Heaven

• Susannah Mclucas, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2010

I was running, they were catching up. I looked back at them, they were wearing black singlets, they all had exactly the same tattoos on their left, muscular shoulders, they all wore red bandanna, with small symbols, I'm guessing meant 'must kill', on their sweaty foreheads, they were so much taller, I was scared, I knew it would end here, today, but I wanted to live for a little bit longer than if I let them take me. I turned my head and focused on where I was going, towards my least favourite place of the neighbourhood, the dirty, slimy, smelly, small lane, with a dead-end. I could hear the rats across the ground. I stood at the end of the lane and waited with my eyes shut tightly. Then it happened, a horrifying pain in my right side. I could feel my blood trickling across my waist, I fell to the ground, I tried to keep my eyes open as long as I could, but all I could see was black, with different coloured patterns. I could hear the sound of the men laughing and walking away, but it was fading. This was the end of my road, I wondered how it would be when I awoke.

It was surprisingly sunny, the pain had disappeared, I was lying in the middle of a lane, the walls brightly graffitied, clean, shiny, beautiful-scented, never-ending. It was the lane that I finished in. I walked out of the lane, the bright sun in my eyes. I looked down at myself, I was wearing a long, white cloak. I looked up and down the street. There weren't as many houses, only the houses that have had people that used to live in them, who are now back to their healthy original selves, living in their bright, shiny, crack-less houses. I stared ahead of me, it was Gran's house. Gran died almost eight years ago, and her house was knocked down, since it was rat-invested and disgusting, and there it was, beautiful, shiny, bright and as good as new. I ran across the road, not bothering to look left and right, you can't die in heaven, right? I reached the front yard. It had a beautiful white, steel gate in front of the green grass with flowers and brick mailbox. I opened the gate and ran up to the door. I ran the doorbell. “Hello?” Said a young, thirty-year-old looking woman, in a sweet voice. “Gran?” I asked as I stared at the resemblance of Gran. “Sammy! Darling! I'm so sorry, please, do come in.” she said as she welcomed me in. I walked inside Gran's house, it was exactly how it was when I was three, before she died. The walls were a cream-green colour, the floor was shiny and wooden, each room had a small table with a different treasure on them. I walked down the hall, looking into each room, I was home, here I will stay, forever.