My heart was beating so intensely that it felt like it could burst out of my chest at any moment, but I knew I could not stop now. If I did, they would catch me. If they did, there awaited a fate far, far worse than death for me.

My whole body felt like an erupting volcano with every inch of movement. Blood like lava, burning through my whole body. My legs so debilitated that every step felt like the whole world crumbling down on me, every breath felt like an asthma attack, but I marched through the darkness, stepping on the hard concrete that tortured the bottom of my devastated feet. I may be stepping through a building, but it felt like going through the deepest depths of hell.

I could see the light shining through the exit, another world. The place I used to be, the place I was supposed to be my entire life, but it was stripped from me in an instant by them, the cold-blooded maniacs.

I stepped out of the door, and a scintillating ray of sunlight hit me. I was filled with all of the joy and exuberance imaginable. It felt like a whole new feeling, a feeling that was sealed away, kept away from me my entire existence. I collapsed, and laid down in the fresh, green grass.

I could not be any happier. The Fongoki people had locked us up for so long, I had lost my sense of time. We slept for 4-5 hours at a time, and sometimes we could not even fall asleep, because of the unimaginable, unexplainable horrors that happened.

When they would feed us, they gave us unwashed spoons and the left-overs of luxurious buffets of the king, and the people would prowl at it like starving dogs, devouring the left-overs in minutes. The unfortunate would get none, and will be forced to bear the agonising hunger, and if you're really unlucky, starve to death. I thought I would've died there, like many of the people.

The normal world seemed like a paradise to me. This experience may have scarred me forever, but it was time for a new world, a new life.

My happy thoughts had been suddenly cut off by a scream... an agonizing shriek that shocked me to my core, a tormented soul that was going through the worst.

I felt like I recognized it... I knew that voice... that was when the realisation dawned on me.

It was my own mother.

When we were escaping, I had left her behind. But do I save her?

I stared at the door that I had escaped through. I could risk it all to go back there and save her. But If I get caught, I would never see the light of day ever again.

I looked back and forth at the door, I hesitated. Do I really risk it and go inside? What if I get caught? I could not go through that again.

But she was my mother, the sole reason of my existence. I had to go in and save her, this instant. If she was dying, I am dying with her.

I stealthily crept back into the building, and saw my mother with a broken leg, and she could barely even walk. I heard the guards footsteps again, and rushed her to somewhere safe. I tried to start a conversation, but she couldn't speak either. I thought about the Fongoki, and I clenched my fists. They deserved the worst of punishments, and I was going to be the punisher.

Ms Rebecca Ngakane

Head of English 

英语学科主任