6th Grade, 2nd Place
by Taylor Wheeler,
Lake Oconee Academy
From the day she was born, all she heard was silence. From the day she was
born, all she saw was an eternal darkness surrounding her from every direction. From
empty streets with the occasional parked car, to beaches filled to the brim with people,
in the life of April Stray, all these places aren’t as peaceful as others believe them to be.
She could feel the vibrations from all the sounds going on around her. There is a
constant bombardment of anything and everything, causing a headache. Maybe that
was why she was able to quickly notice that something was off about the world around
her.
Now that April thought of it, she has never seen the world. Never seen her
parents and the friends that she decided to keep until just entering high school. Been
trapped inside of the endless void that she had identified has her mind. Even with these
thoughts spiraling through her head, she knew that something was different than before.
There is a ominous feeling following her every step. She no longer had this obnoxious
headache that had followed her throughout her entire life.
She tried to ignore it, but day by day it grew, until it eventually became
unbearable. Oh how she loathed this feeling of nothingness. It was as if she could now
feel the quiet soaking through her skin, absorbing every last ounce of the energy
remaining in her body. It was hard for her to control her own thoughts. April felt as if her
own mind didn’t belong to her. Time has stopped. To her, there was a blurred line
between seasons, making everyday as boring as the last. She eventually lost track of
time. Minutes became months, months turned into years, and years turned into
millennials. With this conception of time, she barely noticed that one year passed, and
that soon turned into five.
Walled up inside of an abyss, April was stuck trying to find a way out. She has
spent most of her life holed up inside of a “locked closet” and she was sick of it. It was
her mind, yet she felt inferior. However, One by one the walls shattered as though it had
been as fragile as glass this entire time. All of this was new to her. She didn’t
understand anything about what was happening. Didn’t know what to make out of this
color, and music, and muttered sounds of laughter around her. She was free.
April’s mom, Celine, sat in her cell desperate for answers. Maybe it was time for
her let go. Deal with the fact that her April was gone and wasn’t coming back. Even
though it had been five year, Celine couldn’t get away from the guilt. Couldn’t get a
break. She wasn’t being true to herself at that time. She was so out of state that she
killed her own daughter. This was all her fault. Will anybody ever believe that she’s changed.
