The Outreach Team recently ran a competition asking students in years 7-9 in one of our Partner Schools to write a short story.
Please enjoy the entries from our runners up, Grace, Ini, Praise and Amelia, below.
Control of My Darkness
By Grace (2nd place)
When my sister died last year, I saw her everywhere. At first I would mistake someone for her entirely and wholly believe that she was standing across from me, but now I catch glimpses of her in all different people. The checkout lady in Tesco has her glossy hair; that man on the bus has the same gold flecks in his eyes; the boy on the swings has her ever warm smile and the girl playing in the playground has her perfect laugh. It’s maddening really, I can’t leave my house without being haunted by parts of my sister, as if she didn’t haunt me enough when she was alive. My sister was perfect, in every sense of the word, but not to me, never to me. She felt as though she didn’t have to be perfect with me, as though she could take away her masks and be content with showing me her ugly side. I know that should make me feel honoured that she could be herself with me, but honestly, “herself” wasn’t someone anyone really wanted to be around. When you stripped back the layers of perfectness there was only raw, ignored emotions to be found; emotions that scared me to the point of no return. What you saw when you looked at my sister was beautiful, good, but her other side (the side solely reserved for me) was anything but. It was as if she saved up every dark, evil thought and locked it away, only to share it with me later on, when it was just us, as if it were a treat to see all the emotions and desires she kept hidden away from the world. Everything about her frightened me, I dreaded our alone time. I didn’t want to see her darkness, that was not something I wanted to be confronted with, especially not alone but I had no choice, my sister could be extremely persuasive when she was desperate. Desperate she was whenever we had these encounters of darkness, I was her release. Every time her dark thoughts and deeds that were kept bottled up threatened to overspill, she poured them on me; drowned me in them, and then she started her perfect life again. I was a reset button to her. That’s all I ever was, I was never some special person who she could show her truest self to, who she could share her darkest secrets with. It took me too long to realise this, but when I did I was too late. If I didn’t get out now I never would, I would continue to be her reset, her release. The darkness within my sister would consume me and I’d embody it. I could see my future, dark, bleak, I couldn’t stomach that. That is why I killed her. No longer could she drown me with darkness, bury me with evil. I can be perfect now, just like she was but better because I am in control of my darkness.
Worlds Within Worlds
By Ini (3rd place)
The emaciated man had dirt and grit all over his manky clothes and grimy body. His dark grey shirt – which clearly used to be white – was tattered and shredded, especially where his heart should be. I should have taken pity on the unfortunate wretch but instead I felt an unexplainable loathing at first sight. Even from the end of the street, I could see the slits at the corners of his blood-red mouth being twisted into a disturbing smile. Sunken, milky white eyes stored with mindless menace glare into mine.
Suddenly the skeleton-like creature started shuffling towards me like a decrepit, decaying old man. As he shuffled closer, I could see that the had a dislocated jaw showing his torn tongue and filthy brown stained, razor sharp, savage teeth. Unexpectedly, a flame of anger seemed to ignite him. He let out a glass-shattering screech and charged towards me with an ape-like fury…
My Short Story
By Praise (4th place)
A father puts his three year old daughter into bed. Told her a story, and listened to her prayers she said ‘Goodnight mummy, goodnight daddy and good bye grandpa.’
Father said, ‘why did you say good bye grandpa?’
The little girl said, ‘I don’t know, daddy. It just seemed like the thing to do.’
The next day grandpa died. Father thought it was a strange coincidence.
A few months later, the father put the girl to bed and listened to her prayers, which went like this: ‘God bless mommy, God bless daddy and good bye grandma.’
The next day grandma died.
‘My gosh,’ thought the father, ‘this kid is in contact with the other side.’
Untitled
By Amelia (Commended)
My hand gripped on the doorknob and I tugged. The door opened and what I saw was like nothing I had ever seen before.
I was moving houses, again. I had moved several times before, but I was not looking forward to this move as I liked this house. I had to sleep in the attic, but it was quite spacious, if you ignored to low ceilings. Above my bed, there was also a circular window that gazed upon the city of London. I whisked away a tear rolling down my smooth-skinned face as I waved goodbye to my once called home, as if it were a close friend of mine, which I could have said it was.
I had not seen the new house yet but knew not to get my hopes up, my parents seemed to have a bad taste in houses. The car pulled up at a building, three stories and a beautiful garden laid out inside the barrier of the tall, wooden fences. It was nicer than I had expected, quite a bit more flattering on the outside than my old home. My father put his hand in his camouflaged pocket on his shirt and pulled out a key, he forced into the keyhole and turned it. The door screeched as it slowly opened. The house was more shockingly amazing than I ever could have imagined, along with room for all a house’s necessities. The top floor had two bedrooms and a single bathroom. The top floor being all to myself at the moment as my sister was at college. I walked into my bedroom, a large window was in the centre, I could imagine my bed under it. The thoughts were brought to a halt, as I needed to go collect furniture.
It was night, my room finally decorated. I thumped onto my bed, exhausted, just to end up staring thoughtlessly at a small hole in the corner of my ceiling. I lost my focus, eyes blurry, but my eyelids soon sealed them shut.
A bright light shone in my face, my eyes burning, I sat up and I was just about able to look around. There in front of me was a door, light peeking out from the sides, right where I could remember the entrance to my room to be, but this was a different door. My feet thumped on the floor as I jumped out of my bed. I walked slowly over and found my hand gripping on the door. I took a deep breath, make that two, and tugged at the wooden doorknob. I could see outside. Pink trees filled the land ahead of me along with blue grass. What was this? I saw something heading towards me, I could make out face. I could also see wings. As it approached, I realised what it was, a fairy. I waved and it waved back. This just had to be like it was in books, it was a world within a world.