Sure Signs Of Courage: Part 1

Hello 

 

Hi. My name is Scout Winfield. I live with my mother and my father is stuck in some hospital for trying to drown me when I was 3. 

I don’t have many memories of him beside the one of him trying to drown me. I wish I could see him just once. But the fact of my father drowning me and how it got on the news and how I got FAMOUS. I hate it. 

I just wished I could live a normal life with my older brother. My only wish for my birthday is that I could see my father. I think he’s nice but my mother dreads the fact of even looking at him. 

I go to GreenWood Middle school. I am in 6th grade and it’s almost summer which I’m not excited about. I always have to go with my cousin to a summer camp the whole summer but this summer they said we're staying home and doing nothing. Why? My cousin broke his leg so he can barely walk. 

I want to stay home or go over to my friend Sara's house for the summer. But of course I can’t. 

On the bright side, this is an opportunity to make some new friends. Really, my only friends have been Sarah Books and a plant. Her name is plant. I tell plants all my secrets like how I have a crush on Sarah. She already likes someone though. 

There Is another girl that I like, and since we're not friends and she hates me she’ll play along just be hard to get. At this point, I’m just texting Sarah about how I really don't want to go to my uncles and aunts house for the summer. 

    

The agreement 

Sarah came over and said we need to talk. “I and Carl broke up…” 

 I thought this was my chance! 

“ Sarah, cheer up. He wasn't worth it anyway; he would always make fun of you at the wrong times, take out other girls and a whole bunch of other stuff”. I tell her, trying to get her convinced. 

“You make a good point that I should move on. And you're actually always right. I can ask my mom if maybe you can stay with us…” 

She was always like this. I’m not complaining, but whenever she asks her mom if I can stay, they always say I have to ask my mother who says no. I walked over to my mom and asked. “ Mom, can I stay with Sarah and her father and mother this summer?” 

 To my surprise, she said yes… She said she wanted the best for me and since she was going to help my father for some reason, I could go. I started to pack my bags since tomorrow was the last day of school. Sarah helped me in which I was glad she did.

Summer

I was so thrilled that after Sarah left, I had all my bags filled. My Teacher Mr Copper had said that we had to do a writing assessment for the summer. We had to write to our favourite character. I chose Simon Finch from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee. Before I knew it, it was the first day of Summer, and I was headed to Sarah's house. 

“This gives me one whole summer to get Sarah to like me!” I tell myself. “And just to get to hang around her more!”

I decide to try and wait till the middle or the end of the summer so I don’t completely ruin my whole summer. I got dressed and wore a white blouse with cacky shorts.

Sarah wore a dress with daisies on it. Cute. I thought to myself. We got in this huge rental van and they hooked a HUGE trailer on the back of it because apparently, we would be camping for a few days.

They said we would stop in a couple of stores for snacks and toys. I pulled out my book and my writing book. I started to read and then stopped to write facts in my writing book. Yes. We had homework for the summer. It was very little though.

 It was the writing assignment and then to read something and answer the 5 questions at the end of the book. The book was called 'The Lights Of Day'. I get distracted by a bird flying with us next to the car. He looked white like an owl and about the size of a bluebird. 

I continue writing, and wondering what this summer will be like. I was working on it so much, that by the time we got to the cabin, I had nearly finished the assignment! 

We get out of the car and open the cabin’s front door. It looks like a normal cabin, but I can tell something is a little off about it. The outside looked like a really small cabin and when you got in, it was the size of a normal cabin. I couldn't tell why. 

I ask Sarah’s parents which bedroom is mine, and they say on this floor, to the right of the “kitchen”. 

So I go to the bedroom that’s to the right of the kitchen, and I put my bags down on the wood floor. I plop down on my bed and just lay there in silence. I decide to get up off the bed and see where Sarah is. But as I get up, I notice a crack in the flooring...

The trap door

I lift it up, and there is a secret crawl space. I knew there was something off about this cabin! I decided to get down in it. But as soon as I stand on it, it turns into a slide and pulls me downward. 

The next thing I know, I'm in some type of dirt tunnel sliding down it. I land in front of some type of castle. I can't help it, but I go inside. Suddenly, I hear a noise behind me. I turn around and see a girl standing there. 

“Uh hi?” I say to her.

“Hi, Scout!” she says.

She seems so familiar, but I don't know where she is from. 

“Wait, is that really you?” I ask, analyzing her.  

“Yes. But right now we are not safe out here.” She says, shoving me into one of the castle rooms. 

She follows me but then gasps. 

“What's wrong?” I ask her, confused. 

“This, no, it can't be! That's not possible!” she mumbles. 

“What is it?” I ask her. 

“This is the exact same castle where my mom was many years ago yesterday.” 

 The story

“Ummmm... what does this have to do with why you're upset?’” I say, confused. 

“Ok, let me tell you all about my mother’s adventures and my adventures,” Hannah says sitting down. 

So I do the same. 

She tells me about how her mom made one mistake of getting a magic necklace that can give her superpowers, then how a person named Shadow Man held her captive and tortured her, how her whole school got hypnotized, how they found another dimension, and lastly how they defeated shadow man once and for all.

 Or at least how they thought that they did...

Then she tells me about how she met Mike, thought Alivia was held captive but that she was actually evil, how Mike got tormented, and how she and Mike got trapped in a portal room. 

When she's finished, I give her a compliment on how she has survived through all of this. 

“Oh, it's nothing. Just trying my best,” is her response. 

I check my watch. “Well it's starting to get late, I better get back to the cabin,” I tell Hannah. 

“Ok, just come back down here if you need anything, ok?” she hollers after me. 

“Ok!” I shout back. 

As I get my final glimpse of her, I could tell the castle was a good hideout for her. 

 The Startling Surprise

When I get up and out of the hole in the floor, everyone is standing above and around me. Uh Oh, I’m in trouble… I thought to myself but I was wrong. 

“Wow, that's really cool! You found a secret tunnel!” Sarah says. “Where does it lead to?” 

“It leads to a castle,” I tell her. 

“Cool! Let's go!” Sarah says. 

“It's fine with us, but be safe.” Her parents tell us. 

I slide down the tunnel, Sarah behind me. We land in the grass and I tell her to follow me. 

We walk into the castle just in time to see Hannah from earlier being carried away by a tall man. I instantly remember the description of Shadow Man and look at the tall man…

Then I realize that he is Shadow Man! 

I grab Sarah's hand and start to run towards them. Sarah jerks back. 

“Do you even know that girl?” she whispers to me. 

“Yes! And she's in trouble!” I tell Sarah. 

We continue running until they stop at a clearing in the forest. I and Sarah hide behind some bushes and watch.  

“Finally I will achieve my goal! I will finally get superpowers!” Shadow Man bellows. “Wait, who's that?” 

“Uh oh, we're caught,” Scout thinks. He turns in our direction and walks towards us. 

“Well, what do we have here? Two secret rescuers! Now they are going to be captured themselves!” Shadow Man says, scooping me and Sarah up. Sarah's trembling, I can feel her shaking with fear. 

It's not every day you're held captive by some creepy Shadow guy. He takes us to what I think is his lair. Secret lair. There are a bunch of other kids trapped. We're thrown into a cell with another kid. His name? Chester. I think he's cute. He's wearing a worn-out blue shirt with white pants. His hair is all messy so I go to fix it and…

“DON'T TOUCH ME!” He screams. 

The shadow guy came running. 

“Who are you, what are your names? I want to know everything about you.” 

I tell him about me for some reason. I feel like I can trust him. He leaves and says thank you, boy. It… Can't be… Is He nice? Does he have children? Who am I kidding? I saw this girl calling him father like she was summoning the devil.

The guy comes around handing out food. We eat.. Then… Fall asleep.

A surprising event 

We wake up in the bedrooms of our cabin. “ Why are we here...” I thought... “Sarah ” I heard Sarah's dad yell. This can't be good. Chester is here... With me… and Hannah. But not Sarah. Shadow Man took her.

“Chester, wake up!” I shout at him. “Wake up!”

His eyes open, and when he sees me, he tells me to lay on the bed next to him. So I go and lay down. 

“You know what, I’m sorry for telling you not to touch my hair. You can touch it if you want.” He whispers to me. 

I try to find the right words to say to him, but before I can, I blurt out; 

“When I first saw you I thought you were cute”. I blurt. 

At first, there is a short awkward moment (which felt like forever), but then he tells me that’s what he thought when he saw me. He leans closer to me, and then the next thing I knew, we were kissing. When we stopped kissing, I blush a little, but then I realize that it made me feel warm inside. 

 Viewing Hannah’s phone 

Then I spin around and look at Hannah. She’s still sleeping which could be a good or a bad sign, but I let her rest. 

Then we notice Hannah’s phone on the bedside table…

“You think what I’m thinking? I ask Chester.  

“Yep!” He says. 

We grab Hannah’s phone (thankfully there was no password input) and put it on the main screen. We notice automatically that the back screen is a boy who looks about our age, standing next to Hannah. 

“Wow, she must have a boyfriend”. Chester says, commenting. 

We pull up her text messages and click on the one labelled “Mike”. 

Before we can do anything else, Hannah starts to flail and scream. We turn off her phone and go look at her. 

She's clutching her chest as if something was hurting her. She is flailing even harder now and screaming louder. Then she calmed down, and said: “It's Scout!?”

A brief pause for what was going on in Hannahs Mind: 

The next few hours were a blur. We got thrown in a cage with some other guy named Chester, ate dinner in Shadow Man's secret lair, and fell asleep.

But the sleep never seemed to end. Dark obliviation surrounds me. A calm breeze drifts past me, and a choir of chirping birds fills my ears. The same cycle over and over and over again. I don't understand it.

 But on the 25th time (yes, I was counting) a new sound is added to the mix. It seems to be calling to me as if I needed to follow it into the darker obliviation.

Every time I hear it, it seems to be stabbing me in the heart. Each time it's louder and the pain increases. I keep trying to fight it off, but it always comes back stronger. 

By then, I'd lost count, but somewhere in the midst of all of this, tiny voices started to chant; “Do it! do it! do it!”

I continue trying to push them away, but they keep getting more high pitched, shaking my eardrums to death (if eardrums can have death). 

I look around once more and notice fires spreading all around me. They almost consume me, when someone puts it out. Not with a fire extinguisher, but with their HANDS!

I take a good look at their face, and realize: “It's Scout!?” 

 A surprise visitor for Hannah 

At first, it seems like Hannah was just going to go back to a calm peaceful rest. But instead, her eyes flutter open. 

“Where am I? And where’s Shadow Man?” she asks us. 

“You're at my cabin where I was staying and Shadow man, I don't know where he is,” I tell her. “Also why were you flailing and screaming?” 

“Oh it was nothing,” she reassures us. 

At that very moment, a tall boy steps into the room. I and Chester recognise him as the boy from Hannah's back screen on her phone. 

When Hannahs sees him, they immediately run towards each other. 

“I thought I'd never see you again!” the boy says to Hannah. 

“Me too!” Hannah says, lunging towards the boy. 

Then, before I and Chester could say or do anything, they were kissing.

“I've missed you so much, Mike,” Hannah says to him. 

“Enough with the mushy stuff, let's get down to business,” I tell them. “Hannah, Mike you two work together to try to figure out why Hannah was flailing. You will work here. I and Chester will try to track down Shadow Man. We will be in the kitchen.” 

Then I and Chester walk off into the kitchen to get started.