My take on ‘Fintan’s Tower’

An extract from Catherine Fisher’s ‘Fintan’s Tower’

By Ahla Ahmed Shiham

…His heart was thumping. Jamie followed the trail of wet footprints across the floor. When he reached the door, he looked back. The librarian was looking at him with a particularly unpleasant smile.

‘Good luck’, she said. ‘You’ll need it’.

Jamie’s previously thumping heart was now a jackhammer. For some reason that smile gave him an ominous feeling.

Unfortunately, there was no backing out now, especially since he’d already reached the door.

And so, with a deep breath and a hammering heart, Jamie placed a trembling hand on the handle.

With a drawn-out creak, the baize door slowly swung open. Behind it, was darkness.

Jamie squinted his eyes, a futile attempt to scout the area. He gulped and took his first step into the room after confirming there was no danger.

‘BANG’ the previously creaky door banged shut behind him, just like in the cliché movies he’d seen before.

Jamie clutched his chest in shock, his little heart was just about to jump ship.

His current situation was that he was trapped in a dark room, with absolutely no visibility whatsoever.

Jamie turned and reached for the door, it was simply too dark, he needed some light.

However, Jamie quickly realized a horrifying fact: the door had mysteriously disappeared.

‘Hello?’ Jamie called out, hoping someone would hear him. Maybe one of the three men would come help him find a way out of the room.

Unfortunately for him, there was no response no matter how much he shouted. It was almost as if the three men who’d entered before him, had never come here at all.

Left with no choice but to rely on himself, Jamie tentatively walked around the room until he managed to grasp a damp, musty brick wall.

‘Wet, there must be an opening in the ceiling for the rain to leak in like this’. Jamie thought to himself.

He walked along the wall, feeling his way through what felt like an endless hallway, until a weak light entered his sight.

‘A light source’, Jamie exclaimed in his heart. ‘Maybe there’s an exit, or someone that can help me over there!’

With excitement brewing in his heart, Jamie abandoned the wall and ran haphazardly toward towards the light.

Jamie could now see that it was another door, out of which light was slipping in through various cracks.

Exhilarated, Jamie ran faster and faster, throwing all caution to the wind.

‘I’m almost there’, Jamie grinned in relief. ‘Just a little further!’

Three steps, two steps, once step, the door was now in reach. Jamie grinned madly as he grasped the handle and yanked the door open.

‘Hiss’, a hiss like a snake and Jamie’s vision abruptly turned into a blur.

He felt a sense of weightlessness as his body formed a beautiful parabola in the air before landing on the ground with a painfully heavy thump.

Jamie hissed in pain, with stars in his eyes as he realised that he’d been trussed up in a net like a strangled chicken for slaughter.

In the midst of his panic, he heard footsteps approaching him.

Jamie looked up in fear and trepidation, only to see a figure dressed in a large robe walking towards him with clam, slow and steady steps.

‘w-who are you?’ Jamie stuttered in fear.

The robed figure didn’t reply as it slowly approached the trapped boy.

Ten metres, five metres, one metre…

Now the figure was standing just in front of him, the dusty large boots were just inched away from his head.

Jamie raised his head, and finally saw the face under the hood of the mysterious stranger.

‘Y-y-you!’ Jamie’s voice cracked as his eyes widened so much, the veins in them seemed to pop out.

The robed figure moved as soon as his voice came to a halt. Fast and swift, a flash of silver and a shocking red intertwined in the air.

The last thing Jamie saw was that familiar, wickedly unpleasant smile, before his vision turned completely dark, and his consciousness faded away.

The horrified expression on his face was frozen in time, but Jamie the boy, existed no more…