Safe Haven

• Sinead Cullinane, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2017

I couldn't breathe. The walls around me were closing in. I was trapped, left in a minuscule room, hyperventilating, breathing for my life. One moment I was standing, free as a bird with the sweet smelling gentle breeze blowing against my face, the sand falling through my toes. But it feels as if it were just a dream. A long mesmerising dream that no longer existed. I could hear heavy footsteps through the thick walls. Although I laid helpless on the icy floor unable to move, I was petrified. Who are these people that had kidnapped me? Was I going to die? So many questions flooded through me. I was completely ambivalent to my horrifying destiny. The screeching noise of gunshots stung my ears as if I were in the middle of a war zone. All of a sudden I heard shouting voices from the opposite room. Could this be my rescuer, my hero? I shuffled slowly to the corner of the damp room wishing I would be free of this dubious moment. A loud bang left an agonizingly painful shudder over my body, at that moment I was free. Now the mesmerising dream is my reality. Day after day I walk along the beautiful sea hearing it recite my name. I have found my Safe Haven.