Under Siege

• Noah Fahey, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2021

The Sun dipped low on the horizon, its warmth a distant memory.

The overhanging trees cast long, deep shadows. Arthur didn’t seem to mind as he worked tirelessly. The wind’s ghoulish screams reverberated throughout the woods and the trees swayed violently under its power. The sun had set, the dazzling purples and reds falling victim to the deepening darkness. Arthur kept digging. Now deep in the hole, Arthur regretted his decision to not bring a ladder. His mother would have berated him for it.

Arthur felt that even without a father he was better off than most other kids.
He always went to bed with a smile on his face, delighted by the wonderful stories his mother told and told well. The Sun seemed brighter then. Warmer too.

Arthur shook the image from his head. Focusing on the task at hand he began digging strategically, carving a diagonal tunnel into the earth, placing supports every few metres. Rusty raindrops cascaded over him, painting his face with iron-rich spots. He stopped digging. An eerie silence ensued. He listened intently to the world above, deaf to the tree roots silent wailing, mortally wounded by the relentless steel blade. A massacre had taken place. Jimmy kept digging.

Shovelful after shovelful. Deeper and deeper. Layer after layer. Forging a path no one had travelled before
Arthur walked it alone.

Arthur often thought of his mother in times of solitude.

“Loneliness is a strange feeling, both unwanted and welcomed.”

“People often confuse being alone with loneliness, however, the difference between the two is the curiosity and amusement of one’s own mind.”

“Don’t mourn for me, Arthur. Celebrate the extraordinary life I had”

He missed her. He missed her lectures. The loneliness left in the wake of her death, left him broken, almost beyond repair.

Arthur’s arms jarred from the impact. An immense wall of granite blocked his path. He stopped. Arthur smirked.
“Not long to go now.” His muscles ache after endless hours of hard work and his mind begged them to stop, but he kept digging.

After digging under the wall, Arthur carefully began to painstakingly place supports in exactly the right spot. His task almost complete, he turned and walked the long journey towards another day.

His mother loved long walks.

Arthur emerged from the hole. His exit was met with the deafening roar of battle and a child's finger painting of iridescent reds on a canvas of rye and couch. Paralysed by the sudden grotesque imagery, Arthur was a sitting duck. He watched, helplessly as an arrow plunged into his chest. Jimmy cursed. He knocked over the crucial support and they fell like dominoes until the entire tunnel system he worked day and night to build, collapsed. The castle wall stood unchanged. Then, the entire wall came crashing down. In its wake, a cloud of dust dissipated to reveal a mountain of debris.

Arthur fell to the ground clutching his wound.

The Sun dipped low on the horizon, its warmth long forgotten.