For the good of the many.

Ms Grayson had only been Acting Principle since the start of the semester, but even a life-time could not have prepared her for the telephone call.  She accepted the need, indeed the found herself thanking the Prime Minister for the honour, but somewhere beneath the shock was a horror that seemed to freeze her heart.

As she shut her telephone  she listened to the sounds of students rushing to their first class, and the silence she knew would be descending upon the lands around the college grounds.  She stood up from her desk and walked around to the mirror in the corner.  Looking at herself she saw the same figure that had left her tiny apartment that morning.  She straightened the hem of her skirt, and buttoned up the matching charcoal jacket.  She brushed back a strand on her shoulder length blonde hair and wondered if she would have time to touch up her make-up, but the dimming of the light outside told her otherwise.  She glanced out of the window to see the shadow spilling across the sports fields, and looking up, the underside of the Visitor's vast flying city.  There wasn't really a protocol for this sort of thing, but she couldn't face the idea of hiding in her office alone.  Better to be with her students, and if the worse did happen, she hoped to face it well.

Clinging to that thought she stepped out of her office to be met by Julia, the head prefect, who must have been running she was so out of breath.

“Ms Grayson, outside!”  The girl was panting, somewhat dishevelled with an obvious graze on her knee from a fall.  What was she supposed to tell her, or the other girls for that matter.  That they were the few?  Not much comfort there for anyone.

“Julia, your uniform is a mess.”  With that the girl stood up straighter and Ms Grayson straightened up the girl's tie. 
“We have visitors, and we should look our best for them.”  Appearances, that was what mattered and Julia seemed to understand that.  Besides in the circumstances, appearances were all they could deal with.  Trying to remain calm Ms Grayson led the way, towards the main entrance 

As they walked through the corridors they passed the faces of staff and students who peered out of the lecture halls.  Ms Grayson tried not to to meet anyone's eyes, scared of what she might see, or worse, that others might see her fear.  And those watching were probably glad that it was not them, who had to do this, but the more thoughtful ones  realised that if the Principle was doing what she seemed to be doing, then none of their futures were bright.

By the time they reached the entrance, bare minutes since the telephone call, it was already getting dark. The Visitor's flying city had come lower and the deepening shadows were more reminiscent of an autumn evening than a spring morning.  Already strange shapes were moving out there.  Long strands of alien material, most thin and blowing in the breeze, but among it were thicker strands that seemed to move more purposefully.

They heard the sound of rapidly running feet, then a girl stumbled around the corner.  Ms Grayson recognised Samantha, a girl who was frequently brought before her for discipline.  But given the circumstances is would have been churlish, and somewhat pointless, to tell her off for running in the corridor.  So Ms Grayson and Julia stood aside as Samantha tore past in her desperate haste.  Samantha ran out the building, almost kicking the door open in her hurry to leave.  The thin cobweb like fibres were everywhere and the young girl brushed through them.  But although they briefly stuck to her, their grip was weak and they did little more than tug at her hair and clothes as she passed.

Ms Grayson felt a momentary joy as she though that maybe the stories they'd all heard were not true, that maybe if Samantha could leave then so could all of them.  But it was not to be.  Samantha let out a startled shriek as she found one of the thicker strands in her way.  This strand moved against the wind and in a split second she was entangled.  Then she was flying upwards, the alien stuff wrapped around her, screaming up until her trajectory came to end.  Her flailing flight had been intercepted by a trunk-like tentacle that sucked her from the air. 

Ms Grayson then realised that there were many such tentacles descending from the flying city, and she also realised what they were for.  The 'tentacle' that had sucked up Samantha seemed to hang still , above where the girl had been standing, a bulge seeming to weigh it down. 

“Ms Grayson look, that one can't capture anyone else can it.”  Julia's face was filled with hope, maybe at the thought of there being more girls than there were tentacles.  In which case going to meet them might not be such a clever idea. 

Then there was a wet, fart-like sound from above.  The 'tentacle' that had taken Samantha suddenly convulsed, forcing those below to shield their heads.  Ms Grayson watched in horror as fragments of bone, hair and undigested clothes fell around them.  All that was left of Samantha after the Visitors had extracted what they had wanted on this fuelling stop.

It seemed as if that was a signal as the air became alive with 'tentacles' and great streams of threads that fell upon the buildings around them.  Ms Grayson and Julia clung to each other as the 'tentacles' darted past then into the building.  They heard the crash of glass and screams coming from inside, but they were left alone to watch the swollen 'tentacles'  withdraw back towards the hovering city.  But as each withdrew, another darted into the college. 

Then it started to rain, a rain of clothes and bones.  The air was full of blouse, skirts and underwear that fluttered gently down, punctuated occasionally by a pelvis, skull or other large bone bouncing off the roof of their shelter or sometimes shattering on impact with the ground outside. 

Among the student's uniforms she noted the bright colours of the marching band, and realised that they must have been practising on the playing fields.  She'd hoped that any students fortunate enough to be out of class might have escaped, but a rain of football kit convinced her otherwise.  She also saw other clothes falling and knew that her staff were suffering the same fate as her students.

It seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes, later when the 'tentacles' that were consuming her students started to slow down.  Ms Grayson realised that  those that carried their struggling package were no longer being replaced, either a sign that the Visitors had taken enough, or more probably that they had emptied the college.  She thought they were probably alone now, Julia and herself. 

She held Julia in her arms as the young girl cried with relief.  The final tentacle was sliding back out of the entrance, moving more slowly than the previous ones.  Or maybe because it was also alone they noticed it more clearly.  Ms Grayson stepped back, taking Julia's hand to guide her away from the withdrawing 'tentacle'.  Then she had a moment of horrific realisation.  This 'tentacle' lacked the bulge that indicated it had caught it's prey.  Julia however didn't notice as she had her eyes on Ms Grayson who she'd begun to think of her saviour.  Maybe she'd seen something in Ms Grayson's face, or maybe caught a movement out of the corner of her eye.  Whatever the reason her mouth opened as if to say something when the final tentacle suddenly engulfed her down to her ankles.  Then the girl was lifted into the air where in a few more gulps she disappeared for a moment, only to be replaced by her uniform fluttering down to earth.

Now Ms Grayson was truly alone.  An acting Principle who had watched as her entire college had been digested.  So when her mobile rang to congratulate her and the college on their sacrifice she couldn't feel any relief.  But she listened to how their sacrifice had been made to save the population of the nearby town, a town that had lost many of it's young folks today, she felt hollow.  Still listening the Prime Minister's words as the shadows thinned, she looked around her at the piles of bones and discarded uniforms that surrounded her.  This was some victory.  Something fell at her feet and she bent to pick it up.  It was Julia's tie, her prefect's pin still stuck through the knot.  Her thoughts split between the praise pouring through her phone and the memory of the girl she'd nearly saved she didn't notice the final tentacle falling towards her.  Then the impact nearly drove her to her knees, before she was pulled into the sky.

In a bunker north of London the Prime Minister continued to talk into his telephone, explaining how he would have a memorial built for them, unaware that Ms Grayson had already been digested, and that her mobile was even now falling from the sky.