The Storm

It started as a bright, warm, sunny day for Elsa. She smiled as she opened the curtains. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing.

"Good morning everyone, it's a beautiful day outside. The temperature today is 22°C.

Enjoy"

The Radio DJ announced.

Elsa decided this was a perfect day to visit the beach.

She called Liz and Tom who were here two best friends, and as soon as she heard Tom honk his horn outside, they headed to the beach.

They had only just started unpacking their picnic when the sky started to darken.

"Don't worry Elsa. The DJ said it was going to be nice today. I don't think that it will rain," Tom told her.

Elsa and Tom asked her if she wanted to swim in the sea with them, but she said no.

Three young children were laughing and building sandcastles in front of her.

"Do you like this, lady?" one of them asked her.

Elsa smiled, but it was only a half smile. She loved the sandcastle which the children said was their

"Greatest Master-piece,"

Elsa wanted to watch the children, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The sky had darkened, and the wind had suddenly grown very strong quickly.

She looked out to sea, and observed her friends laughing and splashing. They looked like they were having fun.

Elsa pulled a drink out of the picnic bag. She looked at the sea again, but something was not right.

She could not see her friends.

Within a minute of picking up her drink. There was a loud rumble in the sky, followed by a giant flash of light. Out of nowhere the waves in the sea where huge.

Everybody panicked, and people were fleeing the beach,

everybody but Tom and Liz

Elsa pulled out her umbrella, and searched the beach, but within seconds the rain started pouring heavily, and everything became darker.

There was an announcement from the police,

"Hurricane warning. Everyone must leave NOW."

Everybody was screaming, and Elsa could not see her friends in the crowd. She panicked, but she couldn't comprehend anything happening to them. She was going to stay for a moment, but the weather took a turn for the worst and within seconds of her making that decision, the beach started to flood.

She had to leave NOW!

Elsa headed home. It wasn't easy, and the traffic was really bad. Most of the transport had stopped running, but a taxi driver was kind enough to pick her up; though it took a while before she managed to get to her flat. As soon as she got there, she tried dialing the emergency phone lines, but they were all dead.

Elsa panicked, then out of nowhere, her windows shattered, and within seconds her room was flooded with water.

Elsa knew she had to leave and abandon her friends, she hoped they would contact her,

but they didn't, and they were never found.

Three weeks after that storm, Elsa got a call from Liz's mother.

"Is my daughter with you? She has been missing for three weeks."

Elsa did not know what to say, and just explained that she hadn't heard from them either.

Shortly after, she got a call from a hospital number,

"Elsa, come quick. Your friend Liz has been in a coma for the last three weeks, and we don't know if she is going to make it."

Elsa bolted to the hospital, but within a second of her walking through the door, a nurse pulled her,

"I'm sorry Elsa, but Liz died a minute ago."

Elsa felt lost in grief. She had flashbacks of Liz and Tom playing happily in the sea, and in this moment, Liz had gone before she had a chance to say goodbye.

Tom made it to the hospital, just as Elsa had left. He called her later in a flood of tears.

Elsa did not know how her and Tom were supposed to say good bye. One minute they were happy like siblings, and the next their lives were torn apart.

She fell to the floor and stared at the wall in shock, without words. She left the phone dangling without speaking.

She could not say goodbye. She had no time to process it. She had just lost her friend in a storm that was not meant to be.

A storm that happened, and nobody saw it coming; not her, her friends or anyone on that beach.