My Power of the Pen Stories

Week Nine Story

PROMPT: Your story takes place in the middle. Of what?
TITLE: Gun
RANK: Not ranked
WEEK: 9
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Boom.

The deafening sound rings through the school, causing everyone to freeze in place. The classroom is dead silent.

The teacher's eyes grow wide. A look of pure terror appears on her face, and we all know something is very wrong.

"Get under your desks! Now!" she cries out, alarming me. I drop to the hard, dirty tile floor and scoot under my desk. My heart feels like it is about to come out of my throat. The pounding shakes my whole body and I wrap my arms around my legs in an attempt to steady myself.

The teacher sticks her blonde head out the door, looks both ways, then slams it shut with one swift but shaky movement. She fiddles with the many keys attached to her belt and grips a golden one tightly, using it to light the door. She then turns off the lights.

Everything is quiet once more.

I can see by the extreme emotions written on each of my peer's faces that their minds are not quiet. Wats raging inside their brains, debating what is happening. My eyes flick over to the window beside the door and it takes all I've got not to scream, or puke, or cry. My hand flies to my mouth like it somehow grew wings.

I can not take my eyes off the window. Cries erupt throughout the classroom and nothing is held back any longer. I am in the middle of a crime scene.

My eyes water with a million tears as Mrs. Jackson is pinned against the hallway wall with a gun pressed against her temple. Blood trickles from her lip and she folds her hands, begging, crying. The man with the gun shows no sign of emotion at all. She drops to her knees just as another loud roar of a gun alerts us that our math teacher is dead.

My emotions refuse to be held back, so they all spill out at once. My face is buried into the beautiful blue scarf my mother knit me for my tenth birthday last Sunday. My hands are clenched around the cold medal legs of my wobbling desk, which doesn't steady my at all. My head aches, not used to this intense wave of feelings, emotions. I'm scared. I'm horrified. Shocked. Sad. And so is everyone else, for the sounds of crying and screaming does not calm me at all, and the distant and faint sound of footsteps is not acknowledged until the door is swung open.

In the doorway stands a man.

A disgrace of a man. A criminal of a man. He sickly grins at the sight of distressed children, his bloody hands adjusting themselves on the gun. The gun that had killed people today, against it's will.

It wasn't the gun's fault. It was the man's.

The action around me is slowed. The gasps of my friends, my enemies echo through the doomed classroom. The bullet. The bullet that buries itself into Jessie's chest, the one that finds a home in Daryn's head. Bile. Bile in my throat as the stench of blood reaches me. I know my life is almost over.

And my last sight is not going to be my classmate's dead, lifeless bodies scattered around me, or the heart-racing image of a crazed man stepping slowly towards me, the girl in the blue scarf.

My eyes, full of tears, squeeze shut. I think. I remember.

My family at the beach. My disastrous sixth birthday. The day my brother Marley was born. The time we moved, and I was so happy to meet new people. My first day at Sandy Hook Elementary.

There is no pain. There is only relief. And I am gone.

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It may just be me, but I LOVE this one!! Definitely one, if not the, favorite of mine. I actually teared up while writing this at practice -- even though I, the writer, knew what was going to happen, I was scared for the girl in the blue scarf. This is also a tribute to the children and teachers and everyone who died at Sandy Hook Elementary. I wanted to write a story about that and I did. May they rest in peace. The question of the chapter is: Have you ever teared up or cried while writing one of your stories? Comment!

(On a happier note, this was my latest story from practice, the last one before districts. So... I AM GOING TO POST MY THREE COMPETITION STORIES!! Hooray! I can't wait for you guys to hear them. I will tell you quality points, rank, and awards for each one (if I won best of round for it, etc.) Stay tuned!)

-Olivia