The Hidden World

Students who participated in the Enlightium Academy Creative Writing contest had the chance to see their submissions published through Spotlight. Please enjoy these selections from students aged elementary through high school.

It was a dark and stormy night. Deep in the woods there was a cottage. It looked like any other cottage in the woods, but it held a secret. Nobody had lived there for years, until one day a family moved in, but they had no idea what they were in for.

Noah’s family had just moved into a cottage in the woods of Ashland, Maine. It was the middle of summer, but that night it was a stormy one. A flash of lightning split across the sky and was followed by a loud rumble of thunder. Noah cuddled deeper into his covers. With each rumble of thunder he could see his moving boxes shake. When the storm started to move farther and farther away he finally fell asleep.

The next morning, Noah woke up to the smell of bacon sizzling in the pan and waffles cooking. He went downstairs to find his mom by the stove and his dad at the table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. Noah sat down and ate a big pile of waffles and a couple pieces of bacon. He also snuck a couple bits of bacon to his dog, Scout. Today, he was going to go to a summer camp that his new school was hosting. He got dressed, brushed his teeth and hair, and got his shoes on. The camp was a basketball camp for boys and girls. When he got there, some instructors greeted him. After he put down his water bottle and bag, two kids came over to him and asked if he wanted to play with the basketball. Their names were Michael and Rachel. They all became best friends. That night Noah asked his mom if he could invite them over after camp tomorrow. The next day after basketball camp, Michael and Rachel came to Noah’s house.
They had no idea what they were in for that night.

That afternoon ended up being a stormy one and when I mean stormy, I don’t mean the usual rainstorms. I mean the rainstorms where the rain is pouring down, the wind is howling, and the trees are swaying. Since the roads were dangerous and branches from the trees had fallen into the road, Michael and Rachel spent the rest of the afternoon and night at Noah’s house. That afternoon, a couple hours before dinner, they started a game of hide-n-seek. They decided that Noah would count first and Michael and Rachel would hide first. Noah counted to thirty and then he went to go find them. He found Michael in the bathtub, hiding behind the curtain, but he couldn’t find Rachel. He went to go look in the library but he didn’t find anything. When he was about to leave he found a chest slightly hidden behind one of the curtains covering the window. He poked his head into the chest and instead of finding something in there, he ended up almost falling through. He pulled himself back up to avoid falling through all the way. Suddenly he heard Rachel say, “Wow!”. Apparently, she had been hiding behind that exact same curtain. When Noah had recovered from what just happened, he and the others decided that he should poke his head back in there again. So, with Michael holding on to his legs, he slowly lowered himself in. All he could see was darkness, when all of a sudden he was falling. Noah had lowered himself too far, so Michael also fell in. But, as soon as they had fallen, they had stopped. He had landed on a soft patch of grass and Michael and Rachel were right next to him.

Noah got up onto his feet. Next to him was a well, his friends, and a forest. He went over to the well and peered into it, there was no water at all and it seemed to go on forever. When his friends had gotten up, they all agreed that they should venture into the forest. After walking for a while, Noah looked down at his watch and realized it was almost time for dinner. So they ran back to where they had landed on the patch of grass to see if there was any way to get back home. Rachel thought that maybe they needed to go into the well. So, they counted to three and then they all jumped into the well. They landed with a hard thump on the hardwood floors of the library. They all sat up quickly and all agreed that they wouldn’t mention anything about it at dinner. After dinner, they all went back into the library and went back through the chest into the hidden world. They landed on the same patch of grass and went back through the woods the same way they did the last time. When they got to the spot where they had stopped walking, they decided to keep on walking straight. After walking for a little while longer they found a small village full of people. The people questioned who they were and where they came from. Once the people had heard their story, they welcomed them with open hands. They stayed a little longer and got to know some of the people. After that they walked back to the well and went back to Noah’s house. After that day, they went back almost everyday and made many new friends!