The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Creative Writing

"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas"

by:Lata To'a

And then the room went very dark and somehow, despite the chaos that followed, I found that I was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing would make me let it go.

We were in this dark room for quite sometime and it began to smell of unpleasant things like someone died in here, before we came along. A red light flashed from the top of the ceiling and made the shadows of people look bigger than they really were. I stood in place not one single movement, fear that I might trigger an alarm. Shmuel's hand felt slippery, full of sweat in mine, but my instinct feeling gave me the impression that I shouldn't let go no matter what."I have a bad feeling about this,"Shmuel whispered with terror. I couldn't make out the worried and panicky sound that came from his voice, because about two seconds after that, a haze of black misty fog began clogging up the air and most of my attention was focused on the blob of pollution that seemed to travel through the room at the speed of light.People choked all around me, followed by heavy,wheezing coughs. Soon later they all collapsed to the ground, not one soul moving,not one sound, but stationary,relaxed bodies that had been breath taken by a whiff of air and then I knew, they all had died.

I couldn't breathe.It was as if being in space,in an environment my body couldn't adapt too,with simply no air that I could inhale.My eyes stung from the shadowy gas that surrounded me. As I stood there;still holding onto Shmuel's hand, memories fled back to the first day I met him. I remembered seeing him as a dot then a blob-like figure, but as I got closer I noticed it was just a boy, a boy just like me. I thought dreadfully of that day in the kitchen how I betrayed Shmuel and told Lieutenant Kotler that I didn't know who he was, just so I wouldn't get into trouble. I recalled complaining to him about my life,saying how his life must be so enjoyable on the other side with all those people to play with. I stood present in the way he really lived and it was no fun at all.The way I saw his life now,made me reconsider what I had said about my so call boring existence.Shmuel and I were on our knees, still gripping tight onto each other's hands.It was my time. My time to go. I couldn't hold my breath any longer and as I gazed at Shmuel, I knew he couldn't hold it either.Everything seemed to have come to an end. It was like God calling his son, Jesus Christ to come on back home to the heavens. We both vaguely grinned, acknowledging our friendship and the time we spent together. Memories that we cherished,things we talked about ,it was all we needed to make our lives better for the both of us.Then as I can vividly remember we both collapsed, still grasping tightly to each others hands, just this time with no more worries in the world.

It was getting late and Gretel; the hopeless case, was becoming troubled at her brother's sudden tardiness. It wasn't like him to be out this delayed. For the first time she felt concerned about him and quite guilty. Not knowing where her little brother disappeared too, she began to feel anxiety tense up within her, like her blood had rushed all to her head,making it harder for her to figure out what was happening. Somehow, Gretel knew that her brother was in trouble and had a bad feeling about it. Gretel ran to her father and told him of Bruno's disappearance.Devastated and alarmed, her father sent out a search party to seek his one and only son. Soldiers and their specially trained canines, searched through the house, outside, through towns and villages and all places that came to their minds, a nine