Windy Night

• Kaavya Sharma, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2022

I walk down the street. Moonlight showers me and I look up. The full moon glares at me as though daring me. Take one wrong step, it taunted. Do it, make a mistake, it jeered.

Then suddenly with no warning, gusts of wind surrounded me. I couldn’t see, I could hardly breath as I dropped down on the ground and clawed around me, searching, searching, for anything to anchor myself to the earth with. As suddenly as it had started the wind stopped. Nothing was left of it. Not even a slight breeze. It was eerie how quickly the winds and their masters could find me.

I heard it before I felt it. Someone was in my company, watching, advancing. I whip out two daggers as the clouds cover the moon and leave us in almost complete darkness. My eyes haven’t adjusted yet but I hurtle one of the daggers where I heard movement anyway. My dagger is instantly replaced by a throwing star. I can feel the person creeping up behind me, slowly, and I remain still, trying not to let the person know that I know they’re there. When they are in range I whip around and lunge at them with my dagger poised to kill. I find that the person has vanished into the night.

I recover my dagger and quickly walk to where I’m staying for these two weeks. I bolt the door as soon as I step inside. Something’s not right, someone’s been here. Someone’s still here. A crow lands on a tree outside my window and screeches. I mask my footsteps in it’s calls and head up stairs, armed to the teeth. I feel a wind nearby even though all the windows are closed. I smell blood and I smile to myself. At least one of my traps worked. I retrieve the bloodied arrow and set it back into the trap. Then I realise that the crow has stopped screeching.

I hear something dripping and I think it’s a tap. I continue up the stairs but my senses are all going towards this tap. I make my way to where I think the dripping is coming from, turn the tap on and wash my face and hands. Once I’m dry I look into the mirror and only have time to widen my eyes as my throat gets slit and I fall to the ground. Dead.