The Digital World

• Lara Kelly, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2018

I felt like I was falling through a hole in the sky. Blackness surrounded me as I snuggled into my nice, warm, cosy bed. The wind howled outside, and the trees swayed in the breeze as the rain lashed against the window. The attic roof flapped up and down when a gust of wind sailed into the rooftop.
I hopped out of bed and walked across the room to turn on the light and tripped over a DVD sprawled across the floor with all my spare clothes and shoes from yesterday. I picked up the DVD, plugged it into my television in the room and pushed the remote button that said play.
Suddenly, a deep, dark voice came out of the TV. “You are about to enter ‘The Digital World’.” The TV started spinning around and around in circles. I dropped the remote, my mouth fell open and my eyes stared at the TV. I felt my feet lift off the ground, my head felt dizzy and I closed my eyes.
When I woke, I was laying on my back in a strange orchard. I remembered the strange DVD and that creepy voice. I got up and looked around, there was trash everywhere.
“You have exactly one hour to receive the five things that you love the most and have been taken from you,” boomed the deep voice. “You will have to concentrate extremely hard and along the way you may find obstacles that will challenge you, distract you, or even better, get eaten by the ferocious crocodile that lives in the Murky Green Swamp,” crackled the mean voice.
I stepped over all the trash and found a beautiful tree that looked perfect to climb. “If I climb this tree I might be able to have a look around from up here and see some of the things I’m missing,” Florence muttered.
“Oh,” cried Florence in delight as she spotted her lovely Golden Retriever she bought for her birthday.
“Roxy, Roxy come here you naughty dog,” she shouted.
At the sound of her name, the dog looked up and woofed softly. She bounded over to the bottom of the tree and I climbed down greeting her with a hug. “Hey Roxy, you’re a clever dog. Come on Roxy, sniff out the missing stuff,” shouted Florence.
Off they walked. They ended up finding a baseball cap, her sparkly shoes and her favourite dolphin t-shirt.
As they were about to find their way out, the frightening voice came out of nowhere. “You have one minute exactly to get out of this place, otherwise you will have to stay here forever!” shouted the mean, scary, voice.
“Come on Roxy, let’s get out of here!" exclaimed Florence “There’s the TV” spotted Florence.
They dived into the TV.
“Were back!” gasped Florence.