kept in contact seldom, mostly just sending each other new bands they'd discover. One of the guys had suggested they go to a 3-day Death Metal festival in Germany during the summer. Erich had the whole summer off, so it was perfect for him, they rest of the guys would have to use vacation time. The sad reality to Erich was that most note-worthy metal festivals all happened in Europe during the summer months. Erich grinded doing his hardware consulting leading up to the trip, there were other festivals during the 3-weeks he was there in Germany. Sadly, his friends couldn't make it a Black Metal show in Finland--but he still really wanted to see most of the bands. He didn't know anyone in Finland, but he decided to go to the concert.
He met some new friends along the way, who were locals that knew of a
different black metal show that was happening the following night. One of the guys had mentioned it, but the others hushed him when he had mentioned it. Erich asking a few questions, was able to pry from them that it was an occult black metal show, and they warned:
'Tämä on todellista pahaa. Hyvin todellinen, ei kikka.' "This is real evil. Very real, not a gimmick." The fun and joy they had all been having the whole day, was sucked out of the air, Erich was drunkish, but the serious atmosphere shift sobered him up. Erich went to the mysterious occult black metal show, and it was a normal show mostly. It was very done up with make-up, fog/smoke, candles burning, with a wide-array of complex alchemy circles on nearly every surface. Every who attended the show dressed in all black, no gothic dorky robes--it was basically a normal black metal show with more creepy circles. There was only a single band playing, but they played a lengthy two hour set. A normal show from everything that Erich could perceive. Erich stayed in Finland one extra day, before flying out back to the states.
When Mr. Turner got back to the states, he felt
extremely jet-lagged for that whole week. While it slowly seemed to fade, there was this eerie feeling he got whenever he was alone, or extreme anxiety of impending doom that was just lingering around him. What Erich didn't know was at the occult metal show, all of his Finnish friends had been fighting with each other that whole day about the danger they were putting Erich in leading up to the show. Two of his Finnish friends had a belt with runic writing on it, with jackets with basic alchemy circles. The other 2 metalheads had done meticulous makeup with chaotic runic writing covered their torsos. Again, not the strangest thing within the genre norms. Everyone at the show, including the band had some form of runic scripts or basic alchemy circles on their clothes. Erich was wearing all black as well, so he didn't stand out at all, but he was ignorant of the 'uniforms' everyone else had on. He had been warned.
'Ei ole väliä, jos annettaisiin hänelle mitään suojaa. Heillä ei ole merkitystä hänelle, ja se pysyy silti kiinni. Se saattaa jopa olla enemmän vääriä suojauksia.' "It doesn't even matter, if we gave him any protections. They're meaningless on him, and it will still latch on. It might even be more drawn to the false protections." Erich had on going enough where they stopped resisting. After the show his friends acted normal up until they dropped him off at the airport. They all spent the entire next 5 days, cleansing, cleaning, and trying to purify their home after Erich's final night there--they had sensed
it's presence forming around him in the last few hours before they drove him to the airport.
Erich felt queasy, nauseous, and was sleeping terribly since his trip. With randomly panic attacks when the spiraling anxiety and sensation of dread that was becoming a daily norm to him. He was constantly looking over his shoulder for some phantom demon that he couldn't see but he without a doubt feel.
Coming back to the 2017 school year back in NRHS, when he was among other adults he was feeling slightly better, the sense of dread and unease would subside. It was two weeks into the school year, while Erich was doing his absolute best to keep his shit together and deliver great lessons. Erich felt he was managing well enough with all of this weight on his spirit. He was emotionally drained, with small bags forming under his eyes, and hasn't been able to relax since his vacation.
Walking into class five minutes late, the door opened freezing for a few seconds, gagging hard and shuffling to his desk swiftly, "Excuse me students, my stomach is still acting up. Good morning students." Sitting down clicked around on his computer screen, setting up the days lesson on the projector. His eyes darting up towards the front corner of the classroom. When Erich had gagged, he saw this dark silhouette form, vague in shape with whisping black smoke falling of it's form. The entity stood off to the side of the class, with his back to Mr. Turner gazing over the class unmoving as the teenagers bickered among themselves as he delayed starting the lesson.
Erich's hand starting shaking as he was trying to wrap his what he's seeing. Taking a deep breath, and shaking his head once, he began,
"So last class we talked about how the history of I.P. addresses and how they've changed over time. With new advancements in technology, we develop more secure methods to adapt to a changing world. Despite that, with all of our smartphones and mobile devices they often are still vulnerable to basic security threats that are assumed we were except from." The rest of lesson as a dull, low-energy that his lectures had become lately. Finishing off 45-minute prepared material, he told the students to research and type of a 2-page report on the various types of encryption,
"When you finish, print it out and bring drop it off my desk. Then you guys can hangout if you finish early." Leaning back in his seat rubbing his eyes trying to relieve some tension, glancing up at the corner where the shadowy figure still idled.
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