Rania Aziza - Short Story Writing - Preliminary Round NEO 2020

Grandma's House

One day, there was a 15 year old girl named Rosie. She lives a pretty average life for a 15-year old. She goes to school in the morning, finishes school in the afternoon, goes home, does her homework, plays her phone, eats and repeats. Just the life you would expect from a teenager. Until one day, a single letter changed her life. It wasn't just writings on a paper, it was sort of a turning point in her life. She lives with her parents in an apartment in Jakarta. As far as she has known, she doesn't have any cousins or any other relatives since her parents have always told her they were both an only child. As for her grandparents, she has never met them in my whole life. Sounds strange doesn't it? She has always questioned why but whenever she asked her parents about where they are, they just told her they live far away and are too old to visit. Her mom called her downstairs and said there was a letter for her. She was confused because she didn't know anyone who still writes letters till this day. She thought the sender had sent it to the wrong person but it had exactly her full name on it. It said the sender's name was Samantha Willows. Strangely, she doesn't know anyone with that name. She decided to open the letter. She said that she was my grandma and that she is hoping for me to visit her. She said that she is not in a good condition right now and she wishes to see me at least once in her life. She wrote her address on the bottom of the letter. She looked it up and it said it was 2 hours away by train. She never told her mom about what was in that letter and that she wanted to go because she was sure she would say no. So she lied and told her that she was having a sleepover at her friends' house. she decided to just go alone, secretly. She booked a train ticket with her own money from her savings and packed her bag. The train leaves at 4 p.m. tomorrow so she went straight to the train station after school. She went to the train station the next day with a taxi. This is her first time travelling by herself so she was a bit nervous. She hopped on the train and quickly fell asleep. She woke up from the sound of the announcement saying that we've arrived. She looked out the window and it was very different from Jakarta. There are no tall buildings, there are more plants and there are barely any cars. After going out the train she headed outside to look for a taxi. A local then told her that there are no such things as taxis here, there are only "becak". She went to one of the becak and told the driver the address. He was confused and said that the address was high up in the mountains and he can't pedal that high since the road was steep and it wasn't a proper road. He told her he would drop her off halfway and she would have to walk her way up there by herself. She was a bit annoyed but that would be the only option if she wanted to go to her grandmother's house. After 10 minutes of getting higher and higher on the mountains, he told her that she should go down here. She paid him and she walked. There was barely anyone but as she went higher and higher up the mountains, the less people she could see. She didn't have any clear directions as to where she's going so she's just following her instincts. She started to get scared and thinked of the worst scenarios that could happen. But she didn't give up and she kept going. In the letter, my grandma gave a description of her house. She says that it is a small pink house with a brown roof. There is a pink swing in front of it and a tree that she carved her name into. It was getting quite dark and cold, so she walked faster. After walking for what felt like forever, she finally found the house. It looked exactly as it was described. She was more excited than ever and was excited to just rest after a long walk. She went inside the house, expecting to see a warm and a cozy house but to her surprise, all the lights were off and all the furniture was covered in plastic. She was confused but thought that maybe her grandmother had gone away for a while to get food. She kept hearing sounds from the bushes and thought it was just an animal, but it kept getting louder so she thought she should check it out. She stood up and walked towards it, she was getting closer and closer until "triiiinggg", a sound came from her phone. It was 100 chats from her mother but she only got the messages now since there wasn't any connection before. She picked up her call to the sound of her mother panicking. She asked where she was and she told her that she was in grandma's house, in Bandung. The mom screamed and said that her Grandma doesn't live in Bandung. Her mother, panicking, told her to share her location and when she was just about to press send, a hand grabbed her from the back and picked her up, she tried to scream but the hand covered her mouth. She tried her best to fight back but the person was too strong. Her mother kept repeating "Rosie!Rosie!are you still here!where did you go!" Rosie opened her eyes to find herself in the back of someone's car. She tried moving and screaming but nothing helped. Nothing could save her now.