A Day To Run Away
Walking beneath a single moon
Wishing for hot stew and a spoon
Lingering at every step you take
You need to know what pains your ache
Lying down in the soft grass
Admiring the stars, urethral class
Hearing sweet words being spit
You are more and more full of it
And when the sun tints the sky of faint light
The sky turns blue and it is no longer night.
Aging:
Her feet feel numb
Her lips turn blue
Her eyes bloodshot
She feels unreal
The sorrow builds up
As she painfully withers away
Lying in her bed
Dreaming of the life
She could have lived.
“I’m Fine”:
Just breathe they say
Am I broken or just lost?
Feelings are my curse.
All I see is you:
Memories arise
I remember you clearly
Your ocean eyes, deep
Open my soul, the real me
Seeing me, like I see you.
Middle School, the worst three years of my life. Full of hormonal pre-teens who haven’t learned how to put deodorant on yet. 8th grade was tolerable, until June. The last month of middle school until I moved on to a new chapter in my life. I sat the in class watching Mr. Gibson hopping around the room with his one leg holding his prosthetic leg in the other. He would always talk about how he lost it in the army. Everyone was laughing watching him make a fool of himself, except me. I had a bad feeling. Like a pit in my stomach. Out of nowhere the intercom started to buzz. Then a quivering voice started to say, “We are under lockdown” Everyone one ignored it thinking it was a drill. Including the teacher, but I knew something was wrong. “BANG!!” The sound of a gun shot went off.
My entire body started shaking uncontrollably as I watched everyone scream and run under their desks. Mr. Gibson ran to the door to barricade it yelling for us to help. We stacked chairs, desks, book shelves, and anything against the door to keep someone from getting in. I could see the cops through thew windows holding guns and keeping watch. We were given weapons to protect ourselves including rakes, shovels, scissors, books, and whatever we could possibly find. I held a rake and a pair of scissors barely able to hold it as my hands were shaking. While me and all the other students were huddled together with our weapons in hand we heard a knock at the door. Not just any knock; a loud aggressive knock. My heart dropped to my stomach knowing this was real. That this was really happening.
I looked outside the window to see there were no cops in sight. Just banging on the door. In a split second the banging stopped and then I heard. “AHHHH!” coming from outside the doors. Mr.Gibson jumped up from his crouched position and tumbled towards the door. “I have to go help, it’s my duty” He said pausing at every word he spoke. “Barricade the door when I leave.” He said quietly. I felt myself leave my body watching him leave us to fend for ourselves. Seeing myself terrified with all the other students was like a wakeup call. We had no one to protect us. We were all alone.
Sitting there with no one to tell us it would be okay. Anyone to tell us we would get though this, I tried to go to my happy place. When there wasn’t the reality that every second mattered. That I could die any moment. I thought about Thanksgiving at the beach a few years back. With my whole family cooking mass amounts of food. Laughing together as we stuffed our faces. Running on the beach with my cousin and dog. Losing my shoes in the ocean after getting knocked over by a wave. Never expecting this would be my future. I was woken up from my daydream with a voice on the intercom. It was the principle himself telling us that we were no longer on lockdown and the attacker had been taken care of. An electric shock of relief came over me hearing the voice of an angel. H said that everyone was alive and safe.
Walking out of that school alive and well felt empowering. It felt exhilarating. In that distance I saw my mom running towards me with a worried look on her face. I gave her the biggest hug realizing how grateful I was to just see her face after what I went through. She started to ask me a bunch of questions but all I could think about was the world around me. How lucky I was. In that moment, I knew that this was meant to happen. Even though it was horrible, I will remember it until the day I die. Some schools aren’t as lucky. But we, survived.
Gillian Sweet
Period: 1
1,148
I woke up confused. Normally I wake up to my cat purring louder than a garbage truck on a Sunday morning. But it was silent. I’m used to her licking my face and clawing me until I feed her as if she’s being starved. But I saw no sight of her. I got out of bed dragging my feet as I slowly walked out of my room. I called her name as loud as I could not caring if I woke up the whole house with my raspy morning voice, “HAZEL!!!” I screeched. But nothing. No whining, no meowing, and not even a hint of a pur. My mom walked out of her room, hair sticking up in seven different ways looking like she wanted to strangle me, “It’s 6AM why are you yelling!” She said in a stern voice. “I can’t find Hazel.” I said sounding worried. “She probably just went outside.” She said walking back to her room. She never goes outside..
I walked outside calling her name as I thought to myself, Hazel hates going outside. The last time she went outside was two months ago when she got attacked by a deer. I walked all around my neighborhood looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found. I was worried but I decided to be optimistic and hope she came back on her own. I waited and waited for a whole week. I was about to start putting up signs saying she was missing. The next Monday I got home from school and went straight to my room to crash on my bed. Then I heard a noise.. It sounded like a whale groaning in pain. I turned around and there she was, Hazel, sitting on my pillow staring at me. My instinct was to hug her but something was wrong. Her fur was stained red, her eyes were a piercing red color, and it looked as if her fangs had gotten bigger. But most importantly, she wasn’t purring. She always purrs when she sees me. Instead, she was growling.
I sat there staring back at her. She looked at me like I was her prey, like she wanted to pounce at me. Sure enough, as soon as I looked away, she pounced. She scratched my face and clawed at me as I was screaming in pain. My mom sprinted into my room and threw her against the wall. As soon as Hazel hit the ground she started to shift into something dark, like a shadow, but with the same piercing red eyes as Hazel. It’s eyes were looking at me so deeply I thought for sure it was going to steal my soul. In a split second, the shadow went into my mom.
I could see it all happen. The shadow went into her nose, her ears, her mouth, and even her eyes. When it was all over, my mom turned to look at me with those glowing red eyes and started to smile. But it wasn’t a normal smile, It was pure evil. I didn’t recognize her. I started to run for my life and as I turned around I saw my whole family, with those red eyes. It was like a virus infecting my whole family. That’s when I realized, I’m next.
Instantly, I ran out of the house and started running not noticing where I was. This isn’t my neighborhood, this isn’t even my town, where am I? The sky is a scorching red color with lightning and thunder. There’s no houses, trees, mountains, or people. Just endless flat ground. Everything disappeared. I started walking hoping I would get somewhere when I notice something in the distance. I couldn’t quite tell what it was, but I wanted to find out. When I finally got close enough I could see her, Hazel. It was Hazel without glowing red eyes. It was really her. I know it was her because she was purring.
I was so happy to see Hazel that I didn’t realize what was right in front of me. My mom standing above me, without that evil look in her eyes. Instinctively I gave her a big hug, not wanting to let go. As soon as I let go she looked deep into my eyes looking terrified and said, “You shouldn’t be here.” “Why what do you mean?” “Where’s everyone else?” I cried. “Gone” “All you have is Hazel to guide you out of here.” She said. “Just me?” “What about you?” I said sounding worried. “I got infected, which means I’m dead.” “That’s why I’m here, and why you need to leave.” “You haven’t gotten infected.” “There’s still hope for you.” She said quietly.
She’s right, I haven’t gotten infected. Which means I can leave. But that also means leaving her. I didn’t want to leave her but she wouldn’t let me stay. She told me to follow Hazel. She knows the way back. I did as I was told, even though it was the most painful feeling i’ve ever felt. I watched her disappear as I walked farther and farther away. In that moment, all I felt was rage. The Shadow is the reason my family is dead. Now, I’m going to kill it.
There’s a reason I haven’t gotten infected. The shadow had multiple opportunities to but never did. Which means maybe I’m immune. Hazel knew what I wanted to do and she knew exactly how to get there. We walked for hours to the point where my legs felt like noodles and my mouth was as dry as a desert. But then, I saw exactly what I was looking for. There was a Black dome.That’s where the Shadow was. I knew it. I could feel it in my bones. I could feel the shiver up my spine. I was ready.
I walked into the black dome to find thousands of statues of people. People that I knew. People that I cared about. I turned my head to see my whole family, turned to stone. As if they never existed. I could feel that rage build up and keep growing. The shadow deserved to die. I kept walking past the statues until I saw a red light. Then I saw it, sitting on it’s throne like a king. In that moment I wasn’t afraid. That’s what it craved, fear. I stood my ground. Made the Shadow realize If I’m not afraid, than i’m much stronger. The Shadow tried to fight back but it kept getting smaller and smaller until it had no more fear left to feed on. Then it turned to dust. Before I could feel proud I heard voices, so turned around to see that everyone was alive. Once the Shadow was gone, everyone was saved. I looked at Hazel with a big smile, “We did it!”
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