HBS' Writing

And in that moment, I realised my greatest dream was about to come true. The city was falling apart in front of my eyes. Buildings, cars, and houses were crumbling beneath my gaze. People were screaming. The boom! of the cannons could be heard in the distance. The city was falling apart. I stood on the city’s highest point: Mount Turbulis. I felt elated, happy, joyful. I felt…triumphant. I was told I would be useless. That my name will not be known to anyone. ‘Now’, I said in my head. ‘Now look at what I have done. I did what you dreamed of doing. I am successful.’

I strode with extreme confidence (some call it over-confidence) down the 10 stairs that led to the slide (some call it a ramp). When I reached it, I slid down it. The cold, night air whipped my face and I breathed it in. When (at last) I reached the bottom, I stood up again and looked around me. There were people gathered around me. Their faces were blackened by charcoal and mud. Many of the shouting voices had disappeared, I suddenly realised. ‘They must all be standing here, waiting for me to speak’, I said in my head. I opened my mouth and began, my voice sounding strong, powerful, and confident, overpowering over all other sounds and voices.

‘I am victorious. I have spent hours planning this moment, one that I have been waiting for aa long time. I am victorious. You are not. You have lost everything. Your loss is my gain!’

‘Who are you working for?’, shouted a man from among the crowd.

I laughed. He must have been brave to speak out like that. ‘I do not work for anyone!’

He looked at me with a little fear. ‘Who do you work with, then’, his voice missing what little power it before.

‘I am independent, I work for and with no-one. See what I have achieved alone? I, unlike the rest of you, do not rely on family members to save or help me; I rely on myself, myself alone. My father told me I was nothing and I would remain like that forever. I will show him and anyone; everyone else that they are all wrong. Wrong!

The villagers slowly began to clear away, their faces, if possible, looked darker than they looked at the beginning.

The condition of the city remained like this for weeks. It was the city that I wanted to ruin; I payed no attention at all to the people. Many fled immediately. Some stayed for a little, then left. Only few, mainly the older ones, stayed behind. They had all got used to the continuous sounds of shattering glass, the boom of the cannons and the roar of the fires. Those that remained stayed in a cave to live best with the current situations. I knew not anything else about them, nor why they even stayed. This went on and on for I knew not how long, until something happened that ends the story.

As, one day, I was savouring my victory on the mountain, like I did always at midnight, I felt a sharp pain on my head. The ruined city, my ruined city was becoming blurry and hazy. I felt a strong thing wrap around me; it was long, like a snake. I then felt something cold being poured down my throat and my ruined city and everything else instantly went black.

I then woke up (or regained consciousness, as some would call it) in a dark room that was my new home. I looked around me. I found out by the light of a candle lit on a wooden table, that I was chained. I also saw a note which read the following:

Your plan was thwarted. The city is repaired.

-R.J.P

How this happened, I had no idea. I never even knew who “R.J.P” was. I spent years and years of living in this dark room, with food being provided (for some reason) every week or so. Years and years of being useless, nothing to do. Years and years of staying in this dark, dark room, my eyes begging for some brightness. Years and years of… nothingness. Until one day, my body and soul unable to bear it any longer…