I wrote this short story a few years ago for school:
The Soul Seeker
It was a dark spooky night on October 1 and it was time for 12-year-old Kai-nu and his 11-year-old brother Min-tu to go to Kung-fu class.
“Hey Min-tu, are you ready for Kung-fu class?”
“Yeah, almost, I still need my back pack and I need to put my shoes on.”
“Well hurry up.”
“I’m trying.”
“We are having a new teacher and a new building and I don’t want to be late,” Kai-nu said, worried they were going to be late.
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
“I’m waiting!”
“Alright, I’m all ready.”
“Let’s go!”
“Ops.”
“What,” Kai-nu was trying to calm down and remember that his brother is very young.
“I forgot my umbrella,” Min-tu said feeling sad that he always disappoints his older brother.
“Alright, Min-tu, go get your umbrella.”
“…”
“Did you get it?” Kai-nu asked, annoyed that this happens every time they go to Kung-fu.
“Yup!”
“Finally!”
The two kids start walking to Kung-fu and they start talking about lots of stuff, like what the building is going to look like and if the teacher is going to be nice. Kai-nu was really worried about his dad. Long ago when Kai-nu’s dad Nushi was a kid, he would always play with his brother Tushi. They were very close brothers, until one day Tushi went missing. No one knew what happened. Nushi would always tell his dad that he thought his brother got kidnapped by a ghost. Ever since, Nushi has been worried about his brother. When the two kids finally arrive at the training dojo they see a large, spooky building. The building looks very old and all of the window are cracked and there are lots of spiders crawling in and out of the place.
“Those spiders are monsters!” one kid said.
“And there are millions of them,” another added.
There were lots of other kids standing with them at the door of the dojo. Kai-nu looks through a window at the far end of the building and he sees a man standing by the window with no head. He could not really make out what the man looked like but he wanted to figure it out. Then, the large oak doors of the building started to open, and there was no one there that could possibly have opened the doors. The two brothers start to get spooked at the fact that the doors opened on their own. Min-tu looked around and noticed a nice looking man standing at the entrance to the building waiting for the kids to quiet down so he could greet them. The kids all jumped when the man started to talk. “Welcome children, come on in, class will start soon,” He said. The kids looked around nervously and didn't dare move. Those poor kids were stone pillars! The man said, “what are you waiting for? Head on in.”One by one the trembling kids started to walk in. The littler kids were as scared as a kid who is walking through an unfamiliar dark cave. The smaller kids preferred to stay by the older kids and the older kids tried to look brave to the littler ones but couldn’t. After all of the kids were in the dojo the man closed the oak doors and left them in the dark spooky room alone. All of the kids start to look around the room to get familiar with it. Kai-nu looks around and he spots a room with a dim light! Feeling a little bit brave, Kai-nu starts to walk over to the room. When he looks through the cracks in the door he sees a strange man with a head made of smoke. Deeper in his neck there was a small flame that was keeping the smoke going. The strange thing was that the smoke was not out of control like smoke on a fire pit, but it was in place. It was almost as if there was a glass ball around his head that was keeping the smoke in one place. The strange man grabs a real looking head off his desk, puts it on and starts walking toward the door where Kai-nu was standing. Kai-nu was about to scream, but his brother covered his mouth with his hand. Before the man got to the door where they were, they both quickly ran back to their spots in the dojo. Once they were back in their spots Min-tu let Kai-nu catch his breath and then he asked him what he saw. After Kai-nu told him what he saw, they were both frightened for the whole time class was going on. After class was over everyone was ready to go home, but when the teacher/strange man told them that one of the kids has to stay with him a little bit longer after class they were all frightened. One of the kids in the class named Wang asked, “who has to stay in class?” “You are the one to stay!”said the teacher. Wang was about to go into the teachers face and tell him that he is not going to stay, but he was a wise kid and he did not want to pick a fight with the man so he said “OK” and decided to stay. Then, all of the kids left and went home accept Wang. Two days passed by and Wang was still not returned home. Wang’s parents were out of town for a month so they had no idea what was going on. Their family had just moved into that town so no one knew them and no one realized he was missing. Most people did not even know that Wang even lived in that town. None of the kids told their parents about Wang being missing because they thought that it would be an adventure to find him, but they still took this very seriously. The next day all of the kids went to Kung-fu. They all waited patiently for the nice looking man to greet them at the door. After waiting a while, the man greeted them and they all walked in. When all of the kids were in the dojo the man closed the door and left them. Once again Kai-nu slowly creped over to the room with the dim light. This time he saw Wang standing in front of the strange man. Kai-nu was very confused. Is Wang working for the strange man, or is the man using a spell to keep Wang still? Kai-nu was very confused. The strange man cocked his neck and started to open his mouth. Suddenly, Wang’s chest started to glow. Kai-nu was getting really scared and wanted to go in there and save his friend, but he knew that if he went in there he was going to get captured to. He did not know what to do. Suddenly Millions of small stripes of light started coming out of Wang’s chest and were all going into the strange mans chest. Then, Wang fell over and his eyes slowly faded away. Kai-nu looked at the town clock through one of the windows and saw that it was almost time for class to start, so he quickly ran over to his spot in the dojo. Once again the strange man put on his fake head and headed to his spot so that he could teach class. Before the teacher went to his spot Kai-nu told all of the kids in the class what he saw so that they would behave and not get in trouble with the teacher. After class was over the teacher said to the kids:
“You may all be dismissed accept Nushen-wu.” All of the kids heard what happened to Wang, and that the teacher killed him, so, Nushen-wu’s older brother said: “Nushen-wu has choir practice, and my parents are very strict about them coming home, so he cannot stay.” The teacher was getting very angry and said: “He must stay!” The older brother was getting very scared and did not want anything to happen to his little brother, so he blurted out, “NO!” and then they both ran out of the building. After class was dismissed all of the kids went rushing out of the building like a swarm of bees. Once Kai-nu and Min-tu got home they decided that they needed to construct a plan to defeat the strange man. Kai-nu said that they need as much information as possible to defeat the man.
“Min-tu, can you go to the library tomorrow with me so we can learn about this strange man,” Kai-nu asked in an excited voice.
“Sure!” Min-tu said, happy that his older brother was including him in the project, even though he never does.
So, Min-tu did a lot of research in the library in their town. Min-tu figured out that there is a soul that roams around the earth and takes over other peoples souls and controls them until he gets what he wants. Min-tu looked at the title of the book that he was reading in and the title was called The Soul Seekers Secrets. Min-tu and Kai-nu decided that they are going to call this soul that is consuming their teacher the Soul Seeker. They both realized that their teacher was a real person and that they should not harm him. They read that scientists believe that if you pour a newly discovered chemical called Tracinene (Tray-cin-e-nen) on any type of fire than it will go out. So if they poured it on the flame that is in the center of the Soul Seeker’s neck -where his head was removed- then that will burn out the flame and kill the Soul Seeker. But Kai-nu knew that the Soul Seeker was not going to just let some random person pour that chemical on his head, so, they needed a good plan to distract the Soul Seeker.
“Hey Kai-nu, come look at this!”
“I’m coming.”
“There is a paragraph here that has some useful information about the Soul Seeker!”
“What does it say?”
“It says that the Soul Seeker was once a man just like us, and that he was seeking ever lasting life, but he died from a trap when he got the recipe to it!”
“Hey Min-tu!”
“What?”
“There is a recipe at the bottom of this page!”
“What does it say?”
“It says: Everlasting Life: 5 souls, 3 Tbsp salt, 10 brown worms.”
“Wow!, we can get all of those ingredients accept the souls, and then we can lure him into a trap.”
The next day Kai-nu and Min-tu got to work. Kai-nu gathered all of his older friends and constructed a plan, and Kai-nu was the leader.
“ Ming, go grab some worms. Tai-ka, go gather 3 Tbps of salt. Shang, tomorrow, at the start of class, Ming and Tai-ka are going to give you the ingredients. You are going to tell the Soul Seeker that you have been working on a science project and that you need help from an adult and your parents weren’t home to help you. You are going to show the ingredients to the Soul Seeker, and because those are the ingredients to ever lasting life, he will decide to help you because he wants to trick you into getting the ingredients that you have. Besides, everyone will think that it’s weird if they see a grown man digging in the dirt for filthy worms. Once the Soul Seeker follows you into the room where you will begin to show him the project, you need to lead him over to where the trap door to the attic is, and then make him stand still. My parents happened to have some of that Tracinene in their basement because they needed some for work, so while you are getting the Soul Seeker to follow you into the room I will be going into the attic from the trap door on the other side of the building. I’m going to haul the Tracinene into the attic with me and then once you get him in spot I will walk over to the trap door where the Soul Seeker is standing, open the trap door slowly and quietly and then I will tip the bucket of Tracinene above his head, pour the whole thing on his head and then he will be cured.” The next morning the kids all met at the back of the building and talked over their plan once more.
“Ming, do you have the worms?”
“Yup!”
“Alright, hand them over to Shang.”
“OK.”
“Tai-ka, do you have the salt.”
“Yup, and I already gave it to Shang.”
“Good.”
“Alright, does everyone remember the plan?”
“Yup!” everyone shouted.
“Let’s do this.”
When class started all of the kids were whispering to each other about the plan. After class ended Shang asked the Soul Seeker if he could help him will his science project, and he showed the worms and the salt to him. The teacher said that he has a little bit of time before he has to leave. So, Shang led the Soul Seeker to the room where the trap door was and made him stand under it while he explained the science project. Meanwhile, Kai-nu had the Tracinene and was heading up the ladder that leads to the attic. Kai-nu looked around the dark and spooky attic. It was very dark and it took him a while to find the trap door to the room where the Soul Seeker was. He looked around for a while and finally found it. He looked in the peep hole just to make sure that that was the right trap door and that the Soul Seeker was actually still under it. He was still under it, and Kai-nu was getting really excited that they were going to defeat the legendary Soul Seeker. Kai-nu gave the signal to Shang, and then Shang, quick as a flash pulled the Soul Seekers fake head off. Then Kai-nu poured the 5 gallons of Tracinene on the Soul Seekers flame. Immediately, Shang ran out of the room so what ever was going to happen would not happen to him-self. Shang ran up into the attic so that he could still see what was going on. Very slowly, the Soul Seeker started to shake. He fell over on the ground and started wiggling around violently. The flame on his neck was acting alive and was growing bigger and bigger. In a flash, the Soul Seeker stopped moving and was stock still. Then, slowly the flame went out and his head started to go back to normal. Kai-nu was very confused on what was going on and who the Soul Seeker was controlling. It was Kai-nu’s dad’s brother! Kai-nu’s dad’s brother slowly got up, looked around and saw his nephew. Kai-nu quickly ran down the ladder from the attic, and he gave his dad’s brother a hug. Kai-nu told his dad’s brother every thing that happened. The next day Kai-nu’s family had a huge celebration and they lived happily ever after.
