Visions

• Luke Morison, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

I was sitting in Maths class biting my pencil. I looked over at Shane, head down, scribbling rapidly on his test paper. How is he so smart?, I wondered. I hadn't even made a start and here he was, almost finished. I tried to concentrate on the first question, but my eyes wouldn't focus. There was something very wrong today, I could feel it.
The bell rang, breaking the silence. "Okay, gather up your test papers and hand them to me", the teacher instructed. When Shane passed me his, I glanced at his answers quickly. He had finished every single question. Something was definitely not right. Shane had never even gotten three questions finished in a test. He was usually mucking around making stupid noises.

When the teacher had dismissed us, Shane made his way out the door and into the corridor. I caught up with him and tried to start a conversation with him. “Have you seen the new TRAKKER game? It looks totally rad.” But all he would do is shake his head, and continue walking. He wasn’t like himself today. I tried a couple more times to get his attention. I sung annoying songs like " See you again" and "Roar". Then I gave up.
When I was just about to walk over to Alexander, who looked to an in a good mood, I saw a strange man through the window. He was wearing a mustard coloured suit and a purple gloves. His green pants looked like they had survived a hundred bullets and I could see scars on the side of his neck. He had a dark red mask covering the most of his face and neck. It had nose holes and slits for his dark, black eyes, glaring in my direction.
When I nudged Shane he just kept walking like I wasn’t even there. After one minute of glaring, the man started to run towards me. I started to panic and swear under my breath. The man revealed a gun from underneath his suit. What do I do, what do I do? He pulled back the trigger. The glass shattered sending pieces flying everywhere. I fell to the floor, while several girls shrieked. The bullet had missed me by an inch. The man jumped through the window. He couldn’t miss me this time. I was trying to think of a plan before it was too late. But it was too late. A bullet aimed straight for my chest was flying towards me. Everything went dark…….

I awoke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. It was just a dream, it was just a dream..But was it? The dream had felt so real, that I was trying to reassure myself it wasn’t. “Mum!” I called, but there was no answer. This was completely normal, as mum usually went to the supermarket before “the morning stampede”, as she would call it. In the end I decided I needed a hot bath.
I turned the tap watching the water rise in the bath. It felt awesome soaking in the soapy water. I stared at the water, thinking about how I was fascinated by the effervescence of the bubbles when I was younger.
After half an hour of relaxing in the water, I got out and dried myself with my towel. As I was drying my hair I walked over to the window, remembering the strange dream I had. It felt like it had been a year ago. I heard the front door open. It must be mum, I thought, so I quickly got changed and went downstairs.
As I strolled down the hallway to greet mum, I saw a shadow of a man. I thought it was odd so I slowed a bit. When I walked through the doorway my heart stopped. It can’t be...it must be my imagination, I was saying to myself. But it wasn’t. The strange man was getting his pistol out. Running was the only option I had. I sprinted down the hallway. It wasn’t a dream. It was a warning….