Never

• Coco Manning, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2017

Crash! I heard the angry villagers behind me. I stumbled onto a huge slimy, damp stone. I peered over the edge, it was a waterfall and lake. This is my only chance. I could jump or I could be burned at the stake by the villagers. Then before I could make the decision I saw the angry villagers with sweaty faces and bright torches with flaming balls of fire on each torch. I was petrified. I scurried behind a huge mossy rock and stayed as still as a tree in a dark forest and waited, hoping desperately that the villagers would see that there was no one there and leave. The forest was silent for just a small moment and then suddenly I felt the horrifying movement of my hiding place being lifted up.

With my brain not thinking at that moment I scrambled to the edge of the damp precipice and let myself roll down, down and splashed into the lake. It was freezing and deep. I had heard legends of young women being dropped into this very lake in the olden days but I never thought I would be one of those poor young women who perished on the very lake bottom that I was floating ten metres above. I shivered but not from the cold but from the feeling that I was slowly sinking to the bottom of the black cold lake. My lungs were bursting as I said my last words: I shall never see the light of day again, never, never.