Dark Times

• Vidunii Indrapala, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

I stare at her. She has long, wavy black hair and golden skin. Her lips are blood red and her eyes are electric blue. They convey one message and one message alone. I can never talk to her and she can never talk to me. All I can do is look at her expression and take that for a hint of what she has to say. I have seen her a thousand times but as usual she is oddly familiar yet distant, out of reach. What is wrong with me? I ask myself. The one question I can’t bear to answer. I gather every last ounce of courage in my body. When I fall I get back up and try to promise myself never to think about the Incident ever again. But now, as I look at the girl, I realize that I am damaging myself more by making that promise. I decide to do the bravest thing I can. I close my eyes and remember.

Pain floods me, unbearable pain. It feels as though I will drown in my ocean of sadness. Too many times… Too many times promises have been broken. They said they would look after me, never leave me. But they were liars like the rest. Too many times a wound has been reopened. I block out painful thoughts of when people talk about the Incident. My heart is still heavy with guilt from when it happened, when it all changed. My mind is scarred, scarred with memories of the past, etched into my mind. The worst memory of all stand out from the rest. The day the house burnt down.The matches drew my attention, I simply couldn’t resist. I gently picked up one and struck it across the box. The flame flickered in the darkness, tongues of scarlet and orange. It danced hypnotically, making me want to touch it. I put the tip of my finger to the fire. The heat scorched it, burning my skin. I dropped it in surprise and the carpet caught alight. I fled the scene, scared and alarmed. It was only when I was standing outside on the street in the cool breeze I realized my family was still inside. They had perished along with the life I once had. I open my eyes and look at her. Her eyes have a wild, helpless glint in them and her hair is choppy and short like they’ve been cut with safety scissors. Her ribs peep through her tattered checked shirt and her jeans have several holes in them. She wears bare no shoes, her feet covered in dirt and grime. Tears fall from my cheek and her face distorts. I turn away from the lake. My own reflection has abandoned me. I can’t get the image out of my head, the starving desperate girl I have become.I look at the sun sinking lower into the sky. Soon it will be night time and will truly be alone.