We are sharing the next story in our series, Featured Short Stories, written by students in the Creative Writing Club.
Every week, the students in the club work on writing short stories, sometimes from their own ideas, and sometimes from story prompts. This week’s prompt was – write a story about a girl who discovered a magic tree behind her house, with a portal to another dimension.
This week’s story was written by Amy, aged 10. Enjoy!
Annalise’s Adventure
It was one of those nights when Annalise was grumpy for no reason. She sat in her backyard, on the grass, frowning.
There was a creak from the door. A large black cat walked gingerly over to her and started to rub her legs.
Annalise pushed her away.
“Not now, Nikki.”
Nikki gave a sharp meow.
“Go away!”
The cat was not stupid, and went away as she was told. Annalise continued sulking.
It was about a few minutes later when Nikki was bored with yard that she came to Annalise again. She put her two front paws on Annalise’s legs and meowed.
Annalise got up. Normally, she adored Nikki, but at the moment she needed some time alone. She went to sit down behind the oak tree. Nikki followed her. Annalise shifted a little bit to the right, annoyed.
Suddenly, Annalise herself plummeting downwards. Wind was rushing through her hair, and she could see nothing, only darkness and nothingness surrounding her. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she frantically tried to grab on to something – anything, a piece of long, durable grass, a rock half hidden in soil, anything to keep her from falling. However, there was nothing but emptiness.
“Meow!”
Annalise landed on something furry. She stood up.
Nikki snarled at her.
“Sorry, girl.”
Nikki meowed innocently, her watery blue eyes gazing at Annalise.
It was daylight, and they were in a grassy field. Wildflowers Annalise didn’t know the names of dotted the green, fresh grass. Pretty coloured butterflies fluttered by. The sky was a clear, magnificent blue, the sun warm on her skin. Not far away, a little cottage stood.
Annalise forgot all about being grumpy.
“I say, Nikki,” she exclaimed, “this is pure utopia!”
Annalise did not hesitate and began collecting all the wildflowers she could right away. The cat, meanwhile, was enjoying herself. She leaped up at the countless butterflies, her black fur shining in the sunlight.
They didn’t notice a shabby old woman coming from the other side of the meadow. She was bony and had a hunched back. Her hair was gray, not yet white, and her face was far from pleasant. She wore a black dress and had a cane in her right hand.
On seeing Annalise and Nikki, her unpleasant expression turned into that of a sly fox, just about to pounce on her prey. She smiled, revealing a mouth of crooked, yellow teeth.
But, as she approached Annalise and Nikki, her grin disappeared instantaneously, transforming into a kind, welcoming smile, the kind one would find on good-mannered, pleasant old ladies.
“Good afternoon.” She said.
Her voice, although clear, had an obvious dryness to it.
Nikki stopped chasing butterflies immediately. She stood there, ears standing up, fur raised, and eyes wide, in full alert mode. Annalise, too, was astonished, and she turned around to gaze at whoever was speaking.
She found herself staring into the eyes of the old lady.
“G-good afternoon, ma’am.”
She was not sure if she had offended her.
However, instead of getting angry, the old lady’s smile got even brighter, and Annalise was starting to get rather uncomfortable in her presence.
“Would you like to come over to my cottage, little girl?”
Annalise bit her lip.
“I… I think… well, it would be rather far, won’t it?”
The old lady smiled again.
“No, not at all, darling,” she said. “In fact, it is right over there.”
She pointed to the little cottage that Annalise had seen earlier.
“Oh.”
Her head was spinning for another excuse to make. Her parents had never allowed her to go into strangers’ houses before, and she had always been a very well-behaved little girl.
“Don’t be afraid, my girl,” the old lady said. “See how old I am? I shall never be able to harm such a pretty little thing like you.”
She looked pleadingly at Annalise, and for a moment, she almost wanted to believe her. After all, she was so old…
“All right.” Annalise said.
“Come on, and bring your kitten.”
Nikki, although not happy about it, followed her.
When the old lady opened the door to the cottage, Annalise found the inside cold, dull, and unwelcoming. The house had hard brown floorboards, polished till they shone, and a fireplace that had no ash inside it. Beside the fireplace was a large brown armchair, with a straight back and four straight legs, polished shiny. There was a stove to the left, and it too was shiny and cold. To the right was an empty shelf, and hanging on the wall beside the shelf was an antique clock, its face shiny. The room was unusually clean, without a speck of dust.
The old lady closed the door, rather forcefully. Annalise wondered how someone so old could be so strong.
The old lady pulled a polished stool from a corner, putting it in front of the armchair.
“Sit.”
Annalise didn’t move.
“Sit.”
“I… I should be going home by now…”
“Sit!”
The lady’s shrill voice pierced Annalise’s ears. She sat.
Nikki leaped onto her lap.
The old lady, satisfied, sat down in the armchair and folded her hands. She stared at Annalise with hard, stony eyes.
“I want to go home.”
Annalise wished it hadn’t come out quivery.
“Well, I am not letting you.”
“What do you want then?”
She was aware that her voice was shaky.
The old lady stood up. Her eyes grew larger, and fiery. Her hair seemed to be standing on end.
Annalise wondered if she wasn’t really that old at all.
She walked briskly over to the shelf and swung it open, revealing a rectangular black hole in the wall.
“In.”
Annalise froze.
The lady went to her stool, plucked her up, and pushed her and Nikki into the darkness. She could hear the bookshelf slam closed.
She could only hear her heart beat in the profound silence.
Suddenly, there was a shuffling noise.
“Hello, prisoner,” someone whispered.
Her voice was soft, which reminded Annalise of cheese puffs.
“Are you a ghost?”
Another shuffle, and a sigh.
“I don’t remember who I was.”
Annalise’s heart dropped.
“But… what happened?”
A shuffle from Annalise’s right.
“She took our souls, the old Witch,” it was a younger voice, of a girl about six or so. “She locked us in and took our heart and memories – we are now made of nothingness.”
The voice on her left started speaking again.
“Are you still alive?”
Annalise shivered. She never thought that she might be… dead. She felt Nikki’s fur. It was soft and warm, nothing like that of a corpse.
“I think I’m still alive.”
“Well,” said the younger voice, “if you’re still alive, fellow prisoner, get away as fast as you can. The Witch is up to no good.”
“Yes,” said the older voice. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands of us trapped here. You must not become one of us.”
“But you can’t stay, either.” Annalise said.
“We are dead, fellow prisoner.”
“But I must save you –”
“You must save yourself first.”
Suddenly, the shelf door creaked open. The Witch’s face peeked in.
“Now, girl, come out.”
Annalise stepped out of the darkness; her legs shaky. She felt silly, for being so helpless. However, she was so glad to see daylight again.
The witch slammed the shelf shut.
“Did you have enough of that?” she asked.
And suddenly Annalise wasn’t afraid anymore.
“You are no old lady.”
The Witch snarled.
“What did you say?”
Annalise was fuming.
“You’ve killed people. I’ve just seen them.”
Her voice was no longer shaky.
“You did not.”
“I did. Those two girls talked to me. You’ve killed them. And now you’re going to kill me too.”
“Who told you that –”
Annalise couldn’t put up with her anymore.
“Well, you’re not going to.”
The Witch frowned.
“I’ll tell you what,” Annalise said, her fear boiling up into red-hot anger. “You’ve hid them here. I’ll find them. If I don’t, then you turn me into one of them – hollow figures with nothing in them.”
The Witch’s cracked lips parted into a smile, and even as she said it Annalise knew she was setting herself up for failure. Where, in this unknown world, would she find the souls of hundreds of lost children and get away unscathed?
“Deal.” The Witch said.
After an hour of searching in the meadow, Annalise gave up on the outside. If she went to the left, there was a vast expanse of grass. If she went to the right, there was another vast expanse of grass. It seemed like how the Witch had created this place – it had no ends, and nothing made sense. She went back into the house and sat miserably beside the bare fireplace. Why had she promised the Witch that she could find them? The ghost children were right. She had zero chance of saving herself, let alone them. She’d been silly, not listening to those ghosts.
It was when she looked up that a large mirror beside the shelf caught her eye. She went over to it. It was almost as tall as she was, but for some reason she hadn’t noticed it was there before. The frame was brown, like everything else in the house, coated with layers of thick dust that made her eyes itch.
“Strange, isn’t it,” she mumbled to herself. “That the Witch would leave something so dusty in the house and –”
She stopped.
There had been a light tap.
Annalise looked around. She was certain the noise had come directly from the mirror. But how could it?
There was another tap. This time Annalise was completely sure. It came from inside the mirror. Or, should it be, from the other side of the mirror.
“Anyone there?”
No one answered, but then someone started writing in the dust.
Save us.
Annalise’s eyes almost popped out of her head. She’s been looking in the meadow for this long – and they were in a mirror?
“How?” She mouthed.
Break the mirror.
When she was looking for something hard to smash the mirror, the door opened. The Witch had come home. Seeing Annalise standing next to the mirror, her face turned as pale as the moon. She dropped her cane. Then, in less than a millisecond, she rushed over to Annalise and grabbed her.
“Meow!” Nikki complained.
Annalise, meanwhile, was trying all she could to free herself from the Witch’s grasp. She fought her way over to the mirror, only to be dragged back a second later.
“But you said deal!” she whined.
“I don’t always do what I say!”
Just as her voice fell, the Witch screamed.
“Get off my back!”
She reached behind frantically, and Annalise almost burst out laughing, despite the situation. Nikki, with her fur raised and tail high, back arched, had jumped onto the Witch’s back and had all four claws clutching on for dear life.
Annalise wriggled herself free and kicked at the mirror. It toppled over, shattering into a million pieces. She could feel everything around her dissolving, and she grabbed on to Nikki. In the swirling light, the echo of the crash of the mirror and the Witch’s screaming were mixed together. She started to fall again, into the darkness, into the nothingness.
Thump.
Annalise fell on her back. A ball of fur fell on her chest with an angry meow.
The air was moist, like that of late evening. It smelled of grass and fresh earth. Crickets were chirping, and there was the occasional owl hooting in the woods. She opened her eyes. Stars were dotting the dark blue sky, a crescent of a moon from it. A bird swooped by.
“Annalise!”
Someone was calling her from the window.
“Coming!”
She started running across the backyard, towards her house, Nikki following her upon her heels.
The End.
If you have a child who loves writing stories and you want to encourage them to explore their creativity and their imagination, then we would love to have them join our writing club! Just click on the link to register, and we will be in touch. Creative Writing Club – Registration Form.
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