Sub-junior 2nd Prize Winning Story - The Pitfall

“The Pitfall” by Laranya Sehgal, Kothari International School, Noida, India, is the Second Prize winning story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2018.

The Pitfall

Abhishri and Naira were good friends. They lived in the same neighborhood in a small village outside the town. Both were in the same school. They used to walk together to school. One day, there was a thunderstorm and it rained heavily. The road was blocked by broken trees. They had to pass the forest to get back home. The way through the forest was long and scary.

Naira told Abhishri that they should go back to school and wait for their parents, not take any risk by going through the forest. Abhishri called Naira a coward. She said that she would go alone, if Naira would not mind. Naira agreed to go with her, but she was very scared.

As it rained and there was no Sun, it started to get dark. They did not have any umbrella. Naira was angry at Abhishri as this was a bad decision.

Both the girls were walking slowly and carefully. Suddenly, Abhishri’s foot slipped and she fell down. When she got up, she realized that she was in a pit. Naira was shouting for help.

Abhishri started to cry in fear. Naira ran away. Abhishri thought that Naira had left her as Naira was very angry. There were wild animals in the forest. Abhishri could hear some sounds. It seemed that there were wolves or wild dogs close by. She was feeling cold and was too scared to try and come out.

She had not lost hope and was remembering her family. She was praying to God that someone would come to help her. She was hiding under some hay and was very quiet.

She was also scared for her friend and thought that some animal would have eaten Naira. As she could have been caught alone in the dark.

Abhishri heard a car screeching and wanted to scream for help. But she was too scared as she knew the car was far away.

The dogs and wolves were growling and it felt that they were out for hunting.

Suddenly, a light fell in the pit. It was a van. A big man and a girl came out of the van.

She heard some gunshots and the dogs and wolves growled again and ran away.

They threw a rope in the pit. Abhishri tied the rope carefully around her waist. The man pulled her out of the pit slowly. She fell down on her face and had mud on her face. The man washed her face with water.

She opened her eyes and saw that it was Naira and her Papa.

He gave her some water to drink and picked her bag.

She sat in the van and was very surprised as she thought that Naira had left her to die.

She hugged Naira and said, “Sorry!”

“I should not have forced you to take the forest. You are not a coward!”

“You are brave! Thank you for saving me.”

Moral: Respect others and don’t make wrong decisions.