An Unfamiliar Place

"Wow! Where is this place?"
Marco and Gemma crept cautiously around strawberries and bounced on brown mushrooms.
Marco tripped over a boulder, a very smooth one, almost as if it was a bigger version of a pebble, and his hands scraped the side of the red, spotted strawberry. Red juice gushed out of the wound.
"Oh, wow! They really are giant strawberries!" Gemma exclaimed as she ripped a chunk out of a strawberry and devoured it.
They walked steadily on the squished brown floor that was randomly dotted with squiggly bits of mud. After weaving through the brown, bouncy mushrooms, they approached a jungle of great green trees. But the trees weren't any trees, they were in fact broccoli!
"Let's check this out!" reclaimed Gemma.
In they stepped into the shadows of the strange forest. There was only circles of sunlight that managed its way in through the branches that it their way. The smell of fresh and uncooked greenery and vegetables wafted up their noses.
But suddenly, they felt a vibration coming from under their feet. The vibration transformed into an earthquake then WHOOSH! A pink cylinder shot out the ground and then slowly fell to the ground with a great THUD. It was a huge worm, the terrified children could see its pulsing, grotesque red veins and the lines that separated the worm into sections.
"Ewww! Gross!"
"RUN!" Marco cried and he went sprinting, dodging through thick green trunks. Gemma stared at the beast approaching her, making gross squelch noises, then ran. They ran, and they ran, and they ran until the lumbering creature was gone from their sight.
"Phew!'" panted Marco wiping his perspiring forehead.
"That was close. Too close!" gasped Gemma.
They were in a clearing now.
Brown, lumpy landscape stretched to the eye could see.
The bright, blinding sun sent wave after wave of scorching heat onto their sodden T-shirts.
"This is so tiring!" Gemma complained.
But they didn't realize to this moment that it was to become much worse.
A hand clutching a trowel(a giant trowel) loomed over the pair menacingly."Oh, no!" exclaimed Gemman.
They ran away from their spot as the instrument plunged into the soil then showered Gemma and Marco with brown, moist mud. The dirt went into their eyes, and nose that made them cough and splutter like crazy.
"Run faster! Run to your side!" yelled Marco.
As soon as they had reached land that was a free-planting zone, they were quite literally sweating a river.
"OK, first things first. Let's head to that brick over there." ordered Marco.
"Yeah, we can get shade!" cheered Gemma.
Desperate for some coolness, they stumbled carelessly towards the once in a life-time life-saving brick. However, the brick seemed to become smaller and smaller! "Huh?"
To their best luck, they realized they were getting bigger and bigger to become their normal size.
"Yay!" they cried.
So, to test their size, they frolicked and twisted and jumped. They ran up the steps of their house, the wonderful aroma meeting them.
"Marco, Jemma! Where have you been? Your suppers are getting cold!" a familiar voice shrieked from the kitchen. 
Gemma and Maro exchanged glances, smirks plastered on their faces...

The Terrible Encounter with the Terrible Beast

Ellie's eyes snapped open. She was having a nightmare and decided to have a cup of milk in the kitchen downstairs.

"Sighhh...."

The sigh was as soft as snow landing gently on snow, as a mouth, full with inward-growing, long, beastly teeth snapped open and shut under Ellie's bed. But she didn't know that...

Her bare toes were exposed to the open and Ellie shivered because the central heating was off. But the stairs' fluffiness comforted her, receiving the patches of the stairs' own little heating.

"Grrr..."

The growl was as ragged as shattered remains of a fallen glass. Ellie froze. Did she imagine it? 

She fearfully turned around but saw nothing but the white stairs stretching to the upper floor.

"Must've been imagining it." she thought.

But under the mahogany table in the living room, a hand lay motionless on the carpet floor, the nails elongated and rotten, hairy with matted, curly hair and its skin dead and fleshy. But of course... she didn't know that.

The familiarity eased and reduced the fear that was growing in the pit of her stomach. She felt she was being watched. But, after all, she was desperate for a drink. So, she gingerly approached the kitchen, a grim expression plastered on her face.

After what felt like endless hours, she opened the fridge door then poured herself some cold milk. As she drank, she then happened to feel very comfortable. Then, she felt terrified. She knew that something was waiting for her outside the kitchen. 

It was breathing. It wheezed raspy breaths that sounded shallow and pained. Sweat trickled down Ellie's forehead. She glanced at the clock. 12 o'clock!

Oh no! It was dead of the night! It was when demons and black magic CRASH!

Her cup of milk had slipped out of her hand, glistening with her panicked perspiration. The thing outside the kitchen stopped breathing. Ellie's chest felt as if it would burst from her hard-beating chest.

"I'll make a run for it!" decided Ellie in her thoughts.

So, she steadied herself, gripped onto the sink in order to propel herself forward.

Then, she sprinted as fast as she could, her head down... and headbutted into something hard. Adrenaline flowing, she looked up at her approacher. Oh lord, Oh lord!!

Standing there, sickly and disgusting was a body. It had only clumps of meat that was decaying and bones stuck out like horns in random places. Ohhhh....

And his face. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

There was no eyes but holes. Dark, evil holes that expressed feelings, and teeth that stuck inwards and looked as if it was for eating meat!
The monster lifted its decaying hand, that was covered in matted curly hair with nails that were elongated and rotten. The light glinted in the sharp, blood-stained blade.

Ellie knew she was in for it. Down, down, down came the blade... Click!

Ellie's eyes snapped open,. She had had a nightmare and decided to drink milk from the kitchen downstairs.
She stepped out of bed, thirsty and her tongue felt like it was suffering in a drought.
Ellie looked up. To be face to face with a decaying face. Holes, inward-growing carnivorous teeth, all from the dream. The can't be it! Just as Ellie was going to scream for help, a sewage-belonging and sharp ragged hand muffled her alarms. Suffocating, couldn't breathe, will die...

Ellie's eyes snapped open. She had had a nightmare and decided to drink milk from the kitchen downstairs...

Diary of a Mermaid

Dear Diary,

Today was awesomely scary when I visited the Dark Cave for my very first time. I thought it wouldn't be terribly dangerous or scary, but I realized that the permission slips meant something.
Well, when I arrived to the Dark Cave, I was wearing my special night black shells and draped see-through black seaweed on my sparkly green tail.
I entered the gloomy cave, after I gave my slip to the octopus who floated sullenly above the grey soft seabed. The dull and endless darkness stretched continuously in front of me. I was all alone.
Suddenly, I heard a clanking noise. I froze. I tried to spot what the noise was coming from.
Then to my horror, my inner terrifiedness was revealed and I was frantically swimming and retracing my steps back to where I came from. The clanking noise that sounded very similar to metal clashing together, came closer and closer...
I was extremely happy and glad that I had made it out of there.
Gasping for oxygen, I strobed my thick red hair and tried to get my breath back. The black, creepy and very ugly octopus watched me.
"Turn around." it said miserably. 
Slowly, I turned around. 
At that moment, my emotions were mixed with happiness and horror, for there standing was an army of decaying skeletons in Roman armour, at the very brink of the entrance of the cave, their heads nodding in the misty water.
"Oh, my!" I exclaimed, and blur, and I swam, my tail a blur, and never came back there again.

The Room

How could this be?
Suddenly, a bright yellow hologram appeared beside my bed flashing and causing yellowness to seep into every corner of the room. I yelped in surprise and fear and leapt unto my bed, curling up inside my bed sheets.
I saw a strange little man, the image crackling as if it was old, wearing a lab coat and gloves that gleamed snow white but then was splattered with red paint. Or was it?
He leaned over a sickly and pale man whose leg looked very unhealthy. It was black and grey, and looked like there was rotting flesh in some places that was writhing with white, peach and very hungry maggots.
The insects disappeared in and out of the poor man's knee. He moaned with agony and he spoke with fear in his voice.
"Oh, doctor! Please, don't! Don't!" he cried.
I wondered what terrible thing the evil doctor was plotting to do.
To my absolute horror, he raised the jagged saw he was clutching and brought it to the patient's leg.
"No! Ah! Please, stop!" the infected man screamed.
Lines formed around every place on the man's forehead and instantly, he blacked out.
Utterly disgusted, I turned away and thought of kittens. 'Please, let it be over!' I thought.
Then, I noticed that the stomach-churning noises had stopped. Reluctant and terrified of what was to happen next, I turned around. OMG!
No! The patient's leg was right off and thick greyishly polluted blood gushed incincibly out of the meaty wound. I wanted to scream.
"No! What have you done, you imbecile! You've basically killed your meant-to-be-cured patient!"
But all I could manage was a whimper.
I searched the room for an escape but all I saw was gouged, chipped, grey walls.
Oh, no!
Suddenly, the disgusting doctor whipped around and we were eye to eye!
I was too frightened to move a muscle, and the blood-soaked senior inched his way towards me like a zombie.
Coming, coming.
A sly grin stretched on his face and his face was so grotesque that it was an eye-sore. His thick, crusty and scabby hand came closer. The smell was sour, wafting up my nose. But just as he was getting too close, he and the groaning patient disappeared and magically, the room changed to normal.
I sat up on my bed.  "Must've been a dream." I thought.
An so I went downstairs to have breakfast.
But in the corner of the room, hidden by the shadow, was a leg.
It twitched and shuddered as fat maggots wormed their way out and in through the horrid black flesh...

Lost

Last Sunday, Mum realized that we needed more supplies of food. So off we drove to Waitrose.
At the time, I was only little and everything was bigger than it really was. So small supermarkets were huge.
As we walked along the aisle, where you could buy all sorts of sweets and biscuits, to get to the bread section.
I was distracted by a chocolate bar I hadn't seen before. When I had crouched down to examine it, I must've sat there for ages, because when I looked up, Mum wasn't there.
Instantly, panic surged through me and I left the aisle to look for Mum.
Suddenly, questions flashed in my mind.
'Will someone kidnap me? Will I become famous? Who will be my family?'
I looked into every column but couldn't find her anywhere. That was when I had a total meltdown.
But as I neared the exit, thinking about living in a cardboard box, I saw Mum putting a lolly box into the bag.
Ellie saw me and said "Mummy bought us lollies!"
The I realized I wouldn't have to live in a box any more.

'Hinda the Hungry Child' after reading 'Oliver' by Dickens

Hinda dodged the puffed up dresses and crisply-worn black shoes as she weaved through the street. 
Her heart pumped behind her sticking out ribs that poked out of her brown skin beneath a ragged dress.
Her feet were scratched and hard from walking on barefoot on the stony London cobble streets.
"Wow, look how fine everyone here is in England." she thought as she admired fancy women's tiny shoes and stiff straight waists.
Hinda's tummy started growling. She was starving and needed food.
Finally, she arrived to a fruit market where fruit all shapes and sizes were placed roughly in wooden crates.
"One fruit taken wouldn't hurt anyone..." thought Hinda.
Carefully, she walked along the aisle of luscious fruit as if she didn't care in the world about them. 
Then, with a skillful swift move of her long elegant fingers, she snatched an apple from a crate.
"Thief!" yelled the owner and started to chase Hinda. But Hinda was as swift as deer and she didn't go hungry that night.

'My Encounter with a Wild Animal'

The scorching sun reached through my shirt and pinched my sunburnt skin.
Although I had a good supply of water, my tongue was starting to transform into a dried leech.
Lazily, I scanned the wobbly strip of the horizon..
Wait, what was that approaching me?
The silhouette came into view.
It had grey, winkled skin, big leathery ears and a curling trunk that dropped through two, brutal looking tusks. Uh-oh.
The bull elephant charged forward, dusts and particles showering everything behind it.
Hoping, I would have a bit more time to escape, I tossed my backpack about twelve feet beside me that skidded on the golden floor.
Fortunately, the bull elephant charged towards it, trampling on it until it was flattened and pierced, it unmercifully with its huge, yellow tusks.
"That could've been me." I thought.
I was not fifty metres away from the grey monster and I was panting and very thirsty.
But to my extreme luck, a vehicle with tourists inside it, was rolling towards me. Phew!
With my last glimmer of strength, I leapt into the car and shouted at the top of my lungs and yelled that the elephant was chasing us.
Tourists screamed when they saw the elephant charging towards us at immense speed.
"Drive!" I shouted.
The little car started driving, then soon we were going at a hundred miles per hour. 
The bull elephant thundered closer and closer...red dust and plants blanketed us.
When we cleared ourselves, I looked for the elephant. It was gone.
We had made it alive and well!

Doomed Vacuum of Happiness

Doomed Vacuum of Happiness

An invisible vacuum sucking happiness away.

Helplessly lost in a war of the worlds.

Steaming fires.

Racing rockets.

Gory gas.

All shadows of death.

We're near the doors of endless darkness.

An invisible vacuum sucking glory away.

Crash! Crash! - Take cover!

Huddled in the Anderson shelter.

Listening to the screams of terror.

Staring at a familiar photo remembering Dad's motto -

'Never fear, never hear the words of hopelessness.'

My childhood is shattered like a fallen mirror.

The war is a whirlpool sucking happiness

and glory down to the bottomless depths of the sea.

Published on the 'Young Writers'

Poem 'The Menargerie'

The Menargerie

The white and blue birds soar up to the bright blue sky.

They glide and twist with grace.

Other birds answer their chittery calls.

Tweet!

Dolphins splash and dive into the bright blue water. 

They laugh with happiness.

Their reply is answered with a hiss of an anaconda and the gurgle of a frog.

Penguins surge underwater, while cheetahs sprint across the savanah.

Gazzelles zip for an escape and the zebras prance with rhythm. 

Lionesses dash fur shade while wild horses gallop across the peaceful meadow.

Riders stroll towards them with saddles and reins and fat cats shuffle around in their sleep.

Poor rat.

A unloved limp rat, lays on the ground dead, with poison invading its blood.

The sheep strain their neck for grass and a goose and its goslings elevate to water.

The murmuring ripples are carried by the wind.

Ruby Wilson 1.11.2014