Years ago I interviewed to work at an organization for troubled kids. The final step in the process was something called a “shadow week”, where I would work a regular schedule for a week, be paid for it, and at the end I would have the final opportunity to either take or turn down the job.

First day I’m just sorta hanging back and watching everything. Group of kids I was with ran the spectrum of issues, but nothing that made me feel unsafe to be around.

Then this kid walks up and introduces himself. He was about 14 years old. Came across as very nice and asked me some questions - his entire demeanor came off as if he was the de-facto leader of the group - kids tend to naturally fall into this kind of social hierarchy so I didn’t think much of it.

After talking to me for a few minutes he walks away and immediately afterwords one of the workers comes up and asked me what he was asking me and what I had told him. It was all very surface level stuff, but what the worker told me next shook me.

Worker: “Don’t ever talk to X one on one or tell him anything about yourself.”

Me: “Why?”

Worker: “He will get in your head and find ways to use it against you.”

The worker then proceeded to tell me some of the reasons this kid was in the program, and it made my skin crawl. He warned me that he would 100% try to cozy up to me and talk to me, and that when he did, I was to tell him that I wasn’t allowed to talk to him outside of any scheduled therapy sessions or other official activities one on one, and that “he knows the deal.”

Sure enough next day during lunch he comes over to where I’m sitting and starts to talk to me, and I gave him the rehearsed response.

I do not exaggerate when I say this: it is like he literally became a different person after I said that.

You know how in Jaws when Quint talks about the lifeless black eyes of a shark? That is exactly what I saw in this kid. It was like a switch turned off. Utterly cold and lifeless. His posture changed, his obviously practiced smile and way of speaking changed, the mask genuinely came off. He cocked his head slightly and looked at me and I had two thoughts run through my head: 1. If this kid ever got me alone I had no doubt in my mind that he would try everything he could to k**l me. 2. This kid will 100% end up in prison.

“Ah. I see.” he said. His voice and tone was even different from what I had experienced the day before. “Don’t want me to know too much, right?”

Before I could say anything he stood up: “Good luck with the rest of this week.” It’s hard to describe, but everything about what he said felt like a threat.

From that point on for the rest of the week the kid didn’t say a word to me - but every time I looked up I could see him staring at me, sizing me up. It was deeply unsettling.

I ended up not taking the job.

Now I work as a h**h school teacher. Been doing it for 10 years, and I have had kids with all kinds of issues, but that kid is the only one I would ever call a genuine psychopath. A part of me wonders if he was possessed by a demon, because what I saw after he realized there was no point in keeping up the facade felt… inhuman. That’s the only way I could ever describe it.