The Invader

• Kimberley Meyers, Grade 9, St Monica's College
• Short Story
• 2009

Finalist in the 'Xtreme Read 2009' competition

The merciless August rain pounded angrily against the window. Violet room was somewhat dormant, like a deep sea cave harbouring the dead souls of sailors past.
She stared intensely at her trembling hands, her vision obscured by frightened tears. Her upturned palms seemed harmless enough but the power behind them was immense. The hands no longer belonged to her, now the apparratus of a greater, inhuman being.
She attempted to regain control, breathing deeply. In return came the furious pounding of her heart begging not to be left alone with the invader.
A terrified sob escaped her throat, echoing through the room. There was no escape.
No one knew what was happening to her, what she was now capable of and what Violet knew scared her to the point ofparalysis. It was pure evil-and it had invaded her body.
It gleamed through the dark soil, beckoning to be held. Violet eagerly surrendered. The cool silver of the necklace sent a chilling sensation up her arm and through her body. The necklace was a silver chain amid a black stone like a deep sea abyss, its depth impossibly endless.
Violet placed the chain around her neck. The icy stone touched her skin and like a wave her senses intensified tenfold and she was consumed by an inhumane bloodlust. As quickly as it had come, the wave subsided again. Her mind was frozen from confusion, stunned by the invader but eventually recovered. Thinking better of it, she dismissed the phenomenon all together. How could she have known how things would end?
Violet noticed the changes soon after. Dark thoughts filled her head, thoughts she wished would come true with all her being— thoughts of death and murder. She knew nothing but hatred. She had been consumed by a monstrous being, bent on reaping misery but Violet always managed to suppress the bloodlust.
Eventually the invader won.
She had been arguing with her mother, when the bloodlust hit; like a meteorite exploding into a planet and shattering the remains across the cosmos.
Violet fought desperately to take back control. She clasped her hands to her head; trying to dull the urge, her nails digging into her flesh and drawing blood. But it was too late. She lunged at her mother, screaming. One voice was the invader’s, celebrating victory the other her own, mourning her abysmal failure. It was over quickly. She remembered nothing but screaming. Fists onto flesh and blood, so much blood. She hadn’t the strength to go back there; to her mother’s accusing eyes.
Sitting in her room, everything seemed darker; the world had become a terrible place. Violet’s heart froze as she came to a paralysing conclusion. It had to end.
She struggled to hold the knife in her trembling hands, fear numbing her body. The invader shrieked in frustration at what Violet planned to do. She made herself a promise. The only other blood she would ever shed would be her own. She would win the war.