麻豆社

By Amelia Cloake

I live in a rather odd place. An enormous glass house and there's a pile of us living here. It's quite cramped, but there's no place like home! There's a bunch of yellow fluffy things all called Bob and my bunch of rainbow coloured bears. We are all content enough together, but we live in fear. At the top of our house there's a huge, terrifying claw that pounces down every now and again, to grab one of us and prise them out. We are all frightened of it, apart from Jimmy, the stupid one, who wants the claw to grab him. He always pushes his way to the top hoping he might get picked by the claw, while the rest of us push to burrow down to the bottom. Everyone thinks he's crazy.

Everyday, I see strange creatures outside our base, usually when the claw emerges to steal someone. Whenever it swoops down, I pray desperately it doesn't snatch me. Once it grabbed my leg, but I just managed to wriggle free. Although I am very curious, I don't want to leave, it's fun in my house. Jenny's always chatting about something and Denny is absolutely terrified of everything! Penny is almost always asleep and Benny doesn't stop running, it's like he's having a permanent sugar rush! Then there's Lenny, he's just strange.

In time, most of my friends had been stolen by the claw and I felt bored and lonely. There are a few yellow fluffy Bobs left, but they don't talk much. I often think to myself, where does the claw even take us? Is it really as bad as everyone thinks? I don't want to find out. Then it happened ...

The ominous music started. Whenever the music plays, the claw begins to move. It lurched sideways and stopped right above me. I panicked. I didn't know what to do. The claw seemed even more frightening than usual. It glared at me menacingly. Slowly, it juddered down, breathing heavily. The claw tightened around me and I was stuck. I couldn't move. I tried with all my strength to wriggle free but it was useless. I was properly stuck. It jerked sideways. Abruptly, the claw loosened its grip on me and I fell into a big, black box. I couldn't see a thing. I had no idea where I was. I called for help but nobody heard me. Before I could do anything else, a hand reached in and grabbed me. A creature, just like those I had glimpsed from inside my house, was holding me tightly. I had never been more scared in my whole life.

I must have fallen asleep, but when I woke up I was on a big comfy thing that the creature called a bed. I was there with at least 15 other toys! They were all so welcoming and friendly. The creature gave me hugs every two minutes! IT LOVED ME! I realised that maybe the claw wasn't so bad after all.