— Svaha Dey (Age: 10)

The wind howled throughout the night. The trees tried to grab her, but they failed. The moon was a bright silver coin shining proudly in the night sky. As she trudged cautiously through the dense forest, she heard a faint commotion.

“Rustle, sniff, scatter”…    “Rustle, sniff, scatter”…

She quickly turned around, but no one appeared. Hmmm, weird, she thought. The eerie silence haunted her, but she tried to stay brave. The ominous night sky stood motionlessly as she peered around cautiously, trying to be aware of any danger. Suddenly, a piercing shriek erupted in the middle of the ghostly forest. She had enough of this. She didn’t want to spend a night full of fear and pain. She bolted down the path she had come from and ran to her house.

She had arrived, at last. She sighed and took the rusty key out of her pocket and put it into the lock. She turned the lock, “CLICK!” She walked into her house, slipped onto her bed and fell asleep. “Mary wake up! It’s time for breakfast and no time for more sleeping!” called a sweet spoken voice. The drowsy girl groaned but sat up. Her nightmares from yesterday were the worst and they didn’t let her sleep. It was like her dreams didn’t want her to sleep. She crawled out of bed and walked over to the kitchen. A plate of fresh bacon and eggs awaited, but all she ate was a piece of bacon. “Oh Mary, what have you done?” The sweet spoken voice asked. “Huh?” – the drowsy girl called, Mary replied. “Oof! You have been fooling around in the bushes again! What did I tell you? You’re always up to some sort of mischief!” The sweet spoken voice exclaimed. “Ughhh! Mum, can’t you stop?” Mary complained. Her mum chuckled and walked off.

Once Mary’s mum walked off, Mary hopped off the chair she was sitting on and went into the storage room and grabbed her safely hidden backpack that she had prepared in case of an emergency. It contained a torch and pepper spray, four ham sandwiches, two water bottles and a first aid kit. She took the backpack and rushed frantically out of the house, so her mum wouldn’t spot her. She ambled over to the forest that she had been to last night. Eventually, the shivers had crawled up her spine like always. She sensed another presence, but she tried to ignore it.

“SLICE, SLICE, HAH!”…      “SLICE, SLICE, HAH!”…

Mary gasped. Not again. She didn’t want to face this all over again. Her hands started to tremble, her eyes were wide open, and her legs felt like jelly as she commenced up to the spot that she had stood last night. The commotion had given her a frightful shock, and she was standing like a lifeless tree that had died years before. She was pale as a ghost. The trees danced around solemnly, and the wind howled like usual. Mary walked down the path step by step.

“TIP-TOE!”…          “TIP-TOE!”…

Suddenly, a loud bang erupted in the middle of nowhere. Many forest animals started to scatter around fearfully. Mary started to scream, but a cold hand covered her mouth, ushering her to be quiet. She looked up and glimpsed a young man with a sword. She was too scared to even think. Too scared to even move. The young man had to drag her over to a small car and push her in. He hopped into the front and started to drive.

Meanwhile, Mary was trying to figure out what was happening and who this young boy was. Why did he take her? The young boy looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t figure out who he was. She told herself that everything was going to be okay and this was just a dream. Was it though?

Suddenly, the car stopped, and Mary heard two muffled voices calmly speak. The door opened with an evil laugh. The young boy appeared next to an elegant woman who dressed perfectly in a dark blue floral dress. She took Mary out aggressively and walked her over to another car. She shoved her in and locked the door. The smell of the car was extremely ghastly. “Oh Louise, you did such an amazing job!” The young boy exclaimed. Louise, the elegant woman, chuckled and walked off into the dense forest.

“Uggh!” Mary cried out. She didn’t want to be held hostage for her entire life. No food, no water. NOTHING! But then, she remembered her emergency backpack. She thought that it was going to be eventually superfluous, but now it wasn’t. She beamed like a bright Sun, except she wasn’t bright and glowy. She took out a sandwich and a water bottle like a lion who hadn’t had its dinner for a week.  She munched on her sandwich and gulped down the water. After, she sat there fidgeting with her fingers, thinking of a way to get out of the putrid smelling car. Then she remembered her hair clip. She could easily break the glass with it as the glass was thin and weak. She took the clip out of her hair and started to poke the glass firmly.

“CRASH!” The glass finally broke, and Mary was so glad that she screamed with happiness to breathe fresh, cold air. She scrambled out of the window and fell with a thud. She gasped for air. But she remembered about her mum. Oh no! She bolted like a cheetah through the trees and the long grass. Not a care in the world that someone was watching her. Once she left the forest, the Sun was setting and the shops were closing. She rushed to her house and there her mum was. Her mum was sitting on the front step all gloomy and lonely, but once she saw Mary, her face brightened up. Mary ran up to her and gave her a huge hug.

That night, Mary and her mum didn’t talk at all, but just slurped on tea, awkwardly. But the silence broke when Mary’s mum asked her where she had been. Mary hoped that this topic didn’t come up. “Uhh, well, I was at the local river.” Mary lied. Her mum nodded. She silently walked off, leaving Mary alone. Before Mary went off to bed, she sat and thought about the young boy. Who was he? Why did he seem so familiar? She then glimpsed a newspaper on her bed. She realised who he was! He was the newspaper boy who sold newspapers every week and he was poor. He was probably working with the cruel woman for money. She didn’t want to think anymore. She was too weary. Too exhausted. She went to bed. Finally, she had sweet dreams.