Loud crashes of thunder and lightning cuts through the darkness above. Laura hears the thunder, feel it shake the earth, long before she is slowly aware of the heavy raindrops pounding against her body. She becomes more aware of the fact that she's laying on the dirt ground. Opening her eyes she finder herself in an unfamiliar setting.

Where am I? Her own voice sounds foreign to her. Like when you listen to your voice on an audio tape. It sounds off to her own ears.

How did I get here? Another great question, Laura thinks to herself as she gathers herself up from her position on the ground. Her legs feel shaking and she doesn't quite feel steady.

OK Laura, Lets not freak out, your trapped in a storm, maybe you hit your head? Laura raises her hand to her hair and does a quick pass through checking her hand to see if she was bleeding. OK, no blood. Well standing here isn't going to solve my problem... Hey I know that lighthouse!

Laura cracks a half-smile before pushing through the storm to the lighthouse. She new if she made it there, then at the very least she could get out of this god awful storm. Dad and I had picnics up here all the time...Mom would come with us when I was little. The fond memory helps Laura push on. Her sneakers not nearly the correct footwear for her journey as her feet slid against the mixture of mud and rocks beneath her. Lucky for her the path is short and soon she can see the base of the lighthouse. But something much larger catches her attention.

"Holy shit" Laura murmured as she was the most terrifying thing she's seen, next to the monsters in her dreams when she was five. The whirling mass of wind was huge, it seemed to move in slow motion and sucked up everything in it's path. Laura was stunned, too stunned to move when a large boat was thrown from the interior of the storm and smashed into the lighthouse.

At the sight of the large chunk of metal and wood flying toward her, Laura Hollis did the only reasonable thing...

She screamed.

_W_H_A_T_

"Whoa" Laura sits upright in her seat. She takes a minute to look over her surroundings. Small classroom, a few students besides her are sitting at tables. A man in his mid-thirties is talking on and on about some film, the name of which Laura doesn't catch in her state of confusion.

OK, It was just a dream. I fell asleep in Photo-journalism class. I'm sitting at my usual desk, alone. I'm Okay. I just stayed up way too late last night watching netflix and eating an unspeakable amount of chocolate chip chunk cookies. That is the last time I let Laf talk me into watching something on a school night.

Laura makes her internal decision as she watches some of the students to her left throw a ball of paper at a curly redhead off to her right sitting alone.

Dammit why do they need to give Perry a hard time?! She's so nice and she's never done anything to them! I really can't stand Betty and her crew sometimes. God she could at least turn her cell off.

Laura briefly looks down at her scattered items the cover the dark tabletop. Her textbook and notepad sit mostly untouched. Her journal off to the side, and old pencil case, and her polaroid camera she used for her photography work. A picture was half-heartedly hidden behind the pages of her notepad.

God, our assignment was due today for that superhero thing? I really hate this picture, it doesn't hold half the originality that the rest of this class seems to possess. But I can't help it, I only got this camera a this semester for this class and I hardly know how to use it.

Laura picked up her camera hoping to somehow figure out more about the means of working it. Suddenly she sees a flash and a polaroid picture comes out. She blinks a few times, suddenly blinded by the white light.

"I believe Laura has taken what you kids call a 'selfie'...a dumb word for a wonderful photographic tradition. And Laura...has a gift. Of course as you should all remember from your reading, the photo portrait has been popular since the early 1800's. Your generation is certainly not the first to use images for...selfie-expression. Sorry, couldn't resist." The professor chuckles, "Now Laura, since you've captured our interest and clearly want to join the conversation"

Where the heck did you get that idea? Oh yeah, maybe the flashing of my camera while you were talking was an indication that I really needed to join the conversation.

"Can you please tell us the name of the process that gave birth to the first photographic self-portraits?"

Hashtag Selfie?

Laura almost facepalms at her own random thought as she tries to remember the name of the artist. One thing that was very difficult in her class was to remember all these names for all these artists...

"I-" Laura started stammering as she felt all eyes on her, "I-I"

"You either know this or you don't." A quick rap on the desk sounded as Laura put her head down, embarrassed, "Doesn't anyone know their stuff?"

"Louis Daguerre was a French painter who created the 'daguerreotypes' a process that gave birth to portraits with a sharp reflective style." Betty recalled in her normal 'I'm superior to you drawl'. Laura tried and failed to suppress an eye roll. Betty was one of the first girls she encountered at Silas University. Her dorm was across the hallway from Laura and from the first day Laura knew she wasn't going to like her. She was mean to a lot of the students, even though that Laura was able to gain some kind of friendship with.

Of course Betty knows it, she's been sucking up to Mr. Mason. He's like her favorite professor or something. I hear he's like a professional photographer who's work is supposed to be really good. I wouldn't really know, I've never seen it.

Laura almost dozes back off when she hears the bell right,

"And Laura I see you pretending not to see me, I'm waiting for your entry too." Mr. Mason calls over to her as she rounds the room before heading back to his desk where Betty is waiting and quickly strikes up a conversation with him.

Laura lets out a sigh as she stands, she notices Perry hasn't moved from her seat. She has been quiet today, I wonder if something is wrong...

Laura throws her backpack on her shoulder before walking over, Perry looking up slightly as she gets closer.

"Hey Perry," Laura greets offering a smile, "Are you OK? You seem really out of it."

"Hello Laura," Perry stands up to finish gathering her things, "I suppose I'm just tired. I had to reschedule the annual bake sale and has some troubling getting all the clubs to settle on a new date."

Perry was great, she was the floor don for Laura's floor and was one of the nicest people Laura had met since she started Silas. She always had such a kind personality, but lately she seemed more depressed then Laura remembered her being.

"Let me know when it is. I really love your brownies," Laura smiled, Perry smiled back and for once Laura was sure it was genuine,

"Remember you need healthy food too, health is very important to maintain while you're studying." Perry stated as she stood up, shoving the rest of her belongings in her backpack. "I'll see you later Laura. Lets do tea sometime."

"Um, yeah I'll text you!" Laura calls back before a deeper voice calls her over.

"Laura, can I talk to you for a moment," Mr. Mason called over, Betty rolling her eyes as Laura stepped forward. "I'd never let one of my students miss handing in their picture. Especially if they were truly gifted as a photographer."

"I know Professor Mason, I just forgot." That wasn't true, Laura was just going through a rut. She loved taking pictures, but she couldn't seem to get a good shot lately. And with her journalism assignments and planning to double-major in Journalism and Photography had already taken it's toll on her sleeping habits.

"Life won't wait for you to play catch-up Miss Hollis. You truly do have a gift with images. To frame the world only the way you see it. Now I will overlook this if you get your picture in my the end of today."

"Thank you Professor Mason," Laura ducked her head and turned to leave, suddenly very anxious to get out of the classroom. Mr. Mason had that effect, he was stern and passionate about photography. If he wanted he could push anyone to do just about anything. And his rage when you didn't hand in assignments was frightening.

"I expect your image by 10:00 tonight Miss Hollis."

Laura enters the hall as she hears Mr. Mason yell this to her. She rubs the sleep from her eyes. I need to go wash my face so I don't look like a total zombie.

Laura took a deep breath before migrating through the students, she recognized many of them from her photography or journalism classes. Some of which were in the same dorm as her. She looked over at the bulletin board to see flyers for many different clubs. Along with a white and black missing persons flyer with a photo of a very pretty young girl in black and white.

Eleanor Ambers? She's a year ahead of me. She went missing over a year ago. She really is pretty. Laura's eyes gaze past the missing persons to another poster, The Vortex club, really? Such an elitist group of students. Betty's in it.

"Hey L, you look tired," A voice stated and Laura looked up to see Lafontaine smiling at her,

"I fell asleep in photo, I stayed up all night watching that dumb show you showed me on netflix."

"Don't say that about Orange is the New Black!" Laf laughed, "You will offend every lesbian in this school."

"I didn't say I didn't like it." Laura giggled, "I just said I wish I hadn't spent all night watching it."

"Naw, you loved it." They looked over the posters on the board. "Damn those missing persons posters are all over the place."

"Someone really wants to find her."

"I can imagine," Laf shrugged her shoulders, "I'll see you later, I'm going to be late to my next class."

"Alright, see you later Laf."

Laura continues her journey down the hall to the bathroom. Despite the school being very nice, the bathrooms were kind of...worn. Laura walked up to the sink, graffiti on the mirror. She turns on the sink and splashes cold water on her face. She reaches into her pocket to pull out her self-photograph she was going to turn in. The image, to her, was amateur at most. God I can't turn this in. This is by far one of my worst photos. It wasn't like she had time to take a new one anyway. Something flutters overhead, making a shadow against the dull light. Laura looks up to see a small butterfly flutter around the corner. Laura follows it as it settles down on the bucket of the small area used for storing cleaning supplies.

It's so pretty, it looks like it's glowing. Laura smiles as she takes out her camera, kneeling down slowly to keep it from flying away before snapping a picture of it. After she pulls the analog photo from the camera to shake it off the butterfly flies away and the bathroom door opens. She hears footsteps and moves to stay hidden.

"It's cool Will...don't stress, you're okay, bro." It's Will? Laura watches him from her hiding place as he leans against the sink, hands clutching the white worn porcelain. "Don't worry, don't sweat it. You have the power, you can do whatever you want. You're the boss."

The door swings open and a young woman enters through the door, taking one look at will and going down the line of stalls to check to ensure no one is there, stopping short of the wall Laura was hiding behind.

"I hope you checked the perimeter, as step-monster would say. Now I do hope the mama's-boy has what I'm looking for." The girl's voice is raspy, "Let's talk business."

"I got nothing,"

"Wrong," The girl steps closer, shoulders squaring in a way that screams that she will not back down. "You have exactly what I want. And enough drug money for me to get away with it. I know what you've done, pumping drugs to all your Zeta bros. Wouldn't mother love to see proof that her William wasn't the good kid she wants him to be."

"Leave her out of this, you bitch" Will stood up to his full height, easily towering over the other girl. "

"And I will if you little wannabe badass punk kid stops making trouble for me." The girl doesn't back down, nor does she seem faded by the fact that Will is getting angrier by the second. "A whiny little bitch who talks to himself-"

"Shut the hell up! You don't know me!" Laura covers her mouth when she sees Will pull a gun from the back of his pants, he points is square at the girls face and walks forward causing her to back up until her back hits the wall. He plants one of his hands firmly next to her head while he aims the gun to her stomach, "Don't you ever threaten me, you don't know who your messing with!"

"You are going to get in more trouble for this then the drugs Willy-boy." The girl's voice is shaking slightly despite the fact that she's trying to keep her indifferent appearance. "Get off me"

"Nobody would miss your punk ass would they? There is no one in this school who would EVER believe you. Nobody would even CARE that you were dead!"

"Get away from me!" The girl yells and pushes him back, the gun goes off and Laura could feel her stomach drop when she sees the girl drop to the floor, blood staining the front of her shirt.

"No" Laura calls out in an attempt to stop the horror that is going on around her, suddenly everything starts to move in slow motion, and then reverse.

_W_H_A_T_I_F_

"Holy shit" Laura murmured she looked around to see herself in her photography class, Wait a minute, I've sat through this lecture. Mr. Mason went on about a movie and how it related to photography. What the hell just happened?!