Harry And The Beast

• Wallace Mackay, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

On a bright, sunny afternoon, thirteen year old Harry was getting off the bus. Harry is adventurous, mischievous and independent. Harry is tall, skinny with short brown hair and blue eyes. He likes to wear his old clothes, leather boots and a red cap. Harry loves to wander in the forest behind his house. He is lonely and has no friends. Harry sometimes plays with his eight year- old brother, Phil. He has a mother Tracy and a father Greg. They all live in a small house in country Australia.

He walked to the stained glass front door, opened the door silently and tiptoed to the back door. Harry walks into the dark green forest. He follows the tracks from yesterday’s walk. Harry then climbs a tree and reads a book. It’s his favourite place because it’s peaceful and quiet. After a while he hears his mother call “Come and have dinner”. He didn’t reply as he was not hungry. He kept reading until he fell asleep. When Harry was sleeping in the tree, he suddenly fell out and into a prickly bush. Harry went through the bush of thorns and landed feet first on dusty ground. He didn’t have a clue where he was.

He then realised his body was cut from head to toe and that no one was around to help him. Harry started running, not knowing where he was going. He heard behind him big deafening thumps. It was some sort of big, hairy beast. He ran even faster with loads of red blood dripping from him. The thumps mysteriously stopped. Harry didn’t look back for a while until he thought he was safe. He then turned to see a man that was red in the face and gasping for breath. A few minutes past and the unknown man caught his breath and asked Harry “are you all right”. Harry said “Ye…yes, I am alright” in an unsure voice, because he didn’t know who this man was.
The man had glasses and a pointy nose, brown eyes, short combed back white hair and looked about 70 years of age. He wore a white long sleeve shirt, dark blue jeans and gum boots that wore mud. He said ‘’Come with me and I will help you with everything”. Before I could speak he grabbed my arm and ran quickly.
We sneaked past the people who were fighting the beast. We continued around 100m more and explored this different world. There were hundreds of people living there. He shook my hand and said I am Professor Tramp and your name is…”? Harry says his name and said, “Mr Tramp, can I ask you a question?” “Yes” said Mr Tramp. “How do I get out of this mystery world?” The Professor replied “ You can’t Harry.” Harry then realised that he would never see his family again and he would be stuck here for the rest of his life!