Fable

• Declan Kennedy, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2010

“I hate you and I never want to see you again!” Those were the last words that my sister ever spoke to my face before she slammed the door and ran into the forest surrounding our home.
She was still outside that door the next day, and the day after that.
Mum didn’t panic because she just assumed that my sister had gone to dads, but after ringing him and finding out that she wasn’t, she began crying and rang the police. I was actually surprised at how long they took to arrive, we had to wait about ten minutes, and the police station is only just down the road.

When they got here, they asked Mum to sit down and tell them what had happened, where she was last seen, and all the ‘official’ police questions that they ask on TV. Poor Mum couldn’t answer any of the questions; she was just crying her eyes out. The police eventually gave up with Mum, and just went with a simple answer.
“Well Ma’am, we’re sorry about your loss, we’ll do what we can to try and find her.
But I knew that they wouldn’t. They would just bother about other things and hope that some hiker would accidently find her, either dead or alive.
I wouldn’t let that happen. I COULDN’T let that happen. After the police left I ran up to my room and packed my bag with a flashlight, a bottle of water, some insect repellent and some sandwiches. Then I told Mum that I was going to my best friend Jacob’s house. She told me to “Grab a beanie darling” and kissed me.

The wind was cold outside, and I was soon shivering, but I kept on walking through the thorny bushes and shrubs that made up the first ‘layer’ of the forest. It started raining and night fell and at some point I think it snowed, because soon I was coated in a thin layer of snow. Just then the heaviest hail I had ever seen started pounding down and I had to run for cover. I could see a hollow tree just big enough for me to fit into. I was about 3 metres away when I was hit with the most incredible force and I fell into the snow at my feet.

When I woke up it was still dark but the hail had stopped. I stood up slowly and looked around my bag was lying on the ground. Just as I was putting it on my back, I noticed something. There was blood on the snow. Footprints. I followed them down to a thick bush. There was an indentation on one side. I went over to it and suddenly I felt sick. I screamed. My sister’s body, hard and stiff, was lying in the bush, her mouthed pouted in a scream, and several stab wounds in her chest. And next to her, beautiful as it was terrifying, was a unicorn.