An Extraordinary Mind

• Jayda Hodgetts, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2023

To have an extraordinary mind you don’t have to have the smarts, only the passion and the fury.

It was one frosty early morning in February. As the sun rose from the mountain tops Sarah was awoken from her slumber by the roaring brightness gazing through the petite bedroom window. She rolled out of bed and dragged herself down the stairs with an exhausted vibe surrounding her. She snatches a piece of slightly burnt toast left over from the plate on the dining room table. With her school bag tightly around her shoulders she storms out the door and off to school for another day.

After school she strides into her room and slams her bag up against the bedroom door, as she flopped onto her bed, she replayed the day in her head thinking about all the good and the bad, almost like a real-life movie. As her mind discussed the events with herself, she gently drifted off into a distant dream.

“Crash “a noise appeared from the hallway, her eyes burst open with a frightened glow. Sarah reached out to her bedside table to grab her phone, the bright light almost blinded her when she realised she has been asleep for several hours. The phone read 11:51pm. She quickly and quietly sneaked from her bed to the door and peered beyond the wall and saw nothing, when Sarah kept walking, she saw an unidentified moving shadow from the darkness at the end of the long hallway. Even though she was saying “it’s probably nothing” her extraordinary mind thought the worst of the situation. “Is it a murder? a robber? someone coming to endanger her family? She didn’t know for sure but all she could think about was getting away from this thing as soon as possible. Sarah rushed into a closet next to the room where her mother and farther were peacefully sleeping.

As she sat silently in the closet waiting for that horrid, mystery beast to evacuate the household she kept glancing at her mobile device watching the time tick over and over, it felt like an eternity, but it was only a few minutes. Just when her curiosity got the best of her, and her fear had vanished that’s when she decided to risk facing whatever was out there. She opens the door with a “Creeeeek”, and her eyes appeared wider than ever she takes her first steps out of the closet. Now the phone reads 12:10am. It's the only light that’s leading her back to her bedroom. But every time she hesitated to step her hearts beat out of her throat, the deafening sound of silence fills her ears as she lies back in bed.


“Tweet, tweet” the birds perched on the windowsill singing their songs, when the sun once again brightens Sarah's eyelids. She suddenly sits straight in bed as she remembers the strange night she had. She rushed down to the living room where breakfast was commencing. Sarah explained to her mum what she had seen in the death trap hallway. Her mother was confused it makes Sarah think “was it a dream? Or was it reality?”.