Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 36

The Unknown Discovery of The Greater Bay Area’s Ancient
Portal
Victoria Shanghai Academy, Garton, Aiden - 7
Mr. Tushman was talking about yet another boring subject on a bright sunny day in Hong Kong. Cole was
dozing off again at his desk, but snapped to attention when his teacher lowered his voice and said ominously
“Remember students, NEVER go into that GBA cave.”
Cole thought, what are they hiding? I need to find out. That night, Cole couldn’t sleep. His mind was
racing about what could be inside that mysterious forbidden cave.
In the morning, Cole didn’t go to school. Instead, he went to that cave. Just as Cole got there, a skinny
person came up to him and gave him something with a wink, “It’s a magical flashlight. For luck!”
Cole used the flashlight to look down into the cave’s mouth. At once, he realised why no one could go in -
the entrance was too narrow! But Cole was really skinny too. So he took a deep breath, jumped right into
the shaft and landed with a big thud at the bottom creating a humongous dust cloud.
Cole shone the flashlight into the pitch black. “AHHHHHH!” There were bones everywhere! Too scared
to find out if they were human or not, Cole raced to a rickety wooden door in the corner and leapt
through.
Now on the other side of the door, Cole looked around and to his surprise, he could see everything! That
magical flashlight was amazing! And then he saw it, a treasure chest. “Jackpot!” he thought, but then he saw
20 slithering snakes and 20 enormous bats between him and the treasure. “NOOOOOOO!!!!”
Cole thought hard and came up with a plan. First, he carefully held the magic flashlight in his mouth.
Next, he used both hands and legs to climb along the wall around the pool of snakes, trying with all his
might not to slip or fall and become the snakes’ dinner. Then, he leapt off the wall and landed quietly on
the ground beneath the bats. “Phew!” he thought. He took three ninja-like steps and was almost past the
bats, when “CRACK!”, he stepped on a bone that snapped like a twig. All at once, there were 20
enormous pairs of bat eyes looking down at Cole. He dove to the treasure, dropping his flashlight, grabbed
the chest and ran. He couldn’t see a thing, but could hear the bats screeching after him and the snakes
hissing at his feet.
He ran in the darkness until he slap bang ran right into a door! He felt a doorknob, opened the door and
found himself in a sunny rose garden. He looked back and saw that there were another two doors in the
cave: one with Macau written above it and the other Guangzhou. He had no time to figure out where his
door led to. He slammed it shut just before the bats and snakes could get through.
Miraculously, Cole was back in Hong Kong. He never did tell anyone about the three portals he found in
that GBA cave.