Young Writers Society

Hmm ..

AN UNCHARACTERISTIC WORLD.

The family held on to the last hours of the weekend. The day’s had gone quickly and nobody wanted to go back to the ordinary, boring world where everything was planned and perfect. As it turned out, all of Matt’s bones were in one piece, but he was still quite bruised. Waking up to an early morning was not liked by anyone. All four of the Andersons of the Andersons-Belinda, Matt, Max and Tim and Andrew (the twins) walked through dewy grass to get to the bus stop. There was a light fog, the mist limiting visibility. The ride to school was as always, and the arrival – normal. Max was in English, the room was overheated and the questions set, were boring. The refreshment of a cold breeze was nice when they left the classroom, until the cold sunk in. He watched as Celina walked passed. She was pretty. Her eyes were a light shade of blue and her hair a light brown. Her hair was up though she usually wore her locks down, Max tried not to stare as she walked past. He went to meet another of his mates, Joe.

He smiled.

“What’d you have”, he asked.

“English”, said Max, expressing his dislike on his face.

“At least it’s better than science”, he replied.

“True”.

They walked up to the basket ball courts, both with sandwiches in hand. Most of the rush had not arrived yet, they enjoyed the temporary silence. He spotted a dog running in the distance. He let his eyes follow it until he realised it was coming towards them.

“What are you staring at?”Joe asked as he turned around to see for himself. The dog trotted, cheerfully. As it approached them it turned its face and stared into Max’s aqua eyes. It was jet black with the lightest shade of blue coloured eyes. Max was hypnotised and started to feel faint. He felt himself shiver, and tried to turn away. The dog came closer. Max backed away, fearfully. The dog looked away. Max was dizzy and tried to steady himself. The sun shone in his eyes and he closed them shut. Regaining his balance, he looked around. The dog was trotting away in the distance. Joe looked at him, slightly wide eyed. Max forced a smile and they walked back for the end of lunch.

He walked up the gravel slope to catch his bus home.

“Matt. Matt”. He heard someone call in the distance.

The voice continued to call then stopped and started calling “Max”. He heard footsteps and turned around.

“Oh, sorry Max,” it was Chelsea, a family friend.

“Sorry”, she continued. “You’re names are a bit confusing”, she said, blushing,

“Yeah”, said Max in agreement. “I’ve always wondered why mum gave us such similar names.”

She nodded slowly.

“Where is Matt anyway?” she said.

“He got kept back to catch up on some school work”.

“Ah…Well, I just thought I’d remind you that the family are coming round tomorrow.”

“If that’s alright”, she said judging the look on his face.

“Oh no”, said Max slightly startled by her thoughts. “Mum just never told me that’s all”.

“Oh alright, well maybe she forgot.”

“I’ll remind her”, said Max.

“Yeah well I’d better go”, she said and departed. Max stepped up to the bus and took a seat near the front. As he gazed out the window he thought, I might try the forest again tonight.

Matt, was at school and leaving Max home alone. The rest of the family were out doing what they usually did on a Monday night- Belinda at uni, the twins-Tim and Andrew at soccer training and his parents yet to come home from work. This gave Max an excellent opportunity to re-enter the forest. Although the event had scared him, he couldn’t help feeling intrigued. It was raining, the wind spraying the water droplets with every gust. He stepped outside, rugged up with a coat and gloves. He took a few steps, it was nearly dark and the ¾ moon was showing itself to the world. Max jumped as headlights blared unexpectedly. Recognising the car, he went forward to say hello. The twins were in the back with a friend whose Dad had driven them home. He wound down his window.

“How are you going Max?”

“Alright”, responded Max, half yelling over the howl of the wind. “Bit wet.”

“Yeah”, he said. “The boy’s training was cancelled.”

“Oh, thanks for dropping them off”.

“Your welcome”, he said then asked “What are you doing out in the rain anyway?”

“Oh, um I just heard the car coming down the drive”, Max lied.

“I’ll see you later”, he said and drove off.

The twins rushed inside, Max trudged behind, thinking. ‘Maybe it’s a good thing the twins came home early. Or maybe it’s just unlucky’.

The next day was cold and drizzly. The days continued to get colder as winter approached. It was a dark morning and Max smashed a bowl as he tried to eat breakfast. Frustrated, he got down on hands and knee to clean the mess.

“Oww”, he yelped.

A small piece of glass had pierced his hand. He rushed to the bathroom, trying to find the tweezers. He was irritated to find the light wouldn’t switch on. He fumbled through the draws, trying to see in the morning half light. At last, he found the tweezers. Max fiddled, trying to get the tiny chip of glass out. He moved to his bedroom, only to find that all the lights were not working. ‘Good timing for a power failure’, he thought. He searched for the torch. He wasn’t surprised to find the batteries dead. He rushed around looking for batteries. He was running late already without this madness. Finally, the glass was out. Max sprinted to the bus stop. The others had made their way up only minutes ago. When he arrived, he realised, with one heart dropping moment, they were gone. Today was the day where both his mother and father were working early. He would have to walk. He marched through the grass, trying to hurry. He was going to be late. He thought about ringing his sister. This idea was put out as he realised in the rush of the morning, he had forgotten his phone. So he kept walking. When he finally arrived he was puffed and flustered. He slammed his bag in his locker, grabbed his books and headed off to maths, just when Mr. Mathews a strict assistant principle walked past. Max listened to his rather loud lecture. He was given a detention then set off to class. He was glad to be rid of the teacher as he walked towards the classroom. He loosened his shoulders as he realised just how tense he was. He scored another detention, from his maths teacher. He was not usually a bad student, but his luck had turned against him lately.

Max watched as a crisp autumn leave floated gently to the ground. It was lunchtime and the sun had finally decided to come out of hiding and spread its light on the day. Max went, reluctantly, into the long canteen line. There was a lot of pushing and shoving going on up the front of the line. Max was knocked, his two dollar coin rolling and rolling its way past the Que. Remarkably it kept rolling and Max was forced to leave the line to retrieve it. Keeping his eye on it, he followed like a child playing a game. As soon as it went near the drain, max knew it would drop in. He watched with no control as it fell into the dark drain. Joe, his friend, was missing from school, leaving Max alone. He was used to it, before Joe had come along; Max had no one, every lunchtime, every day. The worst bit was the thought of being a loser. He could handle the solitude; it was what other people thought of him that worried him.

The walk from the bus stop was a lot friendlier as Matt, Tom and Andrew accompanied Max. They walked through long grass with unusually warm conditions, their throats parched.

“I’m surprised you got to school”, Matt sniggered, giving Max a thump on the back.

“Don’t laugh; I went through a pretty tough time this morning.”

This time, he joined in as the others laughed.

“Hey u guys know that the Kenton’s are coming over tonight.”

“Geez”, said Matt, taken back.”Is that tonight already?”

“Oh No”, cried their Mum rushing around the kitchen.

“They’re here already and I only just put the roast on”.

“Oh what am I to do?”

“Mum relax, everyone loves undercooked roast.”

It was always a joy to spend the night with the Kenton’s. It was amazing how much easier it was to get along with people you’ve known all your life. At school, Max’s conversations (if any) were strained. Now they talked about anything from last Christmas to Matt’s broken arm.

“So how are you going with school Max?” asked Julie (Mrs. Kenton).

“Oh, alright, I suppose.” Max said, having to swallow a rather big lump of roast potato.

“He’s a good student”, announced his Mum.

“Are you enjoying it?” asked Julie.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it fun”, he responded.

“Yeah?” she asked, then continued. Keela seems to love her first year of school. “You should have seen her the other day, up in front of the older kids announcing the results of the swim sports,” she proclaimed.

“It was scary,” piped in little Keela.

“Well done”, praised Max’s mum.

“BEEP BEEEEP.”

“Oh, that’s the oven telling me the pudding is ready”, said Mum.

“Max will you come help me?” she asked, not expecting any answer.

Once the table was clear, Max carefully lifted the hot pudding out of the oven. It was halfway when he realised. He yelped, nearly throwing the pudding halfway across the kitchen floor. The porcelain dish smashed. Tiny white shards scattered themselves across the room. Max stood still, in shock. Everyone in the dining room had gone quiet. He heard footsteps. His mother gasped and looked at him disappointedly. He tried to help; she didn’t say another word to him the whole night. Belinda ended up serving ice cream for dessert, refusing Chelsea’s offer to help. After a while, the conversation started to flow again but Max still felt bad. When the Kenton’s left Mum’s new short temper only got worse. It was starting to irritate everyone, especially his father, who later yelled at him and sent him to bed. Although Max liked his parents, he couldn’t help feeling angry at them. It wasn’t really his fault was it? It wasn’t like he could have done it any differently. He hadn’t deliberately ripped the tea towel, causing it to burn him. He flopped down on his bed, frustrated at himself. He reached out his arm and let the cold window soothe his stinging hand.

Finally, it was the end of the week. And it had sure been a tough one for Max Anderson. His life had taken a massive turn. He had suddenly become extremely unlucky. He found it hard to concentrate in class and almost found his sudden streak of unluckiness exciting, or at least interesting. He was starting to get a rather bad reputation with Celina. He had already tripped her twice and always seemed to do something embarrassing around her. Joe had still not come back to school. Max had never thought of him as a best friend, but was starting to miss his company. Max walked through the school yard, alone. A big crack was heard and then a thump as a branch from above fell. At first it hit his head then fell painfully onto his shoulder. He collapsed onto the nearest seat as his world started to go fuzzy. A voice spoke into his ear.

“Max….

Max?”

He turned his head towards the voice, his eyes finally managed to focus themselves and he saw a familiar face. It was Chelsea. She asked him if he was alright. When Max was back to normal, they chatted.

“Trust me to get hit by a tree”, he said.

“Well it is Friday 13th”, she said.

Although he didn’t show it, he found it almost alarming.

He walked home through the gate and noticed a letter in the mail. He expected it to be some sort of bill or letter from the government and was surprised when he found it addressed to him. He was even more shocked when he realised it was from his friend Joe; he didn’t remember ever giving him his address. The letter read:

Dear Max,

I am sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but it happened quite sudden. You have probably wondered why I have been missing during this week; I have to tell you that I will not be coming back to Vilydale High. I will be going to a new school, far off, my family and I will be moving close by. I am hoping that my new school will offer a better education and provide me with the skills I want for the future. Please do not write back, I will have left by then. I hope you will be alright without me.

Joe

Max held the leaf of paper and stared at it perplexedly. It left him in a very difficult situation. He didn’t much like making new friends. He was glad it was the weekend; at least it gave him some time to think about it.

Throughout the afternoon Max got madder, more worried and more disappointed. His emotions ran wild and even he couldn’t come up with a proper explanation. He had the house to himself for most of the night. Everybody else had something better to do, friends to hang out with. There was another pinch of unhappiness as he thought of it. Deciding he’d had enough of the house, he went outside, a bit shocked to find that it was almost dark. He knew that even at the dead of night it would not be dark, it was a full moon. As he walked he couldn’t help feeling angrier and angrier, like he was slowly turning form man to monster. He walked straight into the forest, even though he didn’t really want to go there. The forest was creepy enough at night without knowing what had happened earlier that week. He walked on, glancing behind him every so often. The horrible feeling of fear pounded at his stomach. He tried to push his mind away from the thoughts it was thinking. He forced himself onwards, not really knowing what he was looking for. He heard a twig crack behind him. He twisted around so fast that it hurt. He could hear his short panicked breathing and could feel his pulse working overtime. He stood waiting, trying to strain his eyes. Then his heart dropped as fast as the light. It was happening again. His mind was screaming NO NO NO but nothing more than a whimper came out of his mouth. He reached his arms out and turned around, and found that nothing was in arms distance. This was a comforting thought. He turned again. His arm hit something hard. He silently screamed. He closed his eyes, but it only gave him the same old darkness. He slowly realised that his arm had only hit a tree, and now felt the stinging pain of the blow. He let his fear slowly recede. “Claargh!” Everything went blindingly white. Max was in a world of white blankness. He held his shaking arms. Then it hit him, what if this was death? He was suddenly pulled into great despair. This, however didn’t last long. Colour started appearing. He was in a room, sitting on a wooden chair. A middle aged man was sitting in the chair opposite, and as Max looked into his eyes he finally felt safe.

SCHOOLS, STOPWATCHES AND BLACK HOLES.

The Man smiled warmly. He had dark green eyes, a balding head and a short beard which was greying. He introduced himself as Mr. Ringgold. The other man sitting nearby had an energetic smile and lively eyes, he was younger than Mr. Ringgold and his skin was tanned. He introduced himself as Tahvo. All the time, Max had stayed silent but now he couldn’t help himself asking questions.

“What happened?”

“Where am-, he started to ask.

“I am sure you have a long list of questions Max, but for the moment I will have to be leaving you,” said Mr. Ringgold.

“In the meantime I am sure that Tahvo here will be happy to explain everything.”

“Oh okay”, said Max. “Thankyou sir”.

He started to walk off.

“Oh” said Max. And thankyou for, um, well, saving me sir.

“You’re quite welcome Max,” he said. Though you’re thanks probably belong with Mr. Kennecott.

He strolled out the door with a wave of goodbye.

“Thankyou Mr. Kennecott”, said Max.

“You can just call me Tahvo”, said Tahvo.

“Before you go asking any questions I think it would be easier if I told you this story.

Thousands of years ago many different creatures; animals and magical human species lived in every corner of the world. There were Silkie’s, Lexins, Disir’s, Hidra’s and Jakelins, just to name a few. There were also the more commonly known like Unicorns and Mermaids. But probably the most civilised species were the Delms and the humans. The humans believed themselves better than the Delms and as there were more of them they took control. In Bulgaria, King Bakdentrax, the leader of the time convinced the people that the magical species were wicked and frightening. Who knows why? Most likely for jealousy of their ability’s or fears for his own power. All over Europe the leaders were doing the same. The Delms and magical creatures soon had no rights and many of them fled to make their own civilisations elsewhere. The leaders of the human race decided they wanted the magical animals and Delms extinct. With many animals it was easy to trick them and trap them. But for the magical Delms it was not so easy. The Delms were far more advanced at fighting and using their magical abilities made an advantage. But soon the full moon was approaching and the Delms numbers were getting smaller and smaller. The Delms were forced to surrender. The humans took the children and taught them stories to trick them into thinking magic was bad. Meanwhile the adults were forced to reproduce with only regular humans. After a few generations, even the Delms believed magic to be bad and many of them never even realised their powers. Any trace of the Delms was destroyed so that in the future, no-one would know they ever existed. Well, nearly everything. A thousand years later a man named Farley Reynolds lived. Some say he was crazy, but he believed that there was something more out there, something magical. He searched the world looking for them until one day, he came across something. You see, the ancient leaders had forgotten about the Delm’s that had fled. Farley Reynolds was searching in North Siberia when he first came across a well kept secret civilisation. The Delms were at first suspicious but as he started telling them about his journey’s they welcomed him into their town. By now the Delms had spread themselves all over the world. To Russia, the Netherlands, Great Britain etc. etc. and obviously Australia. Farley Reynolds travelled to all these places and soon became a sort of messenger. When he arrived at one of these places unknown they showed him a book. It was written over a thousand years before his time, making it over two thousand years from now. It recorded all the events and everything that happened it had ancient stories and methods of magic. Farley became quite fond of the book and took it with him when he travelled on, promising to return it eventually. As he was growing old, Farley decided he needed to do something for these community’s of Delms, so he wanted to build a school. The Delm’s had a better idea though, they would create a new world- one that humans couldn’t get to, that way they would have to hide no longer, they built schools and towns. The first was in Romania but then as the idea was successful more and more schools were built all around the world. The only problem was that Farley couldn’t get to this “new world”. He couldn’t return the book before he died. Luckily the book had a copy, then they were copied and one was given to each school around the world.”

“How many schools are there?” asked Max.

“48, at the moment, I suppose you could say they are all sister schools.” He replied.

“Like a massive family of schools”, said Max. “I think I trust you,” he said truthfully. “But how am I supposed to know it’s all real?” he asked.

“That’s what the book is for”.

Max was lead outside the office and down a hallway, into another room; a small library. From the glimpse he’d seen of the place from the hallway, the building didn’t look very big ‘not big enough for a school,’ thought Max.

Upon a golden table was a big purple book. The cover was purple and blotchy, like it had been stained by tea bags- only purple. Max went to open the cover but before he even touched it, it opened for him. Max then realised he didn’t even need to read the book to realise Tahvo had been telling the truth. Max had always been a ‘willing to believe’ sort of person. He had always been suspicious about psychics and certain things that seemed to just happen unexplainably and he had believed in Santa and the Easter Bunny when he was younger. He sat down and took a few minutes to read certain excerpts of the book. The words had been translated down the bottom of each page. Max found pleasure when the book always turned to whatever page he wanted it to. There were beautiful pictures and it interested Max how certain things of the book had come along. There were samples of certain things inside the book; it was amazing to see the plants still perfectly fresh. Only when Tahvo returned did Max realise he had left.

“Now that we’ve visited the past, we needed to discuss the future, your future,” he said.

“Now I’ll understand that you may need some time to consider this, it’s... ah well a big decision.” He said.

When he didn’t continue, Max said.

“ OK”.

After a pause, Tahvo continued: “It’s you’re choice, and it will be life changing, so I want you to get the right idea.”

“Right”, said Max, a little irritated that Tahvo kept delaying the point.

Tahvo stayed quiet and there was a long awkward silence. Tiny ant’s footsteps could probably be heard as Max avoided eye contact, feeling a little uncomfortable. Breaking the silence he asked.

“So what am I supposed to be deciding”, said Max

“Well if you’re going to come to the school of course”.

Once again there was a silence, but less awkward as Max was drawn into shocked thinking.

“I’m sorry”, said Tahvo, judging Max’s wide eyes. “I don’t usually do this job, that’s what the assistant principal usually does, but she’s back at the school, filling in for the real principal who you met earlier. I expected you already knew… about, you know, you’re ability.”

“Before Max even consumed those last words he asked.

“So this isn’t the school then?”

“No! Of course not! This isn’t a quarter of the way to the school, and this is much smaller.”

Not exactly sure what he meant, Max’s mind flicked back to another important question.

“What ability”, he asked.

“You mean they never told you”

“No… and who?”Said Max

“You’re parents, this magical ability that I’m talking to you about runs through blood lines,” he replied.

“Oh,” said Max, now feeling a little hurt, “No, they never told me a thing”.

“What’s your last name?” asked Tahvo.

“Anderson, why?”

Tahvo pulled a crazy contraption that like a little booklet of some kind only it had a big knob at the front with all the letters of the alphabet on it. He turned to A.

“You’re not in here”, he said. “Max was the name wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Hey how did Mr. Ringgold know my name?” he asked but Tahvo was too lost in thought.

“Ms. Ryan would know exactly what to do”, said Tahvo to himself. Well I suppose we’ll have to leave it at that. Tahvo searched through a draw and pulled out a colourful brochure and handed it to Max.

“Oh wait”, he said. He opened another draw of the desk and pulled out another less colourful brochure.

“This one’s just in case you don’t want your parents to know yet, keep in mind that they will have to know eventually.”

“Thanks,” said Max.

“Well you better get going, I’ll give you two days before I call you back, if you haven’t decided by then, don’t stress but I’d like you to have it figured out by then.”

“Oh, thank you.” said Max.

“Oh, right”, said Tahvo after a long pause. “I suppose you want to know how to get out of here.”

Max smiled and nodded.

Once Tahvo had led Max through a small amount of doors and hallways, they came to a large black door. At times, Max could have sworn there was a faint purple glowing around the edges of the door but as soon as he looked at it for too long, which seemed to be as soon as Max could acknowledge it was glowing, it would disappear, only to be seen when looking through peripheral vision.

“This is where you must leave,” said Tahvo

Max looked at the door, alarmed.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” reassured Tahvo.

“All you have to do is open the door, and I’ll do the rest,” he said.

“But first,” he said as if he feared Max would leave before he had the chance (Max stood rooted to the spot).

“Take this”, he handed Max a round gold stopwatch. “It’ll tell you when you’ve run out of time, just make sure you have it when the time reaches zero. Oh, and make sure you’re out of sight at that time, if you aren’t, press the little button at the back really hard- it’s a tough one.”

“Thanks”, said Max.

Max looked at the door fearfully.

“Just step through, it’s as easy as that”.

Max nodded.

Max opened the door and stepped through, still looking behind him. Then he started falling, falling sideways, massive blurs of colourful images was all he could see. Then everything turned dark and Max was suddenly going faster than ever through the black hole, arms were grabbing at him. He knew something was wrong, and then he felt strange, electric vibes run h his body like a frantic insects trying to get out and Max had a temptation of something he couldn’t recognize. He thought of nothing though it felt like his mind was working hard to finish an extremely difficult maths sum and his body were strained at every point. He closed his eyes and suddenly without even meaning to, he let everything go, he could feel the energy striking out of him. He tried to hold on to it but it was fading quickly, and even though Max’s eyes had been closed, he could feel himself going faint. Another arm may have grabbed him – he couldn’t really tell, but soon he felt the air around him was still, and he wasn’t moving. He felt someone touch his hand and he opened his eyes, slowly. Tahvo was looking down on him; a look of concern on his face, Max closed his eyes and felt relief as it had been a great struggle to keep his eyes open. When Max could open them again, Tahvo was gone.

BACK THROUGH THE BLACK HOLE

It was only when Max was safely in his room that Max noticed he’d lost the stopwatch. The Pamphlets were safely folded in his pockets but the golden stopwatch, which he had been holding must’ve fallen from his grip. Max thought with amazement at where it could be, anywhere, he thought. He started to think about what would happen if you fell out of the strange black hole, but promptly pushed his thoughts away from that subject. He looked at the time, and was surprised to see it was 6:40. Max walked into the kitchen right in time. His Mum had made satays chicken-his favourite.

It was the day that Tahvo was coming. Max was excited, for the last few days had dragged on boringly, but also apprehensive, for he didn’t know when Tahvo would be coming.

Max was walking home from the bus stop, his older brother Matt was walking ahead in silence, in a mildly bad mood. Alyssa was talking to Max energetically, Max turned around every now and then to say something back. A sudden gut pinching feeling came over him. Like his mind was playing with him, tricking him into thinking something important. Then, with shock, he remembered. Stressed thoughts ran through his head as he tried to think of an excuse to bolt home into the forest. He turned around to Alyssa and told her that he was going to go for a run to train for a fitness test at school; it was a lame excuse but the best he could come up with. Before she could answer he ran home, trying not to run too fast. When he got around the corner of the driveway he started sprinting, fast as he could. Then he realised that his Mum was home and hoped she hadn’t seen him through the window. Taking the shortcut he slammed his bag down and tried to walk to the back door. He started going dizzy, seeing half his world and half another. He saw the black hole. He got into the forest and breathed a deep relief. A hand grabbed him and he spun into the unreal world of the black hole.