Wake Up

• Jackson Peagham, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2020

The pain coursing through her head was unreal, at one moment she was in the classroom the next it seemed she was in a place... other-worldly. The difference between the two worlds was that this was where she truly seemed free if only for a few seconds, she was sent hurling back to the classroom as if there was something, she saw that wasn't meant to be seen. Reality came to her soon after, she realised time had stopped as nothing had changed from when she had left, almost like time was paused, stopped, moulded to suit this moment, she sees 20 people writing but can only hear one pen. She was snapped out of it by the repeated bell ringing only adding to the pain in her head. It was the end of the day she could go home to try and make sense of what she had seen, but she realised that they were there, remembering them just makes her want to go back to that fantasy-world. Home, they say school is prison, they are so wrong, home is worse especially when you have to deal with the hell that comes with life. As she comes through the door, shivers sent down her nerves as she ran to her room as fast as possible to avoid the hellscape, she jumps face-down on the bed, nothing that's all she feels when she can't see, she's happy here nothing exists. The headache reached its climax, the world forms before her, she lifts her head to the light to see her room, same as always. She closes her eyes, she is back at that weird place, she tries to open her eyes, but they seem glued shut, she couldn't leave, she was stuck unable to leave this fantasy world knowing this is her life flashing in and out of consciousness as she hears a faint beeping sound then a flat sound which lasted longer, Obudz sie, a oddly familiar word is whispered by an familiar name. Darkness appears, there is nothing, Obudz can't wake up from this eternal void, even though Obudz will never leave, Obudz feels happier than what she was.