by Sondre, Grade 10
When he lifted up the dusty sail, the room was filled with a strange light, I did not see it directly but he did. The red and green light, like a strange aurora, filled his eyes and took over its brown colour. As if he was hypnotised, he slowly let go of the sail, and the crystal entity was covered back up again.
He looked at us, soulless he said, “gimme the sword,”
The sword I had taken from one of the old statues in the living room shined dimly in the dark attic, the crystal at the hilt almost absorbing light from the phone flashlight.
I looked nervously at the sword, then at him.
Liam stepped in front of me nervously but defiantly. His messy rusty hair looked grey with the silver moonlight and layers of dust.
“Give the sword to me!” Alex repeated, more aggressively this time
“No,” said Liam.
“BECAUSE I NEED IT!” shouted Alex as he scratched an itch by his wrist, the veins in his eyes seemingly bursting.
“No,” Liam quivered as he tried his best to sound like he had any sort of authority over Alex.
Charlotte and Val in the back of the room had stopped digging through the antiques of the dusty attic and looked over at nervous little Liam, knowing something was going to happen.
Alex itched furiously at his watch, ripping it off his arm. His hand was so desperate, so itching, so delirious his nails drew blood. Sweat dripped down his face.
“Just, please give me the sword,” he stuttered as his face went white and he looked at Val.
“And that necklace, give me it all.”
Charlotte grasped her newfound necklace defiantly and stared him down from across the room.
“Alex, are you okay, dude?” Val asked carefully as if Alex was a bomb and he was an amateur bomb defuser. Val cut the wrong wire, and with a bang, Alex lunged into the nearby boxes of silver plates and cutlery like a feral new york city rat. He swam through it, grabbing the shiniest ones and throwing them to where the wild light came from earlier. He glanced at the sword for a meagre second before throwing himself towards it, landing at my feet with a hungry grasp around my ankle. Liam threw himself over him but he was too weak to stop him, he already had a grasp on my shirt toppling me over. I lost my balance, I crashed, I lost the sword, and I was in the midst of a desperate brawl between Alex and Liam, which Liam was definitely losing.
Val and charlotte screamed I cried, Liam was pinned down and Alex laughed maniacally as he reached for the sword.
Charlotte came forth and stepped on his hand already bleeding from his own nails. She kicked the sword back into the attic towards Val. Alex hell-bent and out of his mind shoves Liam into the corner and with a newly freed hand grabs the shiny pearl necklace of Charlotte and throws it to the entity in the corner, a little light began finding its way through the covering fabric.
“Alex, what the bloody hell are you doing!” yelled Val at the top of his lungs as Liam rolled around, trying to stop the blood flowing from his nose.
Charlotte kicked Alex hard in the head, unleashing a wave of dust covering his face and pouring into his nose.
“Alex, what are you doing!” Val repeated.
“Ouch, I don’t know. Charlotte may you step off my arm, please?” Alex said, very confused.
Charlotte stepped down on him twice as hard, making him wince.
I ran to Liam to help him dust off.
Val stood tall with the sword in both hands and pointed at Alex, “You went crazy and tried to kill us all!”
“WHAT!” Alex yelled in disbelief.
“All I remember is looking at a chandelier or something, a very pretty one, of crystal.” he continued.
Silently I walked up to where he saw the crystal first and uncovered it. It was the most beautiful I have ever seen, it shined like a thousand new polished cars in the rising Dubai sun, Expensive and glorious. My mind was filled with a light so luxurious I could smell it, and felt like a queen. I got a taste for gold. And as swiftly it came, it went with a thud to my head.
I had been bewitched by the chandelier just like Alex had been. I had tried to toss all the luxuries in the attic towards the godly chandelier. I must have broken the window behind it in the process, or while Liam and the rest desperately tried to subdue me. The beautiful chandelier landed on the overgrown yard, uncovered. Some curious deers had seen it… and safe to say we are currently locked up in the house, fending off aggressive bewitched deers acting like magpies trying to steal all that is shiny.
Elements Magazine 