Vanished

• Peter Petros, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2007

VANISHED


“That was fantastic!” I exclaimed. “How do they get that high and manage to land?”
“Skill, I suppose,” Matt explained.
“He’s going for another jump,” I shouted.
The bikey revved the engine. He was getting pumped.
“Vroom!” The bike speeds up, hitting 80kms in three seconds.
It hits the ramp. I’m standing, gritting my teeth…and then…
A RAW sounds in the stadium. The bikey-Mick Magic- just completed the hardest trick ever. The 360 spin, where the bikey has to turn his bike 360 degrees before he hits the ground. It’s pretty hard when the bike weighs half a tonne, but Matt says he’s done it heaps of times before.

“That was great!” I said.
“Yeah, but the stunts,” Matt said. “They at least could have tried more challenging ones. I mean, the 360 spin, anyone could do it! Well I know I can.”
Matt always says that.
We headed home. Matt is sleeping at my place tonight.

It was dark, around 11:00pm and we still had a 30-minute walk home. When we got to Albert Street, I saw a black figure in the dark, gloomy distance. I asked Matt if he’d seen it, but he hadn’t.
“Well, it’s gone now,” I said. ‘But it was right there?” pointing at the corner street.
“If I didn’t see a black, gloomy figure at pitch, black night, then you’re seeing things,” Matt explained.
I’d decided that I was seeing things and kept walking.
“We nearly there?” Matt asked.
“Yeah,” I answered. “About a five minute walk from here.”
“Race ya?” Matt asked in excitement.
“No! It’s pitch black and scary. I might run into something or someone!”
But by the time I had looked, Matt was gone. One minute later as I walked up to my house. A big-
“AAAAAHHHHHH!”
It was Matt. Something happened to him.
I ran as fast as I could. Not looking where I was going, just heading towards where I heard Matt into the darkness of night. The next second…
“DONK!”
I’d been knocked out cold.


To be continued…
By Peter Petros