Stuck In The Middle

• Macey Notting, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

“Boom, Boom” is the noise Ellie heard when she woke up.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a spitfire plane spiralling straight towards her. Her pupils were dilated in pure shock, staring at this plane in the window.

When sirens start wailing, Ellie jolts out of her trance and runs frantically for Finn. “Finn, Finn where are you” Ellie screams, her lungs in pain.

Suddenly everything goes quiet and black. Ellie thinks herself dead but then why does she see bolts of colour darting around her. Air is moving through and over her while she’s falling fast, plummeting to whatever lies below her, probably her death bed.

Just as Ellie thinks it’s over, she lands on a cloud like surface. All she sees is her younger brother, dazed looking at her.

Ellie snaps back into reality and encloses Finn in her arms quietly sobbing with happiness. When they pull apart, they look around to see a sign saying ‘London’ in front of them. At first, she thought it was the Underground but quickly let go of the vision. “Finn let’s try the path” says Ellie. Finn nods and hand in hand they walk down the rough cobblestone path unsure of what lies ahead.

“I want to go home Ellie”, Finn said quietly while tears streamed down his face like a gushing waterfall. Ellie picks him up puts his small, innocent body on her back and starts walking, very soon realising that they are nowhere near home.

Out of nowhere Ellie’s face is smacked with such force, the sound of the impact echo’s through the tunnel they just entered. Finn wakes up from the sound with a face of confusion and horror from the state his sister is in.

Ellie abruptly wakes up after being knocked out to find Finn next to her unable to move but she too is frozen on the spot.

Finn is a chilling shade of blue, teeth chattering like crazy, shivering in pain but Ellie is burning up, sweat beading all over her and panting like a dehydrated dog desperate for some source of water.

Minutes pass by, Ellie gets hotter, Finn gets colder, there’s nothing they can do to help the situation.

“Why in the world are you two kids here?” says someone who Ellie couldn’t recognise. Ellie’s eyes go wide, dumbstruck from what she’s hearing behind her.

“Well we are ..... s-t-u-c-k" Ellie says with much effort while panting in the drowning heat. Ellie then passes out once again.

......................

I wake up almost crying and shaking from the sheer terror brought upon me by what I had just endured. The trauma caused by my younger siblings near death experience stabs me hard with waves of emotions engulfing me.

I run to Mum’s room screaming. Mum pulls me into a strong hug and whispers calmly to me “It will all be OK”, then I realise …….. it was just a dream!