Behind The Door

• Lily Tha, Grade 6, Wilkins Public School
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

The moon illuminated the midnight sky like the only beacon of hope left in the world. Eerie cries of anguish suddenly rose from deep with the city, accompanying the howling of the wind. Not a single soul wondered the streets so nobody saw the small, timid shadow leap over the pipes entwined above the city. Nobody saw it climb higher and higher into the depths of pipes until it merged into the shadows.
The boy continued to leap across the dilapidated pipes, tracking the mysterious red object wondering almost aimlessly through the streets below. Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks. He crouched down and watched in awe as the red thing stopped in front of a dilapidated old building. A huge metal door bared the red things way. It was the tallest building in the city, and by far the spookiest. The metal door seemed to grin at passer bys, daring them to come in, and its concrete walls seemed the strongest of all, yet it almost seemed to crumble where it stood. The red thing stood bewildered in front of the door, its many drawers and bolts gleaming in the light of the moon. Its metallic features gave it a spooky, eerie impression. The red thing had a pair of large, camouflage green pincers protruding out a couple of the holes in it, along with other green bits and pieces sticking out. The bell dangling at the end of its grotesque pincers jingled in the midnight breeze, sending a chill down the boy’s back. He watched in amazement, his tousled black hair ruffled in the breeze, as the huge, metallic, rectangular doors below him creaked ominously open, revealing only darkness within the building.
One of the red things many drawers slowly slid open, and it carefully pulled something out with one of its pincers. It was nothing like the boy had ever seen before. Its long, transparent cylinder shape gleamed in the moonlight. It was filled with what looked like water and sparkling fragments, multicoloured and glittering luminously in the night. Its pink, plastic ends made it look like nothing of this world. It gleamed invitingly, almost daring the boy to take it. He stared in awe at the object, his feet nearly slipping from the pipe he was precariously perched on. His torn and tattered clothing rustled in the wind, but the boy hardly noticed it as he stared into the darkness inside the huge, grey building. Two yellow, reptilian eyes suddenly appeared, ones that had no feeling in them and were as cold as ice. They seemed to bore into the boy and chill him to the bone. A raspy voice filled the otherwise silent night. No birds sang, no crickets chirped, nothing moved as everything listened, horrified at what the thing had to say, “So... you have it then?” it asked the red thing in front of it. The bells the end of the red things pincers tinkled, as it handed the glittering transparent cylinder into the darkness. Suddenly, the cold, heartless eyes glanced like lightening up at where the boy was perched, “I know your there Micah, why don’t you come out of there?” Startled that the menacing thing inside knew his name, the boy stepped back, slipping on soggy moss growing on the pipes, hurtling down to the streets below.