Left To Die

• Alex Marsden, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2011

During one dark and stormy night, I was cooking myself a scrumptious dinner when I heard a loud tap on the door. I ignore it, thinking it’s my jet black cat, Marlow, he was always getting into things. I heard the loud tap again. Naturally I go to answer it. I open my large oak door and there is a man in a dark suit. He has long, messy, coal coloured hair and smells of tobacco and stale alcohol. He makes a sudden movement and manages to get a firm grip on my arm.
Next thing I knew everything went black. I could hardly breathe; my eyeballs were being forced back into my head. My eardrums felt as if they were about to burst! Then I could breathe again. I realised I had just teleported.
It was a few seconds before I realised that the familiar surroundings of my house had vanished and that I was standing in a mountainous cavern. I could see there were a few faded names scratched in the cave wall and an archway filled with golden light. I stumble aimlessly towards the light. I trip over a sharp moss covered rock and scrape my knees on the way down. My sweaty palms land hard on the wet sand. A deafening crack echoes through the cave as my wrist violently snaps. I ignore the agonising pain in my wrist as I limp towards the mouth of the cave.
I was almost there. The adrenalin rushed through me as I ran towards the light. Something slimy broke through the sand and swiped at my ankles. I managed to leap over the sticky green tentacle, but when I thought I was in the clear, several more shot out of the sand and made wild attempts to grab my legs. I dive onto a rock hoping that the squid-like limbs could not reach me. Although I get a few minutes rest, the tentacles start to crawl up the rock leaving green ooze and a rotten fish smell everywhere they went. I was too scared even too move.
I had lost all hope until the man in the dark suit had appeared out of nowhere. The mysterious man claps a familiar tune and the slimy tentacles disappear into the sand. I was relived but scared, not because the man in the suit could control those awful creatures, but because I didn’t know what was going to happen next.
The man gestures me to follow him. He steps out of the cave and throws me to the ground and breaks my legs and arms. I let out a high pitched scream which nearly bursts my own eardrums. He is scrambling around on the ground wailing in agony. I make a desperate attempt to escape but I’m in too much pain. The tiny grains feel like sharp knives stabbing every bit of my exposed flesh. The mysterious man disappears and I’m left alone. That’s when I realise I’ve been left to die.