THE INVADER

• Lilah Magann, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2021

My heart was racing. I was sweating really badly. I had a blank mind. I didn't know what to do. My little sister Red and I were holding each other tightly, wondering if mum and dad would be ok in the backyard office on a restless and black night.

I heard rattling. The roof was shaking. Then I heard a screech! Red started to weep in fear. I held her hand in a way that told her it would be ok. Then silence. More rattling. Something was up there. The lights were off. It was pitch black. Our fear filled the room.

I wondered what to do. I saw Red covering herself up in blankets and pillows. “What are you doing?” I whispered. She didn't reply. So, I asked again, but all she did was roll her eyes and bury herself deeper into the mountain of bedding. “Come on let’s go to the kitchen, it will take our minds off things.”

In the big, open kitchen, we made two hot chocolates and found a deck of cards. We played a couple of card games to take our minds off the noises outside. This made us feel better, so we said our goodnights and drifted off to sleep.

BANG! We woke up instantly because of the terrible noise outside. “What was that?“ I shouted, hoping it was just mum and dad. Then we heard a creak. The door opened. I started to panic. “What should I do?” I asked myself. All I could think about is what was making those noises. What was about to invade our house! So I took a little look and saw… nothing. It was too dark to see anything.

We both assumed that it was some kind of criminal. A robber coming to our house to kidnap us and take us away. An invader in our home! We hid so that it couldn’t see us. But just as we thought we would be safe, the invader walked right by us. By then I knew I had to do something. I jumped up and turned the lights on.

But instead of jumping at the criminal and scaring it away, I just stood there looking at the invader and feeling very silly. It wasn’t a criminal. It was not even a human. The invader was just a possum.