My Website Published

Dear Readers,

It's lovely to meet you all for the first time. I'm very inexperienced when it comes to blogs and websites. So, if I fall short of your expectations... I apologise.

The reason for this second-rate website and blog is that I want to showcase my private works with you. I hope to grow into an excellent writer one day and improve in my craft. So, I will be publishing my short stories, poetry, and other literary works as I progress. All of this is for free, of course. I never plan to monetise this blog.

Here is the first story. A (1000-word) flash fiction that was made from prompts for a competition. It is entitled:

A Daughter's Revenge

It was just me and my mum. My mum and me against the world or, at least, my world. My high school.

It was hard some days. Homework and teenagers. But it was always alright when I came home to my mum and ran into her arms for a hug. She would make it all okay. Between her and my favourite subject, Alchemy, my life was good.

Until it wasn’t...

I still remember the day when I came home and ran into the kitchen to hug my mum, but... she wasn’t there. I thought that maybe she was just late walking home from work. It wouldn’t be the first time. So, I prepared dinner and waited.

I was jerked awake by a sharp rap at the door. The dinner plate clattered at my startle. Why were there two police officers on the doorstep? I was worried and confused. Where was my mum?

They broke the news to me. My mum had been killed in a car crash. Shock! Then anger! when I made out the familiar red-eyed face in the back seat of the police car... Jeremy Silvergarth.

Days later, newspapers revealed the circumstances of my mums death. The crash of one car vs one body, the driver driving under the influence, crime scene pictures, all this was exposed in black and white. All except for the identity of the culprit, which was kept under suppression.

My stomach churned as I watched this boy wander around the grounds of my high school, Wrymwatch High, without any consequences. The flying carpets in sewing class, the unicorn jousting in PE, even my favourite class, Alchemy had lost its appeal.

It was so unfair! I felt so upset! So angry! And so many other emotions I couldn’t possibly convey. Why was nothing happening to him? I waited months for something to happen. Nothing!

I sat in the empty Alchemy classroom during the lunchbreak. My anger, my brooding, my mulling. I wanted him to hurt like me!

In front of me was a beaker. I looked at it and contemplated all the potions... and poisons I could make with it. I could make a lot.

I shook my head. That was a terrible, awful, horrific thought. I couldn’t poison Jeremy! No, no, no! But maybe I’ll just experiment...

Because of child safety laws, no poisons were listed in my workbooks. So, I mean, what are the chances that I’d actually be able to concoct a poison? It’ll be alright.

So, with sides warring within me, I began concocting.

The unlucky certifiably non-prince frogs were my test subjects over the next few weeks.

My tests produced all kinds of results on these frogs! One sprouted wings, one forever floated, one regressed into a tadpole, one turned into a prince... It was weird watching a human hopping and eating flies like a frog around the school grounds. One became invisible, one developed a giraffe's tongue... Gross! One grew hair, one grew hooves, one grew teeth, one sprouted massive red lips.....

I labelled all these beakers with their results and kept them in my locker.

Finally, the day before graduation one frog collapsed to the ground and didn’t get up. I waited, but he didn’t budge or twitch in the slightest. This was it! I held the beaker up and scribbled ‘Poison’ on it.

Now! What was I going to do now? Would I follow through? Can I follow through? Would my mum approve of this? All of this swirled around my brain. The lunch bell rang.

Someone sat heavily at the workbench beside me. My new lab partner? Since mine had gone home with a case of warts.

To my dismay, shock, and horror... Jeremy Silvergarth. He had a glass of water with him. Is this my chance? He even got up and walked away. No one was looking. Is this what my mum wants?

A pink blossom blew through the open window and landed on my hand. The hand that was ready to pour the poison into his glass. My mum loved pink blossoms...

And so, Jeremy ended up walking out of the classroom alive and oblivious. But not before casting an envious eye over my ‘Poison’ beaker and whispering a cryptic question. “You do that too?”

I scrambled to hide the beaker and the poor dead froggy in my bottomless hamper.

At graduation, I followed the ceremony half-heartedly, dressed in the horrifically old-fashioned witch hat and cloak that no one would choose to wear nowadays. Telling myself that it would be fine if I never saw him again.

Only when Jeremy tumbled off the stage while receiving his diploma, did I notice the event.

Is he dead? A horrible thought occurred to me. Could my poison have killed him?

I ran to my locker. It had been jimmied open, and my poison beaker was half-empty! Oh no!

Had I incidentally gotten my revenge? Had he seen that beaker I had yesterday and gotten nosy?

I felt guilty. Guilty that my fatal thoughts had come true! Guilty that I invented the weapon that killed him! I was panicking inside. Checking my surroundings for any prying eyes.

None.

Then an announcement came over the crystal sound system.

“We would like to assure everyone that the student who collapsed during the graduation ceremony isn’t dead! Just sleeping! Turns out that he was drunk and had been hiding alcohol in the Alchemy class beakers. Let me repeat. He is not dead! That is all.”

I was confused. Even more so when I watched the still dead frog in my bottomless hamper breathing. He was asleep. What a relief!

Then to my surprise, the massive lipped frog hopped over and kissed the sleeping frog. He woke up!

I groaned. Crossed out ‘Poison’ on the beaker and rewrote ‘Sleeping Beauty’.

I closed my locker. Maybe one day I’ll tell them, but for now...

I’ve got my revenge!