A Dark Memory

• Elizabeth Cooper , Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2016

Lying in my bed had never felt so frightening to me before. My bed that usually makes me feel safe had become a stranger to me once more. My name is Elizabeth Jane and I'm going to share with you a memory from my past. A dark memory. This memory has haunted me for the past 5 years.

One dark night a storm awoke me making me jump. It was a storm like i had never experienced before. My heart raced and i breathed heavily. The wind howled and it seemed to call my name. "Elizabeth, Elizabeth!" The floor creaked and sounds of scrathing surrounded my head. I layed back down into my bed, trying to distract myself from the horror i was in. Yet all i could see were dark shadows forming silhouettes of strange men. Suddenly everything turned into a strange person. A bag into a head, an umbrella into moving legs, and my school uniform into a cloaked body. I burried myself under my covers and closed my eyes. But all i could see was them. The starnge people. "I must go to sleep." I wispered to myself. I tossed and i turned, trying to push away the nightmare before me.

At last i fell asleep once more. I awoke the next day with salty tears in my eyes. I was not myself that day. I was a different person. I now ponder whether the horror that night was a dream. Or was it my immagination sprinting into a nightmare.

My name is Elizabeth Jane, and the memory i have just shared with you has nothing to do with a bedroom. It has no relation to creeking floors or slaming doors, but rather the life that is my reality. The message may not be so subtle, but if you look closely, under all the fear, you will find it.