Hope you'll enjoy reading this short story collection as much as i did. It contains gangsters, skaters, the story about what happened to that girl Lenore f rom Edgar Allan Poe's poem “The R aven, I think , and lots more . It was great fun working with you guys these past few months. Keep writing, reading and learning. Hope you'll have a wonderful summer and good luck with everything! M aria-Thérèse
CONTENTS
Run – Lisa Sjödin & Julia Sjödin The Worst Day Ever – Carolina Leuenberger, Fanny Boman, Johnna Nyman, Ellen Zetterström, Amelia Westerberg, Emma Flodin One Last Job – Tobias Lindeborg, Niklas Wahlgren, Omar Ali Mohammed The Girls Who Became Invisible – Cecilia Skoglund, William Oderstad and Linda Helander Story of a Walk Home – Pavel Häggström The Bloody Bride – Einar, Axel, Zaccarias, Viktor and Linus The Fisherman - Erik, Hugo, Jesper and Faisal
photo by Lisa Sjรถdin
RUN by Julia Sjödin & Lisa Sjödin My name is Sandra and I’m 17 years old. I live in a small town where nothing happens. I have my friends and family. I go to school and play soccer. But one day everything changed. I was walking home from school when suddenly a black van stopped and someone grabbed me and drug me into the car. I think I saw a man, but everything got black and I woke up in a room with no windows and white walls. I started to look around in the room, I tried to pull the door open but it was stuck. I tried not to panic but I couldn’t help it. I started to scream and bang the door, I think I have never screamed so loudly before, for a moment I passed out. I think it was good for me to pass out because it made me calm for a while. When I woke up there was water and food there. I ate it all in one minute I believe, I was starving . I decided to not fall asleep so I could do something when the man came back. Hours went by and no one showed up. My eyes were about to close when I suddenly heard someone outside… I got up in one second and grabbed the plate and got behind the door. When the man opened the door I slammed the plate into the man's head. He fell down and I ran out the door as quickly as I could. I thought to myself, how lucky I am that I went to the soccer practices and got in such good shape. I ran into the woods and hid behind a big tree. It started to get really dark and cold. I had lost my shoes and my feet were all bloody from running through the glass fragments earlier. I could barely walk, but I fought the pain and continued to walk. After a while when my feet hurt the most I saw a light, I thought it was someone who could save me, I started to scream “help”. I couldn’t see the person, I could only see the light which got closer. The light came faster and faster towards me, and suddenly the person who I think was a man grabbed my arm. I realized very fast that the man was the one who had kidnapped me. I started to scream loudly, he hit me hard in the stomach. It hurt so bad, but he said that if I would make any sound he would kill me right there. In that moment I got so cold and many thoughts came through my mind. Is this the way I’m going to die, I asked myself. I heard sirens from a police car and thought, HELL NO, today is not the day I´m going to die. Suddenly I woke up and realized, I´m still in the woods, and what the hell am I going to do now...
and the White Rabbit said: I'm late, I'm late for a very important date From Alice in Wonderland, illustration by John Tenniel (copyright free)
THE WORST DAY EVER by Carolina Leuenberger, Fanny Boman, Johnna Nyman, Ellen Zetterström, Amelia Westerberg & Emma Flodin
I opened my eyes and rolled over to the other side of the bed to see what time it was. As I tried to focus on the screen of my phone I realized I was late, very late. I flew out of my bed and tried to put on some coffee because I was really tired and needed it so bad. Meanwhile I put on some clothes and I remembered that it was today the plumbers would shut off the water lines so I couldn’t shower. I ran to take the coffee and poured it up in a cup and ran towards the door to leave. I put the coffee mug on the shelf. When I put on my jacket, I accidently hit the shelf so the coffee spilled all over me. I couldn’t shower so I just put on some new clothes and went out the door to take the bus. When I stood there and was about to pay I realized I forgot my wallet and had to run back home. Even though the bus driver said that he would wait, he didn’t and I had to walk all the way to my work. When the workday was over I was happy because it was finally over. I was about to cross the road to take the bus home and as I was in the middle of the road a car come at me at full speed and BANG, I woke up. I checked my phone and the clock was 6 a.m. and all the things that happened were just a dream.
THE END
image by design.superholik.com
One Last Job by Tobias Lindeborg, Niklas Wahlgren, and the mastermind behind it all, Omar Ali Mohammed
June 2022 Finally, I am done. It took me years to stop, I’ve been doing heists since the age of 12. I started small and I wasn’t intending to continue with what I’ve been doing. You know what they say right? You start small and it will surely escalate. I will thoroughly explain to you how my story began. June 2015 It all started when I had seen on the news that a group of five had managed to rob a bank and escape with roughly 200 million dollars. That triggered my imagination; think what you could do with that amount of money! You could eat at any kind of restaurant, you could buy any kind of car you like, and you can even pay money to lose your virginity. Yes you heard me, lose my virginity. Because I am a laid back guy who doesn’t go out and I don’t look that handsome either. So don’t blame me for wanting to lose it. Well put that aside you get the point, you can stretch your imagination as far as you’d like. So I started small as I mentioned earlier. I started by stealing my teacher's favorite golden pen. I was wondering what to do with it, and then I realized my friend knows how you can sell stuff on the black market. Yes you guessed right. I sold it for about 200 dollars and I got an accomplice. We were 2 people at the beginning. We continued this way and stole a lot of stuff and made a lot of money. And you know how these things go right? “When you’re at the top, you’ve got to stop” That’s one of the basic rules actually. It’s obvious, when you’re doing really well you start to get attention from other people, which doesn’t mean that’s its positive in any way. We were only 16 years old and we were already doing that well which means that people will start to get jealous. They try to sabotage for us, snitch on us and so on. But we got through that stage and continued with our work until we became 5 people and everyone had 1 job to do. We became really dedicated to our work but I always felt that it was wrong somehow, and a few days later Tobias that was the guy in the group who had the job to infiltrate buildings or kidnap somebody temporarily, felt the need to make up a rule. You cannot leave the group, unless you leave it by death. That struck me really hard, even though I was the leader of the group since I founded it, everyone agreed with him and if I didn’t they would probably kill me, cause that would mean that I am a threat to them or even the group itself, I had no ally in this group, we were only partners.
My friend that had founded it with me had died in the last coup when he fell from a five story building while he was trying to escape. I have been sitting and wondering what to do for 1 month. I might be an over thinker. We tend to analyze and deconstruct things and concepts until we reach a point where we have a great understanding about a great many things – but we also go too deep into the rabbit’s hole, and then we have to struggle to get the motivation to live a human life, and pursue human goals, because these seem utterly meaningless when you put them into perspective and rationalize away your own existence. But for me they aren’t utterly meaningless. I want to live a normal human life, for years my life has been consisting of heists and moving around to different cities and acting like different persons, it really is devastating how bad it can make you feel after a while even though you have a lot of money to spend. I can’t truly understand many of life’s aspects – such as its meaning. But I want to at least try before I hit the coffin, don’t you think? But I will never make the mistake of forgetting that I am human. Putting all those deep stuff aside I should probably get to the point now. I went to the group and told them that I really wanted to stop doing these heists and they could continue without me if they’d like. I did this even though I knew what they said about leaving the group earlier, and you know what they did? Tobias came to me and whispered into my ear, Sure mate. To be continued.
photo by William Oderstad
The Girls Who Became Invisible. By Cecilia Skoglund, William Oderstad & Linda Helander
14:10 AM The sun was shining and Bella had just finished school. She was walking towards the market to buy some things for tonight. After she had bought the things she needed she took the bus home and begun to fix some food. While the chicken was in the oven, she texted her friends that they could come anytime now, then she jumped into the shower to get cleaned up.
16:20 AM Ellen, Moa, Johanna and Wilma had arrived, as usual they were waiting for Fanny, always late. -She can never be on time when we have decided something, should we start to eat? -No I think we should wait another 10 minutes, I think she should arrive soon, said Ellen while she was trying to call Fanny to ask where she was, but she didn´t answer her call. -I can call her mom, I guess she´s the one who is going to drive her, said Wilma. For a short time talking with Fanny's mom she hung up and looked with a strange look at us. She wasn´t home and her mom said she took the bus because her mom couldn´t drive because she had taken a drink. But the bus went at 15:30 and that means she should have been here 30 minutes ago. -That's strange, what if something happened to her? -No, I bet she just stopped to talk to someone, you know how she is, said Johanna and she poured some wine in her glass. -Well I don't know, she doesn´t answer her phone either, should we go out looking for her? Only the way to where she should have jumped off the bus to get here, said Moa who looked quite nervous. -Yeah, come on Moa, let's go out looking for her, said Ellen. It ended up with everyone putting their jackets on and some warm clothes to go outside, where it had gone from warm weather to pouring rain. Just when they were going to step out in the bad weather to look for Fanny, the door was thrown open by Fanny. Her clothes and hair were all covered in water, she had mascara all over her face and she could barely breathe. She pushed the other girls so she could come inside, then she turned around and shut the door, locked it and then she sat on her knees looking terrified and she still couldn't breathe. Wilma sat down beside Fanny trying to calm her down, the other girls just stood there still, they had never seen anyone so scared. The girls got the wet clothes off from Fanny and they took her with them into the living room. When Fanny did calm down and could breathe normally again she
started to tell them what had happened. The girls sat together on the couch listening carefully to Fanny, no one had even noticed that the power had gone off. Fanny told the girls how it all happened from the beginning. She had walked towards Bella´s house and when she had about two km left a small red car stopped almost by her. She had felt her heart started to pound harder, there was a man in the car, he was dressed in this weird clothes looking almost like doctors use to wear when they are going to operate. The man looked pretty calm so I guessed he was just going to ask me for the way somewhere. But that wasn´t the case. Tears were starting to roll down from Fanny´s cheek. She dried away the tears and continued to tell her story, everyone sat still and quiet listening to her. The man went out of his car, waved at me and started to walk towards me. I stopped because it felt so weird and I was so scarred, he looked awful. I turned around and started to walk away from the man, I heard behind me that he jumped in his car once again and drove against me at a high speed, so I started to run. When he was behind me he stopped the car, went out and started to run after me. I dropped my purse and I got away from him , after a while hiding behind a bush I started to run again, this time towards Bella's house. -We need to call the police, tell them about this man, who knows what he was thinking of doing with you, said Johanna and the girls insisted. After talking to the police and told them what happened they went to bed. Ellen had gone back home but the other girls stayed at Bella´s house. The night hadn´t become what they all wanted. Instead of talking and planning about all the funny stuff they were going to do this summer everyone lay quiet and still, only thinking about the man in the car. The power was still off and they only had a light on in the room. When the girls almost had fallen asleep they woke up from a loud sound coming from downstairs. Johanna picked up her cell phone and was just going to call the police to come right away when the door to the room everyone was in was thrown open by this man Fanny had talked about earlier. It was then it happened, when everything changed for us.
One year later Bella was sitting looking outside the window when Angelica walked into the room, looking beautiful as usual. -Hello Bella, how are you feeling today? She was smiling and coming towards her. She was carrying some papers and she sat down in front of Bella. -Ok I guess, what have you brought with you? -Oh I almost forgot, sorry it is only some pictures from the night one year ago. I thought we should try talk about it today, is that okay for you? Bella was looking outside the window again and Angelica could se the tears coming. -I don’t know what to say, I can't talk about it because I don’t know what happened and I don’t remember anything from that night, I am sorry.
For almost a whole year the police had searched for the girls that disappeared that night. People had no clue to what happened or where they possibly could be. Bella is the only one left, nobody knows why or how she could get away when no one else did. Except Ellen, who got home before bedtime of course. Angelica and a bunch of other people are still trying to figure out what happened and trying to find the missing girls but without any progress. Angelica talks to Bella often and Bella keeps telling her that she doesn’t remember anything, but the question that Angelica is starting to tell herself is that maybe Bella just doesn’t want to remember that night. A few days later, exactly one year and 13 days after the night when Bella's friends disappeared, Bella took her own life. She was found in the bathroom of her room at the mental hospital in California.
photo: pixabay.com, copyright free
Story of a walk home by Pavel Häggström So this story begins at the skatepark in Härnösand. I was skating with my friends and we were almost done for the day with 8 hours skate so we decided to cruise home on our boards downtown on the street. All were really tired and had a really short fuse. When we were cruising down the street close to Subway we saw a older woman that was struggling getting over the street to next side. And she looked very helpless so we decided to help her over. So the old woman's walker had a puncture and she could not ride on it and she could almost not walk on her own. So we asked her in what way we could help her over. She said that it was not needed cause she already got someone that was on the way, but we decided to help her anyways cause we felt that we didn't have anything else to do. It was really hard to figure out in what way we'd be able to help her. But we thought that the easiest way was to call a taxi and just ride her home with the taxi, but the problem was that none of us had a single penny on us. So we had to do something else to help her. So what we did was that we lifted up her walker on our boards and were rolling her over the street, and that was working very well! But when we were on the other side of the street we still felt bad for her cause we can't just leave her like that, how is she supposed to get home with no help? So we decided to call my dad and he said slide her home. The funny thing about this that it was all a prank and the woman didn't really need any help. There was also a camera team that was filming the whole thing for a social experiment video! And they were checking how many pepole that would help an old woman! A it was incredibly few that did it. It was only me and my friends so far helping. So they gave us 200$ cause of our thoughtfulness. And that felt really good cause as I said previously none of us had a single penny! So we made some nice money and we were also friendly and helped some pepole to make a video!
”Self Ghost” © Maria-Thérèse Sommar 2013
The Bloody Bride by Einar, Axel, Zaccarias, Viktor & Linus A tip for you while reading the story, listen to this melody that’s full of glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJLSzsEjpWM * As I am typing this story, I still cannot decide a title. Unfortunately that’s the only thing that’s vital. I just can’t decide, shall my main person be a ghost or maybe a bride? I live in a tiny cabin, under the trees. Through the open window I felt a breeze. The cabin is of worm-eaten log. The sky all around me is covered in fog. The bride followed the murky road deep into the woods. At the far end of the road she saw some eyes, partly covered by hoods. The men in the hoods were tall an’ covered by dark. They blended in perfectly with the old trees’ bark. But the bride feared not, she acquired the stiletto of light. Turn around the men said, in the middle of the night. As the men charged the lonely bride, the stiletto started glowing so bright. She stabbed the men and the blood started flying, while she watched the men painfully dying. Her white dress was now covered in blood, the bodies on the ground were eaten by grub. She moved on forward and left the men behind, but she brought some of their eyes, in case she’d go blind. The rumours said that the bride started to knock on people’s doors, killing the residents. What everyone asked was, “what happened to the evidence?” The rumours turned into truth, it turned out she killed Elvis, playing his blues. She had an awful taste in music, that was now clear, the entire town was shaking in fear. As she walked door to door a thought crossed her mind, all the killing had finally made her blind. Now was the time to bring out the eyes from before. Turned out they were partly eaten by flies and covered in gore. At least the eyes gave her the sight back. She then went to sleep in a tiny shack. She woke up early in the morning, freezing and cold. She thought to herself, maybe I’m getting old? She walked back to the woods equipped with her stiletto, walking the path she was enjoying the sight of cabbage palmetto. She went further into the woods and the fog got thicker. The bride picked up the pace and walked even quicker. She saw a tiny house at the end of the road. In front of her, jumped a tiny toad. That’s enough for today now I’ll go to sleep and continue tomorrow. Unfortunately I’ve got a feeling that my story will end in sorrow. As I lie in my bed I hear someone starting knocking. The fact that someone's come this time, is rather shocking. I opened the door and gasped…
The End
The Fisherman by Erik, Hugo, Jesper and Faisal This story is about an old family father, who loves his family. He has a special interest; the father loves to fish, perhaps more than he loves his family. The father's name is Linus and he is 45 years old and Linus has two children, one son and one daughter. He usually plays football with his children. The mother of the family is named Lily and she works as a photo model. They have been married since Lily was 15 years old, and that was 20 years ago. One day Linus went out fishing, alone, only with his boat and his fishing rod. The weather was nice, no wind and the sun was shining. The father went to the lake where he always fishes. Linus started fishing and caught some small fishes, but nothing special. Suddenly Linus felt something really huge on the hook, he thought that it could possibly be the fish that he had always dreamed about. He felt such an adrenaline rush, so he believed that he could fly. Then the fish jumped up and he realized that it has to be the biggest fish ever caught. He fought with the fish at least one hour and he only saw it a few times. After a long time Linus got it to the boat and he was very nervous, the fish was exhausted and he was finally going to pull the fish up with the net. All at once the fish floundered and it got away. He sat in the boat and just looked into the thin air for 6 hours. When Linus came home he opened his nicest bottle of whiskey and started drinking like an alcoholic. His wife felt sorry for him for not picking up the fish, but it was no reason for drinking so she told him that he had to stop drinking. Linus didn´t listen and he opened his second bottle. He became so drunk, that he beat his wife and screamed evil things to his wife and his children. The children and mother of the family were crying and everything was total chaos, they had never seen their father in such a bad mood. He went for his gun and killed the entire family. When Linus woke up the next day he didn´t remember anything. When the hangover started to fade, he realized that he had killed his whole family. After a while he remembered the fish he had lost yesterday and he went out with boat and shot himself. He wanted to die with the fishes.