Where's Wally?

• Rose Sims, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

I went through books like a caterpillar and a leaf. One of my favourite books was ‘Where’s Wally?’. One night, I was silently in my room, it was like every other night. Until, I got a ‘Where’s Wally?’ book out. I got my favourite one out, my fingers opened it up to the big two-page map in the middle, but something was wrong. The middle pages were plain black, nothing on it. But inside the two pages, there was some writing. I opened it up more, and there he was. It was Wally. But it wasn’t Wally at the same time. His eyes, they were as white as golf balls. His nose had blood dripping out of it, and his smile. It reached up to his ears, and had blood coming out of the corners, and the bottom of his mouth. I shut the book, being scared of what my eyes had witnessed. The front cover was different as well. Wally had gone, and there was red blood-like writing on it. There was a message on there. It said ‘Great, you’ve found ME, now let me find YOU.’
The next day, nothing had happened. I just persuaded myself that it was just a dream. Throughout the day was normal. But that night, not one sound came from my Dad, as if he left the house. I didn’t think much of it, but hen the power went out, and my thoughts couldn’t stop.
‘Did he leave again without telling me?’
‘Maybe he’s watching the TV. Oh, wait no. He would have locked my door before he started watching the TV.’
‘What if something happened to him?!’ All these thoughts running through my head, like a plane taking off on the runway. I didn’t know what happened, but I tried to stay calm.
‘Dad! Dad, the power has gone out! Dad!?’ no response. Luckily I always had a flashlight next to my bed at all times. And there it was, the cold handle of the flashlight like a piece of ice at my fingertips. Rufus followed me out the door of my room, as the light from the flashlight followed my eyes as I scanned the second story of the house. I found myself at the top of the stairs looking down at this figure at the bottom the stairs.
‘Dad? Is that you? Dad, how do I fix the power? Dad?’ the figure didn’t move, but it had something in its’ hand. I shone the flashlight on the figure, and I could not the shock and run through my body. It was Wally, the same Wally that was in the ‘Where’s Wally?’ book. But this time, his fingers were long like sticks, but sharp like scissors. He was looking the stairs, with a butchers’ knife, but it had blood on it. I started to think where the blood had come from, then I thought about Dad. Wally’s face started to smile, as it turned to face me. That's when everything went black.