Narative

The Figure

By Sofia Lumbreras

7:30am, “time to get ready for school,” I mumbled to myself. Carefully I rolled out of bed, drew the curtains and peered out the window. “Where am I?” I was sure I didn’t fall asleep here. Curious and scared to find out where I was, I stumbled down the unexpected stairs that were in my path. “Hello,” my voice echoed as I carried on heading towards what I thought was the kitchen. No reply. “Hello” I said again, hoping for an answer. Again, no reply. I wandered into a room, it was pitch black, the door was ajar but, I could just make out the figure of a human.

“Who’s in there?” My voice echoed in the room. Thoughts spun around in my head, and I felt as though I was on a ferris wheel.

“Gosh, children these days, they just don’t knock” I heard the figure mumble.

“Who are you, and why am I here?” I was still inquiring the fact that this is not my home.

“This is your new home.”

“What happened? Where are my parents?”

The figure didn't say anything but I think I saw a smile emerge on their face.  

“What did you do?” I exclaimed “ I know you did something”

As soon as the figure revealed his face I turned around and ran. Banging my fists hard on the rotted wood, that made the door, didn’t do anything . I was locked inside.

“Haha, you thought you could escape, but that is not how I roll.” “I kidnap kids and them lock them up inside my attic, which is where you will be going right now.”

Giving me no time to escape, the man then grabbed me by the collar and dragged me up the stairs into the attic. Inside the attic it was damp, dusty and you could barely see what was meant to be the floor. Within a second I found myself locked up in a room with a girl who goes by the name Lucy.

She says that she has had no food whatsoever for the last two days and I believe her because it looks like she is just made out of skin and bones, no meat at all. “ How long have you been down here for?” I asked her.

“A week” she said with her squeaky voice.

“Poor you, I only got here today, just before to be exact.”

“There are heaps of other kids down there,” Lucy said pointing at a set of doors. “ Lucifer has kept them for half a year now and they are starving.   

“Who’s Lucifer?” I questioned.

“Lucifer is the guy who lives here, they guy who kidnapped you in the first……..”

“Help!!” A scream from one of the doors stopped Lucy from finishing her sentence.  We rush over to the door. It is locked. “We need a key,” I say to Lucy.

“Look, over there” Lucy squealed in her high pitched voice. “ I think that’s a key.”

“Let’s get it before Lucifer catches us again”.
We grabbed the key and tried using it for the door we that we heard the shout from. It didn’t budge. “I think we got the wrong key” I exclaim. “There is another door over there, maybe the key unlocks that door.”

“It’s worth a try” Lucy pleaded. “I hope this works”

It did. The key fit perfectly inside the keyhole and as soon as I turned it, the door squeaked open. You wouldn’t believe what we saw inside. Inside the room 1000 keys shimmered in the sunlight. “ I’m sure one of these will unlock the door,” Lucy says, happy to have found a solution.

We started to walk down the long, dark hallway to get to the doors.

“Over there” I say, running towards a huge brown  door. “This is the one”

The door jolted open and there were the children that had been screaming for who knows how long. I noticed a window that Lucifer must have opened and we all rushed towards it. One by one we clambered out and onto the dry, bare grass below us. “Run” I screamed as I saw Lucifer appear at the window. Glass shattered behind us as Lucifer smashed through it, but that didn’t stop us. We kept running until he was out of sight. “ That was a close one” I said with a sigh of relief.