It all started at school.
Wait, let me rephrase that
It all started in seventh period.
My friend, Erin, and I were walking down the hall to Algebra I, talking about who gave homework and who didn't and normal stuff.
We turned a corner and walked into the classroom, then froze in our tracks.
Desks had been upturned, books all over the floor, and the weirdest part?
No one was in the room.
"Erin?" I said, turning to her.
Her face was white, but she shook her head.
"Probably just a fight between kids, just a fight..."
She looked like she was reassuring herself more than me.
I turned around to see where the teacher or the rest of the class was.
The whole corridor was empty. No straggling students hurrying to class.
We looked at each other uneasily, then quickly started cleaning up the mess. Whatever happened, we did not want to be found in a room that looked like it had been hit by a cyclone.
The door slammed shut behind us, and emitted a click that sounded suspiciously like a lock.
Erin was even whiter, if that was possible. She inhaled in short breaths and shook her head as if to clear it.
"Maddy... Get back, get back now."
"What?!" I said, her panicking rubbing off on me. "Whats happening? Erin?!"
She moved beside me quickly and her eyes darted around nervously "Oh gods oh gods, I need to tell Chiron oh why now? Why?"
I stared at her in disbelief. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! HAVE YOU GONE MAD?"
She looked at me, then whipped her head around and stared horror struck at the door that led outside, "We've got to get out of here."
Crash. The glass shattered, and a long, ugly horn receded back outside. Then something even more horrible came in.
A head. A terribly, ugly, head poked in, looked around, then fixed his gaze on me. Something like a smile spread across its face, and it hissed with laughter.
Erin looked positively terrified. "Cerastes."
"WHAT?!" I shouted, but it was drowned out by the crunching noise of the head coming further in, and further, and further.
Then it hit me, it was a snake.
Fangs were flying as suddenly as I could think, and I jumped to the side, barely missing the sharp points.
"Maddy!" I heard Erin shout. "Remember what said! During Greek Mythology?"
I scoured my mind, dodging a sharpened tail end and a writhing head.
Cerastes, cerastes, what did he say about Cerastes?
I gave a shout and ducked out of the way as the snake head-butted the wall.
I was getting tired and I just couldn't remember anything from Cardinal's lesson.
Think! Maddy THINK!
The snake whipped around with speed I didn't think was possible for a snake that large. It would have to be extremely flexible-
Flexible. Snake. Cerastes.
The pieces came together in my head.
"Cerastes!" I shouted, hoping Erin could hear me. "It's only weakness is its own venom!"
At the sound of it's name, Cerastes whipped around, baring his fangs proudly.
I grabbed something off the teachers desk and threw it at Cerastes's eye, and promptly missed.
Thankfully, this distracted him just long enough for me to dart around and grab his tail.
An angry hiss came from Cerastes's mouth and he turned half his body around.
This was it, I held his tail in front of me and braced myself.
slash. A sound like a scream exploded from Cerastes's mouth and he erupted into golden dust
An eerie silence settled onto the room as I stared dumbstruck at the place where a huge, writhing snake was a moment before.
"Erin!" I shouted, turning around in circles, searching for my friend.
"Here!" Her voice came from a large lump of plaster from the crumbled wall.
I yanked her out of the debris in relief, and helped her stand up.
"Erin..." I said shakily, my fatigue settling in. "Erin what was that?"
She looked at me in a kind of silenced awe.
"You must be more powerful than Chiron thought."
"WHO IS CHIRON?!" I shouted.
Erin opened her mouth, probably to explain, when the door came bursting open.
Three men in uniform blasted through the door.
"This is the police, drop all weapons and put your hands u-"
The man shouting had broken off suddenly and surveyed the room.
"Kids..." He muttered. He whispered something to his comrades and they advanced on us, handcuffs drawn.
"Run for it!" Erin shouted, grabbing my wrist and dragging me about of the room, pursued by the three policemen.