Saved By The Unexpected

• Khushi Lumbhani, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2019

It was Saturday the 20th of September and I was dying. I could feel my heartbeat getting slower and slower. If only I hadn’t come here if only I hadn’t followed him here.

I woke up feeling dull, as usual. After my mother’s death in a horrible car accident over the summer, which was 3 weeks ago, I felt so alone. Dad busied himself with so much work to distract himself from how broken he feels inside. When we should be sticking together at times like this, we were rather separating. I slid off my bed and got ready, pulling on a comfy outfit, I walked to the mum’s favourite park.

On the way, I caught a glimpse of something very familiar, my dad’s car. But, I realised it wasn’t him in the car. OMG someone stole his car! I had to do something! I took a deep breath and made up my mind, I was going to follow the car.

The car travelled for a long time but was going slow, so I could easily follow it on foot. Suddenly, it took a turn into the forest. Why would they be going to the forest? Still, I followed the car for miles, careful not to be spotted. The car came to a halt outside an old cottage and I sneaked around the house to find a window to peek through, that’s when I saw him. My dad.

He was surrounded by 7-8 armed men on a round table which was full of cash, weapons and packets of white powder, drugs?
I had to do something, I went through my purse with my shaky hands and realised I had left my phone at home.
‘Shit’, I growled quietly. When I was about to leave I dropped my purse, which echoed loudly on the porch. Oh no!

The men started to pour out with their weapons and angry faces like they were in a war zone, so I fled. Skipping in between the trees, desperately trying to get out of here, while the men were yelling and running after me. My heart pounded loudly in my chest while suffocating my breath.
That's when I heard it, the gunshot. I froze, I could feel pain, my eyes widened in shock as I realised, I had been shot.

I could feel the bullet swimming through my body, shutting down all my system on its way like a switch. I looked down and saw blood pouring out from my body at insane speed. My legs underneath began to wobble and I fell to the ground.


Lying there, waiting for death to come take me, I saw a dark figure emerge from the trees, I couldn’t quite make out the look of it, as the tears in my eyes blocked my vision. It came closer and bent down next to me, putting its mouth on my neck, I felt something sharp pierce there. Suddenly everything around me went black and drifted I off.