Don't Touch

• Robyn Ryrie, Grade 6, Beverford Primary School
• Short Story
• 2001

1st in the 'Zapped! 2001' competition

“What’s that?” Peter said out loud as he stopped and stared.
Peter had just watched the school bus disappear along the dusty road, and then turned to walk home along the track. Now he could see a shape amongst the tall shadowy gum trees. He had walked along that track hundreds of times but never noticed a building amongst those trees before!
Peter picked his way through the trees. As he got closer he could see that the building was a small weatherboard house with peeling paint, surrounded by a tangled, overgrown garden, contained by an old picket fence with a black wrought iron gate. A sign saying “Keep Out” hung on the gate.
“That’s never stopped me before!” Laughed Peter, as he opened the gate, it gave a metallic squeak that sounded like “One”.
Approaching the veranda, Peter could just make out the sign that swung from the veranda. It read “The DeVils Residence”.
As Peter stepped up onto the veranda he wondered who the DeVils were. Peter noticed that the front door had the word “Condemned”, written on it. He thought this could be fun! The door stood slightly ajar, inviting him inside. The desire to explore overwhelmed Peter. Ignoring the warning, he poked the door. It opened as though an invisible hand had opened it from inside. As it creaked open, Peter thought he heard a voice say “Two”.
Peter took several steps inside and then noticed that there were no windows on the inside but he had seen windows from the outside. “Strange”, thought Peter. The only light was coming from the open doorway behind him. He walked past the open doorways of empty rooms. He put his hand on the handle of the only closed door, and turned the handle and pushed. Peter had expected it to be dark in the room, but it had a red glow about it, which was coming from a table in the middle of the room. The table was round and had carved claws on its legs. On top there was a sign saying “Don’t Touch”, which was hiding the object that was making the room glow.
Peter thought as soon as he saw the sign, “What can’t I touch. No one’s here to stop me”.
As Peter approached the table he saw a red dome, a bit larger than a snow dome. But this did not have an object in it. Instead, it had a red coloured glow and an occasional orange or yellow flicker of light flashing up through it. Down on the bottom it had something, which was black. Peter could not work out what it was.
Peter took a quick glance around. “No one is watching”, he thought.
Peter picked up the dome and shook it, just to see what would happen. The black goo on the bottom formed into the word “PETER”. Then he heard an evil sounding voice say, “Three”, followed by an evil laugh and the sound of the key turning in the lock.