Primary short stories

For the 2023 Education and Learning supplement, SUR in English asked schools to send in short stories; they were given a maximum of 300 words and the theme this year was 'Escape'.

Here is a selection of this year's entries from primary school children.

Danger is close. Deathly close. I can see it. I can hear it. I can feel it. My heart is pounding up in my mouth.

I can hear the leaves of the remaining trees whispering frantically for me to leave. I won't. I realise that I am making a terrible mistake by staying, but what they did to my family is unforgivable. My blood boils hot in my veins. Anger is a monster that is hard to defeat. This time is no exception.

But suddenly everything stopped, everything was good, everything was perfect. Only for a second. Then I heard the screams of fear, the smell of war and the heart breaking view of a place that once was my home. It all flashed before my eyes, my house, my little sister, my favourite shop where I used to go every day. Everything I loved was now a sad handful of grey ash. It was as sad and helpless as I felt now. Hot tears sprinted down my face, burning it like boiling water. In an instant, I heard the tanks moving slowly through the ruins of Ukraine like a hunter ready to leap on its prey.

Looking for any survivors, the smell of damp moss and decaying life nauseated my nostrils. The tank stopped. All went silent. I heard a slight movement in the long grass. It was a fox limping and squealing for help. I wanted to help but I was not ready to sacrifice my life yet. Then, in a flash, people were shouting for me to run. The tank started shooting and a bomb exploded where I was standing. Everything went pitch black. Everything stopped. Everything was gone; good and bad everything. I was gone.

Not all stories have a happy ending.

As the night broke in, and the clouds started drifting away, a lightning strike suddenly blasted on the ground as if a bomb had fallen from the sky (I waspetrified). I stayed up all night, hoping it would end but it didn’t. But as I finally got some sleep, I was woken by the sound of my dog howling: what was wrong? I asked myself and I saw it. A book that was laying open on the ground. I was wondering where it came from. My mom hates them and I don't have time for that nonsense but I was a curious little girl so I started reading. I felt as if I was actually in the story, like actually in it. How could that be possible? I think I like books. And they're not as childish as I thought they were. Well in that story there was this girl that was in an abandoned desert that was full of pyramids there. Everywhere you look you see a pyramid. They looked so beautiful. As I ran towards them the little girl stopped me. She said I could get trapped in there but I told her this was only a fairytale but she told me she thought that too before she got trapped in the book. I told her that was nonsense. It is only a paper with words on it. How could you get trapped in that? But I was too tired to explore the pyramids so I decided to get out of here, but no matter how hard I tried to get out of here it never let me out. Maybe I will get stuck in here forever, maybe the little girl was right, maybe there's no way back.

7:32 pm

Alright. I’ve had enough. Up to about two months ago, I was happy; it was just me and Henry, and we spent all our time together. He would feed me, play with me and pet me until I fell asleep. Great. But now there is someone else, a terrorist. She yells ALL night long, throws food at me and pokes her fingers in my cage, yet when I bite her, they yell at me and she becomes a siren. I don't know why they love her so much, she's really just a troll with pink bows and pigtails. Not so great.

So, I'm going to escape.

Ok, Ok I get this might not be the best idea, but put yourself in my shoes, It's really a life-or-death situation.

Hear me out.

Every day, twice, Henry lets me out to eat, that's when I'll make a run for it. But for now I'm tired. Goodnight.

6:58am

I’ve a good feeling about today, I can feel it in my nose, like a good smell. Actually, nevermind, I think that's my breakfast. Here’s my chance!

Aha! Gotcha! I totally fooled Henry: a Bite’n’Run. Now I’m running, better take cover, he will only be shocked for a moment. Wait, oh no, The Troll is here! Gotta dash! She can't get me under the sofa, I'll rest there for now. I feel rather peaceful actually. Except I'm REALLY hungry, I should've eaten. Y’know, it wouldn't hurt if I went for a snack..

Oops. I went too far.

Quick! Run! Running through a kitchen-roll, over a tile, and under the coffee-table. I’m really tired… a tiny nap couldn't hurt, after all, no one will find me here. Yeah, just a nap. I've had enough escaping for one day…

Squeak

Billy’s head felt really strange - it was like someone was scrambling eggs in it. Gingerly, he opened his eyes, hoping to see his mixed martial arts posters but knowing deep down in the centre of his body that he wasn’t in his bedroom.

As his eyes became accustomed to the darkness that surrounded him, he realised that he was in a cell. But not a jail cell. It was a dungeon, deep underneath the surface of the Earth. He was freezing, his pyjamas were damp from the cold, stale air; his fingers and toes were as cold as the frozen sausages in his mom’s freezer.

Slowly, he reached up and pulled a tranquiliser dart from his neck and with the pain his memory returned - he was a prisoner of the Laires Rellik, feared all over the state of Ohio. He would become the latest victim of the killer.

He had to get away. Feeling his way along the wall which was as smooth as polished marble, he stopped when he reached the reinforced, metal door which was sealed tightly.

Desperately, he tugged at the door but it was locked.

All of a sudden, Billy felt exhausted but out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed a flash of silver. He crawled carefully towards it and his fingers eventually wrapped around a sharp piece of metal - it was a knife.

Using the edge of the metal knife, he picked the huge complicated lock on the door and after what seemed like an eternity the door sprang open. Without thinking, he began to run up the stairs which stretched as far as his eye could see. There was only one thing on his mind: escape.

The calm before the storm. I lay tranquilly on my bed on a cold, misty night and I vividly remember reading my mystery book and being so engrossed in it that I didn’t even notice when tragedy struck the city. The ground shook and my little brother pounced onto my bed. Fear had spread on his face. “The ground just shook; did you not feel it?” he shrieked. Abruptly, the ground shook once again and my worst fears were quickly becoming a reality. Our parents grabbed us, and we ran down to our basement. I could feel the tremble beneath my feet. Somehow, we all split up and took refuge under sturdy tables. Now, all I recall is sinking down as if the ground didn’t exist. I felt like I was being sucked up into a black hole.Suddenly, I hit rock bottom and could see the walls crumbling like a sandcastle. I went blank and then acknowledged that I was trapped like the British soldiers in their cells. My world had suddenly turned pitch black buried under layers of bricks. I started yelling for help because my life depended on that. There was no way I could possibly free myself. All I could hear were the echoes of my own howls. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I thought I would never see daylight again. I couldn’t even shout anymore, my throat dry and my lungs empty; so, I decided to leave it to fate. After what felt like an eternity, out of the blues, I heard a scrambling noise and tried to shout without knowing if my voice was reaching the other end. I was pulled out and spotted my family in the distance, what a relief! My heart just skipped a beat! That was my miraculous escape.

Escape. Escaping from reality, from the stress of being perfect, the stress of letting people down. With all the 21st century new technology these things have become quite normal, even in the k-9 world. Now this might sound like a bunch of nonsense but trust me, in Benji's life there was more stress than you could ever imagine. Now you might be thinking what kind of stress could a dog have. "Did my owner forget to feed me?" or something silly like that, but you would be completely wrong.

As I mentioned earlier, technology is one of the main causes of stress, so right now you might be thinking "what are you talking about, dogs don't have technology" which in most cases would be true but not in this instance. Benji's owner is Sam, a middle aged kind woman, but when she was younger, she always dreamed of having a child but was told she couldn't, so she adopted a dog. Sam never really got over the fact that she couldn't have a kid and treated Benji as if her own child which doesn't sound too bad but that led Sam to doing stuff like enrolling Benji in a school, one for humans, and she loved him so much that she even got him an iPhone (and no, not a dog toy version of one) a real one which since Benji was such a smart dog learned how to use it, but even though he couldn't really understand what any of it was he saw pictures of other dogs that got all the best dog treats and toys. He had had enough, so one day Benji escaped and was never seen again.

"Will I ever get out of here?'' Hazel thought to herself. All her life she had been trapped. It had been the same for her parents growing up in Russia. Hazel was getting old now and her hair was getting more grey, but she dreamed one day to be free. She could see life on the other side. The noise and smells - oh how she couldn’t wait to run where she wanted! But how could she escape?

As a prisoner, all there was to eat and drink were smelly, rotten vegetables and a small bottle of water. To sleep, she had to make a bed out of cardboard. The bars in her cell were very high. Hazel was a good climber, but it was impossible to get out.

She had to wait for her moment. She's waited all her life. Everyday, a big door briefly opened and a humongous figure would drop off more smelly food.

She waited all night and all day until she could just about see the massive figure. Hazel decided this was her best chance! Then, when the big door opened, she quickly rushed to the door to escape, but he saw her and grabbed her. He held her tightly, so she bit as hard as she could with her big, sharp teeth. There was a loud scream and Hazel fell all the way down to the ground. She quickly ran like mad anywhere she could see. The figure tried to catch her and was shouting after her, but Hazel was finally free!

Her escape was successful and she could now run where she wanted; no more running round and round in circles!

Hazel felt like the luckiest hamster in the world!

My mind, shrouded in mist. My head twists as I gently caress soft powdered shells from my face. Slowly rising until I’m sitting upright. I prop myself up on golden crystal sand, surrounded by the beauty of the cold fresh night. A breeze glides over me as I stand up. I take in a deep breath of salty ocean air, closing my eyes to escape the precarious situation and return to normality.

Taking in my surroundings, allowing my feet to solemnly sink into the soft reassuring surface. Peaceful. The oh-so-sullen moonlight desensitised me as the gloomy clouds gave me a familiar feeling of home. The ocean opened its eyes, showing me not only her tranquilised celestial body but also the meandering translucent abundant forms that effortlessly floated in this dark indigo aqua.

I started to walk into the ocean, feeling a luminescent glow glaze around me as my clothes drifted along with the calm flow of water. Chills ran up my back, my fingers manoeuvred, creating small bubbles that levitated up to the surface. I shut my eyes, submerging my whole body underwater. It wasn’t a subconscious decision; it was as if something was calling to me. Glacial water ran through my hair and dripped like small diamond stones when I surfaced.

Buoyant, I looked back at the island. My island. Tropical palm trees skimmed ever so slightly, matching the pace of the wind as felicitous rings of light fell across the sky. Something unreal brought me here but what?

Either way I felt like I belonged.

In the year 2023 there lived a cat, a beautiful tabby cat. The cat lived in the rocket launch pad high up in the freezing cold mountains but the cat didn’t mind because he had nice, lovely fur to keep him warm. By the way, if you were wondering, the cat was called Tiggy.

Tiggy adored foraging for rats but one day when he was chasing a scent he walked into the rocket ship by mistake.

All of a sudden, the doors slammed shut! ZOOM! went the rocket and just after the zoom Tiggy realised that the colossal ship had taken off. Tiggy was feeling sick but he didn’t know why. Then he noticed that he was floating on the ship that was flying to Mars!

After ten hours of floating in the rocket ship, they finally arrived on the red planet, as they call it. When the door opened the astronauts slid off the rocket and ten alien ants scampered on.

Straight away they captured Tiggy. As quick as a flash, they forced him outside and took him to their secret capturing den. Before they arrived at their den the alien ants couldn't hold Tiggy's weight anymore so he fell down and squashed them all. Tiggy escaped and went back to look for the rats.

I woke up in the this big hole with magma in it. I don't know how I got here, but I have to escape, especially because I had found out that this is a live volcano.

It is about the erupt! Luckily I was able to climb the rocks inside here, but it wasn't over. Sadly the rocks weren't high enough for me to escape, so I had to try something else. After a while of thinking, I finally came up with an idea. There were cracks on the walls, so I could climb up that way.

But I had to hurry, becasue the volcano was a few minutes from erupting. I quickly started climbing, but when I was almost out, I realised that there were no cracks at the top. I was really panicking, but when I was about to accept that I can't escape, I saw a tiny rock, that I could jump on and make it out alive! I just hoped that it could hold me.

I jumped and it nearly held me. I started climbing it quickly. I don't know how, but I made it out alive beore the volcano erupted.

I ran and quickly warned my village that the volcano was about to erupt. We quickly packed some stuff in less than one minute and ran to our boats to leave our village.

Luckily, we escaped, but our village was gone. Now I'm in a boat writing about our tragedy.

Hi, my name is Lily, and I am from London. A while ago, I moved to a tiny town called Crystal Bay. At first, I was a little unsure about moving, but after a few days, I met Greta and we became friends. After a month or so, my family and I started renovating the new house we moved into, and I found the most incredible thing in the world. It was a beautiful bracelet. Now you must be wondering what is so special about a bracelet, well I found out it has magic powers.

Right now, I am on the run because as I found the bracelet, an evil human spider attacked our town to steal it to conquer the world. It attacked our town and broke a lot of buildings and houses. As it destroyed our town, I found a secret passageway that leads under the town, starting from the basement of my new house to a nature surrounded gigantic oak tree far outside the town. But I still must run any second, the evil mastermind could find the passageway and find me. Stay tuned, and I will keep you up to date about my great escape.

One day in the town of Lolita there was an awfully rich queen named Lolina. She had orange hair in a tight bun and a light blue gown and a dazzling golden crown with white diamonds.

Every Friday, a horrible thief would steal 190 Euros from the Queen. But the guards could not get him. But one Friday morning the guards woke up to see the Queen was gone. They did not know she had been kidnapped. Boom! The Queen woke up in a spooky basement. She yelled for help but no one came.

After 3 hard days, the Queen remembered she had a pin in her hair. She unlocked the door. Soon, she came into a dark hall and she saw a new door. She unlocked it.The Queen walked outside. Outside she was on an island.

She looked back at where she had come from… a colossal manor. She gasped because a huge golden bag of Euros was beside the manor. Lolina took the bag and a big shiny boat and zoomed back to Lolita town.The thief emerged from the manor. “HEY COME BACK YOU TOOK MY BOAT I CANNOT GET OFF THE ISLAND!”he yelled. “NO!” yelled Lolina back and Lolina’s life was love again.

Once upon a time lived a girl called Lucia. Lucia didn’t like that boring school. She lived with her mother. Lucia had long, shiny hair and blue dazzling eyes.

Suddenly, one Friday afternoon Lucia whispered, “Why don’t I escape from school? It would be great.” The next morning Lucia jumped from bed, put her school clothes on and went to school. At sports, Lucia ran away and skipped through the forest. At the forest she saw some birds and stray cats that looked really angry. Far away, Anna, Lucia’s best friend, was really worried but Lucia didn’t care. She pulled some strawberries from a bush.

After a while, Lucia was asleep. The next morning, Lucia was at a wolf’s house! Suddenly, the wolf said, “Bye bye little girl.” The wolf ate her like a monster. As quick as a flash, she woke up and said, “I wouldn't even think it is a good idea to escape from school.”

The door creaked open and I tiptoed inside. My footsteps echoed in the damp air. The door shut behind me.

“No, no, no” I whispered to myself. “No, no, please no!”

But it was impossible to ignore. I was stuck.Stuck in an abandoned mysterious mansion.

I decided to explore, maybe it wasn’t so bad.

That was before I saw a shadow. It wasn’t a normal shadow; its nails seemed to drop all the way to the floor and on his crouched back were spikes.

Butterflies attacked my stomach and a lump of regret popped in my throat like a mint.

Until I was sure it had disappeared, I went into what looked like the kitchen. Spaghetti strings were all over the floor but then I saw it again.

I hid behind the fridge and then I could see closer: saliva was dripping from his bloodthirsty mouth. I watched him slurp some spaghetti from the floor. I stood there petrified.

The power went off! No no NO nO! This is always how horror movies are. ALWAYS!

Then a thought came to my mind. “Why am I just standing here? I need to get out of here!”

The lights started to flicker and before I knew it the creature’s yellow eyes were staring right at me.

I ran like I had never ran before. I ran up the stairs to the 2nd floor.

“YES! A WINDOW! YES YES YES!”

Without thinking, I dived for the window and landed right on my feet. Glass shattered everywhere but I didn’t have time to look back. I ran and ran and ran until my lungs nearly gave up.

THE END!

Me and Katy (my sister) were walking down the streets. Suddenly I saw something beautiful. "Look, there is a peacock!" I told her.

Katy ran after it right in the forest. "Wait for me!" I yelled. But she didn't hear me. So the only choices I had is to follow her or let her go in the forest full of secrets and mysteries. It was easy to find her. After some time I understood we were deep in the forest. I was so scared that I jumped up at every little noise. It was silent, that is not normal if you are with Katy. I turned back but she escaped!

After three hours of searching I was ready to give up. But then I saw an abandoned old house and went in. It was Katy sitting in the room. Next to her was a strange looking man. It was a ghost! He looked so familiar. He had a tie like my dad and his beautiful eyes. But our dad died three years ago. There was a fire in the house, he saved us but couldn't save his own life. Then the man said looking at our worried faces, " Sit down, don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. Do you recognise me?” - asked the man. “Well, I'm your father”. “Is that a joke? We missed you so much!” - we screamed. “When you left everything gone wrong”. “Can I see your mum? asked our father. - I really want to see her again”. “Of course but we are lost and don't know the way home”.

He brought us home. We were so happy but when I turned around he disappeared. Since then we see him in our dreams every night. It's been five years and nothing has changed.

Brooklyn was on a camping trip, with her best friend Katie. When they were scavenging for a place to stay they discovered a surreal sight ‘Wow, that waterfall is crystal clear!’ yelled Katie.

‘Yes, let’s camp here!’ Brooklyn answered in an instant.

They set up their lovely lavender tent, found firewood and unwrapped their cozy sleeping bags. When they found their matches, they started a fire.

Suddenly, a spark caught their tent! The girls gazed in complete shock. They had no idea what to do.

‘The bucket!’ shouted Brooklyn, suddenly.

‘What?’ asked Katie.

‘Give me the bucket!’

‘Ok!’ replied Katie. Brooklyn filled the bucket with water from the waterfall and splashed it onto the tent.

They had escaped! They felt so relieved.

Well the tent was ruined, but they packed it away anyway along with everything else. They couldn’t believe that the surreal waterfall had saved them.

After that tragedy, the two girls travelled home with fantastic memories.

The door exploded like a dinosaur roar. Me and my legion of military had escaped from the prison. In a second, a pair guards arrived, throwing a bomb in our direction. The mechanic took the pieces of electricity from the bomb. The bomb threw a yellow liquid, but without exploding. Just at the moment, the door opened and more guards arrived; this time pointing guns at us (a 758), but in instant, the prison sounded some alarms. The guards ran, leaving the doors open, so we ran through a lot of rooms until we got outside the prison. We reached a big desert (cactus of Onix). At that moment, some Eties (transport guards) passed through. The military shot at the driver. We killed the guards who were inside and conquered the Etic. We got to the port and killed all the guards who were there. At the very last moment, we got on our Spaceship and escaped from Planet Onix.