The rolling broth of clouds continued to churn in the sky, draping a black tarp over the city and the school perched atop the hill. A boom cried out from the clouds’ depths, its echoes crashing atop the city. Sara heard some of her classmates gasp as the people around her looked towards the windows. They had all been paying attention to class, or more likely dozing off. No one had been staring out the window like her, waiting for something to happen.

‘Woah, when did that start?’ someone asked.

‘No way.’

‘What’s going on?’

The boys were the first to stand. Sara watched as they surged towards her desk, the girls quickly following. They passed by her, pressing themselves against the windows until a wall of navy-clad backs faced Sara.

‘Come on folks, it can’t be that impressive,’ Mr Graham called. ‘It’s just thunder.’

‘It’s more than that sir. You have to come see this.’

Graham screwed up his nose as he made his way to the window, his green turtle neck jumper contrasting with the class’s uniforms. ‘Oh sh- I mean crumbs. That’s quite bad.’

Sara wasn’t concerned with whatever was happening outside. She continued to scan her classmates’ expressions. Some were shocked, a few scared, and there were even a few disbelieving smiles sprinkled amongst the group. None were confused, not in the same way Sara was. She really was the only one who’d gone through this twice. At least this time she had more time to think with no constant quake shaking her about. Sara stood, considering her options. She needed more information. Hell, she didn’t even know what day it was. Best to check.

There was a glaring flash as lightning forked through the clouds outside, accompanied by a bang of thunder directly overhead. The lightning bolt struck a nearby building, alarmingly close to the school. A few of the students backed away from the window and Sara spotted Leah’s auburn hair. A tiny part of her didn’t want to talk to Leah although she had no idea why. Sara normally shared everything with Leah, even when she’d acted like a fool.

‘Leah,’ Sara said, pulling her friend by the arm out of the crowd.

Leah stared at Sara, her eyes wide and bright with fear. ‘How are you so calm?’

‘It’s just a storm,’ Sara replied.

‘Just a storm? Have you seen outside?’

‘Okay, okay. It’s really freaky, alright? But Leah, do you remember the earthquake we just went through?’

‘What earthquake?’ Leah asked, her voice rising in pitch.

‘Never mind. What day is it?’

‘Day? Who cares what day it is?’

‘I do,’ Sara said, grabbing Leah by the shoulders. ‘Just answer the question!’

‘Thursday, okay?’ Leah shouted, shaking off Sara’s hands. ‘What’s gotten into you?’

‘Ladies, ladies,’ Kyle said, sauntering over to them. ‘How about we calm down, yeah? Getting hysterical isn’t going to help.’

Sara would’ve told Kyle to buzz off if she hadn’t been too distracted by what Leah had just said. Thursday. Why did that feel so wrong? The days of the week hadn’t merely crept up on her. This was different, as if she’d ventured into an area she wasn’t meant to see. She couldn’t be here…but why not?

Sara shook her head. She needed to get out of the classroom. She could check her phone in the hallway lockers. Call her parents and see if they were alright. Sara made her way towards the door.

‘Where are you going?’

She stopped mid-step, her heartbeat suddenly louder than the wind bashing against the windows. ‘None of your business Tracy,’ Sara tossed over her shoulder.

‘Actually, it is. I’m head girl,’ Tracy said, as if they all didn’t know that already.

‘Yes, you’re head girl and I’m leaving.’

‘No, you’re not,’ Mr Graham suddenly said from his spot by the window. ‘No one’s going outside alone in this weather. It’s not safe.’

Whatever. Seemed like safety wasn’t a massive concern for Sara. Not if she was just going to return here again. She gripped the door handle.

‘Sara!’

She felt herself stiffen at Graham’s bark, her body shrinking a little. For goodness sake, why? True, it was the first time she’d ever heard the apathetic teacher shout, but that shouldn’t have scared her into submission. She didn’t have to listen to this coward who’d run at the first sign of trouble in the earthquake.

‘Sara,’ Mr Graham repeated. ‘Go sit down. Now.’

Sara let go of the handle. Slinked back to her seat and sat with her head down, like a dog disciplined by its owner. The tips of her ears burned as she felt the eyes of the class on her, watching the ex-loudmouth who’d been cowed once again.

There was a terrific crash as something large was flung against the building, shaking the classroom. All the stares left Sara as everyone looked back at the brewing storm. The students backed away from the windows where the tempest continued to strengthen outside.

‘I’m going to find the headmistress,’ Mr Graham said, his voice back to its frightened, whiny tenor. ‘Tracy, make sure everyone stays put.’

‘Yes sir,’ Tracy replied as Graham closed the door behind him.

From the corner of her eye Sara could see Tracy looking at her, like being watched by a prison guard with too much fake tan. Sara ignored her, instead staring at the black wood grain in her desk. Sara had guessed she’d become worse in the last year, more easily intimidated by those around her. Still, it had been shocking to experience how quickly she’d given in. What happened to doing as she pleased? To telling those she didn’t like to bugger off? But of course, no one would listen to a useless girl like her.

‘Get back!’ one of the nearby boys, Max, shouted.

A tree smashed through the window, shards of glass spraying across the room. Sara stood as Leah screamed, running away from the trunk and branches that had suddenly been lodged into the side of their classroom. A squall screeched through the broken panes, its howls tremendously loud as it filled the small space.

Sara looked outside where it had become utterly dark as the grey fog descended, blotting out the sun. Several funnels of cloud were forming as they twisted themselves into long white tubes. Tornados, drilling their way towards the city. And in the meantime, Sara stood there, doing nothing as the world shredded itself apart, again. Screw what anyone else said. It was time to leave.

Sara turned, pivoting for the back door.

‘Sara, we have to stay.’

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Seriously? Did Tracy hate her enough to boss her around, even now? Sara turned around, ready to flip the woman off. Saw her classmates, all twenty of them huddled in the corner of the room, staring at her. They were terrified. No one knew what to do and they’d all reverted to acting like petrified statues. A whole herd of deer in the headlights. Sara would have been the same if she hadn’t already died, twenty minutes ago.

She shrugged at the lot of them. ‘I need some air.’

‘You’re crazy,’ Kyle yelled as Sara opened the door and sprinted down the corridor towards their lockers.

She found her phone in its usual spot inside her locker and switched it on. Their phones had to be turned off within the school, and it felt like an eternity for the logo to pop up on her screen. Sara impatiently hopped from foot-to-foot as more thunder boomed overhead making the lights in the muggy hallway flicker. The phone booted up at last, a message from Leah appearing at the top of the screen. It had been received at eight that morning.

“Sorry. Can we talk later?”

What did Leah want to apologise for? The more Sara tried to recall the events of the last few days the harder it became to think straight, as if the whole week had been shrouded in the storm’s thick fog. There was no time to worry about it now.

Sara located her mum’s number and pressed the green button. Nothing, not even a ringing or dialling tone. Sara rang her dad’s number to reach the same result. She tried texting them on some apps but got nowhere. She frowned at the bars atop her screen. Her phone showed she had reception and data despite the storm, but her messages weren’t being sent. Her parents both worked from home on a Thursday. She’d just have to run home. Hope there were no hurricanes, giant cracks, or anything else waiting to get her on the way. She stuffed her phone into the waistband of her skirt.

‘Sara!’

Tracy, the stubborn nuisance, was stomping down the corridor towards her, pitch-black hair swaying to either side of her head.

Sara turned and ran the other way. Not because she was scared of Tracy. She just didn’t have time to deal with her. At least, that’s what Sara wanted to believe.

A trio of people stood by the front door. Mr Graham, the receptionist, and a woman dressed in a plum-coloured blazer and skirt. Headmistress Hayloft.

‘Should we assemble the students in the courtyard?’ Mr Graham asked.

‘In this weather?’ Mrs Hayloft snapped back. ‘Don’t be absurd.’

‘Well, I don’t know what we’re meant to do- hey!’

The pair stumbled back as Sara barrelled past them, slamming her hands against the door’s push bar.

‘Stop her,’ Hayloft shouted.

‘I’m not going out there!’

Sara ran into the courtyard, stumbling as a massive gust swept by, forcing her forward. A torrent of rain lashed against her side, soaking her clothes and hair in an instant. Sara began to regret leaving the building as she struggled to get her bearings amongst the mass of debris being whipped around her. She turned right, staggering past the school-zone road sign by the gates. It shuddered as something tinged against the triangular sign. A moment later Sara also felt something hard whack her shoulder. She looked down and saw a hailstone the size of a golf ball rolling down the street. More hailstones began to fall, chips of ice and sleet bouncing up from the tarmac with a horrendous drumming. Her chances of getting home in one piece were plummeting by the second.

Sara hitched her blazer over her head, creating a crude shield as she dashed down the street. A car honked as it raced by her, throwing up a massive wave of filthy water onto Sara and drenching her even more. She looked up from under her blazer. Unlike during the earthquake, there was no-one on foot out here. Everyone had enough sense to shelter in the middle of this mayhem. Everyone except her.

Sara yelped as another hailstone -a bloody painful one- struck her upheld forearm, making her stumble.

‘Oi, eejit, over here.’

Sara squinted between the fountains of rain dribbling off her blazer for the source of the shout. Saw an old bearded man up ahead, the same she’d talked to moments before falling to her death. He was stood in the recessed doorway of his house, a companion lurking with him in the shadows.

Sara ran to them, nearly falling twice on the way as more high-speed winds smacked into her. It was only once Sara was in the relative shelter of the doorway that she realised how hard she was breathing.

‘What on earth are you doing out in this?’ the old man asked.

‘Same…to you,’ Sara said between shivering breaths.

The man shrugged. ‘I like a bit of entertainment, I do. Also doesn’t help that I’ve lost my key.’ The man was fairly calm, the same as the last time they’d talked. Did anything take him by surprise?

‘What’s your name?’ Sara asked, holding her sodden skirt down as an angry breeze blew around the alcove.

‘Ben,’ the man automatically replied before frowning in confusion. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Because we talked before, remember? You told me about your mortgage.’

‘That doesn’t mean much. I talk to everyone about my mortgage, even this strange fella,’ Ben said, nodding to the man on his left.

Sara turned her gaze to the man, the storm around them growing quiet as she did so. The weather hadn’t calmed down, Sara could still feel the wind blowing against her legs. Only the noise had disappeared, sucked away by the towering, cloaked figure who tilted his hooded head towards Sara. His face was hidden in shadow, the ends of his black robes that draped against the floor completely still, despite the thrashing gusts. Sara recognised him. The same cloaked man had been watching her during the earthquake, from the other side of the street when the panicked mother had shouted out for Sara’s help.

‘You,’ Sara said, her body instinctively backing up onto the street and into the rain that resumed its barrage against her ears. ‘You changed positions since…since…’

‘The earthquake,’ the man replied in a monotone, echoey voice, void of passion.

‘Do you know what’s going on here?’ Sara asked, raising her own voice above the roar of the storm.

‘Get back in here girl,’ Ben shouted.

‘Come find me,’ the motionless figure replied. ‘I will provide the answers you seek.’

‘Why not now?’

The man raised his arm, one long finger protruding from his sleeve as he pointed down the street. Sara followed its direction. Gasped at the sight of a tornado twisting along the road, accompanying bolts of lightning striking blinding flashes against the tarmac. The tornado reached Sara’s school, ripping into the clock tower and the building beyond, flinging bricks at random like a chef’s furious whisk. Her classmates…there was no way they would survive that. Should she have tried to do something? To save them from that fate?

‘We’re about to be interrupted.’

Sara turned to ask what the cloaked man meant and fell to the ground as a hailstone slammed into her front. She blinked, dazed, staring at the churn of grey clouds and sheets of rain sailing across the sky. It must have been a big hailstone to knock her down like that. And why were the buildings’ rooflines in her rain-blurred vision sitting at such a funny angle? She reached for her torso to check how badly she’d been hit. Winced as her hand landed against something hard, right on top of her stomach. Had something fallen on her?

Sara propped herself up on her elbows, hissing as pain flared in her lower torso. She looked down, and froze. The black silhouettes of an adult and child holding hands, framed by a hollow red triangle, rose sharply into the air, trembling with each movement she made. The road sign from outside her school. The tornado had torn it from the pavement and hurled it, right towards…

Sara’s eyes continued to trail down, from the sign to the metal pole that held it aloft, and the red below that. The metal was wedged right through her uniform and her abs underneath. She couldn’t tell exactly where. There was too much blood, a great runny pool of it spilling from her guts into the pounding rain.

Sara stretched her arm beneath her lying body and found a gap between her and the pavement. The pole had impaled her at an angle, its jagged end awkwardly propping her up. Her finger tips graced the sharp, sticky ends of the aluminium pole before her body slipped, back crashing to the pavement as the blood-smeared pole slid through her. Sara coughed, bloody spittle joining the rain as her initial shock passed, the panic beginning to settle in. She was dying.

‘Good Lord,’ Ben said, his head popping into view as he knelt next to her. She must have made some noise without realising as horror suddenly flashed across the old man’s face. ‘Don’t move girl, you hear me? I’ll find help.’

Sara tried to speak. She didn’t know what she wanted to say, but it didn’t matter. All she could do was cough, spluttering for air like a landed fish. She could feel it, the blood seeping out of her, slowly being replaced by a terrifying numbness that spread throughout her body. The fat rain drops pattering against her face had lost all weight to them. It was awful, lying there, unable to do anything but wait for her body to shut down. Feel the life drain from her.

The darkness, deeper than any storm could make, was drawing in on her, draping itself over everything. The door of her tomb was being sealed as the wind’s howls grew quiet. Sara turned her gaze towards the doorway, looking for the cloaked man. He was gone. She wished for her mum, dad, anyone, to come save her from this sensation, the worst she’d ever experienced. But there was no one to pull her back from the end.

Sara’s breaths were becoming harder to muster, each lungful of air that bit shallower. Her heartbeat was like that of a frail bird, growing weaker by the second. The school sign above faded into the blackness as the pavement beneath Sara grew into a soft, cosy mattress.

The mattress and its covers enveloped Sara, ushering her in the total silence of a cold, never-ending sleep.