Undiscovered

• Anneke Corry, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2018

The old timber floorboards creaked, the grey painted walls were cracked and peeling, and cobwebs hung along the ceiling like endless decorations. The house was eerily quiet. Tattered curtains waited miserably by the dusty windows while the heavy, oak door groaned with every gentle breath of wind. Rats scuttled quickly along the corridors and their feet pattered on the floorboards like drops of rain on a rooftop. But nobody else stirred.

Sad memories of loss resonated inside the thin walls of the house that had stood empty for so long. The soft wind whispered - a pointless attempt to compensate for the absence of human disturbance. Through the dark musty corridors rooms stood lonely, waiting. The unmade bed of the master bedroom still had the faintest scent of pinecones, a distant memory of the former residents who so often roamed the halls. Pieces of shattered glass from bathroom mirrors lay strewn across the cold, marble floor; miniscule segments all separated like a metaphor for the Darwin family.

An upturned wooden chair in one room, and a smashed shelf in another hinted of constant violence and disorder. A brown, wooden wardrobe stood half-opened; ironed jackets hung neatly inside, but the absence of one particular jacket spoke clearly of a last-minute getaway.

Down a long, unlit hallway, a dark, empty room waited patiently. A broken light hung in the centre of the small, room and in one corner there was a large desk with a black, leather chair. Attached to the light was a thick piece of rope; a heavy box sat on the floor. On the other end of the rope was a noose and, in that noose, hung a pale limp body with long brown hair and closed, sunken eyes…

On the wooden porch at the front of the house, green leafy branches and dark shadows from the daunting forest was all the eye could see. Tall, never-ending trees reached for the black, midnight sky as dark-grey storm clouds loomed nearer. Bats soared gracefully, and large-eyed owls watched patiently. All was calm; it was the calm before the storm.