Victorian High-Ability Program
Student work
The below student work was produced by Year 7 student, Zara P through the Victorian High-Ability Program (English) (VHAP). VHAP have requested to publish this exceptional piece on their VSV website. Well done Zara!
Student name: Zara P
VHAP Subject: English
When VHAP was completed: Term 2 2025
Title of work: The Last Breath
The Last Breath
The air was thick-coated in rust, strangled by dust. It clung to Lena’s throat with every inhale, a silent reminder that every breath was borrowed. The ventilation unit wheezed in the background, a dying creature gasping for life it could no longer sustain.
Ezra kicked at a charred air filter, his expression twisted with the kind of anger that had long since turned cold. “Oxygen used to be free,” he muttered. “Now it’s currency. One breath costs more than one life.”
Theo, the youngest, lifted his gaze toward the smog-choked sky, searching for something beyond the suffocating dark. “But the sun — it’s still trying,” he murmured. “Even through all this, it refuses to dim.”
Lena scoffed. “A light show. Pretty, but meaningless. The sky is a liar.”
Ezra chuckled bitterly. “The irony — endless space, yet nowhere left to breathe.”
Theo’s voice was quiet but certain. “Space is empty. But we aren’t. Not yet.”
They moved through the husk of a dead city. Sidewalks cracked, storefronts ghostly, echoes of laughter lingering in the silent streets. An old billboard flickered weakly — a relic from a time when oxygen wasn’t a war fought in shadows.
“Breathe freely,” Lena read aloud, her voice hollow. “Experience life.”
Ezra smirked, kicking at the remains of a shattered oxygen tank. “Life used to be breathing. Now, breathing is survival.”
Theo paused beside a broken-down bus, running his fingers over dusty windows. “People used to sit here. Talk. Laugh.” His voice barely carried in the empty streets. “Now, it’s just echoes.”
Lena leaned against a crumbling wall. “Maybe laughter wasn’t meant to last forever.”
Ezra’s gaze darkened. “Neither were we.”
Theo turned to them both, his expression unwavering. “But we’re still here. That must mean something.”
The city stood silent around them, waiting, watching. The sky stretched vast above, indifferent. Somewhere in the distance, the last tree stood — withered but upright, fighting. And beneath it, three souls remained, breathing.
For now.
