It was a cold, clear Sunday night. Twelve year old David was at his country house enjoying a movie by himself. His dog, Dinah, barked. She wanted to go outside, down the hill, to hunt for mice at the pond. Several hours passed and David realized in stupefied horror that he had forgotten about Dinah. David opened the door and looked into the cold. A blast of icy air rushed in the door. "Dinah!" There was no answer. David pulled on a pair of boots and went out the back door. He headed down the steep side of the ravine. The hillside was slippery. It was dark. Once he tripped over a fallen branch. He finally saw the pale ice-grey pond lit in the distance.

The ice on the pond shimmered in the cold moonlight, surrounded by tall pine trees. David looked around but there was no sign of his dog. He decided to perch on the dock while he waited for Dinah.

The wind started to rise. The uppermost branches of the pine trees started to swish together making an unsettling noise. His watch read 10:30. He was tired of waiting. All of a sudden, he heard a cracking noise which shattered the stillness of the winter night. He called out "Dinah?". He saw nothing. He heard nothing except the wind. Then he saw it. At first, it seemed perfectly normal, a pressure crack in the ice of the pond. Then he grew frightened. The crack in the pond grew wider and wider. A shadowy figure raised its eyes above the ice level. It was horrible and green and brown. It gave a long shriek when it became aware of David's presence on the dock. It then sank again below the surface of the ice-covered pond.

David ran for his life back up the hill, slipping on the ice and stumbling and falling over rocks and twigs on the steep hillside. He was almost at the top of the hill when he heard barking at the back door of the house. There was Dinah, anxious for the warmth of the house. David flung himself at the door. He let Dinah in and threw himself inside the house, panting and crying in fright. He locked the door. He locked all the doors and he locked all the windows. In the dark stillness down the hill, the pine trees became still once again, the pond iced over, and the crack disappeared.

D.A., Grade Six
Upper Canada College Preparatory School

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