You

• Kiara Meredith, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2016

The memory flashes, the old man, bent over and crumpled...
stiff.
silent.
still.

You shudder as reality hits you. You look down at your watch: 9:11pm. You have 9 minutes until the patrol comes around, you break into a sprint down the long deserted streets, the hot breath of your dog against your calves as you run. Behind you the shadows chase you, trying to drag you into the darkness, into the oblivion. You run past the house of the old man, where his body remains charred and still. The memory begins to creep back but you shake it away...
you need to make it home.

Finally your house comes into view,
dark and abandoned
much like the rest of the town...
You wiggle your key into the lock and push the door open with a shove. The dog bounds inside and you follow. You lock all the doors and windows, draw the curtains closed and climb the stairs to the attic. You lay still as flashlights begin to fill the street. You hear the front door thrown open as the patrol searches the house beneath you, searching for anyone who refused to leave all those many years ago. Your dog snuggles closer to you, his breaths short and rapid in terror. You wish this was just a bad dream, but in dreams you cant feel the intense, rapid beat of your heart or the sweat that drips down your forehead...
This is your reality.

After what feels like eternity, the street becomes dark again, your safe for another night. Drowsiness comes over you, but you cant sleep, the past haunts your dreams worse then your reality. So you sit and think, the memories of that horrific day come back, vivid at first, then in full detail.

The morning was bright and welcoming. You were with your grandparents because your parents were out of town for business reasons. You were in the kitchen, laughing with your grandfather when the air became heavier and harder to breathe. An announcement came over the radio, saying that you were being poisoned and if you didn't leave now it was too late. Your grandmother grabbed you from behind and dragged you out of the house, your last image of your grandfather was of him gasping for breath, bent over on a wooden chair. Before you and your grandmother could escape, your grandmother became extremely ill and was rushed to a hospital, leaving you alone in this nearly abandoned town...
you hid until everyone else had left, fleeing for their lives. The air hadn't of seemed to affect you or your dog... so you stayed.

You awake with a fright, unaware that you had drifted off in the first place, but your used to these nightmares now, they haunt you on a daily basis. You climb up onto the roof to get some fresh air, strategically holding your dog so he can come up there as well. You look out over the dark and abandoned neighbourhood and out of the corner of your eye you see a flicker of movement, your dogs ears prick up and suddenly your being fired at, the patrol hadn't left yet and have discovered you. You grab your dog and try to run but you slip and all of a sudden your flying...
You hit the ground extremely hard but before pain has the chance to take over, everything goes black...

When things become clear again, you feel weightless. You look down and see the shattered remains of what once was you and your dog...
broken and lifeless on the concrete beneath you.
You feel a firm hand on your shoulder and you spin around with a fright, you turn around and come face to face with the old man...
Your grandfather.

You go to speak, you want to apologise, you want to tell him how you wanted to save him but he just shakes his head and leads you towards the house, an unburnt welcoming version.

At once you know you'll be happy here...
You'll be peaceful...
You'll be free...
You'll be YOU.