I Am...

• Helen Nguyen, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

Ash Palace, it was known for people’s disappearance, it was once a beautiful place but there would always be a missing person. All those people who went missing never came back. One day, a teenage girl found a mysterious book, titled “Jae Gungjeon‘’. This teenage girl was mute since birth and she hated it. The teenage girl would go to her special place that she calls Para that no one else knew about. The teenage girl would also bring her book with her. The book had a lot of interesting stories about this ‘Jae Gungjeon’ place. It was a beautiful place and if you were lucky enough a rabbit-like human would appear and would grant you one wish but there’s one condition, you cannot leave. There were directions to where Jae Gungjeon was.
The teenage girl decided to start her journey to find Jae Gungjeon at Para and read “Find the red and blue book in the history section and tilt the book at an angle and a door will open underneath the floor at the Soo’s Library”. The teenage girl walks to the library. When the teenage girl arrives at the library, she tilts the book and a door opens up, and a set of stairs appear leading into a dark abyss. She walked in but suddenly the door shut closed behind her but she kept walking down the stairs until she saw a dim light. As she walked closer, two doors appeared before her. Each door had a number between one and two. The teenage girl then read the book for the next step; ‘each door has a riddle and you must enter one door, only one goes to Jae Gungjeon. Door One says ‘area but not in era’ and Door Two say ‘existent but not exist. The riddles were simple for the teenage girl because she knew Jae Gungjeon was an old place that wasn’t in era, so she walked into Door One. As the teenage girl continued walking she knew right away that she was at Jae Gungjeon.
She walked around until she heard a voice, “Welcome to Ash Palace, May I help you?” It was the rabbit. She couldn’t speak but the rabbit knew what she wanted. “I see, you can’t speak so you came here to make a wish.” She nodded. “But you know the consequence right?,” said the rabbit. She frowned when the rabbit asked the question but she knew that it had to happen. “Ok then, let me just grab something from my bag,” said the rabbit who pulled out a potion and gave it to the girl “Drink it” he said, as she drank it, she hummed a sound. “So now, may I know your name?” Asked the rabbit. The teenage girl was hesitant to speak “I am Ciel” The rabbit smiled and so did Ciel. “Hi I’m Rabby nice to meet you. Now you promise to stay right Ciel?” said Rabby. “Yes I will, I promise” said Ciel