Ever since Maya was young, she had a friend who lived in the sea.

Maya lived in a big house by the beach, where the seagulls cried every day and the sound of the waves were her lullaby every night...

Sunlight streamed into my room, peeking through a gap in my pastel coloured curtain. The birds in a tree outside my window were chirping noisily, seemingly determined to keep me awake...

The raging sounds made by those monsters filled my head. It filled my ears, my head, my entire being.

Everything was shaking, including my mother. She held on to me tightly and I could tell she was terrified. We all were...

“Zoe! Where are you? It’s time for dinner!” I heard my mother calling me. Startled, I dropped my Razzle Dazzle Rose Crayola crayon on the floor and looked around nervously to check that my mother wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity...

When I woke up, I was no longer in that white, white room. Bright, vivid colours had replaced the dull white that had suffocated that room. Instead, I saw blue above me. A clear light blue, the colour of the sky, with soft white clouds swirling lazily across; it filled my entire vision...

It was pitch dark. I saw a figure darting across the compound of the house, barely making a sound. The little moonlight there was illuminated the soft grass that was flattened by the figure’s swift feet, making it easy to follow its movements...

A teen bumped roughly into Courtesy, knocking her basket of groceries to the side. Its contents spilled out and rolled onto the road, and a few tomatoes were squashed flat by speeding cars. The teen didn’t even glance back at Courtesy, his head bopping rhythmically...

Mr. Ethan Viner stared at his computer screen, eyebrows knitted together in frustration. He looked down at his keyboard. Where was the letter ‘E’? he wondered, his eyes skimming across the keyboard...

Owls hooted and bats awoke from their slumber. The full moon shone brightly, casting shadows on the ground.

I gulped, staring at the dark, dank house in front of me. It was located at the peak of Lavender Hill, just a slight slope that towered over the other houses, the only house there...

Scarlet Brown was a young teenager, full of life, sugar and spice. She was a cheerful and helpful girl and though she led a very-near-perfect life, she was never proud or boastful. Everyone loved Scarlet Brown, and really, she had everything she could wish for. However, one day, Scarlet Brown, with her brown eyes and brown hair, wished for a teddy bear.