Kate Evergreen

• Imogen Smith, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

I ran; ran so fast it was hard to breathe. I could hear them storming up the dark narrow street, probably searching for me while doing so. I was at the end of the street. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go. I was stuck, my heart, pounding wildly in my chest. Suddenly, I heard banging and crashing overhead, so I looked around to see where it was coming from. As I was about to turn back, I saw the thing that was going to help me escape; an old, rusty pole would be my getaway as I was always good at climbing. Luckily, just as they turned the corner I scurried up the pole, like my life depended on it … which it did. When I reached the top of the steel pole, I was speechless; there was a lifeless body. The body looked like it had been there for only minutes, possibly the explanation for the banging and crashing. I rushed up to it to see if they could be saved…no such hope. Then everything went into slow-motion. As I looked around, I thought I recognised this building, like I had been here before. Then it all came back to me. I was on the roof of my building, and the body I was now kneeling beside was… my sister. It began to rain, like the weather knew how I was feeling. I began to cry, my thoughts full of emotions. It felt like it was somehow all my fault and if only I had not left her alone in that house, that dreaded house! Out of all the stupid things I've done, that is one of the worst! I then felt this overwhelming sense of anger, not only at myself but at the people who did this to her. She was just an innocent bystander that didn't have anything to do with this…but no, they had to keep crushing me down until I was nothing that could become a problem to them. Things had gone too far; first my brother, and now my sister.
I swore from that day on I would never get into anything like this again, even if my life changed forever. But sadly, today the past had come back to haunt me. My name is Kate Evergreen and this is my story…