Read Kate's Highly Commended Short Story from the Extra Newspaper Yr 7 and 8 competition!

Life Pieces

On a street dressed in darkness and sprayed with pollution, where the pavement was made of zig zagged cracks and the tall, shaking buildings were tattooed with graffiti, there was an apartment building. A concrete tower that pierced the moist grey sky, and pale turquoise paint curled away from the wall. Matching platforms hung onto the apartment, stabbed with rust infected, broken railings. There, on the 5th floor, a 13 year old girl’s life hung in the balance. Well, actually onto side of a smashed balcony. The girl’s long, pale fingers gripped onto the sharp edge, her crimson blood splattering her palms. In the warm, comfy room of her mind, those bloody hands snatched every ounce of life she could collect and tried to piece them together as her thoughts collapsed around her, and terror invaded her brain, letting out curdling screams that no one would ever hear. As a weightless, invisible ice cold hand slapped her face, her hand teared away from the edge, like a block of cheese being shredded with a grater. The girl’s Life Pieces ripped away from her bloody grasp, sinking into darkness. She yelled out, horrified her life was hanging by a thread, and reached out her dangling hand, cloaked in crimson liquid and sweat, and clutched onto the smallest, last piece before it joined the others into nothingness. The girl was thrusted into the real world, the hazy apartment staring her in the eyes. The muscles in her hand that still gripped onto the building were on fire, and there was no water to extinguish the flames. Sweat slithered under the torn skin, melting the grip of her hand like the sun melting an ice cream. As the girl’s bloodied painted fingers sprung off the jagged edge of the balcony, she visited her mind one last time. The Life Piece she had struggled to hold onto had slipped out of her grasp, flipping into the blackhole of her mind. Gravity coiled around her feet, and yanked her down, letting her drift into the dark and unknown hole. She pried her eyes open as the cold, polluted air rocketed above her, blowing in her face, and the smell of machinery gushed into her nostrils. The cracked concrete path marched towards her, expanding like a dirty gray balloon as gravity let the girl fall through it’s cold, forceful hands. She clamped her eyes shut as she plummeted towards the hole that would contain her spirit forever, her twinkling Life Pieces disintegrating into dust. The girl lay back as if she were in a hammock, spreading her arms wide, letting the dirty air rush between them. She threw her fear into the darkness, and embraced it as her body kissed the concrete….

Kate Waters

Balmacewen Intermediate