Murder, Magic, Merthings, More.

  Tim sprinted as fast as he could with the box in his hand until he arrived at his house.

  “What do you think is in the box?” Tim asked Rover

  “I’ll open it shall I?” Rover barked in excitement.

  Tim opened the box and inside was a whistle.

  “It’s a whistle” he said, disappointed. “Wha-hey!” he said sarcastically before he blew it.

  But when he blew, smoke came out of it. When the smoke faded away there was a man standing there. He was wearing an ordinary top, jeans, flip-flops and a baseball cap.

  “My name is Joe and I am a genie. I am here to grant you three wishes. Take your time ok! You do not have to take them all today ok! I must go through the rules ok!”

  Tim stood silent, too shocked even to manage an ok of his own.

  “Rule One – Never tell anyone about this ok? Rule Two – You are not allowed to wish for more wishes and if you do a wish will be taken away from you, I’m afraid. That’s all the rules,” said the Genie, “and if you want me to go for now just blow the whistle ok.”

  Tim was just standing in complete shock and then he blew the whistle. It was only 8:30pm but he was very tired. The day had shaken him out. So he went to bed with the whistle. He dreamt about what to wish for. He dreamt about having a spaceship or becoming as famous as Simon Cowell and owning a helicopter. He did not need any of these but he could not think of anything else.

  He woke and looked at the clock. 9:00am, Saturday. He went down stairs and made himself some toast and gave Rover some dog food. As he was eating his toast he stared at the whistle.

  He blew it. In an instant Joe appeared out of nowhere.

  “My first wish is to achieve World peace,” said Tim to Joe.

  "Wait a minute, it’s not as easy as that. You must now do the Hakka!” replied Joe.

  Tim started doing the Hakka half-heartedly.

  “Come on a bit more effort!” said Joe.

  “Is this good enough?” asked Tim.

  “I was only joking, you didn’t have to do anything, your wish is granted. Two more to go man!” said Joe, and then he vanished into thin air.

  Tim went back to his toast and put the television on, it was the news. It went to a reporter in Syria who said enthusiastically:

  “Breaking news! There is now peace throughout the World, we don’t know how long it will last but we are hoping for the best.”.

  Tim turned the television off. He went upstairs to change into his clothes and then took Rover out for a walk. Today he chose to walk on the path that takes you to the village of Pilkton.

  He walked into the Trout Inn, the local pub, leaving Rover outside.

  “The usual?” asked Jeff, the owner of the pub.

  Jeff had known Tim for years, he even went to school with him.

  “Yes please” replied Tim. Jeff got out a pint glass and poured many different liquids into it. It looked like he was making a potion.

  “One Fishermen’s Special. That will be three pounds please,” said Jeff.

  Tim handed the money over.

  “Let me ask you a question,” said Tim. “Just out of curiosity. If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?”

  “Well I would probably wish for a new car and to have my own golf course because the people on our course are as slow as slugs!” answered Jeff.

  “Aye to that one! But the third one?” asked Tim.

  “I would probably wish for a new house,” answered Jeff again.

  “Ok then!” said Tim. Then he drank all of his potion-like drink, went outside to get Rover, and went home.

  When he arrived home he got his whistle out and blew it. Joe came out of nowhere.

  “I wish to have a new house,” said Tim.

  “Ok, I’m just saying that this will not take effect straight away. You will need to go to sleep first. You have one wish left ok?” said Joe and then he left.

  Tim looked at his watch. It was 11:00 am. To pass time he watched telly all day until 9pm because he was so excited! At last bedtime arrived and he went to bed and dreamt about what kind of house it would be. Would it have a cinema, maids, swimming pool etc. etc.?

  When Tim woke he was in a small room with a small window and an old black and white television. He was lying in a single bed and on the floor on a dog’s bed was Rover. He got up and checked for a door; there were three. He opened one and it revealed an ordinary bathroom, with a toilet and a stand-in shower.

  “Very nice en-suite” Tim said to himself.

  He left the bathroom and opened another door; there was a hall with many doors. all with numbers on them. He shut that door and looked through the other one. It was a kitchen; a small kitchen. He shut that door and feared for the worse – it was a flat!

  He looked outside the window and there was a view over a road and a lot of shops. There were three tanks and about thirty soldiers behind them with a rifle each. Confused, Tim put the telly on. The trusty reporter was in Beijing.

  “Breaking news! World War Three has started. China and Russia are at war with the rest of the world.”

  Still confused, Tim blew his whistle and out came Joe.

  “What happened?” asked Tim.

  “Well you have a new house,” said Joe.

  “No! The World peace thing? Plus, I asked for a new house, not this!” replied Tim in a snap. “The World peace only lasted one day and you’ve started World War Three!”

  “This is a new house! You didn’t ask for a nicer house,” replied Joe. “And as for World peace, it’s not my fault you lot always want to fight!”

  “OK,” said Tim. “What a mess! I wish everything could go back to normal; and that this never happened; and for this to happen right now!”

  “Ok!” Joe clicked his fingers and said “Lets go!” The both of them and Rover vanished.

  Tim was walking Rover on the beach. “The less said about this the better… let’s go home,” said Tim. And they did.

  The Preacher

  Aled Lloyd, Bro Myrddin

  This was the end and I was done for because he had found me. He laughed at me as he destroyed my soul. As he looked at me, there he stood, crippling my emotions as he made me think of the unfortunate events of my life. For he made all our nightmares; for he makes us all want power; he makes us fight and kill for it; he makes us break the rules as he vows to wreck our lives and the planet we live on. Of course, I’m talking about The Preacher!

  My name is Sam. I live in a normal house with Mum, Dad and my dog Mabli. Or I thought I lived in a normal house, until the events that happened that day changed my life forever. Here’s where it all begins.

  A regular Monday and I wasn’t feeling myself, almost as if something had happened to me. I got into class and we read a book about a creature from the reckless lands of Hell called The Preacher – a creature made by Satan himself, who could control your mind and make you do things you didn’t intend to and could change your soul to make it dark, twisted and evil. Obviously it didn’t scare me! But while I was in school everyone looked at me in a different way. Even John the school bully wouldn’t approach me.

  On the bus everyone would look at me as if I was the new kid on the block, though no one would dare speak about me. I was like a ghost of some sort which everyone could see but would have a curse if they spoke about.

  I came home to sense a smell of spices. I thought about what it would be and quickly realised it was curry! After the scrumptious meal I did my homework, watched some TV and went to bed. As I drifted off, I saw a figure. I got scared so I shut my eyes and tried to go to sleep, but the figure cried “Sleep! Sleep and it will go away.” I ignored it and despite my fears I fell asleep.

  All of a sudden I woke up. I found myself in a hot place surrounded by rock with yellow, orange and red gems and I saw lava pools in the distance.

  “Where am I?” I said.

  A voice behind me said “You’re in my domain, Sam, Satan’s domain: you are in hel
l! Now, you are thinking why you are here? Yes. You are here because you carry my mark!”

  At first I thought he was joking but I felt my forehead and what felt like a mark in the shape of a cross and a number six was on my skin! I suddenly realised that he had taken control of my soul and I realised that I was now his servant. I would now do actions that I couldn’t help doing with no way to stop him or me.

  I woke to find myself standing in my parents’ bedroom holding a knife that was covered in blood, warm blood. My mother was screaming, ”How could you? You have killed your father!”

  I heard police sirens outside and my mother ran out to them, frightened for her life, screaming, ”He’s in there! He’s in there!”

  I suddenly realised that he’d framed me for killing my own father and all of a sudden a great flash appeared!

  I woke up in a vehicle with a figure in the corner. He whispered to me “This is just the beginning!”

  His voice had a low pitch and to my horror he laughed and cried “See you in hell Sam!” and vanished as the van door opened and two policemen grabbed each of my arms. They dragged me through the crowd and what I didn’t realise is that they were dragging me in to a court where there were press constantly taking photos, reporters from all over Australia and a crowd of rioters screaming “GUILTY! Off with his head!”

  The police didn’t do much. They were trying to keep the mobs away from me.

  I walked into the courtroom. I was put in a box with metal bars and it was locked. A man called out “All stand for your judge, Dallas Preacher!”

  I couldn’t believe it, The Preacher was the judge. So with no hope I cried “Guilty, Guilty, I killed him, I killed my dad. It was I.”

  The Preacher smacked down his hammer and shouted “Guilty of the murder of David Sam Montgommary!”

  Two men grabbed me and tossed me into a van and all you could hear was the mob screaming and clapping with joy, and all of a sudden I saw a flash again.

  After coming round I felt a hard surface as cold as ice. I groaned as I opened my eyes to see I was in a courtyard. I was wearing an itchy uniform just like all the figures around me. I looked up to see a very tall man with a big build gently say ”Fresh blood, eh?”

  “What?” I said confused.

  “You new to this place? Welcome to Blackheart Prison.”

  I got up and said, “Where are we?”

  He laughed and said, ”In the middle of Mount Hendre!” which did explain why there was no natural light and only hot air.

  “Has anyone ever escaped from here?” I asked

  ”No. We are in the middle of this mountain. Below there is lava everywhere and scaling the inside of the mountain is impossible.”

  Since there was no way out I introduced myself.

  He replied: ”My name is Donovan but everyone calls me D, so just call me that.”

  “Watch out!” D shouted. A group of prisoners started throwing stones at us and we ran for cover.

  “Who the hell are those guys!?” I asked.

  “That’s a gang called CD (Chinese Dominators), and you have woke up on their territory.”

  I ran back to D’s cell and there was a spare bed so he let me sleep there for a while.

  The cell had two small beds and a toilet, and bars on the windows of course, blocking a hole which gave us a view. There were ten floors, each with a balcony which had the courtyard below. I asked if anyone had ever jumped before and his reply was, “Yes, too many. And if you want to die on impact you will need to jump off the tenth floor and land head first like a lad did a month ago. He survived the fall, screamed loud, then died seconds later.”

  D stared at my head and said ”You’ve got the Mark! The Preacher Mark which means you have ten days of your life left!”

  I panicked and asked “How do I destroy the mark?”

  He said there was only one way to do this. Word has it that the waters of the heavens fall into the lake at the bottom of the mountain, so you have to escape the world’s most impeccable prison and scale down the world’s tallest mountain… all in ten days!

  “Where’s our belongings?” I asked.

  He mentioned that they were kept by the lift which is heavily guarded. I thought it would be better to die trying to get out of this hellhole instead of dying in it.

  Days passed as I watched the guards, monitoring the times they went by. There was only one time every day that remained the same - 5.45pm.

  The next day, 5.45, I waited behind a metal locker. D thought I was in great debt to him but I had decided to make this journey on my own.

  All of a sudden the guard patrol left the lift area. I had two minutes before the guards returned so I ran from behind the metal locker to the lift, reached the surface and a small part of the mountain opened up as if it was a secret escape – as if someone had tried this before! It took me to the bottom of the mountain.

  There was the lake! I ran towards it, but as I ran I felt weak, as if my body was shutting down. My legs felt dead as I fell to the ground and my eyes started to close, but as my body got weaker a figure grew stronger – a black, dark creature with a bright purple left eye and a weaker dark green right eye. It was The Preacher! And with no time to react, he grabbed me by the neck and drew out a knife with dark red blood on it. I realised that it was the very blade that he had used, through me, to murder my father. He then stuck the blade deep into my stomach. It bled like a swollen river, the pain unbearable, and then he slit the knife across my throat. And then, once more, I saw a flash!

  I was back in hell but with no emotion, no body and no soul.

  This was the end, done for because he had found me. He laughed at me as he destroyed my soul. As he looked at me, there he stood, crippling my emotions as he made me think of the unfortunate events of my past life. For he made me think of all my past nightmares; for he makes people want power, which makes us fight and kill; for he makes us want to break the rules and he vows to wreck our lives and that planet we live on. Of course, I’m talking about The Preacher.

  Strange Beginnings

  Liam Quiros, Bro Myrddin

  As he sat on the diamond shaped rug in front of the fire, he turned his head left and then right. Outside the window the lights were being put out and the shops were closing.

  You could hardly see through the window. It was frosty and the frost was making icy patterns dance on the glass.

  “You must be cold,” said the lady soothingly as she came through the door and put a blanket on his shoulders.

  I must be in the front room, he thought to himself, glancing out the window as he did. For some unknown reason he couldn’t remember a thing that had happened before. All he remembered were snippets. Him running, a gunshot, and then… darkness.

  He could only remember two things: his name, Tim Hun, and lying on the floor as still as the darkness that fills the night sky, the lady slowly walking towards him like a slow but steady tortoise.

  He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the tortoise lady’s voice.

  “You need something to eat,” she paused, “lying on the road like that,” she continued.

  He looked at her strangely with his head tilted to the side like that of a dog in confusion. She looked him in the eye then walked out and called back “I’ll make soup.”