A Terrifying Holiday - by Emily Cullen, age 12

St Michael’s Holy Faith Secondary School, Finglas, Dublin

One day, Emily and her mam Lorraine were online looking at holidays when a “pop-up” ad appeared on the screen saying they’d won tickets to Disneyland Paris. Lorraine was surprised since she didn’t remember entering any competition or answering any question but said they might as well go. They left straight away and got the last plane to Paris.

They headed into Disneyland and saw rides like Alice Curious Labyrinth, Thunder Mountain and characters like Mickey Mouse, Princess Pavillion and many more.

The name of their hotel was Disneyland Hotel and it was marvellous. It was bright and colourful and full of other people on holiday and people who worked there. Their uniforms were pink and blue with lace.

Emily and her mam raced to It’s A Small World and waited in the long line for half an hour, watching the characters passing by. The same music played over and over and Emily danced because she was so excited. They finally got on the ride and it was amazing. The ride ended and Emily and her mam went outside.

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Out of nowhere Emily heard people screaming. The music and the rides stopped and everyone stood in front of Thunder Mountain.

A little girl about her age was hanging from the top of the ride. She was going to fall! Emily stood under her and caught her.

She saved the crying girl. Between tears, the girl said her name was Ciara. She had long brown hair in pigtails and huge eyes. Emily put Ciara down and tried to find her mam in the crowd.

Suddenly, all the lights went out. Everyone screamed because they were panicking and worried.

Ciara grabbed Emily’s hand and they tried to push through the crowd. Emily stood on her toes and bit her lip.

“Where’s my mam?” she asked herself. Ciara held Emily’s hand tightly and started crying again.

“What’s happening?”, she asked.

“I don’t kno”, Emily’s answer was cut off by Ciara screaming.

Ciara said she saw something green, big and scary with blue eyes.

“I think it had two fingers!” she cried.

Emily turned around slowly, there it was. A big creature with a green slimy body and hairy knees.

Emily’s mam came running over then. She put her arm around her and hugged her. She was so worried. When she saw the alien she screamed.

“What are you???”

“I’m an alien, I sent you all tickets to come here. You’re my dinner!”, roared the alien.

They ran. Ciara and Emily and her mam ran extremely fast away from the alien.

She heard a girl called Alison say someone was trying to eat her but they kept running. The alien tried to grab Emily but she ran and the crowd followed. Someone pushed Emily and she fell.

The aliens grabbed her with their green hands and Emily watched as they gobbled up her mam and Ciara. The aliens gobbled children like Ciara whole, but the adults took a little longer.

She cried and tried to roll away but one of the aliens held her.

The last thing she saw was one of the aliens on his smartphone, uploading and sending tickets to someone else so they could “win”, just like Emily had.