Hanna Yousof
1st Year
Loreto Secondary School
Granges Rd.
Kilkenny
Otherworld
The wind whipped through her hair, stray pieces falling out of her loose bun as she ran, ignoring her
father’s shouts, her mother’s cries. Ran away from not only her fears, but her thoughts, the
memories she had accumulated in that house. Running away seemed to be the best solution to her
problems these days. She could feel tears silently dripping down her cheeks and her body trembling,
something that had become a seemingly normal occurrence, as the days wore on. Not even a minute
later she could feel tiny droplets of rain falling from the sky, mirroring her mood exactly. Taking a
deep, yet shaky breath in a futile attempt to calm herself down, she came to a halt at the edge of a
hill. Sitting down, she took a moment to take in her surroundings, her teary eyes leaving her with a
slightly unclear vision. A few bushes and a lone tree. It was eerily silent. Even the wind, which she
had heard not a moment ago, was gone. Disappeared, even. She contemplated whether to return
home or remain sitting in the same spot, at the edge of the hill. Standing up, she decided it would be
best to return, for she did not want to cause her parents anymore pain and anguish than she already
had. Suddenly a pair of cold hands wrapped around her, trapping her. She refrained from screaming,
knowing that nobody would be around to hear it. Suddenly she felt her eyes closing and herself
falling. Falling far, far away into another place, another land. And then,
Silence.
Her eyes shot open and she quickly sat up, banging her head in the process. She winced but was
curious as to where she was and at that very moment, the last thing on her mind was the bump
slowly forming on her head. She looked down and saw that she had been laying on a metal bed with
no pillows, no blankets or anything of the sort. She looked around the room. The walls were blank
and slightly dirty and there was no form of ventilation, or even a single window at that.
“Welcome to Ghost Town. The council requests your presence”, said a voice, making her jump about
10 feet in the air. She placed a hand on her heart, the shock slowly wearing off.
“Where am I?”, she asked the strange looking man at her right.
“All questions will be answered by the council. Now, follow me”.
Deciding that at this point, there was no point in any further questioning, because for all she knew, it
could cause her a slow, painful death, she followed him. They stopped at an ENORMOUS (and I mean
ENORMOUS) door. Her heart started thumping extremely loudly in her chest, knowing that this
“Ghost Town” the man had spoken of was most definitely not a normal place. The man knocked on
the door, interrupting her thoughts.
“Enter”, said a voice from the room. And so they did.
The man opened the door and grabbed her arm.
“Don't do anything stupid”, he said looking her in the eyes. She nodded, not fully taking in his words,
for really, who would when anything could happen to you in minutes. Seconds, even. She took a
deep breath, and held her head high, trying to seem brave, but failing horribly. She sighed, knowing
there was no point in acting ‘brave’ and looked down at the ground, trying to act as small as
possible, though that too was proving to be difficult, seeing as the strange looking man (who, by the
way, still had a strong hold on her arm, making her feel like a prisoner or something) was
EXTREMELY short. He had to be at least several heads shorter than her. Possibly even as short as
your average baby. They finally stopped at the very back of the huge room, at an equally as huge
desk. She stared blankly at the desk, for nobody was there, nobody at all.
She drummed her fingers on the desk, before the man (who was STILL holding her arm) slapped
them away. She uttered an annoyed sigh, getting impatient. Suddenly a figure floated into the room
(yes, FLOATED) right before her eyes, which widened in shock at the recognition of the strange
figure, who was a weird pale-y colour. The figure walked (well, floated) around the room.
“Maya Jones, 16, The Avenue, Jeremy and Anna Jones. And previously – Vincent Jones”, he
muttered. But at that very moment, what was bothering her, making her feel sick, was not that he
knew her name, age, or even her mom and dad. It was the fact that he knew HIM. Vincent. Her dead
brother. It was because of Vincent that even her own thoughts scared her.
Because SHE, Maya Bethany Jones, had killed him.
“Thank you Arthur”, said the figure, giving the man holding her a dismissive nod. ‘Arthur’ obediently
walked out of the room.
“Welcome, Maya”, he said, motioning for her to sit. She obeyed, feeling an aura of power coming
from this man.
“Now you may be wondering what on Earth you are doing here. Firstly, all your questions will be
answered in this booklet”. She looked at the desk, realising the booklet had appeared magically, out
of thin air.
“All I will tell you Maya”, said the man “Is that I know that you know me. That is because ‘Ghost
Town’ is where everyone goes after they die, whether a painful or peaceful death. And I know, too,
Maya, that you killed ‘him’. Or at least that's your recollection of the event”, he said, chuckling
silently to himself.
“But … how?”, she asked, looking down in shame, and fear of crying again.
“Look, Maya, if you want to ‘redeem’ yourself, see Vincent for the last time, look in that booklet, find
the riddles and solve them”. But before she could respond, again, she felt herself falling, into what
seemed like a deep, dark, abyss.