Into The Fire

“Marcus? Marcus? MARCUS!” Mrs Beckett had never been much of a fun teacher, actually quite the opposite. She had this aura of boringness which was constantly settling around her like dust. And, unfortunately, Marcus had quite a short attention span. Which, unluckily for Marcus, resulted in him earning himself a lot of detentions.1

Marcus groggily opened his eyes after hearing a high pitched scream in his ear. He immediately shut them again. The sight wasn't pretty. Mrs Beckett had leaned right into his face, like she was going to kiss him. Marcus almost puked at the thought. Ugh, she was so close Marcus could smell her breath. Hadn't she heard of personal space or tick tacks? Probably not, he smirked.2

“What's so funny Marcus? Hmm? Now,” Mrs Beckett straighted up and walked back over to the board, where Marcus could see a lot of meaningless scribble. “Now, tell me what we've learnt this lesson, hmm?” Mrs Beckett had an expression of pure delightfulness on her old, wrinkled face.3

What a weirdo. She gets her kicks by giving detentions to poor students. Creep, Marcus thought, with a grim look on his face. This would be the 5th detention this month! Mrs Beckett was just one of those people who you just loved to hate.4

“Umm..” Luckily for Marcus, the end of period bell rang, it's annoying noise floating down the corridor and into the classrooms. 5

Marcus grabbed his bag and quickly stuffed his books into it and practically ran out of the class, leaving Mrs Beckett with a look of pure venom on her face. 6

She'll really give it to me next time.7

Marcus decided that it would be best to put such thoughts in the back of his mind.8

“Hey, Marcus bro! Man, that was close! Mrs Biatch was just about to kiss you! Yuck, i wouldn't be able to survive something like that. Ewww. You should have seen how close she was, it was so disgusting! I'm so glad that..” Brody was interrupted when the fire alarm suddenly filled the halls.9

“Are you kidding me??” First the crap English class and now Marcus was going to miss out on his favourite class; science. All because some stupid teenager had decided to pull a prank. Man, his day was going great.10

The river of confused/annoyed students flowed through the halls and squeezed through a tiny, single door at the end of the corridor. It was mayhem. Everyone was everywhere and there was traffic jams galore. Finally Marcus and Brody managed to squish through the small door and gazed up and the thick, gloomy smog that had covered the air around the school. Obviously, it was no kid.11

The duo started to pick up their pace, now relising that this was no joke. Fortunately, everyone in the big mob of students relised the same and had also quickened their pace. Some people were even running!12

There were teachers dressed in fluorescent safety vests, urging the students to keep moving and not to panic. But most just ignored them and hurried past. The students were fairly scared, scared that their belongings had been burned, or that someone they knew might be in the blaze.13

There were crazed screams of panic and confusion with people wailing out things like “Where's Josh?” and “Omg, omg,omg!!” 14

The part of the crowd that contained Marcus and Brody had finally reached the oval, a gigantic field that was, surprisingly, shaped like an oval. Amidst the fuss and squabbles, there was a shaky, rather tacky looking raised platform, on which the principal stood, where he was trying, without much success, to calm down the crowd and get them to form orderly lines so that a roll could be taken.15

Most of the students finally decided to co-operate and a roll was taken. The words of the teachers still hadn't sunk into the rather jumbled up brains of the students but after about 5 minutes of panicking and flustering around, the crowd of students reluctantly hushed and listened to Mr Bell, the middle-aged, bald and slightly shiny principal of Belvedere High.16

“Ok, now, everyone, it would be greatly appreciated if you could all remain calm. The Fire Brigade will be arriving very shorty. So far, we have no confirmation on the whereabouts of around 50 students,” Mr Bell was interrupted by most students gasping rather loudly. “Please! Now, we need anyone who has any information on how the fire began, please come see me or any of the other teachers. Thank you.” 17

Mr Bell stepped off the stage and hurried over to the gravel parking lot where the fire engines would surely be arriving soon. Several teachers followed but most remained to try and calm the students.18

Marcus was feeling a little nervous; he couldn't see his little sister, Talia, or his girlfriend, Marianne, anywhere. But he supposed that they would be fine. But then again, a little voice in the back of his mind was saying, they might have been right in the middle of it. They could have died. Marcus didn't want to hear what he feverently hoped was not true. What he didn't relise was that amongst the confusion going on in his brain, he had given a small shout.19

It wasn't loud enough to attract too much attention but it earned him some weird looks from the people immediately around him and Brody just stared at him if he was crazy.20

“Hey, man? Are you, um, Ok? You know, alright in the head?” Brody sniggered a little as Marcus whacked him on the side of the head.21

“Have you seen Chad? I think I might have seen him the halls, but I'm not too sure” Marcus said, with a touch of anxiety in his voice. Chad, Brody and Marcus were all good mates and even though they didn't always get along, they had some good times. 22

“Nope, don't see him anywhe... WAIT! Is that him over there? With Marianne? Whoa, I didn't see that one coming” Brody stayed staring as Marcus rushed over to where his best friend and his girlfriend were hugging.23

“Ahem” Marcus tried the casual, cool, clear the throat approach but that didn't get him very far; they didn't hear him. Oh, stuff being subtle, Marcus thought and tapped on Marianne's back. 24

She immediately turned around and gave a shout of surprise.25

“Um.. I mean, Oh wow! You are Ok.. I mean, well.. I was.. You know.. um” Marianne obviously had no idea what she was saying, giving a rather clear hint about what had been going on.26

Chad stepped in between Marcus and Marianne. Chad was one of those boys who just had it all. A great body, the most handsome looks and above all, the brain of about 3 nerds put together. But he didn't flaunt it like most; he was quiet and secretive and generally was quite shy, so when crowds (of girls mainly) surrounded him, he got a little jumpy. But even so, he was one of the most popular guys of year 11.27

“Step away from my girl” His voice had a surprising air of confidence that gave his words that little bit of power and authority.28

“Technically, she's still my girlfriend, pal.” Marcus was very mixed up inside. He didn't want to fight his best friend. Well, potential ex best friend. Besides, he still had to find Talia; she was much more important. Marcus didn't want to back down so that he seemed like a wimp, but he just wanted to go. What was more important, his reputation, or the whereabouts of his sister?29

“Leave her alone. Back off. You didn't give her what she needed. You couldn't satisfy her. But I could. So get over it. We've been strong for a while now. And we won't have you mucking it up for us!” 30

“Wait a minute here.. how long has this been going on for eh? How long have you both been going behind my back for? Didn't you care about my feelings?” Marcus was mixed up before, but now his head was going completely bonkers with all the thoughts and emotions he felt.31

Chad and Marianne's faces both started to redden. Redden with what? Shame, embarrassment or maybe even just annoyance.32

“You don't understand!” This was Marianne speaking now. Her voice was a high pitched squeak; was she nervous? “You just don't understand!”33

“Pfft, understand what? The fact that you've been cheating on me? That you both just used me for your own evil purposes? I don't understand? I don't understand! Don't you mean, that you don't understand?!” Marcus was feeling hot now,and he was sure that his face was red. He really needed to find Talia but these two were in his way, and they wouldn't back down!34

“Marcus, mate. Please calm down. I mean, weren't you just telling me that you were going to dump Mar? Weren't you saying how you didn't like her anymore? Just calm down.” Marcus looked round to see who had spoken and saw Brody standing there. 35

What did he know? He was just an annoying, little ****, Marcus thought. But he does have a point. I haven't really liked her much lately. But still, They cheated! But... Talia! Marcus quickly made up his mind.36

“Since I'm so forgiving.. Whatever” Marcus walked off leaving all three with a very perplexed look on their faces. 37

He didn't care.. or did he? Well, there was more pressing issues he had to take care of. He made off to walk over to the parking lot where the principal was still waiting for the Fire Engines to arrive.38

He had almost reached the end of the oval when a dark, shadowed figure stood in front of him. Whoever it was, was tall, very tall and very thin. They wore a dark, pillowing cloak that went from neck to toes. The kind of thing a priest would wear.39

“Um, Excuse me” Marcus made a point of trying to step around the stranger but they just blocked him off again. Marcus tried to see who it was that was annoying him so, but their face was shadowed by a bandanna.40

“Hello? Can you move please?” Again, the stranger blocked him off. Now Marcus was getting really annoyed. Who did this weirdo think they were?41

“HELLO?? ARE YOU FREIKEN BLIND?? MOVE!” The stranger stepped back and pulled off their bandanna. He spoke in a very musical voice, sissy like.42

“Excuse me, my lord. I am sorry for disturbing you so, but you must understand, my lord, that you musn't go into the burning building. It is not safe for you. And you especially must not look for her!” 43

What was going on here? Was this guy drunk? Or just crazy? Marcus was know absolutely beyond confused, he was completely befuddled. 44

Marcus tried to push past the man again, and this time it worked. He ran on towards the burning building, not noticing that the fire brigade still hadn't arrived after at least 10 minutes, and that the man behind him suddenly had companions, and he was pointing them in Marcus's direction.