Reaching inside I retrieved the axe that had almost caused me damage earlier. I stood up to size up the basilisk’s enormous body. I waited for it to attack again.

The basilisk sprung up carelessly. I did not make the mistake of missing. Its thick head lay dismembered beside its monstrous body, its tail wiggling. I looked up and my hosts’ jaws were on the ground, their eyes wide open, as they stared at their dissected beast dead on the floor.

I speedily stepped out of the room and a different kind of serpent – Oupa – charged in my direction. I stepped aside and he tripped himself on my trailing foot. His head crashed into the wall’s rotting wood. This exposed a button, which his head pushed, and which then opened up a deep, dark pit in the floor. He charged at me, his teeth bared like a hyena, I ducked and he fell inside this seemingly bottomless pit. Ouma screamed, charging towards me, then she too dove inside the pit, leading to her unfathomable end.

In the silence, I hear a struggle followed by a thump emanating from the basement. The thought of getting the medicine and leaving as quickly as I can, crossed my mind but departed just as quickly.

“I must end this once and for all,” I say to myself. I leave the medicine on the counter-top and walk with the heavy axe raised firmly above my head, ready to strike at anything that might appear from behind the door. All must end here, I thought, I cannot let these old cannibals continue prowling on unsuspecting souls.

I broke down the mouldy door with the axe and give two quick swipes with my eyes tightly pressed together. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked by what I saw. Inside the dark, dreary dungeon that was an excuse for a basement, I found a little girl tied with a dirty cloth around her mouth.

She lay on the cold, wet ground with her hands and feet tightly and expertly bound with a rope. The rope, like razor blades, had dug deep into her skin. I quickly cut her shivering body loose and assured her I was there to free her.

She told me she had also taken this shortcut to her grandmother’s house, when she was duped and then bound by this cruel couple. We walked upstairs, and I retrieved my mother’s medicine, then we walked together into the night. I looked up at the pitch black sky and saw an alignment of stars travelling through the night.

I smiled to myself, “It will be sunny tomorrow.”

Tell us: Did you enjoy this story? Were you scared of what may happen?