The Elementals : The Dawn of Darkness

Before the Storm

It was a warm summers day, on the afternoon of the second of July when it happened again.

The sun was shining, there were no clouds in the sky and all the world seemed happy and content, so there was no reason to suspect that there was something evil getting closer. The place where this black force was descending upon was a large school building in the heart of London. It was a large Victorian building that still held the old-fashioned desks with their lids and inkwells and the dusty black chalkboards from the far past. It was a rugged and hardy place, easily lasting through two world wars and a fire that had nearly torn the building down to its base almost twenty years ago, but it couldn't last against what was getting closer and the students inside were blissfully unaware about the danger that was growing nearer and nearer by the second.

One of these students was a girl named Rose. She was fifteen, small, slender with a bob of strawberry blond hair and a personality that made you love her instantly. She was the most popular girl in her year, she was part of the school council, head of the netball team, the prom committee and head girl, so when a stranger had a good look at her you would have no idea that past the warm smile and forest green eyes that this girl had a secret, would you? But that secret was why she was in terrible danger.

Rose was sat in her biology class, absentmindedly examining plants to study their cells under a microscope when a bee flew into the classroom. On a warm summer day, you'd expect a few insects to be buzzing around, so the sight of a bee zipping into the hot stuffy room wouldn't be much of a cause for concern but if anyone had taken a good look at the insect they would have noticed something distinctly odd.

For starters, it was flying alarmingly quickly. In fact, it seemed to be almost frantic, dipping and diving around the room at breakneck speed but that dipping, and diving may not have been deliberate. The poor creature was practically flying sideways, one wing beating so quickly it was blurred, the other was hardly beating at all. It didn't stop for a moment as it scanned the heads bent over their work, desperately trying to find its target before it fell out of the air from exhaustion. At last the bee lost all power it had managed to build up and found itself hurtling towards the earth but with one quick change of direction it managed to make an emergency landing on the shoulder of Rose's blazer. It sat there panting for a few seconds before managing to crawl its way up to Rose's ear.

"They're here..." it wheezed before collapsing onto the girl's shoulder.

Rose, who hadn't felt the insect land on her, jumped about a foot in the air, scaring her classmates on either side of her to quite a degree. She quickly apologised before sticking her hand in the air, asking the teacher if she could go to the loo. The teacher, who had also been a little startled by Rose's attempt at the high jump, told her she could go, watching her as she ran from the room, down the corridor and then barred herself in the toilet. She tugged on the pull cord and light instantly flooded the little cube she was standing in, making white spots dance in front of her eyes as she very carefully pulled the little bee from her shoulder and cradled it in her hands.

"Oh Flower..." she whispered as she gently stroked the poor animal. "What happened to you?"

The bee perched on the end of her finger and looked up at her friend. "They're here, they're at the school, they just walked in the front gates." Flower was becoming increasingly agitated, buzzing angrily and marching up and down Rose's hands in frustration.

Rose was more concerned about her friend though and instantly turned her attention to Flower's injury. "What happened to your wing?" she asked.

Flower stopped marching for a second and looked at her bent wing. "That bloody frog got me," she spat. "Sat right on top of the gates and stuck its beastly tongue out at me! The nerve... The nerve of all of them! The freak show sat right outside in broad daylight for everyone to see!"