5th Grade, 1st Place (tie)
by Olivia Walker,
Putnam County Elementary School
A town called Twisted Hollow has been corrupted…Destroyed. Not as many people live there except for the scientists. They were the ones who destroyed such a beautiful land. I was once a little child. My gender was unknown which made me a perfect test subject for RH-5. The “R” stands for revive, and the “H” stands for human. The number five in the name means that this is the 5th time that another generation has tried this test. The full name is Revive Humans 5. I am the 3rd subject in this test. It may be hard to believe that they only used three test subjects, but it’s true. I was never given a name other than Test Subject 3, so I named myself. My name is Eri. I am to be told the most intelligent test subject. I have not told any of the workers about my self-given name. I hope they don’t figure out my more human ways.
It was a regular night, and I was practicing ways to make fire. For me, beauty can come in the flames of fire. To others, it could look like death and destruction. Not for me. Beauty can be anything. As I was practicing my magic, I was swirling my fingers in the air, small sparks slowly emitting. It finally sparked up, a small flame from the tip of my finger, when a large bang followed by a dent made in my prison. So shocked, the fire got out of control, accidentally shooting it to the dent. More power was put into that than I expected, burning the hard material that made my cell. Outside of it, there was a tall figure. It had fur or some sort of soft stuff on it. Its neck was bent in impossible ways, and its backbone was showing. I was horrified! I was bound from any movement from my limbs! What was I supposed to do?
The tall figure slowly entered my small prison. It was hard to see what it was, but its face was drooping. I had no idea what this thing was, but it could not be safe! It lifted one of its ripped and twisted limbs. I winced because I was so worried about what it would do to me. To my surprise, it slammed its limb onto the chains, breaking them. It… was… freeing …me! Why would it do this for me? It was hard to decipher what it was saying, but it went along the lines of this, “You will die but will not. Your soul will be mine. Your soul is my reward for releasing you.” Before I could try to yell for help, it slammed its long neck into my chest. I fell to the ground, slowly losing all control over my body. I was dying. “Wait…please…I don’t deserve…to…die,” I slowly slurred this out. I was being killed. Now my soul was free of my body, and I worked with the figure. It turns out the figure was a giraffe, and it was helping me live a life forever as a spirit.
