Awake

• Ella Crosby, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

As I opened my sleep-encrusted eyes, all they found was darkness as they darted back and forth, searching for something to latch onto. I started to panic, as the more I looked, the darkness remained unchanged, as the more I stared into it the more it teased me with small glimpses of light in its inky blackness. I tried to focus on the small flashes of colour, fighting to put even a small breath into my burning lungs, before I realised, I was falling. I tried to look around, but direction had escaped me and I had no clue which way was up, or even in which direction I was plummeting. I tried to reach out around me, but my limbs had gone numb. I tried to scream, but whatever sound I might have made was consumed by the vacuum of the abyss. By now every small ounce of air in my lungs was like a thousand knives, cleaving their way in and out of me. I tried to close my eyes, tried to make myself wake up from what I thought was a dream. But it was for naught. As the last of the air escaped from my shrivelled lungs, and I gave up the fight, I landed. Air suddenly rushed in through my mouth and I gulped it in like it was water in an attempt to soothe my burning lungs. I could suddenly see a pinprick of light in the seemingly perpetual darkness, and with every ounce of energy I had left, I crawled towards it, not knowing where it led, but certain I must escape from wherever I was. With my arms aching like I hadn’t used them in years and legs in such burning pain I was sure I had to stop, it was agony as I inched through the abyssal cavern towards the light. I wanted to give up. To curl up into a ball and submit to the eternal slumber I had been fighting to escape. But every time I looked up and saw the light, its flame of hope relit mine. I had to get there. My fingernails shattered as I clawed my way along the cavern floor, my knees scarred from crawling, and my lungs still recovering from my panicked descent. As the light drew closer it became easier and easier to inch along the cavern floor, until eventually, I could manage a limping walk. I got so close to the light I could touch it, I could walk through it, and leave the dark behind. As I stepped through, I found the bustling life of the city over the water in front of me, and a woman I didn't recognise on the bridge behind me, begging me to step down from the ledge. I did. I found I could speak again, I could breathe freely and move without aching. Tears streaming from my eyes, I threw my arms around her.
"Thank You."