Extensions Program
Congratulations Aoide A (10M): International Winner in the 2022 Young Writer’s Contest
As part of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) a worldwide Young Writers Program, Aoide (10M) wrote a novel titled “Arabella's Mortality Research Notebook”. She then entered an edited excerpt from the novel into the “Now What?” Young Writers Contest along with over 650 students from over of the world. Aoide’s novel excerpt has now been recognised internationally, with the judges choosing her piece as one of the winning excerpts! Aoide’s impressive piece demonstrates her clever use of metaphors and graphic description to create powerful suspense. We hope you enjoy her work.
Well done and congratulations Aoide on your fantastic achievement – we are so proud of you!
“Arabella's Mortality Research Notebook” by Aoide A
The girl's body hits the ground with a nauseating crunch, bright red blood erupting from every crevice of her body like water from a fountain. Intestines spill with a slop from the gaping hole in her abdomen, spine having snapped violently on impact. Chunks of viscera, shiny and moist in the evening light, are strewn over the red-stained grass like some particularly gristly flavour of jelly. A patch of daisies, fluttering gracefully in the breeze, are crushed under her weight. Glazed brown eyes stare unseeingly up into the sapphire sky, curly brown hair spread out like a halo.
It takes a good ten minutes for someone to finally walk past, their horrified yell ringing out crystal- clear. Running up to the broken body, they kneel down, only vaguely mindful of the ever-growing puddle of blood, and...
Stick their hand unashamedly up her shirt.
"Oh, thank god," they say shakily after a few seconds, withdrawing from the body with something clutched in their fist. "Thought I saw it fly off when you hit the ground... please, no more weird looks from the cashier..."
Clad in a rather suspicious-looking black suit and sunglasses, they make for an intimidating, if slightly insane figure. Stealing something from a dead body? Never a good sign. Talking to it? Even worse. At least it isn't alive to miss its stolen possessions.
"I'd ne'er be tha' careless," says the body, flesh and rapidly growing muscle stretching over her missing jaw.
Well.
"Twelve minutes, fifteen seconds," the suit-clad person sniggers, seemingly unfazed by the dead girl talking and not feeling the urge to visit a mental institution, "Sloppy. Almost thought you'd actually kicked the bucket this time."
"Oh, shut up." The girl's neck snaps into place with a crack, grinding audibly against her spine. "That's one thing the wonder girl can't do, thanks to you. Now do you have my notebook or do I need to buy a new one again?" The previously dead body flexes her newly regrown fingers absentmindedly. "Mum's getting concerned."
"Yes, calm down, I took it off. You don't have to deal with the tape again. Honestly, surely dying's worse than an impromptu chest waxing?"
"You'd be surprised."
"Just give it to me!"
"Do you never learn?" The now, somehow, alive and injury-free girl stands up and snatches back the glittery pink notebook. "My answer hasn't changed. Now, today's data..."
ARABELLA'S MORTALITY RESEARCH NOTEBOOK #8
Mrs Mary Ann Di Martino
Head of Faculty – Extension Programs