Dark Side Of Magic

• Thomas Shaw, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

The sun was rising over the Dark Lands. The castle of Omageor was quiet, except for the chant of a spell coming from the dungeon. This Spell of Shadows was being recited by Marchi, a prisoner, and would have been perfect, if it was not for the interference of his young son. Marchi thought his son was going to check for guards, but instead, his son yelled for the guards. In panic and anger, the father stopped reciting and suddenly, was engulfed by a darkness. Soon, it took over the entire castle and started spreading. The son wasn’t seen again.
Keith screamed as he fell off his bed, writhing and shaking. He quickly got a hold of himself and went quiet. He did not want his Mum and Dad to wake up. Keith pushed his messy, blonde hair out of his face, looked at the time, and immediately panicked. It was 8:45! School started in 5 minutes! Keith immediately raced to the kitchen and saw that the small microwave clock read 5:28. Keith was quite dumbfounded. Both clocks had different times. Suddenly, he realised he could not hear the early morning chirping from the birds. He could not hear anything. He took a step outside and was astounded by what he saw.
When Keith looked outside, there were strange things going on.
He immediately saw that his cat, Mr. Whiskas, was frozen in mid-air, probably after jumping out of a tree. The garbage truck that drove past had been replaced by some grotesque shadow beast that was petrified. The grass had mutated into vine-like plants, which were not frozen.
The vines started snapping at Keith to try and scare him, but Keith had faced worse scares than this. He suddenly realised that he was back inside. What? But this house was not his. He saw everything was distorted like a liquid. The door preceded to melt in front of his eyes and the vines followed him into the house. Keith started to run, but the floor melted underneath his sneakers.
Keith tried hopelessly to free his foot, but his efforts only succeeded in making his foot sink lower. He knew he had two options: Keep on trying to pull his leg out, or, drop through the hole. The vines faced him, as if to say, ‘Well? What is your choice?’ Keith decided he would take his chances with the hole. He dropped through, falling into the abyss below.
Falling through a seemingly endless abyss wasn’t as bad as you would think it to be. It was actually quite relaxing. It felt like sinking into a big, comfy bed at the end of the most tiring school day ever. As Keith fell, he looked up and saw the vines racing through the hole. Keith couldn’t do anything. He closed his eyes, ready for his demise.
Keith woke up and immediately broke out in cold sweats. He looked around and realised he was still in his room. ‘Just another dream,’ he thought.