DEATH

• Jessica Dousling, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2013

The rain gushed down as if someone was tipping a watering can upside down onto earth. The water droplets splattered all down my face. I run as the great growl screams through the forest. Then...Silence. Just when I think it is over I feel a throbbing pain in the back of my neck. Something is on me I think to myself. Without hesitation thinking I rip the prickly but furry thing off my neck. Oh no. It’s a deeply coloured spider covered in ferns. I know what it is... a Red Back. I attempt to throw it towards a bush but it clings onto my palm and sinks its teeth into my hand. I howl in pain. The spider must have been traumatised by the sound and flung its self back into the deep forest. The venom oozes through my veins. Forgetting about the pain in my hand I clutch my neck and dash through the nightmare of a forest. The trees aren’t helping. I have no idea where my campsite is. I then hear a noise, a growl... The venom kicks in and my vision goes hazy with a double of everything. Suddenly I sense eyes staring down into my very soul. My body feels weak. I fall to the ground...twitching. The damp, sticky is cooling my body. Finally I find the radiant gleaming eyes. Which of the double is real? It growls a demon growl and runs at me. ‘NOOOOOOOOO...’
I wake up sweating so bad there is a mark of where my head was. Just a dream I think to myself. Wait. My neck is in throbbing pain. I dash over to my mirror. Oh no, A bite mark. A RED BACK!!! I fall to the ground...Twitching.