peculiar winds

"What's going on over there?"

Doors were rattling outside, as Jensen and I hid inside the corridors, ducked behind a stairwell. I had retrieved my backpack running in, and had it tucked in a corner beside me. As I pulled my phone out the front-pocket, storm sirens warbled outside. 

"Bloomin' heck, you hear that Elizabeth?!" -- Jensen had wide eyes and a dropped jaw. -- "haven't heard those in a while... have you?" I ignored him; in the moment, I was fear-stricken, and far too appalled to let out a single noise. "Elizabeth?" Jensen peered at my shakey hands, dialing digits into my phone; I was calling my mum. The loud buzz of the phone was quiet, compared to the panicked chatter filling the corridor. I brought the phone to my ear.

"Mum!"

"Oh dear, I was just about to call you, are you alright?"

"Well, I hope I am."

"Where are you?"

"Jensen and I are behind a staircase."

"Well, I'm driving home. Mr. Gallagher called me around a minute or two ago. He said he was driving down to your school to pick you guys up." I felt relief pour over me, and my breathing eased.

"Okay."

"Well, I'll see you at home. Stay safe Liz, it's really bad out there." Mum told me goodbye and hung up straight after. Though mum's muffled words gave me a bit of comfort, I was still in fear of how the drive home would go.

"What did she say?" 

"She said that your dad was coming to pick us up, and tha-" I was impeded by a violent crash; the room was suddenly filled with the unwelcoming presence of wind, and piercing screams. Something must've flown through a window.

"All students, please enter a classroom immediately." Was spoken through the school's intercoms. And as soon as the words were spoken, those who were standing in the middle of the corridor were suddenly racing into any classroom available. Jensen and I promptly leapt off the floor, quickly fetching our belongings. Then we legged-it; we ran up the stairs, and through the flickering lights and rattling glass windows. It felt cinematic; horrifying, yet, beautiful and heroic.

"Let's go into the lab" yelled Jensen, pointing towards a door. He latched onto the knob and turned it, proceeding to walk in with me. As I entered, I immediately spotted a couple students -- about seven or eight, all gasping for air -- and Mr. Bennington, the school's beloved science teacher; everyone's had him at some point.

"Ah, Gallagher and O'Brian." Wide-eyed and pale from fear, Mr. Bennington smiled. "Well, erhm... I don't know what I'm doing, so just hang around, and be careful, I guess. Get under a table, if it makes you feel better." He had no clue what he was doing, but he was trying his best. "Horrible weather, innit." He asked Jensen, as I sat myself at a lab table.

"I didn't even expect it!" Jensen glared out the window from where he was standing.

"It's parky."

"Far from parky!

"Oi, don't pinch that chair, Elizabeth!" Yelled a boy, sitting at a desk. Clearly, his lot of fan-girls thought his jest was brilliantly funny.

"Shut up!" Jensen yelled, whipping his head towards the boy. There was a long pause, and a staring contest between he and the idiot; the idiot lost.

"Oh dear." Mr. Bennington muttered under his breath, letting out a quick chuckle.

Under Jensen's mumbles, I turned myself towards the window and peered outside. It was awfully dark, with a lingering sense of dread. Dread blew through the trees, plucking off leaves and branches; he pattered against the windows, and whistled flamboyantly. Dread made cars crowd in front of the school, and forced students to run through the doors and reach for their mums. My eyes gandered around a bit, and I spotted a cluster of adults, crowded around the edge of a metal fence. But it was all a bit indistinct; I couldn't pinpoint exactly what had happened.