‘The Writing on the Wall’ by Abby Mavrikakis, year 10, St Edmund’s Catholic School

He sees it all around him. Marked by death – he runs from it. In every corned alley, lies a predator. The foreboding sky hangs heavy overhead. The suffocating fog seems to cling to his shoulders. The lamplight shies away from where it lurks, flickering and cowering form the crushing presence it brings. The silence was deafening, it seemed to roar in his ears. He wants to escape it – so he runs. Such a haunting monster follows him, a sirens call reminds him. He can’t escape it.

This suffocating silence consumes him after all.