Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Parsons H. has won first place in the early age group for the Sci-Fi Spring 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The Bad."
I love writing and sharing stories. I love to let my creativity show! In my free time I love to read, write, listen to Christian and 80's music, and play dolls.
The Bad
There are a group of kids, the lonely, the bad, the forgotten, the hidden, the sad, and the blamed. These are not a normal group of kids, they wanted and did get revenge. The lonely wanted revenge on whoever had the chance to become friends with them but didn’t. The bad wanted revenge on anyone who punished them, even if they deserved it. The forgotten wanted revenge on everyone who had forgotten them. The hidden wanted revenge on the people they were hiding from. The sad wanted revenge on everyone who made them sad. The blamed also known as the innocent wanted revenge on whoever blamed them for something they didn’t do.
I am one of the forgotten, but I don’t seek revenge. I stopped hanging out with the bad, which is made up of a bunch of the smaller bad groups, whenever I heard them talking about seeking revenge. I have never seen them since, but I know they want revenge on me, for not hanging out with them anymore.
Becoming forgotten, it all started with a birthday party. Everyone forgot. Then, everyone forgot everything. I was an orphan, and I ran away from the orphanage, so now I am on my own.
Chapter 1: Present Day…
I heard the doorbell ring! The next thing I know, a boy is standing in front of me. “What's wrong?” he asks.
“They're after me,” I say in a frightened tone of voice. “Who’s after you? And anyway, what's your name?” he asks.
“My name is Amelia. And the lonely, the bad, the forgotten, the hidden, the sad, and the blamed, they're after me,” I say.
“I am going to go call the orphanage,” he says. “No, they will find me there,” I say.
“Okay, but it’s not good to see a 12-year-old girl in the corner of an abandoned house, acting like she’s crazy,” he replies.
And he didn’t leave, we stayed there with an awkward silence. I didn’t know if he would help me or not. I finally broke the silence.
“Leave now, they will find me, and they are wanting revenge on me, and the popular, the good, the remembered, the unhidden, the happy, and anyone who has blamed someone,” I say.
“No,” he says cautiously.
“They were good friends at first. But when they talked about getting revenge, they put everyone in cages, like jail cells. Thinking people would want to escape, I did. Now, everyone wants revenge. Especially, the lonely, and the forgotten,” I say with tears in my eyes.
“I won’t forget you,” he said with tears in his eyes.
“Yes, you will, everyone does. If you do remember me, you will be forgotten. I had this friend at the orphanage, who didn’t forget me, and now she is forgotten. She blames me, and she wants revenge,” I say.
“I won’t forget you. I won’t become forgotten if I remember you. If I do become forgotten tell me it was my choice,” he says boldly.
Chapter 2: 3 years later ...
After hiding for 3 years, I don’t know where to hide next. Anyways, I haven’t seen that boy again. But, I know he didn’t forget me.
I am in the same abandoned home he found me in. I hear a creak, and realize someone opened the door!
In a second people grab me and pull me out the door! I struggle to escape, and I don’t! They put me in the back of a van!
The next thing I know is that I am at their headquarters. The bad’s headquarters. They came to get revenge, and I am not surprised!
“Let me go,” I yell after they tied me in a chair inside the bad headquarters.
“It’s been 3 years, and now we found you. We won’t let you go. You won’t escape. We have gotten revenge on you. You will do whatever we say, and you will get revenge on all the people that have hurt us,” my best friend that turned forgotten said.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to my locket.
“ A gift from the only time I met someone for 10 minutes in 3 years,” I say. “Who is it from?” she asked with jealousy in her voice.
At that very moment, Leo the boy I met earlier burst into the room. “Leo, how did you get here?”
“The locket I gave you was a tracker. I had to see if you were telling the truth. I also had to run away to find you,” he said.
“Who did you run away from? How did you know I was in danger?”
“I ran away from the school. Not a normal school, this is a school with jail cells, and you have to stay there forever. They choose a topic and everyone has to show what they know about that topic. If you don’t do good...then you have to go. This happens every year. I lost on the topic: robotics. They teach everything or almost everything. All expect the pattern of how they pick their subjects that they quiz people on. They don’t want anyone to find out the pattern, or they could share it, and everyone could study. I knew about the trackers from there. So, thank them that I found you. I have been looking for you this whole time and I noticed the tracker went from one place to another fast. So, I went here to the destination that showed up on the tracker. I have been to a lot of abandoned houses looking for you, but I never expected this one, people say it’s haunted. By the way, we don’t have long, the school’s after me,” he says.
“I didn’t know you were at the school. I didn’t know about the school. When we met, were you at the school?” I ask.
“Yes, I barely remember my family,” he says with tears in his eyes.
Chapter 3: 1 year Later...
We escaped from the bad’s headquarters which are now known as the forgotten. People built a wall a year ago, between the remembered and the forgotten. We are on the forgotten side of the wall, and so are the forgotten. The wall is called the hidden wall because the wall is invisible.
The wall being invisible is the problem. Leo, and I need to escape from the forgotten side of the wall. The forgotten are after us, and it angers them even more that there is a wall blocking them from being able to get revenge on everyone.
“Throw your locket in the Ocean. They're after us,” Leo says.
Knowing who he was talking about I said, “ No, they will find us either way!” “Yeah, but they will think we're dead, and it will slow them down,” he said.
I couldn’t argue with that, so I said, “ Fine, but I love this locket.” When I threw it in my arm started flashing blue in a certain section. “A day less in jail is better than keeping a locket,” I say.
The forgotten planted a tracker in me at some point. With a microphone and camera, unlike Leo’s locket did. I didn’t tell Leo. He didn’t see my arm flashing blue.
“I knew about the school you were talking about earlier. I went there. I was 3 when they took me. I ran away when I was 4. I ran away with all of the bad. All of the bad went and all the bad ran away. All of the bad had to go there. I was lonely so I had to go. That was the orphanage I was talking about. It was true I didn’t have parents, they died by trying to stop the school. All of the bad wanted revenge except me,’’ I say.
“I was taken there when I was 4 and ran away when I was 12. And, why didn’t you tell me that?” he asked. “I didn’t trust you completely,” I said.
“How did you run away?” he asked.
“On movie nights I had the job of making popcorn. Every time I used a little more of each ingredient. And then, I had to run to the store to get more ingredients, and that’s when I escaped,” I said.
“I just ran away at night when no one saw me,” he said.
“Did you ever do fun stuff? I just got a movie night on Friday’s and we worked on weekends,” I say.
“Same.”
Chapter 4: The wall falls
“Breaking news, the hidden wall burns by a fire. Everyone can go to opposite sides of the wall,” a radio says.
“Where did that come from?” I ask, panicked.
Leo pulls a radio out of his jacket, and says, “The school gave everyone a radio when I was about 7. It
reports breaking news. Even though all the schools are good, except the school, not every school gives out radios. Anyways, we better get going if we want to get past the hidden wall,” he says.
“No, it’s a trap. Not every radio airs stuff like that. We can’t go,” I say concerned. “ I am not missing my opportunity. Even if you don’t go.”
“Traitor, you’re blaming me for being smart. They are trying to get us to go back to the school,” I say. “Fine, whatever, I am still going,” he says.
“Fine, whatever, just go and get caught,” I say angrily.
Chapter 5: Aftermath
“Leo, you’re back to where you belong. The place for robots. It looks as if you are low on battery. I have the charger right in my hand. Tell me where Amelia is, and I will hand it to you. If you don't want to get charged don’t tell me,” says the true inventor of the school, the uptown girl who wants everyone to be robots for a brighter, better future.
At that very moment, Amelia steps through the door, and says, “Let him go, give him the charger back,” I say.
“Oh, Amelia, you were just sent by the bad to get revenge on everyone including Leo. The bad are the only
people not including me who aren’t robots,” the uptown girl says. “Is that true?” Leo asks, feeling like I am a traitor.
“ I need to talk to Leo alone,” I say.
“Fine, go ahead. I will leave,” the uptown girl says.
“ No, we want people and robots to think that,” I say after the uptown girl left.
“ The uptown girl says robots don’t have feelings, but she isn’t one, so she wouldn’t know,” says Leo.
“ Why do the bad want people to think that? Why did you want to look like a traitor? Why did you lie? What were all the lies?”
“We have plans like no others.”
The End