Facing Fears

• Henry Vu, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2013

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,“ whispered Blink, gazing fearfully up at the foreboding building standing across the street.
“Of course this is a good idea, it’s a great idea if I do say so myself,” said Alicia pushing him closer to the house.
“Once you do this, you’ll never be scared of anything ever again,” smiled Wood.

Blink was the new kid at Vennaville. His family was always moving around, and he never had the chance to stay in one place long enough to make friends. It didn't help that he was petrified of everything, jumping at his own shadow and fainting at the merest sight of blood. No one wanted to be friends with a coward.
It was no different this time. Again, not only did he have no friends, but was again viciously bullied in school by the other children for being so faint-hearted.
Every lunchtime, a big circle of schoolchildren would gather around Blink to make fun of him. They called him names, shoved him around and mocked his stutter.
One day, the bullying caught the eye of two senior students: Alicia and Wood. They looked at each other. Alicia remembered her first day at Vennaville Primary, and how the other kids would make fun of her freckles and exclude her from their games. Like Blink, she didn't have any friends either, until Wood came in the second grade. Wood didn't care what people looked like, or how they talked, as long as they had a good heart. Alicia and Wood became the best of friends.
“Wood, I think we need to help this new kid,” Alicia stated.
“I was about to say the same thing Alicia,” grinned Wood.
*
That’s how Alicia, Wood and Blink came to be standing outside the Vennaville’s famed haunted house on that particular sunny Friday afternoon.
No one knows for sure whether or not the building was actually haunted. But there were rumours.
Some said that once you step foot inside, you can never come out. Others vehemently swear they have seen ghostly figures moving behind dusty windowpanes, or have heard unearthly moans coming from the house during the night-time. Even in the short months Blink had been in Vennaville, he was already familiar with many of these stories.
“Maybe we could do this another time?” Blink started to back away.
“You know that old saying Blink,” coaxed Alicia. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!”
Blink wasn’t convinced. And he didn’t like his chances of survival. But then he thought of what was waiting for him back at school on Monday. And the next day. And probably for every day after for the rest of his life. It was time to make a change.
“Wait until the kids back at school hear what you’ve done. Wait until they hear you’ve survived the Vennaville haunted house! They’re never going to pick on you again,” Wood urged.
Blink nodded, and with his heart beating rapidly, started towards the open gate.