Highly Commended Story - The Worst Day Of My Life

“The Worst Day Of My Life” by Sena Nur ÖZ, Kultur Middle School, Turkey, is the Highly Commended story in the junior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Sena is 11 years old and lives in Istanbul. She is a 6th grader who is interested in sports. Playing voleyball and swimming are her hobbies. Her favorite lesson is English. She loves speaking English and always tries to improve her language skills.

The Worst Day Of My Life

It was September 12th…two years ago…It was the worst day of my life. I will never forget it. Monica and I were chatting at 10 p.m. She told me that her dad and mom went to Germany so she was alone. She asked whether I could stay with her at night or not. At first, I thought I couldn’t go to her house because my mum never lets me stay overnight at my friends’ houses but when I asked my mum, she said “Okay! You can go!” I was shocked because it was the first time my mum let it. While I was getting prepared, my mobile phone rang. It was Monica. She asked about my mother’s answer. She was over the moon after she learned about it. I got my bag and left my house. While I was going out, I heard someone shouting. I couldn’t understand what it was but I heard the same thing second time. Then, I went downstairs. While I was in the entrance, it blacked out. I turned on the flash light of my mobile phone and I saw a man standing next to me. I was really scared. The only thing which I could do was run. I left all of my stuffs behind and started to run. After a while, I thought he stopped following me and I saw Monica’s message. She was wondering where I have been. I wrote her back saying “Someone is following me! I am scared!” She saw my message and she didn’t write anything back. I was close to her house so I called her to tell to open the door. While she was opening the door, the man caught me and Monica. I don’t remember what happened after that.

When I opened my eyes, we were in an old and scary house and the man was waiting there. He wanted us to give our mobile phones to him. We did! ...but actually he didn’t notice one thing. I had two mobile phones. I gave one of them to him but I still had one more. After he left the room, I sent a message to my parents. At first, they thought it was a joke but when they realized that it was the truth, they paniced. They said “Don’t do anything. We will call the police. Just wait for us!” But we thought we had to do something. We just started to shout. The man came back and tried to tape our mouth. At that moment, someone came in breaking the window and punched him. We were shocked. He shouted angrily. “Why are you still here and looking at me? Run!” We started to run into the forest. I broke into tears. It was dark and scary. We had two paths in front of us to go to the city center but we didn’t know which one we had to follow. Monica was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. She was just saying “We have to go back!” Suddenly my phone rang. It was my mum. She asked “Where are you?” and Monica started to shout in tears “Where have you been Mrs.Penny?” My mum said “We are coming with the police. Stay there!” We were waiting for them in the middle of the forest. It was foggy and scary. After a few minutes later, Monica passed out. I didn’t know what to do. I started to feel dizzy and everywhere was black. When I opened my eyes, Monica and I were in the ambulance. My parents were waiting for us. Monica’s parents were on their way. There were police officers around. I heard that they were talking about two dead men found in the forest but nobody told us anything. We never learned who tried to kidnap us. Our parents didn’t talk about it after that night. They acted like it never happened. It was the worst day of my life. Whenever I remember this, I break into tears. I don’t go anywhere alone. Darkness is my nightmare!