Breaking Down

Breaking Down By Sara

WALT: Write a satisfying ending to a narrative

It was winter.

The thunder rumbling overhead seemed to taunt the young girl as she watched in horror while half of her home drifted away across the merciless, half-frozen sea.

She had awoken minutes earlier, disturbed from her sleep by the most appalling noise. It sounded as if a tree were being torn apart by giants, as if the Gods above were screaming at each other in a wild rage. She thought it was the end of the world. Perhaps it was. For her anyway.

In only her pyjamas, she stood on the edge of her ruined home, her toes dangling over the edge of the splintered floor, shivering in the harsh wind as it seemed to touch her skin like the kiss of some icy demon. She screamed at the top of her voice in despair and frustration, almost pleading with her frost-drenched surroundings to bring them back to her. She could see them. They were waving and shouting to her in return.

In front of her she could see the giant, drifting shards of ice, their edges sharp like Samurai swords. They knocked into each other as they were swept by the tide, reminding her of some cruel jigsaw that couldn’t be solved. She knew she could not reach them.

Her grief-stricken heart felt like a shattered window, she stared longingly at her family which the heartless sea had stolen. The thought pierced her heart like a shard of ice, she felt like her soul was shredded, all her happiness was gone, drifting far away with her family. The jigsaw of her life would always have a missing piece.

She looked at the jagged pieces of ice, wishing they would form a bridge and she sobbed, her tears crystallised, each one dropping on the frozen ground with a sad little “clink”. She felt numb and her hands were blue but it mattered very little to her, the family that she had was now gone she hated the future for it contained so much sorrow and questions. She felt like there was not a ray of hope left in her, all the optimism she ever had was now replaced by shadows of her past.

Thoughts of the past swirled in her mind like a tornado, the bittersweet memory of her mother's blissful smile and her brother’s playful grin when he played with her father made tears roll gently down her frost coated cheeks, she let one drop on her tongue, it tasted bitter like the her memories and her despair. The useless feeling in her made everything worse a mist of the future darkened her mind and filled her with regret. If only she had someone to comfort her, but she was alone and they would not come back.

The girl trudged in the knee deep snow with a sack slung over her shoulder.  The raw wind gnawed and whipped at her frozen cheeks, the joy in her life had left and the memories haunted her. The wind howled and snowflakes around her fell gently like a comforting hand on her shoulder. She knew there would be no help for her but she wanted to flee as far away from the house with the memories of her past. The journey was treacherous and she ran blindly in the blizzard, snow and wind beat down at her, the heavens had split open and all the terror was unleashed.

A cave loomed over her and the shadows flickered and danced, she rolled up in a ball and sobbed all her sorrow out, there was no hope in finding them and life would be empty. Days, weeks, months, YEARS past but the girl who was no longer a girl remained in the cave with no hope of reuniting with her family. Winter became the only season in her heart, the pain deepened until she could bare it no more.