Terror

• Ayla Bogg, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2016

Claire was restless, she lay in bed her doona up to her chin. She looked over at her alarm clock 12:00am it read she sighed and closed her eyes and began to drift into an uneasy sleep. Suddenly Claire sat bolt upright ‘’what was that noise’’ she said out loud. She scanned the room, her eye lids droopy. She was shocked to see her window wide open, her short pink curtains flapping wildly in the wind, a wave of cold night air flooded into her small room. Claire hopped out of bed and pulled on her dressing gown and slippers and ran over the window. She shivered and peeped out the cold, dark window. Outside everything looked calm and peaceful except for a tall, skinny, shadow of a man walking across the road towards her house, the wind roared as Claire latched the window closed. She ran and jumped into bed all in one swift movement and pulled the doona up over her head. She did not dare look out from under the blankets, and though she could not see Claire could feel a pair of eyes watching her. She was shaking violently as a familiar feeling washed over her - FEAR.
She no longer felt his stare so cautiously and slowly emerged from underneath the warm blanket as a wave of cool night air hit her in the face. She pulled on some jeans and a jumper over her pyjamas and walked down the cold dark hallway, she saw a figure moving in front of her so she reached for the light switch. She expected to see her mum or dad standing in front of her but instead was a tall dark man, HIM! He stepped out of the shadows; it was the first time Claire had actually seen his face. He was tall and skinny, he had one grey eye and one green and one big scar running from his eyebrow to the corner of one lip. Claire kicked off a slipper and threw it at his face, he uttered a small cry, with one hand over his face the man reached out for her a pocket knife in his hand. She ducked underneath him, escaping with only one small gash on her shoulder. She ran into the kitchen grabbing her school bag and adding some tissues, water, and an apple and wiped her wound with a tea towel, she went outside and ran.
Luckily her parents were at a work conference, though they will have a nasty surprise when they returned home. Claire ran she didn’t even know where, all Claire knew was that she had to escape. She had now been walking for hours she looked down at her watch five o clock in the morning. She walked a little further and as she reached the park she collapsed on a bench tears streaming from her eyes
That’s when she woke up crying and sweaty it was all a dream, her parents by her side.