1 The Arrival of the End

James Riegler was late for school. Again. It was definitely not the first time his alarm failed to wake him from the land of dreams. But after experiencing this many times, James had learned to go to sleep in his school clothes. A few wrinkles were nothing if he was able to keep his large amount of tardies from increasing.

After slamming his hand on his annoying alarm clock and jumping out of bed, James grabbed his jacket off of the floor and dashed out of his room and down the hall.

He grabbed his bag and a waffle from the kitchen and held the waffle in his mouth and rushed out of the house, giving a muffled goodbye to his mother as he left.

He righted his bike, hopped on and began pedaling with all his might. Five minutes later, he arrived at the gates of the school where many students hopped out of cars and ran to their first period, all of them rushing to get to the classroom before a supervisor stopped them and sent them to the office to get a tardy slip.

James locked his bike to a bike rack and ran through the campus to get to his first class. Math. A horrible class to have first thing in the morning. Especially if the teacher was a grumpy, balding man with an inferiority complex against people taller than him. And it wasn't hard to be taller than him since he was only 5'2.

As James ran, he ate the last bits of his waffle. By the time he reached the classroom, he was 5 minutes late. James stopped at the door and took a deep breath and steeled himself to face the wrath of his hot headed teacher.

He opened the door and walked inside, trying to make as little noise as possible as he crept to his seat. But alas, he was caught.

"Good morning James. I see that you've managed to get to school, but maybe a little earlier next time? When I was a student, I was always the first to the classroom. It would be nice if you could be like that," Mr. Green said mockingly as he stared down James.

"Sorry, Mr. Green there was-" James was interrupted by gasps of surprise as students rushed to the window of the classroom.

Mr. Green frowned. "Move away from the windows, what are all of you looking at?"

The class obediently moved, allowing the rest to see a beam of grey light shining down on Earth.

At first it was stationary, but then it pulsed, like a heart would. Ripples of black radiating from the grey beam. Everything the ripples touched seemed to distort for a moment before returning back to normal.

Then the screams echoed from the distance and the ripples began to get closer to the school.

"What is that?" A student murmured breathily as the ripples touched the front gate of the school.

"I don't know, but it's getting closer. Class, get under the desks and brace yourselves," said Mr. Green as he stared at the pulsing pillar of grey.

The class burst into chaos as they all rushed to a desk.

James hurriedly ducked under his desk when the black ripples finally reached them.

He felt something freezing cold pulse through his body and heard the sounds of cracking ice come from his body.

Around him, he could see some of his classmates' bodies begin to distort. They grew scales, horns, feathers, crystal skin, claws, and anything else one could think of.

James felt his fingertips burn then freeze. When he looked down he saw the tips of his fingers pulse and extend into sharp black claws. His head touched the bottom of his desk as his body began to grow. His back began to throb before sharp metallic wings exploded out of his back and cut the student behind him into two.

Suddenly, James was overcome with hunger and anger. His mind couldn't think of anything but blood. He stood up slowly and pushed the desk away roughly with his newly clawed hand. The desk crashed into the wall on the other side of the room.

"J-James, what's wrong with you?" Elena asked as she cowered next to him, fear in her eyes.

All James let out was a low snarl, and then the classroom became a blender of flesh, bone, and blood.

He grabbed Elena with his clawed hands, his claws easily digging into the soft flesh of her throat as he lifted her from her spot under the desk into the air.

Elena made gurgling noises as blood seeped out of her mouth. She clawed weakly at his arms, but it did nothing.

Then James squeezed. Her body dropped to the floor as her head flew up the classroom ceiling.

Screams of terror arose as students were mutilated by their former classmates. Some broke the windows with a chair and jumped out of the window, not caring that it was the second floor.

Mr. Green ran out of the classroom, pushing students out of his way as he ran as fast as his short legs could carry him.

James's screaming consciousness faded as something more primal took control of his body. The last thing he heard was the cracking of bones, and the squelch of flesh being ripped.