Never Go Out After Curfew

• Jake Huang, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

Never Go Out After Curfew

I lived in a small town, nothing out of the ordinary, we had a gym and a park across the road and not too far away we had a shopping centre. This town though had some urban legends and one of them was, “if you go out past curfew evil spirits will get you.” As a kid, I was terrified of getting captured by evil spirits.

So one night I and 4 other friends decided to have a sleepover at (Privacy Reasons) John’s house. It was all good until night came around, and we “responsible” kid’s decided to go to the wildlife park just up the hill. Just before we were about to leave through the front door I remembered “Past curfew and the spirits will get you,” I tried to warn them but my efforts were in vain.
We walked up the hill and to the wildlife park, we walked past the bushy entrance and turned on our flashlights.

In a single-file line, we walked up the narrow path hoping to find something eventful. I could fill the chills going up my spine, I felt regret coming over me, but we just kept trekking. At this point, we were already halfway up the path when we found an oak cabin.
Our initial reaction was like “that's strange the cabins are usually on top of the hill.” Then out of nowhere (Privacy Reasons), Sam ran to the cabin and knocked on the door without second thoughts. A strong gush of wind came and the door slowly crept open, we were all standing behind Sam pointing our flashlights at the door. In a blink of an eye, a long bony hand reached out and pulled Sam in! The anomaly then zoomed out of the cabin and stood up, it was at least 2 and a half metres tall, bony, blood-red eyes, sharp unforgiving nails. We all scattered as fast as we could; It was every man for themself. In the distance, I could hear the faint cries for help from Sam but I didn’t turn back. I cowered behind a tree with John, immediately he pulled out his phone and notified the police; Like they were going to do anything. Blood-curdling screams were all I could hear for the next 7 gruesome minutes. I ran immediately out of the park and onto the street, I could see the local police cars rushing to the park with sirens on loud and clear. I rushed quickly into the refuge of Johns house waiting for my friends.

It was 3:03 AM and only 3 out of 5 of my friends are home. We all tried our hardest to sleep but the events that happened today haunted us. In our town, news spreads quickly, all the police were found dead, my 2 friends were missing and the cabin and wildlife park were under lockdown. Never go out after curfew.