He Didn't Care

• Bethany Molineux, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2015

The bushes behind were rumbling. Crashing noises of wind or movement could be heard and it scared the hell out of him. Would his feet take him where he needed to go? Would he be the idiot who tripped and fell, only to be killed? These questions where running and dancing around in his head. He wasn’t in a horror movie, but oh boy did he feel like he was. He was unaware of what was chasing him, but he didn’t care what it was regardless. It could’ve ended up being an animal, harmless. It could’ve been a killer. Anything that was capable of making sticks break and bushes rumble.
But he didn’t care. He needed to run, run from it all. The boys at school said that this place in the forest was safe; safe from everything and anything. They didn’t warm him about the dangers getting there, or the dangers of the real world. He had never left his family before, but today that would change.
He ran and ran and eventually saw an opening. People and children, was he finally safe? Was this all some kind of sick joke? He didn’t know and he didn’t care. He ran towards them, faster than before and saw them closer. This time he looked, really looked, and saw them for what they really were. They weren’t friendly, their faces were not human. They were far from anything human. The appearance of a humanoid body was the only thing that would’ve given that impression.
The devilish grins and sadistic looks in the eyes of these monsters were lighting up to the backdrop of hellish and grotesque scenery. What was meant to be a safe haven from it all was just another nightmare. They welcomed him and licked their lips as he drew closer by the second. He had only two choices.
1. He could give up and realise what was destined for him all along. Or 2. He could run.
As he got closer and closer his only option became clear. In an instant he stopped steps from the hideous creatures. As they watched him eagerly, waiting for their chance to attack. He smiled turned left and ran away. The hisses and disgruntled obscenities coming from the monsters where left in the background. He heard them, but didn’t listen.
His chance for a better life was gone. It was gone from the day he was born. He never had a chance of surviving in this God forsaken world. The answer was Never. Was he always going to end up with a grizzly death? Was he always going to run from it all? Was he ever going to be happy? He didn’t know and he didn’t care.