Challenge 11

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**Words: Arrow, Sky, Fear, Soul, Eternity**

## 1st Position: Prarthana Modi with 7 upvotes

**Learnt to Live**

Wandering alone

A soul so lone

But feared by world

It seemed like an eternity

Being a part of a fraternity

Her name meant fear

Her aim like an arrow

Even if the space is narrow

Never she misses her mark

But she was just a little girl

As innocent as a pearl

Unaware that it was wrong

She wanted it to be over

Hiding inside a fake cover

Hoping to be finally free

But she too had a dream

And become a gleam

She wanted to fly

Fly, like a free bird

Not caged and scarred

And be a murderer

She fought and fought

And finally got what she sought

But at a cost

She learnt from her mistakes

And got rid of the fakes

The fakes who called themselves friends

But back-stabbed

## 2nd Position: Amethyst al Heatheritz13 with 6 upvotes

The red pen of the teacher, flashing. Eyes swimming with corpses of all the wrong answers previously made. Arrows finding their mark. 'There are too many'. Stab. Slash. Tests have always been hopeless battles. Suddenly, everything is still. You find yourself staring at the blue sky. 'The battle is over, am I dead?'

We've all heard stories in which after death, if the soul is not sent to eternal punishment, it either stays in Asphodel or goes for rebirth. 'Everything is pointless, then we all die. I can stay here forever. Spare me the extra pain.' Most spirits that stay become angry and bitter because of their out of reach past; the spirits that go for rebirth on the other hand, some of them feel like they have something to finish, some are out for redemption. Tests aren't that different. To move on, you have to choose to lay down the failed past. In rebirth, you can start over, prepare yourself for the next challenge. As they say,'a second life is one thing, making it better, that's the trick'.

Tests are like battles. The test is the enemy. Knowledge is your weapon. You are a determined warrior. Before a battle, you must study the enemy. What weapons does the enemy use? How will the enemy attack? Keep in mind that a hero with a strategy is the thing to fear. While sitting in a test, you just look like you're writing something, but in your mind, you get to be like the heroes we read about all the time.

Strike down every obstacle. Jump and sidestep the traps. Defeat the enemy. Victory is at hand. That is how you beat a test.

## 3rd Position: Chiron66 (Caleb/Morgan) & Samirah ara with 5 upvotes

### Caleb/Morgan

There's an arrow in my heel

Look's like eternity is sealed

But this wasn't my greatest fear

I was more scared of dying alone

Then I was of dying

And I ain't lying

The Trojan horse was a lie

All the best heroes seem to die

So sometimes it's best to trick the enemy

Still, fate ways on me heavily

Sometimes I ask myself

Do I have a soul?

Maybe that's why I'm alone

Maybe I can't feel emotion

The dark and unforgiving sky

Somehow, it always seems alive

Lit up by starlight

That reflects in my blind eyes

Cause I couldn't see the lie

I tried to fool the enemy

My cries of pain sound like a melody

Cause when I tried to lie

I put faith in starlight

But stars die

Everything is swallowed by the night

I lied to myself

Made it seem like I had it all together

And I almost thought I did

And the best liars are the believers

So I'm here

With an arrow in my heel

So I guess they got past the mask

Found the real me

Not the healed me

Which was the fake me

### Samirah ara

Ronan stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the valley below. The sun was rising, casting soft light on all the bodies best left in the dark. They lay sprawled in grotesque positions, hundreds of them filling the stained field. Their faces were filled with fear and hate, yells forever stilled in their throats. Their blood caked and slowly dried, covering stones and grass. Swords lay still in their owners grasp, spears never to be lifted again. Arrows lay discarded on the ground, or embedded in the bodies littering the valley. The wind blew softy, already causing dust to settle over the eternally sleeping bodies, never to be woken. It blew around Ronan, chilling him through his thin clothing, and lifting his sweaty hair back from his forehead. Ronan wanted to push his hair back, but his hands were clenched so tightly on his bloody swords that it felt impossible to move them. His arms and hands were bloody as well, and there was a seeping gash on his chest. Ronan’s eyes were puffy and red, straining to see in the dim morning light. The sun rose higher, spreading its light over the mountains, reaching out into every crevice.

Ronan flinched when the light of the rising sun hit his eyes, making him blink and look away. His eyes fell on a still body laying near him, half on a rock. It was a younger girl, around his age. Her neck was broken, but other than that she looked almost peaceful. Her eyes were open, the sky reflected in her glazed pupils. The sun shone like a little glowing orb floating in the milky galaxy of her eye. That galaxy seemed to go on forever, spiraling into an infinity of blackness. Ronan shivered, and looked away. “The saying is true,” he thought, “the eye is the window to the soul.” He carefully unclenched his hand from his sword, hearing it’s hollow clatter as it fell on the rocks. Bending down, he carefully brushed her eyes closed. Then he stood back up, turned from the cliff edge and the ever brightening sun, and walked into the dim darkness of the shadows.

## 4th Position: XGiveNyxABreakx with 3 upvotes

The darkness of the battlefield in the dead of night. Fallen arrows, bloody weapons of war, daggers, chakrams, swords, flamethrowers, lances, guns of all shapes and sizes, each one more horrific than the last. Inanimate corpses littered on the cracked earth, black blood leaking into the ground, spilling into the cracks and crevices of the bloodthirsty ground. The air tainted for eternity with the smell of bloodshed, fear and anger, the moan of lost souls.

The aftermath of a vicious and horrific war.