Owen reads Chapter 1 titled, "Where Are The Children?" from New Adventures Of The Pied Piper of Hamelin written by Simba Mudonzvo.
Chapter 1 - Where Are The Children?
This place reeks of dead bodies! Grime covers every inch of the walls. And the floor - dried red stains splattered all over the place! Please tell me that’s not blood! Now, I’m nauseated.
My heart thumps away. As if it’s dying to jump out of my chest. The thought of torture makes me lose my mind. Everything about this grim place pierces my soul. Before you know it, I’ll be confessing to all sorts– the missing children, the hidden treasure, the secret animals… the lot!
I want to get out of here! I rack my brain. Without the pipe, it’s of no use. I cannot escape. The pipe that saved Hamelin now can’t keep me from certain death! Oh, the irony of it all!
Back to the matter at hand – my inevitable death. First, they’ll serve my torture as a starter, then my death as the main course. I wonder what would be for dessert—my head on a pike, perhaps?
I hear the door opening. Someone enters the room. It’s like they are taunting me. They are taking their sweet time to enter the room. I am scared and yet hopelessly defiant of what awaits me. The silhouette moves closer, and I have a feeling that this figure is as deep-in-thought as I am. Or am I overthinking this?
I hear a raspy cough as the figure enters my view. It steps briefly into the corner, and then it advances towards me. It’s a man alright. An old brute of a man!
Actually, a one-eyed old brute of a man indeed!
His face is deeply scarred. Tell you what - life has been kinder to me in comparison. The gods cursed him with a protuberant beak-like aquiline pig's nose. But who’s judging? I’m not!
I clear my throat. It was so dry that even a skunk’s urine would have tasted heavenly. I am nervous. And I am also madly starving. The one-eyed brute gleefully stares at me. He is a manic all right. I’m terrified. I look right back at him. Who can resist glancing at such a fine specimen of an ugly thing? The one-eyed monster. A dirty patch cannot cover the hole in the other eye. I wonder how he lost his eye though. I bet his eye escaped in disgust once he looked himself in the mirror!
What else could this ugly pirate be missing? I slowly lower my gaze. He’s also missing his entire right arm. I don’t have to be a wizard to guess he’s also missing his right leg. He probably hopped all the way here, poor thing! To my utter surprise, he uses what I thought was the missing leg to give me a ferocious kick to my stomach. I underestimated the wooden peg leg hidden under the dirty torn shorts – there was a lot of anger packed in the trunk for sure.
I wail in pain, curling up on the cold wet floor. Not forgetting to avoid the dried blood stains. He kicks me again. And again. I’m no Adam, but I’d willingly give up my ribs for some relief right now. He steps back, perhaps to give his wooden peg leg a rest. He brings out a pouch from his pocket and dangles it in front of my face mockingly. Perhaps he’s trying to test me. They think I love money too much. But then again, I took their children away when I didn’t get paid.
The guilt still weighs heavily on me. I start to pant. I feel drowsy. He then tosses the bag of coins to my bruised face.
“Pay the Pied Piper, they said. Here! Your thousand gold coins,” he taunts me. “You’re now the richest boy in Hamelin! Now, may I ask, where are the children, Mr Pied Piper?”
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New adventures of the Pied Piper follows the life and misfortunes of the infamous Pied Piper of Hamelin.
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