He Took My Pages

• Ulani Hobbs, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2022

I was young when he took what was once mine and never gave it back.

I remember he carried me through the trees, leaves whipped my face as I stared out into the darkness. I could hear the trees whispering as they watched me pass. Their branches stretched out towards me, I reached for them but I was too weak and he was too strong. I tried to yell but he muffled my screams. I stared up at his face, his eyes were like endless tunnels, he was tall and thin and his cold stare made me shiver with fear. He threw me down, my body sprawled on the ground as dirt crawled across my form. I felt something tug at my arms and legs. I looked down as ropes slithered over me, they curled around me, straining against my skin. He ripped off my clothes and tore out my pages. Sorrow escaped my eyes and down my face. My throat hurt from trying to be heard, by someone; anyone. He threw my pages filled with life and love onto the ground, I tried to reach for them, but they were too far away, too far gone. I tried to fight, but my mind was closing in.
My voice died in my throat and my vision was dark at the edge, my body was becoming limp.

Pain jarred through my brain.
Coldness enveloped me.
Hurting. Fading.
My mind was fading.
I couldn’t take the pain.
My mind stopped.
Time froze.
The world dissolved into darkness.

When I awoke, I was desperate to get my pages back. I tried to stick them back in and mend the tear inside me. I tried to dust off the dirt to make them crisp white again, but I was never the same. My pages were crumpled and ripped. They no longer radiated light, instead hurt and suffering seeped out of the margins.
I looked up at the moon through blurred eyes, he gazed down at me sadly and his tears dripped down onto my face. I crawled into a ball and let them cleanse my broken soul. I held the pages in my hand that could no longer be repaired. They had turned grey and cold and were leaking with sadness.
As I lay there, I heard footsteps coming closer, someone was calling my name. They hauled the binding of my body into their arms, they felt warm and comforting. I rested my head on their chest and breathed in their scent, they smelt like home.

I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones.
I got away.
But how can I be lucky without justice?
I was told to live.
To forget.
But I can never forget.

He creeps into my nightmares.
His long spidery fingers.
His deep cruel laugh.
That monster ruined me.

I’m in pieces.
My pages are torn.
I cannot bear to be touched.
Light has faded.
Dullness clouds my vision.
He took what was once mine and never gave it back