Oblivion

• Josie Walker, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2012

My tattoo ached. That is not a good sign usually; it means someone is hunting me. They are skilled; they got pretty close before setting off my senses. I needed to leave, depart my body; the ritual had to happen tonight. I raced out of geography with a mumbled excuse about feeling nauseous. I snuck through the gap in the fence by the parking lot and slid soundlessly into my car before speeding home. I had stayed in the same body for sixth months and I liked this girl I had become, she was carefree, popular and had a great family. I would regret leaving this one; I got very lucky with this human. I was happy. I jerked back to reality before I started sobbing, my kind don’t fall in love, yet here I was on the verge of tears because of a human couples fondness for the person who’s body I had invaded had stirred something buried deep within my soul. I shook my head angrily as I pulled into the driveway of our farmhouse and hurried inside. I ran upstairs to find my emergency back pack, it had everything I needed so I hurried out to the backyard and dumped the contents on the ground. I dug a small hole by the foot of the giant oak and placed a small bracelet into it, muttering a few words in Latin, before covering the small piece of jewellery and closing my eyes with my hands pressed firmly over the small dirt mound. Darkness swept around me, and, like a black fog, it crept it’s dark fingers to the furthest corners of the yard and curled, never stilling as it engulfed the garden beds and the small pond I remember sitting by when reading on the crisps autumn afternoons. I stood and let a tiny tear slide down my cheek before shutting out the memories, memories that shouldn’t be mine. Wind chimes from Mrs Wilburn’s windows next door sounded their sweet alarms of the small storm brewing around me, and I stopped to reminisce on the days the wind had teased that angelic sound into the air. I could almost feel myself detaching from this body that was not mine, being sucked up into the Other, to find another body capable of holding my spirit. Suddenly a hand comes over my mouth and words are whispered in my ears that seem to twine me into this body, connecting my mind with the girl’s mind that had inhabited this body before me. I screamed in pain as a seventeen years of memory flooded my mind in a flood of emotions, engulfing me until my legs could no longer hold me and I fell not only to the ground but also into the blackness of sleep as the air around me settled and I gazed up into the most beautiful face I had ever seen before I was sucked into oblivion.