The Entry

• Charissa Yeo, Grade 8, Methodist Ladies College
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

Jackie
“I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!’ I exclaimed at the top of my lungs. ‘Gosh, we should just have stayed out of this thing altogether! Now we’re lost!’
'Shush Jackie! I know where I’m going! We’re not lost!” Sam said as he confidently turned at another fork path.
Sam ignored the look I was giving him and started off down another endless wall of prickly green thorns with fragments of dead and wilted flowers protruding out. I started following him but, arms akimbo, abruptly called out ‘HOW do you know where we’re going anyway? You could be leading us around and around this stupid thing for all I know!
“I just do. Trust me.”
I stamped my foot in frustration at Sam’s annoying smugness and glanced around me, absorbing the scents and the sight of the deep blue sky- it would be night soon. Then what? We’d be forced to stop, who in the right state of mind would go fumbling around this giant maze in the hour of darkness? The sun beat down on us, beads of sweat trickling down our necks as we, well, I, continued to stagger through the labyrinth. Sam didn’t even trip once, or tire out; in fact, he seemed to amazingly get even more energetic as we continued through the labyrinth.
Sam
I hesitated when I heard the faint rustling yet again. There was something that I couldn’t quite place. Why was it that what my father had warned hadn’t come true yet? I glanced back at Jackie, who was glaring at the branch she tripped over for about the twentieth time now. Something was definitely wrong.
Jackie
I was in no way prepared for what happened next.
The giant Beast swooped down from the sky, its talons barely missing the top of Sam’s head. I screamed. It screeched and dived at us again, claws stretched out, as if ready to pick us up like rag dolls.
‘RUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNN!’ Sam shouted frantically as both of us tore down the never ending labyrinth.
“Sam, Sam” I panted, “I can’t, I can’t, not any further.” I sank to the ground. Why wasn’t he even breaking out in a sweat?
‘I think we lost… ‘Sam uttered, helping me up, as the Beast slammed down onto the ground in front of us.
It had eyes that burned two bullet holes through my body, its ten feet long body filled with muscles of steel like that of a prized bull. Its ugly goat-like horns stuck out of its head, only unlike goat horns, these horns were as sharp as razors, looking as if they could cut through pure metal without any effort.
My heart jumped to my throat.
‘Don’t. Move. A. Muscle,’ Sam hissed. The giant Beast leered at us, his slimy tongue snaking in and out, licking its splashed-white glistening fangs. The Beast crouched down on its two front legs, locked in attacking position.
I couldn’t help it, it wasn’t my fault. I screamed.