The Abrupt Arrest
This story by Aarshiya is one of the three winning entries of a writing contest conducted for Blogchatter’s Junior Writers Group.
As I opened my eyes, I found myself in a zoo-like area, with no memory of how I got there. All the animals were literally out of this world. There were several creatures that looked like dinosaurs with human heads, and they could speak in almost every language, except English. There were also blue ducks with dragon wings. The only thing that seemed normal about the zoo was that the animals were in cages. Even the sky was strange: it was purple, with red and blue clouds drifting across it.
I felt like I had entered a completely different multiverse.
I was the only person there. I noticed a shiny red car reflecting the signboard in front of the zoo. It read, “Do Not Enter.” Whoever had been in that car must have read the sign and driven away.
Once again, I was left alone, with only hydrogons to keep me company. Hydrogons were dragon-bodied creatures that breathed out water. Unfortunately, they were in a bad mood. They exhaled so much water that it started raining cats and dogs. I kept trying to find shelter, but I couldn’t even see what was right in front of me. So, all I could do was wait for the rain to stop, eyes closed, letting the water drench me… or drown me. Whatever I was meant for. Whatever I was destined to face.
I didn’t even realize when I fell asleep. And when I woke up, I hoped I would’ve returned home the same mysterious way I had arrived. But I hadn’t.
After four long hours, the hydrogons finally calmed down. I was completely drenched, and I could smell the wet soil from the forest outside the zoo. Just then, a police car appeared. An officer stepped out. I wouldn’t exactly call them an officer, at least not when they had a human’s body and a wolf’s head.
I could tell they had come to arrest me. I tried to explain that I wasn’t trespassing, that I had ended up there without knowing how. But since they didn’t have human heads… they probably didn’t have human minds either.
They had no idea what I was talking about.
