Black Sky

2.

The classroom burst into life. Surges of students rushing to the windows, yanking at the blinds; the teacher was no longer trying to tame her beast of a class, instead she too was peering out the windows in wide eyed shock. I stood a metre or so away from the crowd, on my tiptoes squinting through pointing fingers and bustling people, attempting to catch a glance of the world beyond the glass. The cluster of people dispersed slowly, gathering into smaller groups- some comforted each other, some chatted excitedly and others simply stood, wide eyed and shaking. The news had spread fast around the school and as expected the head of year soon entered our classroom.

Her large, broad shouldered form sent a shadow reaching across the class. She was a rather large woman, not in the way of fat but instead in the way of muscle. Always sporting a pair of thin framed silver spectacles that rested in the tip of her beak like nose.
"Settle down! Sit down!" She boomed,
"It seems we have encountered a slight difficulty -"
"You can say that again!" Chirped a voice, followed by some nervous laughter. The head of year sent a glare in the voices general direction.
"And I have been sent to tell you that you must all make your way towards the assembly hall where you will collected by your parents or legal gaurdians"
Muttering. Tapping.
"Don't just sit there! Get up,follow me!"
And we did, apprehensive at first, we filed down the corridor, never stopping to wonder why no other classes where walking along side us. We walked down the flight of stairs at the end of the corridor, everyone struggling to catch short snippets of the outside world through the large overhanging windows but of course to no avail. It was not until we reached the double doors behind which was the assembly hall that the head of year spoke again. This time she was quieter,gentler. Her shoulders almost hunched over like she had shrunk in size.
"In we go." She smiled her eyes cast downwards and her voice cracking only slightly but none of us where concentrating enough to notice. Ms Gullivan pushed open the assembly doors and my second period maths class followed her through.

The room was bright, almost too bright. The windows were sealed shut and the plastic chairs were not laid out. It was cold, so suddenly cold that I immediately felt myself shivering and could see others do the same.

"Go, stand in the centre, stand in the centre circle" Ms Gullivan boomed, it seemed she was back to her old self and had grown again to her original stature.

Jessica Leeds was the first to move, I watched her as she stepped forwards, too high heels on overly polished wood. Swinging her hips as she went. Then went another two, then three , then five and so on until there were only five of us left. I don't remember who they were or what they looked like. I only remember their cries when it went dark, really dark. Not the blanket of shadow that was cast over the sky outside. The darkness that came when the lights in that hall were shining just a little bit too brightly. The darkness that came when the assembly doors slammed shut, when everyone in that forsaken hall realised that something was terribly, terribly wrong. The darkness that came when that mechanical click sounded from above, I know that click now as the cocking of a gun, and fire rained down from the heavens.