Ugly Lies

• Lucie Wheeler, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

Sweat dripped down from my exploding head. Who knew my secret was this important? Tightly gripping my cold hard life, I rushed down alleyway to alleyway but there was just no escape....... the ugly men in the stale green shoes surrounded me, they were the people who killed my parents, the people who brought this burden on me and now they wanted me. My head was pounding my eyes filled with tears from the smoke that cautiously surrounded us. The ugly lies kept me from safety.........my vision went blurry the green guys started to fade; my head thumped to the floor.

The beeps echoed through the hollow room. The stale stench of fake food and crushed hope filled my nostrils. I knew where I was...... the hospital. I tried too hard to think about what happened but whenever I thought my head hurt. The only thing that popped up in my head was the USB (my cold hard life) where was it?

I looked side to side my heart beating fast. And then I spotted it the USB safely hidden beside my blue bag. I didn’t know what was happening. So, I decided to check on my laptop. I slowly reached for the USB still recovering from my fall and plugged it in the laptop. The beeping sound of the USB slowed down as I opened the file, someone had wiped out all the answers. The only thing that could save me was gone..forever.

A knock on the door suddenly woke me up. Who was it? I slowly crept out of my bed and tiptoed to the door. My hand was about to touch the cold handle but a lingering thought popped up in my head. What if it the people at the door were the green shoes. They were trying to get the USB, but I remembered that the whole file was wiped out, so they wouldn’t come here…… unless they didn’t know it was wiped out. I pushed those thoughts away and I felt myself press down on the lock it was happening: the matter of life and death. Slowly I open the wooden door.

The door cracked open, a man dressed in white walked in and quickly whispered “ My Boss is Luv, he has something for you. He will give it to you if you do him a favor. It is very serious, be careful with your answer, he gets pretty angry.” I was clueless should I trust him? Or should I go my own way?

Lucie, year 6, Lucie.wheeler924@schools.sa.edu.au, Clapham Primary School Adelaide SA.