It was an ordinary Friday night. The bats were flying hither and thither. The owls were hooting, keeping their broad eyes open. Flowers had closed their buds and had gone to sleep. The grass was moving to and fro, dancing in the cold wind. All the animals were sleeping and it was time for Stella to get forty winks as well.

Stella had sunk into her homely bed, being snug as a bug in a rug. She put down her book that was about a girl being stuck in a scary castle. She closed her eyes and before she knew it, she was asleep.

At around three o’clock in the morning, Stella felt something crawling on her. She gradually opened her eyes and saw a spider! Stella screamed louder than a wolf’s howl.

She looked around. She saw big, bleak walls all around her. The room was poorly lit by a single candle and there were creepy pictures all around her. There were bugs everywhere and in the corners of the room, spiders were spinning cobwebs. It very obvious she wasn’t in her own bedroom.

Stella picked up a lantern that was sitting next to her and her book that had come with her. She opened the huge, brown door and tip-toed into the hall. She gazed at the pictures with gruesome gremlins as they stared back at her. Meanwhile holding the cumbersome lantern and her book was making her dangle. She laid the lantern down since the hall already had lots of light.

She was chewing on her plait due to worrying about getting out of this creepy castle. Then she unluckily dropped her book. Her book opened up to a random page. It had a picture of what the castle looked like when the girl found out she was in the castle. It did not take Stella long for her to figure out where she was trapped in her storybook!

Before Stella could bend down to get her book, a mouse dashed out of nowhere, grabbed her book and scurried across the hall with it. Stella ran after it, trying to get her book back. It finally stopped in a room and dived into a hole.

She looked around, but this room was painted black, it had books everywhere, but what really caught her eye was a gold chest that was studded with jewels.

The chest suddenly started talking, “Answer my riddle and take my key or you shall never ever leave.”

“ Alright,” Stella said confidently.”

What has a head, a tail, is brown and has no legs?” it asked.

She thought for some time and answered “A coin?”

The chest magically opened and in it was lying a gold key studded with diamonds.

As soon as Stella held it, there was blinding light and Stella was back in her home and bed.

“Stella, come down or your pancakes will get cold,” called out her mother.

Stella left her bed, scarcely able to believe she was back. But when she looked around for her book, it was not anywhere in the room. But Stella wasn’t going to miss it because she won’t ever be reading it again!

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 22nd, 2020