The Phoenix

It was a cool, crisp November morning; nothing out of the ordinary. The fallen leaves rustled in the wind and their fresh scent filled the classrooms.

The fifty students of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Girls’ High School were all bundled up in sweaters and scarves battling out the cold front which was passing through the town that day. They were paying unusually close attention to their teachers.

Fallon was late for work. She walked briskly to her classroom and reached just in time for her first class. She quickly took the roll then began her lecture for the day.

At exactly 10:15 in the morning shots rang out in the hallway. Not one of the students and a few of the teachers heard them as St. Francis de Sales was a school for the hearing-impaired. The students in Room 4A looked up at their teacher, Fallon, who now had a look of complete horror on her face. They were confused and some even afraid. They did not know why their teacher was telling them to get away from the door while she was rushing to lock it. They just sat there watching in awe as she pushed some chairs in front of the now locked door. It was not until the glass of the door shattered that they realised what was going on.

A man’s hand reached inside then tried to grab at the lock of the door to open it. There were too many chairs blocking the lock so he started pushing the chairs away with strength that none of them had seen before.

“Get down!” Fallon signed to the girls and they didn’t need to be told twice as the twelve students cowered under their desks.

They watched as the man finally burst through the door shouting at them but they couldn’t understand what he was saying. They watched in terror as the man rushed towards their teacher pointing a gun at her temple. He was talking to her but with their limited lip reading skills they could only make out a few words of what he was saying. They gasped as the man pointed his gun at one of the students shouting still at their teacher.

“Everybody get up and stand at the back of the classroom,” Fallon ordered her students eyeing the gun tentatively.

The students not wanting to anger the man stood up quickly then lined up at the back of the classroom.

Fallon looked at them, her students. They were just as frightened at she was; maybe even more frightened. She looked around the class hoping to find a way out of this mess. She found none.

“Close all the windows!” their captor ordered her and she walked to the windows closing them one by one.

It was at the last window something caught her attention. Down in the fields she saw the flashing red lights of police cars and two yellow school buses. At least the other students were safe she thought as she turned around to face the beast once more. He smiled at her then thanked her for doing as he asked. His smile was no comfort to her.

“What is your name?” he asked her smiling again completely ignoring the twelve students who were still standing shakily in the back of the classroom.

Fallon considered for a moment whether she should tell him or not then decided that it was better not to lie to him.

“Fallon Blackmore,” she replied hearing the fear in her own voice. He smiled at her again nodding at her response.

“Please let us go,” she pleaded half crying.

“Shut up!” the man shouted knocking her with the gun. “I might consider it after I’m done with all of you.”

A smile crossed his face again and he winked at one of the girls in the back. What was he going to do to them Fallon thought as she massaged her aching head.