The New Girl

• Jessica Lim, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2016

It was a cold, wintry night as the girl I had been following for a whole week turned into the same isolated alley she had been going to for the whole week. I think about where she might lead me this time, as she had done every day I had followed her after school, curious about her. All the other kids at school were bleak and boring. But she was different. Something about her was mysterious and that was what interested me.
She walks up to a red door and then knocks on it. It swings open and I glimpse the familiar sight of a welcoming home and I realise in shock, it is my house! But how could this be? Then I am jolted back to the world again and she walks in and slams the door shut, leaving me in the numbing cold. A strong gust of wind picks up and I think, I am going to freeze soon if I don’t go back but my curiosity is too strong. I have to see what was really behind that red door.
I silently open the door and slip through it expecting to see my room but what I see shocked me. Instead of what I had expected, I was in a room that seemed inviting and cosy. It had a couch in front of a blazing fireplace and on it sat the girl. She smiled at me and straight away I was instantly captivated.
“Care to join me?” she asked me.
I sat down next to her and for a few moments we were silent. Then she looked at me. It sent shivers down my spine when she looked at me like that so I broke her gaze and started talking.
“Did you know I was following you?” I asked her tentatively.
“Yes, I did know you were following me. That's why I lead you here today,” she said with a hint of humour in her voice.
“But why?” I inquired.
My curiosity was starting to come back. The girl didn’t answer my question though. She just stood up and walked to the door I had slipped through just before. She beckoned to me so I followed her.
This time we were in a study.
“Every time you go through the door, the place is different! Why is that?” I asked her.
The girl again did not answer but gave me a photo album saying it would answer all my questions. Then she just disappeared, leaving me all alone there once again. I flipped through the pages of the photo album reading captions. One of the captions said: Violet and the Red Door. The picture showed the girl standing next to the door. When I finished reading through it, I had even more questions than before!
I walked in a daze to the door and back into the alley feeling confused and went home. This girl would always be a mystery to the world.