So, Cassandra made her way to the high school. She walked into the front office and the secretary looked shocked. "You shouldn't be here," she said.
Cassandra glared at her. "I need to talk to the principal, now! And I won't leave until I do."
She watched the secretary sigh and pick up her phone. "Helen, there's a woman here who's demanding to see you. . . Yeah, she said she won't leave until she talks to you . . . I don't think she has a child who goes to this school . . . I think if you saw her, you'd understand why . . .Okay." She hung up. "She'll be out in just a second."
Then Helen walked out of her office. "Oh, great, the crazy lady who yells terrible things at people," she said upon seeing Cassandra. "Wonderful. How can I help you?"
"Doom! Doom! Trojan High School is doomed! I see it clearly. A terrible fire, leaving the school in ashes and many students dead or injured. May 5th. You must tell the students to not attend school that day or fix the faulty wiring that will cause the fire."
"A fire, huh? Yeah, that sounds real. You realize that Trojan High School is one of the best built and most fireproof building in the city, right? I know this is a weird thing to brag about, but we have great walls. If there were ever any sort of threat, this is where people would go for protection. So, thank-you for the warning, but I think we'll be just fine," Helen said.
"No! The problem is in the walls. In the walls! The fire will start in the walls due to faulty wiring and use the insulation to quickly spread throughout the building, trapping the students. 39 of them won't make it out alive!" Cassandra yelled.
"Right. Thank-you for your concern. But I think we'll be fine. Now, is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Remember my name, Cassandra the all-knowing! And when the fire happens, and it will, you will know of my powers. You can't say I didn't warn you!" With that, Cassandra stormed out. But she was starting to feel better. Helen would know, but she would go out of her way to make sure that everyone knew.
So, she didn't stop yelling at people. Instead, she just started to yell at them about the high school burning down. She'd yell at high schoolers to skip school that day. She'd yell at parents to keep their kids home. She'd yell at everyone to warn people. And, of course, just like she expected, nobody believed her, many didn't pay any attention at all.
So, the day of the fire quickly approached and Cassandra chose to sit on a nearby hill to watch it happen. The fire started small, not noticeable, and the fire alarms didn't pick it up. But pretty soon, it picked up, starting to consume the walls and the roof. She watched students and faculty file out in alarm; the classes nearest to the doors getting out with no problems. Classes a little further from the doors would come out choking and coughing. But it was the classes in the middle who would really be effected by the fire. Soon, emergency services arrived but the flames were already completely out-of-hand. This is when Cassandra decided to make her descent. Surely, now, everyone would know that she was psychic.
She quickly found Helen who was comforting a couple of parents. "Well," Cassandra said. "I warned you."
Helen glared at her. "I can't talk to you right now. In case you haven't noticed, I'm dealing with a crisis."
"A crisis I predicted! I warned you! But you didn't listen! I was right the entire time!" Cassandra lifted her voice and started to cackle. "I warned you! I warned all of you!"
"Who cares?" Helen said.
"What?"
"Who cares if you did predict this? Who cares if you warned us? Yes, we didn't listen, but that doesn't stop the fire from happening, it doesn't stop the students from being trapped. Who cares about warnings when we're trying to deal with a crisis in the meantime," Helen said.
"But, I knew . . ."
"And, on that same note, you're a crisis. Seriously! Look at yourself! What a mess!" Helen said handing Cassandra a mirror.
Cassandra looked at her reflection. There was a wild look in her previously gorgeous hazel eyes. Her thick black hair was all over the place and clumps of dirt were in them. Her olive skin had lightened up looking old and unhealthy. She looked at her hands, her fingernails chipped and some of them were way to long. Then she looked up at the fire and it hit her. There was a fire, people were in danger, and all she had cared about was being right. Proving to everyone that she was a psychic. She had let it consume her, become her everything. She had alienated everyone around her, and she realized that she had been telling people terrible things not to help them but to hurt them.
Without another thought she dropped Helen's mirror on the ground and dashed towards one of the openings of the school. She heard people yell at her that she couldn't go in there but she didn't care. She went in anyway. She was going to use her gift to save the 39 people who were going to die.
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