Hatred Encounters

• Tahnee Thatcher, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

Winter... the worst month of them all. I’m outside and what has been sunshine and the warm rays on my back, is now just plain cold, dull winter. Tiny snowflakes drop onto my nose and melt away instantly, the ground is colder than the air, and all I really want to do is to go to sleep…but I can’t. And for the whole 16 years of my life I have never been able to sleep on the first night of winter. I stare into the fire as it is the only thing that’s keeping me warm, but the cold sends shivers down my spine as I start to stare into the darkness of the forest that I’m in, wondering if anything is out there. At first I see a big, black figure in the distance and I try to tell myself that it’s just my imagination playing up on me. The black figure came closer and I pinch myself hoping that it was just my imagination. It did not stop, nor turn around; I closed my eyes as tight as I could, hoping it would disappear. A few minutes later I felt a sharp dig into my back, I knew that it was a knife and that I had fell to my death, it was the end of my life, I was set free, but what I would never understand is why; why would anyone do this to someone who hasn’t ever done anything to them?