Falling

• Alex Grimmett, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2014

Lucy’s life flashed before her eyes. She remembered, playing with her only friend, Roo Lorfred. Lucy remembered wandering into the forest and finding him sitting on the old, mossy tree stump that they imagined being a tall cliff towering over the kingdom.

He wasn’t normal, Lucy could tell. His eyes were as dark as the shadows in an abandoned alleyway. Lucy thought Roo was possessed. She tried to talk to him, but Roo became furious and mumbled something about the creatures of darkness not liking her actions. At this, the thin, pale girl sprinted away from the forest, not turning back, not saying goodbye. Lucy vowed never to return to the forest.

Lucy remembered, 10 years later, when she broke her vow and went back to her childhood playground. Her emerald green eyes took in her surroundings. Curiosity taking advantage of her, she decided to look behind a tall bush where she believed the old tree stump had stood. To her surprise, the stump had been replaced by an abnormally large, dark, carved, wooden door.

She walked through the doorway, expecting to see the wild, green trees of the forest. Instead, she saw a room with sparkling waterfalls for walls. Inside this room was a man, and a strange, orange lizard with wings. There was a black, leather chair with long black poles attached to it and a helmet with an old jam jar on top of it, which contained gold, fiery sparkles.

The man jumped up and strapped Lucy in the chair. He strode towards a control panel. The poles started spinning, forming a red screen around the chair.

The man shouted, “Sorry, I didn’t explain! The unicorns can’t wait any longer. I’m Freddy and this is my dragon. We built this machine to discover your fire power capacity. If you found the door, you have potential, but we need to make sure you have enough power to save Unicorn Clouds from Lord Orfeo.”

Rather confused, Lucy decided to go along with it. Being very intelligent, she had already unscrambled the letters of Lord Orfeo’s name; it was Roo Lorfred.

Suddenly, her hair turned into flowing lava, yet she was not burnt. Her hands were holding vicious balls of fire. Freddy turned the machine off.

“We’re going to teleport you to the unicorns now. Have fun!”

Lucy remembered meeting the beautiful, shining unicorns and the battle they fought against Lord Orfeo. She remembered the shadows coming from Roo’s hands meeting the gold, fiery sparkles coming from the unicorns’ horns. There was anger in Lord Orfeo’s face; the sparkles were slowly destroying his shadows. He changed the direction of the shadows and aimed them at the ground. Lucy’s eyes met Lord Orfeo’s dark eyes. He remembered, but it was too late. The once pure clouds plummeted, along with Lucy.

Now, she fell into the dreary abyss, tears welling up in her eyes, and her long, red hair flailing at her pristine face, wishing, dreaming. Was this the end?