ELTHAM HIGH SCHOOL ANTHOLOGY   

“Children Kidnaped but returned” Mina read aloud as her brother Jeremy entered her bedroom.                                                                                              “Why do you still read that junk” said Jeremy as he plonked himself down next to his sister and looked over her shoulder. “Because I’m looking for clues that hint where Alexander could be, I want to find out if he’s dead or alive” Mina whispered her, eyes misting up behind her blue patterned glasses, no, she thought, I will not cry in front of Jeremy, he would only make fun of me. “Mina, Alex has been missing for over 6 months, he was the very first child to disappear in the night, remember? I doubt he’s coming back. He’s probably dead so stop trying to bring him back.” Jeremy finished. “You know what I think?” Mina snapped, her temper rising “I think you gave up all hope of finding him!” She cried.

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Jeremy punched her arm so Mina rolled up the newspaper she was holding and thwacked him over the head with it. Than Jeremy threw himself at Mina hoping to pin her against her bed which he sort of succeeded in doing until Mina rolled him off her and onto the floor. So the battle continued, with lots of kicking and punching and ramming the other sibling into the bookshelf or wall until they had rolled out of Mina’s bedroom and into the hallway. Both children waited for the other to surrender but neither sibling did so they opted to glare at the other rival. Jeremy struggled to breath with his body being squished between the carpet and his sister’s bottom, luckily they both started giggling and Mina jumped of Jeremy to clean her bedroom but just as Jeremy was getting up she delivered a swift kick up his backside and quickly retreated to her room.

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I must tell you more about these children. Mina, Jeremy and Alexander are triplets but they look nothing alike. Mina is very tall and has dark curly hair the colour of Vegemite, she wore blue glasses that framed her green and brown eyes, Mina was second oldest born just after Alex. Alex has ringlets just like his sister but he had ginger curls instead, he was almost as tall as his younger sister but unfortunately, she refused to stop growing. Under his soft blue eyes he had a small amount of freckles. Now Jeremy was the youngest and the shortest, he had ginger hair just like his older brother but instead of ringlets like Alex and Mina, he had wavy hair and a fringe that was so long he could put it in his mouth. Jeremy had so many freckles, it looked like he had a tan all year round yet whenever it was summer he was red as a cherry from sun burn. Jeremy and Mina where always wrestling, arguing and pushing each other’s buttons but when miserable times reared its ugly head these three always had each other’s backs, that was until Alex disappeared. 

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It started over 6 months ago in early March, (when Alex was still around). The family had dinner, Mina and Jeremy had had another fight, this ending with the entire household laughing. The triplets went to bed in high spirits but by the morning, even the weather knew something wasn’t right. That night Mina had a dream, it was not a pleasant dream with dolphins and a soccer match included, it was the exact opposite. Mina dreamt that she walked into her brother’s room in the middle of the night. A black figure was looming over Jeremy’s sleeping body, silhouetted in the silver moonlight holding a dagger. Before she could scream the creature threw a dagger at her, it whizzed right past her ear, nipping at her ear and drawing blood as it flew past and wedged itself into the wall, splattering droplets of blood on the cream wall. Mina knew this was the one and only warning from the stranger but she ignored it and opened her mouth to scream but before she could the creature hurled a second dagger straight at Mina’s chest, she dodged but she wasn’t quick enough. She felt the dagger tear her pyjama top apart and impale her skin and then everything went black.

 

Chapter 2:  Missing

 

Mina woke to her brother kicking her in the shoulder. “Wake up sleepy head. I need to see if there’s a clean top in the study that I can wear today but I can’t go anywhere when you’re snoozing in the doorway,” Jeremy grumbled.           “Fine, fine I’ll move but can you please get a top on!” Mina exclaimed shielding her eyes from Jeremy’s bare chest. Mina jumped up and stumbled towards her own room. As they walked their separate ways neither child noticed the small stitching’s in Mina’s grey top or the small pale pink dent on the wall and the tiny ruby drops of blood on the carpet.

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“Mina, have you seen Alex?” Asked Jeremy as he heard the door open       “nope, I haven’t seen him since last night, he must’ve gone off without us” Mina replied as she handed Jeremy his homework book, “you’ll be needing this won’t you O-Master-Forgetful” she said cheekily                                                  “bet I can beat you to school!” Jeremy yelled ignoring his sister’s snide comment as he started running down the road. “HA! Nice try J! I’ll still beat you!” Mina shouted to him as she hurtled after her younger brother. Their day was like any typical high school day. Double sessions of maths and French, Mina had a detention during lunch. Nothing interesting happened at all but the one thing they should have noticed was that Alex had not shown up. Now ask yourselves my dear readers, where could Alexander be? A week passed and he still hadn’t returned. Then another child disappeared. A week later, they returned, back to their families safe and sound, but that exact same night another child vanished. So it went on, but still after 6 months their was no sign of Alex. His family had presumed he was dead, all except Mina who still had hope he was out there.

 

            Chapter 3:  Kidnapped

 

The light seeped through the dusky old room as the hooded stranger opened the door and gently shut it. The room was stripped of almost all its furniture, except for a single chair with a sheet thrown across it in the dusty corner. The hooded figure slithered forward towards that corner, then stopped. She stood still listening to the silence but it wasn’t silent, a strange noise came from the chair filling the room. The stranger dragged of the sheet to reveal a person slumped forward on the chair, his hands and feet where tied around the limbs of the wooden chair and chained to the floor with rusted metal. The hooded figure stooped down to look at the prisoners pale unconscious face and gently stroked his curly hair. The prisoners eyes flew open and he bashed his head against the thick skull of the hooded figure. The figure stumbled back touching the bleeding mark on her forehead and chuckled at the prisoners attempt to harm her and then with a dramatic swish of her cape she banged the metal door behind her. The prisoners sharp blue gaze lingered on the entrance then he sighed and went back to work at his bindings, even though he has been here for estimated 6 months he still has faith he will be found or he will get out.

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Jeremy and Mina returned home from school, worn out and still continuing the fight that started that morning. It was a summery Friday, the siblings had been working their butts off at school and the heat was getting to them. The family had a quick and early dinner in silence. The family traded “goodnight’s”, (the parents still worried about what happened to Alex, and never wanting there other children to disappear to) then Jeremy and Mina headed off to their welcoming beds longing for a good night’s rest and a wonderful weekend to come but they should have never set their hopes so high that night.

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It was a dark night, darker than usual. Normally the street lamps or an extra left on light or two would brighten up the silent street but that wasn’t the case. A blackout was to blame. Mina sat at her window staring out at the moonless abyss, enjoying the lively stillness displayed in front of her. Her brother approached her side. “The quietness is bliss” he whispered,                               “yes it is” Mina replied. Mina sniffed the air; she could suddenly smell a slight fragrance of rose petal tea. “Mmm why do you smell like roses? Is it a new perfume?” She murmured. Her mind felt oddly clouded and foggy.                  “Why don’t you rest your head on me” her brother said                                 

 

 

\“mm ok” Mina replied but as she changed her position the world started spinning and her eyelids droop. Mina realised that she wasn’t leaning on her brother, it was a female intruder but it was too late. The intruder started to count down “3...2...1... aaand lights out sweetie pie”. Thud! Mina fell to the floor unconscious, the stranger picked her up and carried Mina to where she had stashed the real Jeremy, like his sister he was deep in sleep unaware of a stranger approaching him and being teleported to who knows where with his sister still in the clutches of the masked stranger. They never felt people place them in stasis pods to keep them asleep. They didn’t hear the ‘sss click’ the pods made as the screens where closed upon them. They didn’t feel, they didn’t see, they didn’t hear, they didn’t even dream.

 

               Chapter 4:  Mistakes

 

Mina awoke panting. Was she awake? She thought she had her eyes open but all she could see was darkness, was this another strange dream? Mina could hear people talking outside her bubble of black. She tried to grab something through the black but she couldn’t move, her hand wouldn’t move. Mina yelled out but not a sound escaped from her gaping jaw. She began to panic. Her breathing quickened, her chest rose and fell faster and faster. Mina lent her head back wishing this nightmare would end. Mina was drifting through a dark blue emptiness, drifting and drifting. Then it hit her, she wasn’t drifting she was plummeting, Mina was falling. No she wasn’t just falling, she was also drowning! She tried to swim upwards but there was no water to swim through. Mina was desperate to fill her lungs with air but she kept falling. Down, down, down she plummeted never reaching the bottom, she should shout out but nobody was there to hear her screams! Mina took and a breath of emptiness and yelled! She screamed until her voice no longer existed. When she ran out of sound she started again, it felt like somebody was shoving rough sandpaper down her throat as she continued. CRASH!! She landed on solid ground the force of her decent rebounding and lifting her up into the air and back down again. She had found the bottom. Crack! Crack, SHATTER! Her blue surroundings were breaking and shattering like glass until it all exploded!

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 Mina jolted awake smashing her forehead against an invisible force, her ears were ringing and the world was spinning. She lay there panting while cold sweat dripped down her neck and back. Mina removed her hand from her face and stared up, she realised that there was an eerie blue light seeping in from a crack in the emptiness that lay before her, the light was the same light form her dream except less terrifying. On closer inspection the cracks were like a spiders web except more jagged like glass. To her surprise Mina could move her hand again so she placed it next to the crack. “Not like cracked glass, it IS cracked glass!” She exclaimed. Mina gasped her hand flying to her mouth, “I...I can speak again...” she whispered, “I CAN SPEAK AGAIN!!!” She yelled thrusting her arms out in joy only to feel a piercing pain shoot through the tips of her fingertips to her elbow. Mina withdrew her arms cringing at the realisation of how confined her space was.