Collection of Short Stories

In The Belly of The Beast

The darkness enveloped the entire attic except for a beam of light seeping through the bars that covered the broken window. The light lit up the terrors of the room. The broken wine bottles clustered in the corner, the empty boxes which moved around the dusty floor as a strong burst of wind rushed through the window, a dusty old mattress isolated and the raised planks of wood as if someone had been searching for something 

The eerie silence of the room elicited a sound. A gentle laugh erupted around the room. The light protruding through the beams shone through to a corner of the dark attic, the source of the light laughter. A group of young children were cramped in the tiny corner of the room in sleeping bags with pillows, their faces dimly lit up causing dark shadows to float on the walls. 

"Hello. I'm Mrs Potts." one of the young girls said, her childish voice lightening up the dark atmosphere of the room. On the walls, tiny little shadow puppets scattered the wall using the light which shone through the beams.  

"Hello Mrs Potts. I'm Mr Pie." A small boy, Tony, piped up, using his fingers to configure a new shadow puppet on the wall. "What did one farmer say to the other farmer?" he asked to the other shadow puppets.  

"What?" another boy asked, his fingers forming what seemed to be a bunny on the wall.  

"We're farmers!" Tony replied after a moment's hesitation. The room once again erupted into a sea of laughter with the young children throwing back their small heads in delight and shadows on the wall formed as if they were laughing. .  

"Let's have a pillow fight!" a little girl with a cute bob cut exclaimed. All the kids nodded their heads eagerly before sliding out of their sleeping bags, grabbing their pillows. One of the children jumped on a mattress which creaked as the weight was added to it. They began throwing around the pillows, the shapes of the pillows forming shadows on the walls. Their laughs filled the room as the sound of pillows contacting with someone echoed round the room. After some time, the shadows flying across the walls stopped as the children shuffled back into their sleeping bags.  

In the middle of the small group, covered by the dark of the room, was a small collection of sweets. Marshmallows, lollies and chocolates. The little delicate hands of the children reached out into the eerie darkness of the room, searching for the pile of sweets and once found, popping it in their small mouths and hurriedly chewing it while savouring the delicious taste of the sugar flowing onto their tongues.  

As the light seeping through the beams on the window became dimmer, the children's small, excited eyes drifted closed. They nestled deeper into their sleeping bags, surrounded by the eerie darkness of the attic.