The Elementals : The Dawn of Darkness

Chapter 2 - The Lion, The Girl and the Monster

Mum wasn't happy. I had to call her of course, but when she found out that I'd managed to land myself a detention on the last day of school she was all set to come down to the school herself to bust me out of here. But when I explained that it was Mr Slattery who had given me detention she changed her tune, and said that I had to be back by five and not a second later. I agreed and hung up, deciding that leaving out how I had got the detention was a good idea. I don't think she'd believe me if I told her the truth, I  was struggling to believe me to be honest.

My one-hour detention with Slattery was a form of torture on its own accord, being forced to write line after line of I must not be insolent for one hour in complete silence damn near drove me to madness. Finally, the hour was up, and I wordlessly got up and handed my two sides of A4 to Slattery. He made me wait there for a good five minutes and he didn't even bother to look up.

Finally, he spoke. "You know what I don't like about you Hayden?" Oh god here comes a lecture. Assume crash positions. "You feel like you can get away with whatever you want, and that attitude will hardly get you far in life, now will it?" I honestly didn't think this guy was sane, he certainly wasn't fit to teach children. Adults would struggle with him. "You're a rat, you're disobedient and your grades are depressing."

Okay, hold up. I'd only been in detention three times before this, and two of them were class detentions that weren't my fault. Secondly, every other teacher in the school thought I was alright and my reports were always good and last but certainly not least the only class in which my grades were suffering was chemistry, and we all know who to blame for that.

"To be honest I'll be glad to see the back of you and you never know I might see you again someday, kneeling in forgiveness, but this time you might be polishing my shoes for me." He laughed at his own joke.

I rolled my eyes at him, "Frankly, sir, I don't give a rats ass about what you think of me, in fact I'm glad that I never have to see your ugly mug ever again in my life." Only on the last day would I ever have the confidence to say that to his face, and his face was an absolute picture.

"You're a rat," he said coldly.

"And pardon my French but you're an asshole."

He was beginning to twitch alarmingly. "You have exactly ten seconds to get out of this room before I report you to the headmistress."

I began to walk out but just as I left the room I turned. "And one more thing sir," I flipped him the bird, "you can kiss my shiny ass".

Being the school's best runner certainly helped as he actually chased me from the school, hurling abuse at me the entire time. It must have been a strange sight for whoever was looking at the security cameras at that exact moment as a teenage boy sprinted down the corridors as the slightly overweight shape of Mr Slattery chased him down the hall, wheezing the entire time.

Once I was out of his sight I slowed to get my breath back and spared a cursory glance and my watch and then I was off running again. Slattery had kept me in for over ten minutes longer than he should have, and add that to the five-minute chase around the school I now had only fifteen minutes to get home and that was not going to be humanly possible. I knew for a fact that the roads and the Tube was going to be packed with the rush hour crowd so catching a bus or heading underground was going to take twice as long as usual, so they had suddenly become unavailable as an option. I stopped, sat on a low brick wall and thought about my options.

There just happened to be a dense woody park in-between me and home that was regularly used by the local druggies but other than that it would be pretty deserted at this time of day. Mum had told me time and time again to never go in there on my own, but I also knew that I could run from here to home in five minutes flat if I took the shortcut. No question really, but did I want to be away from the rest of the world for two long? The idea didn't seem overly pleasant, especially considering the recent disappearances. No, I'd walk back the long way round and let Mum know that I was going to be late.