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“ I’ve never read a short story like this before. It’s on my top 3 best stories. I recommend this to everyone especially for teens! -Amanda Prior
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A nail-biting must read. -Kyle Dawson
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A heart-pounding story, that leaves you breathless. -New York Times
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Theme - - - - X The main theme of this story
is
fear.
The
parents fear their human child, because they are not human. This results in them being extremely irrational. However, not only are the parents scared the child was scared too. The child is clueless
about
the
world. She fears her parents and the doll that torments her. In addition, the mother fears losing her only child. However, the father is afraid of people finding out about the child. He doesn’t want to lose his reputation because of his job. In result, the dad’s terrible actions were driven by fear. All of the characters are scared at some point except for the doll. Therefore, the behavior of the characters included fear. Also, we want the audience to be scared since the genre of our story is horror.
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May 4, 2003
The Basement
I was a mistake since day one. I was born on September 12, 1989. That day the doctor told my parents that I was not a normal child. I still don’t understand what that means but I do know that I am different from my parents. Which means I am probably different from everyone else. They have white dots on their faces when I don’t. What’s wrong with me? Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? These questions run through my head everyday. Apparently according to my mother, the doctor advised my parents not to keep me. However, my mother refused to let her only child die. On the other hand, my father was against keeping me due to his job and his reputation. He was going to kill me until my mother threatened to tell everyone that he was a murderer for killing me. That left my father no choice. I am alive to this day because of my loving mother. However, I sometimes wish I were not alive. Honestly, my mother was being selfish. She knew exactly the conditions I would have to live in and the things I would have to go through. She knew that my own father would despise me. She kept me because she was too weak to let me go. Yet I can’t blame her for wanting to keep her only child. She always told me it was her dream to have a child. But because of me she is now barren and she won’t ever have a normal child. May 5, 2003 I live in a basement. This basement can only fit my bed and a small lamp that provides me an insufficient amount of light. The rest of the basement is used for storage that I’m not allowed to touch. In result, I have no space to run around and play not that I am ever in the mood to play. My mother provides me food and little education. However, I hate her food. It looks unappetizing due to its odd texture. It tastes extremely bitter but my father seems to enjoy her cooking. My father tells me that I am ungrateful for letting me live and he says I am spoiled for not enjoying my food. My father never tries
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to understand me because I am different. He doesn’t allow me to have an opinion. He just assumes I am a monster that shouldn’t live in this world. Maybe he’s right. However, it is not like I ask to be born like this or to be born at all. Yet he still blames me for being in this situation. May 6, 2003 I can’t sleep well. I wish I could because my mother has explained to me the wonders of dreaming. I’ve always wanted to enjoy a good dream but I’ve only gotten nightmares. I can’t sleep well because I always feel a presence here in this basement. I’ve questioned it was due to the doll sitting in the corner of the basement. This doll gives me terrible vibes. It has an abnormally large smile, and has cracks on its forehead. Overall, this doll doesn’t have welcoming features. Its smile makes me think it’s laughing at me. It looks like it enjoys watching my pain. This idea torments me. However, there isn’t much to play with here. In result, I play with doll occasionally. That’s why I always look forward to my mother teaching me. I feel safe with her. She comes in everyday for about an hour to tell me new things about the world. Plus, she reads me interesting books. I don’t know why she teaches me because it’s not like I can use this knowledge. My father would never let me go out and see the world. May 7, 2003 My mother never came today. I don’t understand. She comes everyday. I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. Maybe she forgot. When I was waiting for her, I started to play with the doll. I brushed her hair through my fingers. It was so soft unlike anything in this murky basement I am forced to call home. Although I do not feel safe here. When you are home you are meant to feel safe. I feel safe around my mother. Maybe she is my home. As I played more and more with the doll I couldn’t help to stare straight into her glassy eyes. It seemed that she would always be looking back into mine. It made me feel uncomfortable. Her eyes kept following me around. I want mother. I need mother.
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May 8, 2003 Mother is on the floor and she won’t get up. I can see her through the crack in my wall. I tried to yell at her to wake her up. I want to go out there and shake her until she wakes up. But I would never dare. Father would beat me and maybe kill me. Mother is dead because of me. They were screaming at each other because of me. I am always the problem. The only solution seems for me is to be dead. That’s what the doll is telling me. And now I’m starting to believe her. She says to kill myself before it is too late. No one would care if I was dead. Nobody would even know. I need to get out of here. I need to get out now. May 9, 2003 I haven’t heard father upstairs. There is voice telling me inside my head to just run. Leave everything behind. But what if he is waiting for me. He would kill me and it would be my fault because I left the basement. I wonder if he is sad about mother’s death. I wonder if he has any feelings at all. It pains me to say but I think he is happy about mother’s death. Now there is no one protecting me. Father can do anything he wants to with me. It’s like I am his doll. Since mother is dead he wouldn’t feel guilty. I miss mother. I miss when she would come teach me about the outside world and she would let me curl up beside her as she stroked my hair and whispered I’m sorry over and over again.
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May 10, 2003 The doll said it’s time. Time for what? To kill myself? She told me he’s coming. Does she mean my father? I never knew this day would come. What do I do. Should I leave? I hear footsteps. He is coming down the stairs. He’s here. He is talking to me. I can’t make out the words he is saying. I can only focus on the crowbar he is twirling in his hands. It’s the same crowbar he used to kill mother. I can see some of her dry blood on it. He said
this is why I have to do this to you. I don’t understa...
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POV - - - x We chose an inside point of view in the first person which is narrated by the monstrous child in our story. The fact that the “normal” parents decided to keep the child locked up in the basement for years because they consider their child to be “monstrous” is a horrific experience. We concluded that since her life experience in the basement would be so confined and limited, that only she, the monstrous child, could relate her thoughts and feelings in this confined experience. In this way, the reader, sees and knows only as much as the monstrous child does because the story focuses on the monstrous child’s experiences only. We also agreed that using the first person point of view would be a more powerful way to present our story because there would be no distraction from other points of view. Being locked up in a basement, from birth onwards, can only be fully told by the person experiencing this horrific life situation.
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Book Review - - - - - - - x This is an amazing attention catching story that got me right from the start. I don’t really like horror story’s, most of the time I just want them to end but this one was different, it left me wanting more, it’s in my top three books I’ve read if all time it’s hard to compare with other books and I couldn’t find one like it. I will be sharing this one. Although it is an amazing story I would have loved to know what happened to the girl and the father after the mother was killed I didn’t really like how the story just ended in mid sentence but it was a good way to make the reader think about how they wanted the book to end. Other than that this was a great book I would recommend for a good summer read. I can see the teen ages 14 or 15 and up liking this book because there is some scary parts in this story that could harm younger ages. -Anna Gildemeister
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MEET THE WRITERS Selin McGuffie is a successful writer winning no awards. She has never written a short story before in her 15 years of life. When not doing anything, Selin can be found eating nachos. Every single morning McGuffie has to make a critical decision on which plaid shirt to wear that reflects her mood. She can bake a 5 minute brownie mix in 3 minutes.
Jungyeon Lee is a suburban lady who likes to bake cookies for her baby cousins. She also enjoys watching them devour the cookies because they are actually little dinosaurs. Jungyeon has a weird obsession with children. Because of her obsession, Jungyeon wanted to write a story about a monstrous child.
Emma Samson has a special talent of speaking to bugs. Her specialty is speaking to caterpillars, caterpillars seem to have more developed emotions to deliver. Emma was inspired by the caterpillars to describe how the parents look in the story.
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Megan Syukur’s dream was to be the ceo of an eraser company because she just loves designing rubber. Megan is on her way to pursue her dream as a professional hamster counsellor. She believes in world hamster peace. She has written many biographies of different hamsters all over the world.
Anna Gildemeister has a bunch of glow in the dark stars stuck to her ceiling. She likes to look at them and fall asleep under them. Ironically, she has never seen a real star. Anna is addicted to cinnamon buns and has a dog collection. She collects dogs from all around the world.
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About this Publication This publication was initiated by the need for more information about short stories written for young people aged 14+. This particular publication draws attention to the short story, “The Basement”, its theme, the POV of the narrator, a book review, and of course, “Meet the Writers” section. We decided to focus on the powerful group of young writers Selin McGuffie, Jungyeon Lee, Emma Samson, Megan Syukur, and Anna Gildemeister. Their newest creation “The Basement” is a strong and captivating short story which we selected specifically for this month’s April issue. The editors of the magazine agreed that it was a pertinent story for the April publication. Make sure to watch for our next month’s issue! It will feature a special guest interview with some successful young writers.