Key To The End

• Tylah Phillips, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2014

There was only ever one key created to open up the gates. The gates to the outside world that was a mystery to all. It was wanted by many, but few knew the whereabouts. No one knows why it’s kept hidden. Or what is beyond the locks gates.
Though there is one person in each and every generation that has to know. One human being that has to guard the gates from the outside world that no one knows about. The keeper. The previous keeper had fallen terribly ill not but a few days ago. There had been whispers spreading through the town of this. Everyone knew that a new keeper had to have been chosen. The old keeper had two children, a fifteen-year-old son and, though few new of this, a daughter thirteen years of age. They all expected that the next keeper would have to be his son. Almost every generation, the keeper had been male.
But, the old man surprised the whole town. They hadn’t realised the young girl with the fiery hair and lavender eyes, the near exact replica of her mother, except her eyes, with the golden key hung loosely from the chain around her neck.
Many would have thought the old man had gone mad, had they known the truth. Though, the retired keeper may have just ended their world.
The young girl had a gift that none have heard. Powers like those a witch would possess. So she set off knowing her task before being given. She snuck through the locked gate as silent as the night and the forest she knew was there.
While on her trek through the woods, she met a strange old woman. A witch. They both knew they were like each other and they both had the same desires, dreams and hopes. And, without a single word being exchanged, they set off again.
They headed in the direction of the flowing water and, following the river they found, ended up at the cliff of a waterfall. Both witches flew down and, as quickly as possible, passed through the water into the cave hidden behind it.
With fangs and wing, snot and spit, a swish and a sprinkle and a little magic, they had created the most brilliant monster ever thought of. So, off they set again. Back towards the gate.
With the key trusted to the youngest of the two, they passed through the passage way. They didn’t plan for things to go wrong though. They were arrogant and so sure of themselves, they didn’t think of what could go wrong.
They should have had a back-up plan, an escape route. But they didn’t.
So, when things went wrong, they had nothing to do.
They had released the beast onto the town and is smashed and destroyed everything, and everyone.
But the beast had been so filled with rage. It turned on them and before they could blink, they ended squashed on the wall next to the gate. Never to breathe again.