Free Writing

Kate, Ellie, Hannah and Jessica ran joyfully around the play area, exploring and making up games. “Who wants to play tag?” Jessica asked, hopefully. “I do!” cried Ellie. “Me too!” “I guess so.” Hannah mumbled, not a big fan of the game. With that they began. They all ran around, squealing and giggling hysterically, scattering themselves around the green grass; trying to avoid the contagious tag of Jessica’s touch. Jessica lunged towards Hannah in an attempt to reach out and tag her. “I’m gonna’ get you!” joked Jessica, “Oh no you’re not!” Hannah laughed. She sprinted away, not looking where she was going. Her feet ran free-willingly, trying to escape Jess’ tag; everything was a blur of colours. Something Hannah didn’t see, however, was the rock that sat silently and sneakily in front of her, or how close she was to the forbidden swamp. Squelch, crash, smash. Hannah’s foot twisted around inhumanly as it was stopped by the rock, although her body kept moving onwards. Everything swirled around her in a mass of colourful landscape as her skull smashed down into the swamp and hit the hard ground. Suddenly everything was black. “What should we do?” Jessica asked. “How should I know? I don’t know what to do!” “Good idea.” Ellie said, sarcastically. “Where am I?” cried Hannah. Her voice echoed around the walls of this red dungeon. “What is this place?” The walls glowed majestically. She was drowned in a pool of fear and there seemed to be no way to the top. Hannah heard foot-steps, and she dreaded finding out where they were coming from. “Hello, my dear. I am Mr. Jigaboo, and I will be your ‘tour guide’ for today.” His voice slithered but in a friendly sort of way. He looked like a cross between a vampire and a ghost - a ghostpire. His eyes glowed like the walls of this strange place. “H-h-hello,” Hannah stuttered, “Where am I? What is this place? how did I get here?” “‘This place’ is purely a state of mind. When people fall unconscious they often experience strange unfamiliar worlds, and for you, this is it. Also, the things that you fear most will be the things that you encounter in your stay here, so think brave. It’ll help.” “Right... so none of this is real? I’m just imagining it? I’m not really here, like a dream? But it feels so real.” “Exactly, except you will remember it more vividly than a dream when you wake up. It’ll be like you really experienced it.” Hannah thought that ‘Mr. Jigaboo’ reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She took a step further into the circular room; and as she moved it looked like the walls were moving in and out, around in circles, in every direction, like an optical illusion. “So, shall we begin your ‘tour’?” “I guess so...” she was hesitant, but supposed it wouldn’t be any worse than the real world. The tour took around 20 minutes, or it felt like that. By the end, it felt like they had travelled a whole lot more than they obviously had, and all Hannah wanted to do was lie down and sleep. “So, where will I be ‘staying’?” Hannah asked, hoping wherever it was, it would have a comfortable bed. “Oh, just over here.” Mr. Jigaboo said, gesturing to a door situated slightly to their left with his hand. Hannah noticed that his hand resembled a mitten, more than a hand with fingers. The room they stood in now glowed a mixture of green and yellow, and was shaped similarly to a hexagon. “Alright then, I’ll go and lie down.” “Off you go then. Oh, and by the way, your room-mate is a dragon.” Jigaboo said as he walked away. She couldn’t really see where she was going, her eyes were like patterned window pains that blurred everything around her. It felt to her as though to anyone looking in from the outside, they would look blank, like black boards. Hannah traipsed through the door and along the hallway that followed it. She dropped into bed like a corpse, her eyes snapping closed instantly. As she drifted off she was sailing into the world of dreams, of fantasy and imagination. A vague image slowly trickled into her mind of her friends back at the park, and Mr.Jigaboo standing closely behind them. The image got clearer and clearer until it felt like she was really there, waking up. A gush of warmth drowned Hannah’s body, pulling her out of comfortable sleep. She looked around, her eyes having to adjust to the fluorescent glow of the walls. As she twisted her head to get a better look of the room, she was taken a back to see a large dragon sitting, snoring sleepily in the corner. “Oh, hi there, Hannah.” the dragon said. “H-H-Hi,” Hannah stuttered; she had always had a strange phobia of dragons. She sat up, then got off the bed. “I feel so dizzy.” She said, trying to keep her balance. “Oh, that’s usually a sign that you’re about to leave this world, go home, back to the real world. Nice to meet you though.” the dragon said this with a half smile, but looking down at the ground. “Right... Nice to meet you t-.” She seemed to evaporate, waving goodbye to the dragon as she did so. “One more gone.” he said to himself, curling back into a ball in the corner. Hannah stretched as her eyes fluttered open and she was brought back to reality. She rubbed her head and sat up, looking around. Hannah was surrounded by four familiar faces: Kate, Ellie, Jessica, and standing slightly behind them was Mr. Jigaboo...