previous Winners

CHAPTER 1

This is my story. When you finish reading, please, send help.

CHAPTER 2

It all began with a school trip to Dubai. I know, private school! But it was a big deal, and we were staying in a small village, so there was no internet. It would've been absolute torture, but we weren't allowed to bring our phones, so everyone was socialising, thankfully. Me, Hannah and Summer (my two best friends) decided to go exploring in our free time, as everyone was watching the most boring movie in existence, and we hadn't gotten a chance to explore yet. So, we excitedly collected our Air Tags and headed over the dunes.

CHAPTER 3

After we had walked about a kilometre away from the camp, we sat down to rest. It was around 5 in the afternoon, as we opened our cereal bars and water bottles. We scrambled over dunes for a while, having races up the taller ones, when a terrifying gust of wind blew us off a small dune and sand went everywhere; in our eyes, hair, clothes, you get my point. It suddenly became freezing and we were all lifted into the air, but as I struggled to open my eyes, I thought that the wind was shaped in a sphere, only affecting Hannah, Summer and me, thrusting us around like puppets. Our screams ripped the air, as the world disappeared and went black.

CHAPTER 4

I groaned as I sat up, feeling my friend's presence near me, watching them as they opened their eyes. For a moment, I was calm, thinking that I had just fallen asleep when we stopped to rest, and that this was only a dream, but then I realised that we weren't in the desert. We were sitting in a circle, in the centre of a dim, musty cave, with no exit!!! The strangest thing was that there was a small silver ring in the centre of our circle. In a flash, Hannah cried out, falling back. Then Summer. Then, the world went black again, and they stopped screaming as a booming voice screeched: 'This ring will grant you three wishes. But there are some rules: you cannot wish for materialistic

things, like houses or cars; you cannot wish for something that will change the world, like becoming a monarch, or stopping wars; and you cannot wish to escape this cave. You have one hour to decide on your three wishes.'

CHAPTER 5

We couldn't decide on our three wishes.

It has been 5 years.

We are still in the cave.

Viktor Demchenko

The sirens are bellowing and screaming. Again. Russian troops causing trouble as usual, I was trying to sleep, peacefully. Now I have to ‘hide’ in the bunker, with only the company of my chaotic younger brother, Vlad and my Mum. Her only motivation to get out of bed every day is to nag at me, for my low-test scores. She probably couldn’t do any better than me, even at her old age, but don’t tell her I said that.

Vlad and Mum are somehow here already, my brother has probably prepared an entire speech to annoy me.

“Viktor! I’m the greatest predictor, you're gonna get more low-test scores which always pricks her, who is Mum, but don’t worry mister Viktor, to you, I’m just a silly trickster!” Vlad says, overly excited, he probably took a month to create that rhyme, he’s no brighter than me.

“To me, you’re an absolute-”

“Sweetheart, that’s what he is, a sweetheart,” Mum jumps in as usual, I don’t think she has anything to do sometimes so she sides with my younger brother because she thinks maybe he won’t have as ‘disappointing grades’ as me.

“Is this really what I have to put up with until the siren stops ringing?” I angrily whisper under my breath.

“Of course it is Viktor!” Vlad says sarcastically.

This was just a normal ‘morning in the life of Viktor Demchenko’. ‘Things will go back to normal’, my Mum says, but when I’m older none of this nonsense will happen, my bunker will be golden and comfy and a place that I want to go to.

My wish is to escape this war, this conflict; it’s just stupid. It’s like neighbours fighting over parking.

Billy Walters

Not school again. Anything but school. I get bullied because I eat freely, it’s dumb. I love my bed though, it’s where my life goes on, doing homework, playing video games and eating salt and vinegar crisps. Perfection. I owe too much to whoever created the bed. It’s my refuge, my getaway from school, from William Anderson and his friends and don’t forget about the teachers. They're all menaces.

I wish to never go to school again and stay in my bed forever.

Waluya - Walu

In Sudan, only important people use surnames - I guess I’m not important. Indoors is my 'safezone', nobody can shoot you while you’re minding your business. I can’t think about dying, not at 11. Playing football is all I do. It takes me and sends me to a world with no fear and when that final whistle blows, I go back to ‘scared little Walu’.

Football is my passion and separates me from conflict. I wish I could play football all day.

We all seek refuge and wish for answers to our problems, in our own, unique ways.

She clutched her belly tight, her jumper bulging over her lap, the babies kicking, a reminder of the life she was hoping to bring into this world. Hoping to hold, hoping to rock, hoping to teach, hoping that they would simply breathe. Just long enough to live. Wishing.

The baby clutched. Clutched its own hands just long enough. long enough so that he could maybe hold his mothers. Or she. long enough to own that word. He, or she, long enough to meet the brother, or sister, that lay nearby, also clutching. He, or she, wished.

The baby curled. Curled his fingers and his toes, praying that he could leap and jump and turn and spin and clap and squeeze and hum and hope. Hope that the brother or sister who lay nearby clutching their own hands could leap and jump and turn and spin and clap and squeeze and hum and wish. A constant wish that made him clutch. A constant wish that made him curl.

She clutched her belly tight, hoping that inside her swollen womb they were also clutching, curling, squeezing, and wishing. Wishing that they could open their bleary eyes, that they could blink, and cry, and yawn, and sneeze, wishing that they could be the brother or sister or father or mother that she so wanted them to be.

All three wished. Her arms wrapped tight around her belly, his hands clenched weakly, her body curled tightly both still wishing. Hoping the lady that wound her arms up tight would hold and rock and sing, and teach and hug and kiss and lull to sleep. Their wishes wrapping round like the arms round her belly, clutching them tight like his hands in his fists, and curling right up into a little ball inside each of their chests. The mother rocked, for even if he and she would never get cradled in her arms, chests rising and falling, sighing and heaving, they would still feel her loving embrace, seeping right into their weak hearts that fluttered and sighed. How could such frail hearts be placed so near to her pounding one? How could such cruelness be thrust upon some helpless babes that had not yet glimpsed their mothers face?

She hoped her weeping went unheard by her innocents. Her tears falling down her cheeks and dripping, rusting the medal she bore of how she carried two people that trusted her so much to be their mother. They could not yet think with their swollen heads that had not even yet gained a smile and flushed cheeks. But they could feel. Feel the pounding of their mothers heart, a reminder to keep on fluttering no matter how weak, feel the pulse around them, feel the kin that lay nearby and feel the most important thing of all, the embrace of wishes and mothers arms that kept them warm when cold and safe at night.

Their wishes that could’ve been life.

It sat perfectly on the pedestal, glimmering and gleaming in the light. A flawless crystal with a smoothed top and bottom. On top of the artefact was a heart-shaped dent. Standing in front of trhe artefact, gazing at its beauty was Lady Shade, a powerful dark sorceress intending to take it for herself. Just a few steps behind her was her bodyguard Emilio. He was having second thoughts about coming here, but not daring to voice them. As Lady Shade reached out for the artefact, she heard a noise behind her. A third person entered the chamber - armour shimmering and posture perfect.

“Lady Shade, I can’t let you do this”

”Clarice Dawnbreaker, ” Lady Shade replied. “Do you have to interrupt?”

“Why yes, yes I do.” Clarice said. “You are here to steal the Cordis of Desire, it was put here for a reason. That reason was to not be stolen by anyone!” She drew her sword, and charged at Lady Shade. Lady Shade grabbed the artefact and pushed in the heart dent in the top.

“I wish, I wish, I wish for power!” Power swirled around her, pulsing and twisting. A surge of energy flew out from her in all directions, knocking both Clarice and Emilio to the ground. Clarice leaped back up, and drew her sword. She fought with Lady Shade, but couldn’t pierce her magical protection. Then she eyed a glimmer on the ground. Clarice dove for the artifact, and pushed in the dent.

“I wish, I wish, I wish for power!” Instantly the same sort of power surrounding her nemesis began to pulse round her, and a look of reinvigorated confidence took hold. She smiled, and clashed with Lady Shade. Magic contended with magic. Power surged through the air, sparking and humming with no order or consistency. The artefact was tossed aside, and lay unseen on the floor. Emilio shook himself off, and looked upon the madness. He knew what he had to do. He ran up to the artefact and grabbed it, neither of the two noticing in their struggle. Emilio took a second to figure out what to say. Power for himself? He could split apart the fighting with that. He could… no, he knew that would be worse. After a thought, he pushed in the dent, and cwished. The artefact shimmered in his hands, going cold and colourless. The power surrounding Lady Shade and Clarice faded, and they dropped to the floor. Clarice looked up at Emilio, panting heavily.

“What… what did you do?”

“Simple,” he replied. “I got rid of the last wish and stopped your chaos in the process. Solving two problems at once, I do like to multi-task. ” Emilio carefully placed the artefact back on the pedestal, and looked back at them. He smiled, and walked out of the chamber, leaving them to sort out their differences.

“All in a day's work.” He thought to himself. “An unconventional day, but a wishful day at that.”