Face Your Fears

• Mia Urquhart, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

One night a ragged, 6 year old girl called Den was told to go outside and fetch a bucket of water to drink. She didn’t want to because she was scared of the dark but she knew, if she didn’t, she would be locked in the basement. Den went outside so she wasn’t punished.
When Den was walking to the well, she saw two red eyes in the forest watching her. Den quickly fetched the water and ran to the house.
She didn’t realise that she was being followed. She tripped over a log and dropped the bucket of water. She got back up and ran. Den got back in the house and told her cruel foster parents what had happened outside.
They didn’t believe what happened, so they threw her in the basement. It was pitch black. Den was terrified. She tried to find a way out. She screamed and screamed for help. She decided to give up screaming or she would be in there even longer. She thought the wall was thin, so ran to break the wall, but instead she knocked herself out.
After an hour, she woke up with a fright seeing the two red eyes she had seen earlier.
She screamed for help, but no-one came. Den stared at the eyes for hours, not saying a word, but then the eyes came closer. She tried to move away from it, but she was in a corner. The eyes moved right in front of her face and stared.
Den realised that the eyes were not just eyes it was a beast, a friendly one. She made a decision and asked the beast what its name was and it said its name was Steve. She also asked him if he could help her get outside of the basement. He agreed to help.
Steve broke out with Den and ran into the forest.
Den left a note in the basement that said, ‘Sorry, but I’m never going to be your slave ever again!’
When her foul foster parents arrived in the basement to get her out, they found a giant hole in the wall and found the note. One of the foster parents started to cry and yell out that they had to find her or buy a new slave. The other parent yelled out that he will find her if that’s the last thing he’d do then stomped his foot into the beasts dropping. It splatted up at him which made him drop the basement key in the droppings. Steve and Den heard the parents roar. So they ran faster.