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Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction


The following is a piece of writing submitted by co083121 on August 4, 2009

Lost

Help, cried Xavier as he laid on the ground. Xavier had been riding his bike, and he decided to go into the woods to ride some trails. His friend Rudy told him where he could find a trailhead, but he must have missed it when he was riding down the hill. Either way, he can't think about that now. Xavier's leg is starting to throb, he lets out a whimper. His mom is going to kill him, he thought. How could he have gotten himself in this kind of situation! He should know better! His dad always warns him about riding too fast and not paying attention to your surroundings. Just then, he hears a clap of thunder. He looks overhead and the clouds look menacing. He starts to get scared. HHHHeeeelllllppppp, he screams.

Nobody hears him. Normally when someone falls off their bike and rolls down a hill cutting their leg on a rock, they don't usually get into panic mode. But, when you're only eleven years old, you've heard stories about these woods AND you have an over-active imagination, you tend to scare quite easily. He begins to cry,
"Man, this was dumb!" he thinks to himself. Xavier tries to calm himself down, he carefully tries to put weight on his left leg. Ow, he screams. A sharp pain just hit him like a jolt of lightning. He lets out a frustrated groan. It's starting to drizzle and he knows he has to get back, besides it looks like it's going to rain pretty heavily.
Xavier examined his bike to see if it was still rideable, it took a beating as well as him. The back wheel looked like a pringle chip. Xavier's heart
sank, he knew he was at least 30 minutes riding time from his friend Rudy's house and it would soon get dark. He had a difficult climb back up the hill. Once he got up the hill he carefully examined his leg. He had scrapes just above his knee down to his shin. He twisted his foot pretty badly and took a nasty fall on his knee. Other than that, he was ok.
He started slowly going backtracking along the route he came from, but he started to get confused, it slowly dawned on him that in the excitement of riding he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings. He started to feel scared.

"Honey, where's Xavier at?" "He rode his bike to Rudy's." Tom knew Xavier always liked doing his homework at the last minute which gave him precious little time to study. His son was an excellent student and
got along with most of the people at school, but his mind was not on his
work. He was going to be a future mountain bike racer he knew for sure.
That's all he talked about and he tried every trick he saw on YouTube.
He got into bikes ever since he rode them, that was 8 years ago. And since that time he had gotten pretty good. But his dad was always reminding him of other things that needed to be done. Tom went to get
his cell phone and called Rudy. "Hello?" "Hi," answered Betty. "Can I speak to Rudy, please?" "Is this Tom?" "Yeah, I'm looking for Xavier. Have you seen him?" "No, let me get Rudy." "Rudy, telephone!" Betty
gave the phone to Rudy. "Hello?" "Hi Rudy, this is Mr. Tom Xavier's dad.
Have you seen Xavier?" "Yeah, he went to find a trail to ride his bike. I saw him about an hour ago." "If I come over, can you show me which way he rode off?" "Yeah, I'll let my mom know too." "Ok," he said. "Thanks." He hung up with Rudy. "Honey, Xavier went riding in the woods and it's starting to sprinkle outside. I'm going over Rudy's and he's going to show me which way he went. I'll be back in a bit."
Tom drove over to Rudy's and found what direction he traveled. It was
beginning to rain so he began to worry. He called home. "Trina, have you heard from Xavier?" "No, I haven't, you?" "No." Tom didn't have a
bike to go into the woods to look for him with and his car was too big for
the path that Rudy showed him.

It began to rain, Xavier thought his parents wouldn't be too excited to learn he had gotten hurt, and lost, and didn't have his phone on him. He
was frustrated at himself. Xavier was the kind of child who relished in being independent. He learned how to fix his own bike almost as soon as he started riding. By now he could take his bike apart, down to the frame and build it back up again.

But that wasn't what was on his mind now. He was thinking about how does he get unlost and how he's gonna get dry. He started to feel a little cold and the sun was beginning to set so he knew it would get dark soon! And what one thing does everybody fear? Monsters, yep that's right, monsters. Now you may be thinking to yourself....monsters aren't real, but tell that to an 11-year-old boy stuck in the woods, hurt and hungry and see how much he'll believe you.
It began getting really dark and Xavier could swear he heard noises in the woods and that wasn't helping either. He knew he had to keep calm so he found an area that was pretty flat and sat down with his bike beside him. He decided to take his wheel off and use the quick-release lever as a weapon. If he was going to get eaten he wouldn't make it easy. He regretted all them stories he read at Rudy's house about monsters, ghosts, and goblins. But the one story that scared him the most was about Bigfoot. He didn't really believe in Bigfoot but then again nobody has seen and captured him so he could be real......right? Fortunately, he always had a knife on him while he rode. Protection purposes only. His parents routinely let him ride his bike and the furthest he ever rode it was about 20 miles. That was a very tiring day for him but ever since that day every ride he took near his house seemed too easy. He was getting quite wet as it started to rain pretty hard. He took off his shirt and laid on it. He convinced himself that if Bigfoot was out there he wouldn't want to move around while it was raining like cats and dogs so he didn't feel so scared at the moment. Meanwhile, at his house, his mom was manning the phone and Mr. Tom and Rudy began to look for Xavier. Betty would've come with them but she stayed just in case Xavier came there. All of them was getting worried. Tom didn't want to call the cops, it'd be really embarrassing for him so he spent the first couple of hours looking for him himself. He and Rudy went to 3 different locations that Xavier would've ridden and couldn't find anything. Tom called back to Trina then called Betty and asked have they heard anything. They both said no. Trina asked Tom, "Do you think he could've been kidnapped?" "No!", said Tom. He said, "our son has a good head on himself and wouldn't talk to strangers when he's by himself and he's a good rider so he knows how to get away from people". "But what if they were riding the same direction as he was?" "No, our son knows not to ride alone with strangers, honey. Trust me." "Then where would he be?" "He's......lost. Honey, he's just lost. Alone and scared....and lost." Tom stopped his truck, trying to think. (Where would my son go......where would he be?) "Mr. Tom", Rudy said, "I know that he's always is looking for crazy places to ride!" "Hmm, you're right Rudy, he is a bit of a daredevil." Just then his phone rang. "Hello?" Trina said, "Honey I'm calling the cops and I'm going to get them to help us look for him" Tom didn't want that. He wanted to find his son himself, he felt that as a man he should be able to locate his own son himself. Between him, Rudy, his wife, and Betty, there was not anyone who would know his son better. He better to look for him than the four. "Honey, we don't need the cops to find our son, we can do it ourselves," he remarked. "But if we can't find him and he's badly hurt or worse! I mean what if.." He stopped her right then and there. "NO!" "Our son is OK!!!" "DO YOU HEAR ME?" He realized he was yelling and looked at Rudy, Rudy looked a bit scared so he composed himself. "I'm sorry, ok, yeah. Let's call the cops. Maybe they have some dogs who can get his scent and smell where he's at." Tom realized he was acting in a way that was scaring Rudy and he liked Rudy, he didn't want Rudy to think he's some crazy person or didn't want extra help to find his son. But he couldn't. No, he wouldn't surrender to the thought that his son was crippled or worse.

So Trina called the cops and had an officer came to their house and she filled out a missing person report.

Xavier was getting hungry and his ankle was continuing to throb. The storm seemed to be going on for a long time and then he remembered...
a severe thunderstorm was rolling in into their area and it was supposed to last all night. His heart sank. He checked his ankle and knee. His knee was hurting slightly and had some cuts on it so he checked his ankle. He didn't want to take his shoe off so he felt his ankle, it was tender to the touch and felt like it was swelling. He knew he either sprained or broke it on that fall he'd taken. He was no stranger to falls but all his other falls happened around other people so he never sat in pain too long but this was really aggravating him. He tried to stand up and put some pressure on it but as soon as he did so a bolt of pain seared up and he quickly sat down. He knew then that the only way he'd be rescued is if someone came looking for him. Out of being hungry, hurt and scared he started crying. This was the first time he ever cried and had nobody to comfort him. He was out here in the middle of nowhere hurt, cold, he felt miserable and mad at himself and now he couldn't stop himself from crying. His ankle was hurting too much for him to put any weight on it. So he knew he was staying put. When it finally stopped raining it was late, he knew this because while it was raining he somehow got comfortable enough to fall asleep. He didn't know why he woke up but he woke up with a jolt. At first he didn't know where he was but as he woke completely up he realized he was still stuck in the woods. He listened very quiely and tried to listen for any voices and sounds that would sound like his dad or mom looking for him. He heard nothing.

He yelled out, "WHERE ARE YALL!!!" "I NEED HELP!" He screamed as long as he could and he could hear the echo rebounding in the distance. The bad thing about this night is that there was no moon and stars. No light from city lights, just woods all around him. He began to think about what could be in the woods and immediately he stopped. He could think of nothing, but Bigfoot. And that was the most scary thing about this night. A hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creature who dwells in the wilderness and leaves behind footprints was the last thing he wanted to face and he knew he had a good imagination. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know who to speak to. He wanted someone, anyone to rescue him. Well, as long as it wasn't Bigfoot he didn't care who it was. You see, when you read about creatures, ufo's and the like. They make for a great day of reading, but not what you'd want to come upon. Just then Xavier thought he heard something. He listened carefully to make sure it wasn't his imagination. He heard the sound again. His heart began to get faster, he wanted to hear it one more time to rule out his imagination. Whatever made the sound was close and had his attention. He heard it again. It sounded like twigs breaking, and you and I know that could be anything. But to a child that can mean only one thing, monster. What kind? Bigfoot of course! So Xavier thought he was hearing Bigfoot, but Bigfoot smells real bad and Xavier couldn't remember hearing about any skunks in the area. And he smelled the air carefully and determined the air only smelled of moss and trees.
He knew something was in the woods with him and he couldn't stop himself from thinking about Bigfoot. He didn't want to start panicking and he didn't want whatever was there to hear him or sense his fear. He couldn't get to sleep the whole night he kept thinking he heard something. That was the absolute longest night of his life. He knew he was going to die. He kept on thinking about how he would get torn apart. He couldn't help himself but think about it so as crazy as it sounds he thought of how many different ways Bigfoot could rip him apart. This actually made him less scared because he wasn't actively thinking about the noise, he was thinking about how he would be ripped apart and imagined every possible way he could think. This actually gave him something to do. As strange as it may be, thinking about how Bigfoot would come and tear him up made him less scared because he was now making his mind busy. He wasn't thinking about the sounds. He dreaded this, but he accepted that he was going to be torn apart from limb to limb. And to prepare himself for his fate he busied his mind on the ways it could happen. He cried and whimpered at some of the ways he thought of but also chuckled at others. Could he be tickled to death? How about Bigfoot's stinkness, could that do him in? Or maybe he'll just pass out from fear and wake up somewhere safe. As the hours went by he realized that he was still alive, awake, and breathing. If Bigfoot was out there he was probably scared of him just as much as he was scared of Bigfoot! But how could that be? How could an 8 foot tall beast be afraid of a 4 foot 6 inch 80 pound kid? That made him laugh, he wondered how any animal could be afraid of him. He figured he was the weakest, but not the slowest kid in his school. Even his best friend Rudy was stronger than him. He only had one thing going for him, his awesome biking skills. Well, that wasn't helping him now. But he figured that if he was going to be eaten by a Bigfoot it would've happened already...unless Bigfoot was waiting to eat him later. No, that couldn't be it. He didn't have a lot of muscle on him. Maybe his legs but not the rest of him. He couldn't be waiting to eat him because Xavier wasn't very muscular at all. When people kill cows or chickens they usually want as much meat on them as possible. He knew that. After hours of thinking that he was going to be eaten and realizing that he wasn't. He began to think of all the reason of why he hadn't be chosen to be eaten. Well this lasted until he began to see the light of early morning. He yelled, "YAY"! He's still alive! He actually survived in the woods with Bigfoot surrounding him, or so he told himself.
As it began to get more light he started seeing more of what was around him he felt really hungry but decided against eating some berries he saw as he knew they could be poisonous. As it got more lighter he stopped thinking about Bigfoot and instead on how he would get back home. He tried to stand on his foot and his ankle was hurting just as before so he sat down. As the sun began to get higher in the sky he started to wonder how everybody was doing without him. He knew they were going to be frantic and missed him and he was missing them.

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