Half Stitched Up

• Mitchell Gumm, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2008

It was pitch black and I had the sound of an untuned triangle ringing in my ear. This continued to happen until the sudden voices started to call my name. My eyes started to blur back into vision. There were people all crowded in a circle, all looking at me in the centre. I was lying on the ground looking right back at them. I grabbed the ground in a fist, tugging the grass by its roots. I felt the soil crumble down through the cracks of my hand. At that moment I realized it, I was there. My body jolted up as I gasped for air. I was all worked up for a second or two, but then all of a sudden I was in a daze. “Whoa, what just happened”, I yelped. There in the middle of the crowd was my best friend Glen. He was a short, but solid kid. His red hair glistened in the sun. He threw out his hand and yanked me up to my feet. My other friend Harry came over through the crowd. He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned forward to my face. “Are you alright”, he said. “You were pushing yourself really hard on those hurdles”. “Yah I’m fine, but I saw this weird man as I jumped the hurdle”, I replied.” “All I saw was a man wearing a hood and next thing I knew was looking at the crowd from the ground”. The bell rang and everyone left the school. My friends and I went to footy practice after school with the thought of the hooded man. “Ok passing practice please”, yelled our coach, “get into groups of three”. Harry, Glen and I all stayed together. We were doing really well until Glen over passed the ball. The ball went high above both my head and Harry’s and straight into the bush. “I’ll go get it”, I sighed. I ran down through the bush. The ball was leaning next to a little oak tree. At that moment I had the slightest feeling I was not alone. I looked up from the ball to find the hooded man. He was wearing a blue leather jacket and some jeans. His hood had a long stitch running through the left side. A cold shiver flew down my spine as a stream of sweat dribbled down the side of my cheek. I dashed to the ball, grabbed it and he was gone again. I slowly crept backwards as I made contact with something made of leather. I turned to see a knife lunged straight at my heart. But just as he was about to break the layer of skin everything went black. I was waking up. “Phew, it was only a dream”, I said in relief. I rolled over and felt something wet trickle down the side of my chest. I looked down to my chest to find a thick cut stretching along my chest half stitched up.