Samuel Fights His Fears

• Jack Canvin, Grade 3, Mountain Creek State School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

When Samuel was coming home from school he unpacked his school bag and went to have a hug from his dog. When Samuel asked, "Can I go to my friend's house?" his mum said, "You still need to fill up the drink bottles." Once Samuel filled the drink bottles he went to his friend's house.

When Samuel got home he went to his room to play with his lego until dinner time. He had an enormous dinner and then watched TV for a while. Samuel hated the dark at bedtime because most bright lights were off.

One time when Samuel went to bed late, he had a horrifying dream. He had to fight against scary monsters like the carpet monster, the fifty-eyed aliens that live in the closet and the dark beasts that live under the bed.

The carpet monster could shoot burning carpet at him, the fifty-eyed aliens could throw poisonous exploding eyes and the dark beasts were as big as a mini car. All Samuel had to fight them with was a huge banana sword.

In his dream he tried to hit the monsters and they broke the sword! But when they broke it it grew back. When Samuel woke up, he thought that he could see the fifty-eyed monster, the enormous carpet monster and he thought he could hear the beasts growl.

He knew that the next night he would have to go into his dark, scary room. Samuel couldn't help thinking about the carpet monsters, the fifty-eyed aliens that live in the closet and the dark beasts that live under the bed.

All day he tried to forget about the three scary monsters. All the times he tried to forget they went straight back into his head.

That night he tried watching TV and tried to forget about them. He did - the horrifying creatures were out of his mind at last.

After that, whenever Samuel went to sleep he never had bad dreams again.

by Jack Canvin