Highly Commended 
Mariam Karim

The Mysterious Creature

Amena stopped in her tracks when she heard scurrying in the garden shed. She could see nothing when she peered through the window. Opening the door a crack to look inside she saw a frightened pointy face and a great bushy tail.

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The peculiar being that she couldn’t yet identify, appeared to be asleep. She knew that the creature was terrifying and would have been immense trouble, had she woken it. Endless questions of fear were roaming in her head. Could this be her last hour on earth?

She decided to leave as quickly but simultaneously quietly as humanly possible before the situation escalated. She tiptoed her way out, like a thief escaping his victims in the moonlight.

A few steps away from the garden shed, she thought she’d escaped what could have been her end. But before she could take a breath of relief, she soon realised that the creature had awoken and was behind her! With its eyes as sharp as a sword ready for war, its body as enormous and wretched as a sunken ship abandoned in the deepest end of an ocean with no intention of ever being found.

It was dark and Amena could barely, if at all see her surroundings. Suddenly the clouds drifted away and the moonlight shone down upon them. She turned round and could now see the mysterious creature.

It was a fox. Not the kind she had ever seen before. This beast would have been a crow amongst swans, compared to the other foxes she had seen before.

The huge creature opened its wild mouth and Amena could see her multiple reflections, reflected by every tooth.

Amena would never forget this moment, if she survived. But at this point, she doubted that.

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