Killer Chemical Reaction

• Jessica Whytcross, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2019

I was brushing my teeth one morning, I heard what sounded like five gunshots. I froze unaware of what would happen next. Suddenly the frosted glass window in my bathroom shattered, there was now a young girl who looked exactly like me except she was covered in glass fragments of different patterns, shapes, and sizes on my bathroom floor. She looked like she was in an excruciating amount of pain as she was lying on the cold tiles. Slowly she raised her arm towards me, there was a bright light radiating from her palm that exploded then I couldn’t see, the light was everywhere, piercing my eyes.

Suddenly the light disappeared, I slowly opened my eyes adjusting to the lighting. I wasn’t in my bathroom anymore, I was in the back of a dimly lit police car with handcuffs on. My aching body was covered in glass shards and blood, what happened? I could hear the officers talking about me and how I murdered over one million people in a single day. I knew nothing of this, what was happening to me? Did I do this? Who was that girl? I was questioning so many things by now…

As the officers got me out of their car they were cautiously aggressive, as if they were making sure I wouldn’t do something to them. One was behind me sternly pushing me along by the wrists, the other was in front of me heading into the building towards a desk. I could hear the lady at the desk say “Holding cell ‘a hundred and twenty-six “. I was lead down a dark and narrow corridor that had a foul-odor, there were cramped cells on each side. In each cell, two or more people were sitting on benches, the floor was painted in a white paint that was cracking, the room also had a toilet without privacy. We got to a cell at the far end of the corridor and I was pushed in and left there.

There was no-one else in my cell other than the ants and cockroaches. For about an hour I was watching them try and escape. Then a guard came up to my cell door and said “Hayleen, Hayleen!” I looked up in confusion, my name was not Hayleen, “Me?” He gave me a condescending look and replied “Yes, you” Then he slid a tray of foul-looking food under the door.

It has been a year since this happened. Hayleen was a world-class chemist, who had created a disease intending to kill off all living things on our planet. She was being hunted down for her murderous recipe. She was being attacked by fugitives when she crashed through my bathroom window that day and used one of her chemicals to switch bodies with me and to this day I don’t know where she is let alone if she is alive. Until I can prove what actually happened, I will be in prison for the rest of my life.