Afraid

• Emily Fairhall, Grade 12, Clontarf Beach State High School
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

How long had it been? He’d been asleep for...longer than he could remember. All of a sudden, he felt a rush of adrenaline. Finally, after all that time of inactivity, he could stretch and roar. Everywhere, he could see people running in fear.
What were they running from? He couldn’t understand. He felt helpless and afraid. What if they were running from him? What had he done to deserve all this fear and hostility? Nothing he could remember. He could never understand why people looked at him in such...such terror.
Some were grabbing children and just ran in every direction except toward him. No one would dare come any closer to him. He sank a little in sadness, watching as men and women piled into cars and drove away as fast as those wheels could take them. Some were even so desperate that they jumped on the moving vehicles.
He hiccupped, unable to stop the bad feeling from coming up his throat. He wanted to hold it back, but he didn’t know how. He watched in sombre silence as creatures of all sizes and shapes ran from him.
He couldn’t move, feeling something clawing at his throat, trying to get out. He quickly lost his happiness at his sudden ability to stretch: he desperately wanted to go back to sleep, rather than endure this; anything was better than this.
He’d watched his brothers die this way, and he didn’t want to end up like them. Now, his family was nothing more than the symbolic rocks in the cemetery. He didn’t want to die; he just wanted to sleep.
He tried to curb back the tirade tearing at his throat, but to no avail. He couldn’t stop it; he couldn’t even delay the inevitable. He knew it would happen, but he didn’t want to think of the end. He preferred to think of his remaining time.
Something finally burst out of his mouth, rushing high into the sky before gleefully returning to the earth to chase the people that couldn’t get away fast enough.
They screamed in horror as it overcame them. Some that were safely away screamed for their loved ones. He watched in horror as he realised his final moments were upon him. He settled into them, filled with depression and misery, but a solemn happiness that he might see his family again.
At last, the century-old volcano had erupted for the last time.