A Shadow in the Dark

Errigal College, Letterkenny, Donegal, 27 March 2023

Characters

Daria: 16; brave; curious; careless; courageous; rational; she lost her parents.

Thomas-Lee: 16; too much imagination; a coward; afraid of everything; indecisive; he was bullied in the past.

Setting

Alaska; 1986.

It was a stormy night and the TV wasn’t working properly. The wind outside was as cold as the war that was happening. Even though the house was falling apart, it was in Thomas-Lee’s family for generations. The USSR was starting to fall apart and the people in Alaska didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about it. The Alaskans were afraid because they were in the middle of Russia and America.

Thomas-Lee’s best friend Daria was staying with him at the house. It was Thomas-Lee’s birthday, but his parents weren’t at home because they were part of the American Secret Service. Despite losing her parents, Daria was lucky to have Thomas-Lee as a friend. Daria was forcing Thomas-Lee to watch another horror movie. Thomas-Lee said he would watch it out of curiosity. They sat down to watch The Exorcist. Even though the movie was banned, they had a copy on VHS.

Suddenly, they heard a loud bang upstairs. Thomas-Lee’s imagination was running wild. He had heard his parents talk about the war and how dangerous the enemy was.

“What was that?” asked Thomas-Lee.

Daria didn’t seem bothered when she said, “I don’t know. It sounded like something dropped.”

Daria didn’t realise that Thomas-Lee’s parents worked for the Secret Service.

Thomas-Lee stood up from the couch and said, “How are you so calm? Maybe someone’s up there?”

“Maybe it’s just the wind? Let’s wait and see.” Said Daria.

There was another loud bang.

Daria jumped up and said, “Let’s go now!”

Thomas-Lee wasn’t so sure, “Are you sure, do you think that that is the safest?”

“We can make a new friend – maybe it’s a ghost!”

“I’m not going upstairs, if it’s a ghost for crying out loud.”

“Come on.”

“You can go!”

“You can be behind me. Give me your hand.”