Zara And The Hurricane - The Bombshell

• Zoe Mitchell, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2017

Zara and the Hurricane - The Bombshell

“Arrgggghhhh, Mum, I'm having nightmares again, it was the same horrid dream!”

“Shhhhh, shhhhhhhhhh, its ok now, everything is ok, it was just a dream, do you want to tell me what happened,”Mum whispered in my ear as she stroked my hair. For the next ten minutes we sat on my lovely silk bed together, just thinking about things. When i was finally ready to tell her I opened my mouth to take a breath but just then BANG, BANG, BANG. “Don't worry I’ll get it.” Mum said. “I'll just be a sec.” And she got up and went downstairs.

I was starting to calm down when all of a sudden I heard a scream. I rushed out of my bedroom to the landing only to see a horrible man with a bristly beard and misshapen arm standing over my mother who had fallen to the ground. Then I saw it, the man was holding a knife dripping with blood. I fell to the floor, breathing loudly. I was so scared. It was the man I had in my nightmare. In the dream, that man took my home, my friends and family and my house, then put me in a glass tank full of water and started to drown me. The last thing I see is face cackling as he closes the tank and limps away. I snapped back to reality when I heard a cruel, deep, hate filled voice say “that's what you deserve.” He spat on the floor and walked out leaving the double
doors wide open, filling the room with ghostly moonlight that illuminated my mother. As soon as the man was well and truly gone I rushed down the stairs tripping over the rug and breaking a vase. I didn't even care, I just needed to make sure that my mother was ok. Blinded by my tears I fumbled down the stairs and lent over my mother. I didn't know what to do, all I could think was, what if my mother is dead, I don't know what to do! I screamed for help over and over. I could hardly speak, mind wasn't working. After that I blacked out and I couldn't remember anything.

When I woke up I was confused, I tried to remember something but nothing was coming to me. When a nurse came into my room I asked where was and how I got there. She told me that I was in the hospital but she didn't tell me why. She said she wasn't allowed to tell me. A couple of minutes later she came back with some lunch for me. Up until then I hadn't realised how hungry I was. When I had finished my lunch she picked up the tray and got up to go but instead I asked her to stay so that I wouldn't be lonely. She put the tray down and came and sat on my bed, next to me. “What's your name,” she asked me gently.
“Zara, my name is Zara.” I told her.“What's your name.” I asked her.
“You can call me Edith.” She answered.
“Where are you from?” I asked her again.
“I was born in Melbourne, Australia, then I came here.” She told me.

Then we played a couple of games but somehow I kept winning, I think she let me. We were pretending to be animals when all of a sudden a strange man in a black suit opened the door and entered the room, ordering Edith out. Then he came over to me and sat on a guest chair and spoke. He spoke like he was extremely important even though I had no idea who he was, he also sat poised like he was sitting on an echidna instead of a comfy chair. But what I remember most was what he said next.