Nightmares

• Georgia Christie, Grade 6, Lindfield East Public School
• Short Story
• 2010

Finalist in the 'Something With Bite 2010' competition

A candle flickered feebly in the silence and darkness of the night.

Rain pattered softly in the air, a myriad of glistening drops. The glittering grass was dappled slightly in the silvery-grey light.

The dimly lit sky sparkled and danced, reflecting itself onto a lonely world. The illusion held my captured gaze, my imagination soaring like a soft melody on the breeze. Mesmerising, the night was ablaze with emotion, a shocking moment of darkness.

Opening my mind, I drew the curtains wide and a slight breeze blew through.
Dust particles collected and swirled, glimpses of stolen light.

I shrank back into the shadows, my thoughts a twirling pattern that weaved and stitched life back into place.

A child’s cry broke out into the suddenly still air, the sob echoing across that twisted world of pain.
Silhouetted against the shadows, a monster emerged, neither real nor make believe. Fear; driven by the power of the mind, a segment of all children’s nightmares.

A whisper in the wind bore the silence away, revealing only an inkling of knowledge of the moonlight’s darkest secrets.

Flames erupted in the sky, the fire burning deep into the reckless night. Figures gambolled across the flares; foes of fire, and friends of light.

The world blew, wafting through the blare. Wisps whirled, curling and tangling, shaking the earth to a pile of rubble. Fiery fingers grasped the stars, spiraling towards the fire’s peak.

Dense torrents hurled, the world was a painted picture of light.

Suddenly, the lights that I held in my arms blinked out. The torches and candle thudded to the floor. The night was itself again, shafts of light falling beneath the edge of the world.

One pair of glazed eyes followed a path to the horizon, where the essence and heart of the danger held true.

I slid beneath the windowsill.

As darkness fell there was no one in sight for miles. The last, lonely rays of sunlight stretched out over the abandoned fields, empty courtyards and deserted homes.

Then the golden rays shone no more, like a candle that went out.