Our Upper Secondary School students have been working on creative writing in their English classes. Having read and analysed stories from the Gothic genre, such as Coraline, the students were prompted to write their own. The focus on exploring the hallmarks of this 18th century writing style, which employs vivid imagery to create emotions of wonder and terror. Famous examples of this genre include A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson).
The following stories, written by our students, Anthony and Robert, were inspired by the image below.
Anthony: Miya and the Dark Horseman
In 1774 there was a lady called Miya who loved going to the forest to pick fruit in the afternoon for her husband. He was called Alucard. They were a great couple.
One day while she was walking back home after picking up fruit from the trees she heard a strange noise. It was the sound of dry leaves cracking when someone stepped on them. She felt like she was followed by someone. Every one step she took she heard two steps behind. She was so scared and ran and hid behind the mountain ash tree. Suddenly a shadow moved rapidly behind her. She was so afraid to look behind and said to herself, “You must be brave like Coraline.” So she slowly turned her head behind and there was nothing. She quickly ran to her house with fear.
When she reached home she told her husband what happened in the forest. But her husband didn’t take it seriously; he thought she was joking or making him scared. Her husband told her to take a rest, because she looked tired while she was in the bedroom looking outside the window thinking about what happened in the forest. While she was looking outside the window she saw a black horse eating meat and a dark monster or some kind of creature - she couldn't see properly. She couldn’t understand it was foggy in the afternoon.The creature was sitting on the horse and staring at her and calling her name Miya Miya. So she was so scared and screamed: “AAAAAAAAAAA”
Alucard was in his office room working and heard her screaming. It was so loud so he quickly ran to her.
“What happened?” asked her husband.
“Look outside, LOOK,” said Miya with fear. “There’s a monster outside watching me.”
“Hey, hey, relax there is no monster or nobody outside there ok just calm down,” said her husband. “Just take a deep breath, okay don’t worry I'm here, wait for 1 second I will go and get some water for you”.
After drinking water she felt a bit comfortable and tired.
“Why don’t you get some sleep?” asked her husband “I have to tell you an important thing when you wake up.” She slept for 3 hours when she woke up and dinner was ready. Her husband was waiting to have dinner together because he had to tell something important.
“What’s the important thing you want to tell me?” asked Miya.
“It's just about my business trip for 3 days,” said her husband “I will be leaving at 7:30 pm”.
At 7:30 Alucard was ready to leave “I will be leaving now” said Alucard.
“Okay have a safe journey,” said Miya
After Alucard left Miya was alone; the house was so quiet. She didn't know what to do so she took a book from her bookshelf and went to the bedroom to read. While she was reading she started to hear a strange noise again calling her, “Miya Miya!” she was so scared and she had shouted.
“What do you want from me” asked Miya
“I want your blood and your body.” said the creature.
Suddenly the creature appeared riding a mysterious black horse. After seeing that she was so scared and got a heart attack and fell on bed and can’t move her body. The creature uses his deep sleep spell on her.
Luckily her husband forgot to bring his business assignment so he went back home to take his assignment. While he was at the door he called Miya and asked “do you know where my assignment is?” but there was no reply so he went looking for his wife. When he opened the bedroom door he saw a creature sitting on his wife's chest drinking her blood. It was too late his wife died.unluckily the horse kicked him on the head and knocked him down and the horse ate his flesh and both of them died. The story ends here.
Robert: Diana and the Evil Book
Long ago in 1763 there was a beautiful woman named Diana who was taken by demons.
In the time of 1763s many people believed in ghosts or demons.
One day Diana's mother told Diana to buy some vegetables for dinner and told her to come back early before the sunset but she was late. On the way back home, she found an old book which is called “The Evil Book” that is tied by rusty sharp bare rope and has a mouth on it. She took the book and went back home quickly.
The night had fallen and the town was quiet. But Diana was not sleeping yet. She tried to open the book but the rope was too sharp. It bled her hand and blood fell onto the book. Suddenly the book opened itself, the first thing she saw in the book was a small human with a horrible face. Diana was shocked, she quickly closed the book and started sleeping. In the middle of the night, as she was still in her sleep, she felt like something heavy was on her chest or someone was pushing her chest, she was short of breath.
In the morning when she woke up, the book was on her chest.
“It’s weird,'' whispered Diana.
On the next day Diana read all the stories from the book, and threw the book away, but the book appeared in her room. She was afraid and burned the book, but still the book was not burned, so she began to dig and bury the book. On that night Diana was in deep sleep with her arm thrown to her elbow while Diana was still in a deep sleep she was whispered by a demon who possessed people as they slept. Diana was breathless and unable to move. Diana 's parents were still sleeping but they heard a strange noise, so they went up to check diana, when they opened the door they saw a demon who sat on Diana's chest and a horse with big eyes then diana was taken by a demonic.
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