Story Contest 2016 #1 - Outstanding Stories » Something Strange

“Something Strange” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Ling Wei Ming, Chung Hua School, Brunei Darussalam

Something Strange

It was the first night of Halloween. The sky was decorated with a bright, shining, white moon, with stars in the background. The moon was just like a bright diamond in my mind. How beautiful it seemed! I was sitting on my bed staring out of my window, captivated by the beauty of nature.

I saw children roaming around the neighborhood “trick or treating” all night long. They were knocking on each and every door in the neighborhood except for the old abandoned house at the corner. Some people said that it was haunted with spirits and others said that it was just abandoned. There was even a tale about it. The tale was passed from one generation to another, but no one seemed to believe it, except for some. Nobody ever went near the house.

It was 9 o’clock, and I was packing my things that would be useful to me when I reached my friend, Alford’s house for a sleep-over. Some of my good friends were also going there. “I am sure that I am going to have a very fun time there with my friends,” I said to myself.

Just a second later, there was a blackout. I was shocked when the electricity turned off. I wondered if it had happened only in my house, but no. The whole neighborhood was in the dark. The only lights that did come were from the moon, torchlights and candles. “At least, the cars still work!” I told my parents in excitement. I was travelling to my friend’s house in my car. I saw nothing during my trip; everything was black. I thought I was in hell for a second. I even took a video while travelling, using my phone. The video wasn’t long but I caught something big walking across the road. It was…. really…..huge…… It’s was about 10 feet tall. It….looked hairy…..too. It was travelling at about the speed of sound.

It wasn’t long before I reached my friend’s house. I instantly went to see the footage I had taken but it was all blank, except that there was a very strange voice in the background. I think it was telling me something, but I couldn’t crack it. I couldn’t sleep that night. The next day, when I went to a mirror, I looked like Kung Fu panda with sore eyes. I quickly called my mom over to fetch me home. I waited outside for a few minutes.

When my mom came, I thought it was quite strange that she had walked there with an umbrella considering that she had a car. I quickly told my mom what had happened and ran back home with her. In the afternoon, when the electricity came back, the news broke out informing us that something or someone had broken into the power station. Claw marks were found everywhere. The thing had scratched the generator, wires, cables, switches … After listening to the news, I quickly ran into my room thinking of what I had seen that day. “Should I tell the police? Will the creature hunt me down? Will I be killed if I tell the police..? I don’t know what to do now, I am really scared,” I said to myself.

I stayed at home, telling my mom that I was very sick, so I didn’t have to go out. I just sat on the couch, turning to each news channel to see if the creature had been caught in the act or if something bad had happened because of it, all day long.

A few nights later, while I was watching television alone in the living room, I saw a light flash across the window. It was a very bright light. It blinded me for a moment there. When I got back my vision, I quickly dashed to wake my parents up to tell them what I had seen. I held their hands and pulled them outside. What we saw stunned us. There was a luminous disc outside, which looked eerily like the UFO pictures I had seen. I shouted out loudly so the whole neighborhood would come out. But the commotion made the disc slowly move away, but some of us were able to take some photos and videos.

The next morning, everyone in the neighborhood was talking about the UFO sighting. Most of us went to the police station to report .The police station was crowded. Some of us couldn’t even get in the door. The next day, the news broke out like wildfire.

Soon, scientists visited the site and began their investigations to find an answer to the mystery. Even now, they are continuing on their quest to find out if there really is life outside Earth. It still remains a mystery to us. Maybe there is life!!