The Brink Of Reality

• Elliot Weir, Grade 11, St Ignatius College
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Word Zone 2016' competition

The pendulum is swinging. The pendulum is actually swinging. One long, slow swing. After thousands of years of not one inch of movement, it is understandably stiff. The world is finally swinging back into magic after the many years plunged into science.
‘What does this mean for the world?’ asks a council member with a shaky voice.
‘How are we supposed to know?!’ replies the crowd.
The truth is, no one has the slightest clue as to what this means. The world has been stuck on science for too many years, hardly anyone even remembers the basics of magic. The only thing we know, is that the door will finally open once more.
Before I knew it the door opens, and everyone is just bustling with excitement. Then darkness starts to fill every corner of the room. The entry doors slam shut behind me, and a looming voice starts to bellow from the thick cloud of smoke emerging from the door.
‘Why has the pendulum summoned me to this world?’ it roars over the muffled screams.
Silence. I can’t hear anything. The darkness creeps slowly out of the room, many different creatures beyond wildest of imagination trailing closely behind. The darkness leaves a trail of fear, everyone it touches is immobilized. It slowly gains speed, creeping up to the pendulum. It crawls up the pendulum, slowly covering it in darkness. The pendulum snaps into position, locked into magic. People rush up to it and try to move it in desperate hope of closing the door. It wouldn’t move an inch. The darkness has fully consumed it. A shape starts forming out of the pendulum, a man of darkness is left standing there.
‘How dare you try and remove me from this world!’ yells the man of darkness.
Once again, complete silence. People stricken with fear just stand by, completely paralysed. The few people that still have movement in their bodies are trying to push the pendulum over. Pushing with all their might. It dislodges, slowly falling over. It falls, the sound echoes through the hall making everything shudder. The door swings open once more, but this time there is something on the other side, pulling everything back through. Every creature released from the door originally is being pulled back through, each and every one holding on to anything to resist the force. People are still completely paralysed, not by fear, but by disbelief. Everything but the darkness has been expelled. It is being slowly being peeled off the pendulum, being drawn into the door. It unlatches and it flies through the airs, the darkness writhing through the air. It slides back through the door and it slams shut. We were expelled from the world, back into the opening. We try the door, but nothing happens.
‘Well that was pretty uneventful,’ I say.
I had failed, the darkness that I was controlling got us nowhere. We are still stuck here, forced to an eternity of sitting around the campfire waiting for the pendulum to swing once more.