Can't Get Out

• James Saidey, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2014

“Good night,” whispered mum as she turned out the light,
“Goodnight,” I answered.
I couldn’t get to sleep at first, I kept tossing and turning, I did however, eventually. I dreamt that I was in is really strange place. There weren’t many people there, no more than twenty. The sky was dark, a blank canvas highlighting a full moon. The mountains formed a backdrop into the surreal picture. I saw houses in the distance. I tried running towards them but there was some kind of invisible barrier stopping me, I couldn’t get past it. A tall, skinny man behind me shrieked at me that we were stuck, it was impossible to get out.
All of a sudden I woke up. I looked around and thought I was still dreaming, the place I was looked exactly like the one in my dream. Even the people where the same!
I tried to get out again but it was no use, then I tried scratching at it and what looked like wallpaper tore off. So that’s why I couldn’t get out, I thought to myself. Behind the wallpaper there was a concrete wall. I asked the same dark-eyed man how he ended up here and he told me that he just fell asleep and woke up here.
“So that means that we both teleported?” I asked “but isn’t that impossible?”
“That’s what they all say,” he replied. I tried to go to sleep thinking that I would wake up at home, my sanctuary and that’s exactly what happened.
I told mum and dad the story but they never believed me, they told me I was still dreaming, maybe I was.
I’ve tried to go back there, just to see if the people were still there, but as hard as I try; I can’t go back. I still wonder to this day if I was dreaming and I’ve always been sure that I wasn’t, but as I told you; maybe I was.