Question Of Sanity

• Felicity Parker, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

dress now stained and in tatters… ripped by the harsh, prickly I cautiously tread through the mossy, damp swamp. The icy water makes this environment deadly. I stand in my once beautiful bushes that surround the gloomy swamp land. The murky air feels like poison acid in my throat and on my delicate skin. Suddenly my attention snaps towards my left side. I can hear a faint hush calling my name.
“Sarah………..”
My concise is screaming at me to run away but something tells me to keep going. I amble towards the grand shape in the distance. As I get closer I can feel the acid burning my skin. The pain is intolerable but I am determined to see what this mysterious shape is. I stare in awe at a staircase. Again I hear my name.
“Sarah come………….”
I put one foot onto the depilated staircase. A foul smell drifts up my nostrils like curdled milk. I take another step and go plummeting back to the bottom. My head cracks on the sharp rocks nearby. I slowly struggle to sit up and gently hold my head to stop the spinning. Blood cascades through my trembling fingers. Each move sends ferocious pain through my bruised body. But I’m determined. I reach for the decaying staircase and hesitate.
I question my sanity … Should I keep going?