Fictional Writing: A Star Going into the Black Hole

Twelve-year-old little Sammy is going to his grandparents, who are in Busan, alone on the bus. He was just a normal kid, but when his parents made him study a lot, he got a lot of stress. So, they decided to go to the grandparents for a ‘refresh.’ 

His parents went to his grandparents earlier to cook food, do the dishes, and plenty of other housework. Then, Sammy left the house a day after his parents left. He left at 4 pm, and he will arrive at 7:30 pm, when he rode the bus, for 30 minutes, he watched the window, and when he checked on his phone that 3 hours were left, he decided to sleep, but he didn’t know the future that will come to him…

When he woke up, the glass on the bus’s window was very, very (pitch) black dark. He looked at the clock, totally surprised. It was already 10 PM! The bus driver said, “Hey, kid! You need to get out now. It’s the last stop.” Sammy was panicked like he had seen a horror movie. He thought that he would get lost and never be found again. Sammy asked, “Where are we? Are we far from Busan?” The bus driver answered, “Oh totally far. If Busan is (in) the east end, here, Gwangju is the west end!” Sammy thought, “Can I even survive here?” He needed to go a long way from Gwangju to Busan. 

Sammy went down the bus, with a heavy sigh. The first question for Sammy was, What can I do? There was nothing but dark, black farms with electricity fences, and no hope. 

Sammy listed things he could do: first, stay and wait for help, and second, walk back to the road. However, he had no choice. If he just waits, he might wait forever and starve to death, or he might be killed by a criminal, or some bad guys. Now, he inhaled and exhaled deeply, and now, started the long, tiring marathon which he didn’t know when it would end. 

He decided to not think while walking. Thinking makes it more painful, the thoughts of his mom and dad, the thoughts of delicious, scrumptious food that his mom made, the thought of-

No, he thought. He just walked, walked, and walked.

He crossed the bridge and walked, walked, walked, walked, walked… without thinking. 

He walked, walked, and walked more, and oh!

Oh! He could see a long, big, and human-looking creature. It starts to run immediately like he is a predator who had just seen his prey. When he noticed it was a person, he screamed with all his hope, “Hey! Hey!!!” It turns and looks at Sammy. 

He is a man who looks a little grumpy and mean, but it is the only hope for Sammy. Then, Sammy could see his face: confused. 

He asks with bewilderment, “W-w-who are you? W-why are you c-calling me?” 

Then Sammy explained all the things that happened. Why he is lost, and what he did, what the man can do. 

Then, he said, “Oh, I see. But you know this place is not like Seoul, there’s no internet, no police stations. I’m sorry but I can’t do anything for you.” 

Sammy was swirled with deep, deep frustration. He thought, I’m lost, there’s no one, and I found someone, and he couldn’t do anything?” However, Sammy could understand that he really couldn’t do anything. So, Sammy said, “Okay… Bye.” 

When Sammy was able to walk away, the man suddenly shouted, “Hey! Wait a minute!” Sammy turned. Then, he threw a rope to Sammy. A rope for capturing. 

Sammy felt a burst of emotions. Surprised, frantic, scared…. 

Then he thought, Am… I… being captured? Then, the man threateningly said, “Hey, kiddo, do you see this bloody knife? If you don’t want to be killed, just follow me.” 

Sammy’s eyes were widened, and his legs started to shake crazily. Now, he started to think back, What if I didn’t sleep on the bus? What if I just stayed and waited at the bus? What if I went to my grandparents with my mom? Now, he started to think about his mom, dad, and his home, and felt his eyes going down by itself…

When he was woken up, he was in a car, still with a rope. Outside became even darker. Then, Sammy mumbled to the man with a sleepy voice, “W-where are we?” Then, the man shouted, “Shut up!” After the man shouted, Sammy didn’t talk, and the man didn’t say a word too. Sammy watched the sky through the window with no thoughts. He could only see the stars. Sammy thought, There would be a black hole too. He thought of the science class, that black holes eat some “weak stars” with strong gravity. Sammy thought, Blackholes would be eating some stars by this time. 

However, he couldn’t see and didn’t even know. People don’t mind even if small stars are eaten by a black hole. Again, he felt his eyes going down slowly until it closed by itself.

He opened his eyes, still in the car, but outside, the sun was shining, and he could see a large enormous saltern. Sammy could see some people working, some even younger than him and some older. 

The man shouted, “Hey! Everybody listen up! There’s a new kid!” Everyone’s eyes pointed at him once. 

The man continued, “We’ll call him uhm… Scorpion! I will give you a day off, then teach him everything today.” 

Sammy quickly added, “But, my name is Sammy.” Then the other said, ignoring Sammy, “Come kiddo… No – Scorpion.” 

When he entered some tent with the others, they started to introduce themselves. 

“My name is Lion,” a kid said. The other said he was Cheetah, another said she was Ant, and so on…

Then, they started the speech, “Hey, listen to him carefully, and don’t be surprised. First of all, now you are a slave. You can’t get out of this place when you get in. If you try to escape, I will not stop you, but you will be thirsty, and starving, and finally, you will die. So, the rule here is fast work, fast rest. You need to make 1 kilogram of salt each day. If you don’t, you will work forever, and will not sleep and eat. And one more thing, call the guy Mr. King, but actually, his name is Mr. Gink. Anyway, do your best! I hope you can survive here.” When he almost got out of the tent, he turned like he forgot something, and said, “Oh! I didn’t give you the book. Wait a minute…” 

After he found the book, he continued, “You should learn how to make salt in this book. It’s quite long and boring, but no one else will teach you. Since it’s a day off, you should read now.” Then, they left the tent. 

After they finished the long speech, his brain was white, perfectly white as snow. Sammy stared at the ceiling for a long time. Thus, the man, Mr. King stomped into the tent, and shouted to Sammy as if he were a criminal, “What are you doing?! Work! Oh, no, study!” Then Sammy opened the book as fast as he could and read. 

He knew that Mr. King was watching the tent, so he read and read again. He read it five or six times, even he didn’t know how many times he read it. However, he wasn’t reading. He was just looking at the pages and flipping the pages. He didn’t feel like reading, but he just didn’t. Time passed quickly. 

When he ‘read’ for more times, he could hear Mr. King’s shouting. “Everyone dinner time!” He followed them to the cafeteria nonchalantly. He ate dinner and came back to the tent. He wasn’t sleepy, but he just led down because he wanted to forget this situation, because he wanted to believe it was just a nightmare. 

When his eyes were open, the sun was rising over the tent. Then, Sammy heard Mr. King’s shouting, “Everyone, wake up!” Sammy didn’t want to believe, but he must. It wasn’t just a simple nightmare. Then, he noticed several people rushing to the cafeteria. Sammy followed them busily. After he had a poor breakfast, he had to work, but he couldn’t think of anything. He couldn’t even remember a word in that book. He was like a lost child who didn’t know what to do. Then, he had an idea. He could copy the other’s action. Sammy decided to copy the tallest guy, named Lion. He took a glance and did the same thing and took a glance, and copied. However, Lion and Sammy weren’t the same person, totally different. Sammy could do none of it. If Lion was a machine, that acts always the same, himself, Sammy was just a broken robot, that doesn’t have any functions. Actually, the broken robot couldn’t even see the machine’s quick motion. Finally, he planned to sneak into the tent, get the book, and get back. He could plan that easily, but doing that was the problem. How could he do it? The tent was behind the cafeteria, and Mr. King was guarding it. There was no solution. So, on that day, Sammy couldn’t make any salt till dinner time. Sammy walked to the cafeteria hopeless. “I would never make 1kg of salt and will forever work,” he thought. Then he had a sudden idea. He could ask some experts how to make salt. Sammy ate his dinner as fast as he could and asked Lion, who was the tallest. Fortunately, Lion talked friendly to him. Lion explained every single detail about it. His interpretation was perfect. Sammy thanked him and continued working. He only did what Lion said. Then finally, he finished at 2A.M., which meant 2 hours deep but also meant he knew how to make salt. 

The next day, he was extremely sleepy and he was able to sleep in anytime, but he decided to work fast, and rest more. He ate breakfast like a vacuum cleaner, and started to work as fast as he could. Even though the reality was he was a broken robot and Lion was a machine, he tried to look like a machine. He thought that Lion was his teacher. When he finished, it was before dinner quite fast. The third day, it was also finished before dinner. On the fourth day, and the fifty day, and the other days. He worked less time when time passed. He thought that the saltern as his home, and he was quite happy. His saltern life became better before he did that. 

He couldn’t remember if it was the 13th year or the 14th year. It was just a normal day. He was working, Lion was already finished, and he was almost finished. He was filled with delight that he would soon finish. Today, Mr. King was having a picnic in the shade, in the hot summer, which made Sammy’s blood warm up. Mr. King also brought his friend to the picnic. They said these things, like, “The workers are too stupid. They need 9 hours to make 1kg of salt. Their brain age is even worse than my son…” His friend said, “Yeah. They have too much rest. We need to increase the salt to 1.5kg. That will alert them.” That made Sammy’s blood boil. Then, that friend said, “Hey stupido. Make 1.5kg of salt today. You understand?” Sammy asked with confused eyes, “What?” The friend said, “Don’t you understand? You really are a stupido. Do it! It’s my order!” Sammy’s blood was about to burst. Then, Mr. King teased Sammy, “Hey! Work fast! You’re slower than a turtle! Be a friend with them. Ha ha.” Sammy exploded. It was like pouring oil to tiny sparks, which turned the spark to an enormous fire. Sammy rushed to them, it was a sudden impulse that had no reason. Mr. King said, “What are you doing? Get back – “ Sammy flew and punched Mr. King’s head by using the stick with a loud BANG!!! Then, Mr. King slowly, slowly, and slowly lay on the ground. On his head, there was a red, bloody Niagara fall that didn’t know to stop. Mr. King’s friend glanced at Sammy with a “Why did you do that?!” face and quickly ran away. Even Sammy didn’t know why he did it, it was like something that should happen, that we couldn’t change. Sammy decided to leave the area as fast as he could. However, he wouldn’t leave that easily. He killed someone. Finally, he took a step, thinking of Mr. King, and he took a step, thinking of Mr. King’s friend, he took a step, thinking of Mr. King and his friends talking. Now, he could hear sounds. Mr. King’s talk, his friends chatting, he could remember every single detail, and… the police’s siren. 

He had a 9-hour car ride with the police, just like how long the ride was when he got kidnapped by Mr. King. He couldn’t hide a thing. Everything was so sure. Sammy killed Mr. King. He had no other choice and didn’t want to make it. He told everything to the police. The decision of the court was too easy to see, execution. He was first, sent to jail, and after a few days, what happened to Mr. King will also happen to him. He was not happy, but the decision was right, and he couldn’t say it was wrong. 

At the D-day, he thought, “How did this all start? Then, he realized, “Ah… when I was captured.” He was frustrated. He thought, “Even if I’m selfish, I’m not the same person I was before. Even if someone noticed a star is going into a black hole…” Then Sammy slept, a sleep he would never get out of.