The head

by Emily Eve Christaki
(England)

My fingers stroked the hard, metallic door of my locker and I groaned. Another six more lessons to go until the end of the day! How would I survive? Sighing, I eased the squeaky door open to grab my maths folder-
And my heart stopped

A horrible dark red colour was splattered all over my folders and brown satchel, covering my homework. Well, homework was the last thing on my mind right then because right in the middle of my locker, standing proudly in the midst of the red gunk… was a head.
It had brown leathery skin, gooey, dark hollows where the eyes would normally be and a small river of blood running down from a deep wound on the chin. Fear knocked at the door of my heart and anxiety flickered through the back of my mind. I felt like I couldn’t breath, like the Devil had wormed up my nostrils, down my throat and wrapped around my heart like a blanket.
My green eyes scanned the severed head to find that there was a little slip of paper underneath. Trembling, I reached out and saw what the paper said: YOU’RE NEXT

My soul was balancing at the tipping point of oblivion and my head was engulfed by fear. I honestly had no idea to do. So I ran. I ran down the grubby yellow stairs, across the muddy field and out of the school gates. Exhaustion was sucking all the breath out of my lungs but still I carried on, down an unknown street, through a dark tunnel. All the time my mind was racing, and I felt so, so confused, like I was trying to run away from myself. Finally I stopped running and I looked around. Where was I? Well, i’d certainly never been there before. I found myself in some sort of alleyway. It was bleak. Grey. And cold. So cold.

I heard a bang behind me and whipped my head around to see a large man standing carrying an equally large axe. My thoughts balanced on a string of emotions. What was happening?

“Who…are you?" I stuttered, my voice wavering. The man just grinned and proceeded to make his way stealthily towards me, forcing me to back up. A blinding light flashed before me as I spotted the man raising his axe…

The last thing I heard was the sound of my own scream.