Keep Going!

• Ashleigh Kerry, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

I stopped and looked behind me. There it was. I started sprinting. I turned right… then left… then left again. I halted, took a few more steps forward and pressed my back against the cold, hard brick wall. I thought it would be the end. Then my brain clicked and I began feeling around the wall. Ah-huh! I felt a bump on the wall. I pushed it. Then I heard a whoosh and I started to fall, and fall, and fall.?
-3 hours later-?
I jerked up and looked around me. I saw a high wall. I got to my feet and searched around anxiously for a clue, to know where I was. I had no idea. I walked around the wall and back to where I started. I couldn't see anything. Then some of the wall slid away and inside I saw a path. I wasn't thinking straight and walked through the opening. As soon as I was through the opening, the wall slid back and suddenly everything looked tiny except a big red button that said ‘PUSH ME! if you want to live’. As you would, I quickly pushed the button.?I felt a weird sensation in my body. All the walls around me were growing. Well either the walls were growing or I was shrinking. I should have been scared but for some reason I felt brave. I decided to take a risk and venture down the path. I was about to start walking when the word ‘start’ flashed up in green under me. Strange I thought. Just like in a maze. I was feeling a little less brave now. What if I was stuck in a maze? I would never be able to get out. I pushed the idea out of my head and told myself I wasn't in a maze. Through the braveness left in me I began to walk shakily.?
After a few minutes the path I was on ended and two others started. I had no clue which one to take. Right or left??I chose left.?
One foot after the other I make my way down the left path. I can see a beautiful flower in a patch of sunlight. I walked towards it and can smell freshly baked cookies. Hmmm my tummy starts to grumble. I reach out to touch the inner part of the flower. As I do so I notice that the flower starts to bend towards me making it easier to touch the buds in the centre. I touch one and my hand sticks fast. The hardened outer petals close in around me and start to lift me off the ground.?
I yell. I am gripped with fear realising that I have fallen prey to a child eating plant. Maybe I should have taken the path on the right.?Then I woke up to the sound of my mum yelling at me that it is time for school. I smile. It was just a dream.?
OR WAS IT?