Francis Brandywine By Hannah F

Francis Brandywine

By Hannah F

I gazed at my map of Quetico park, it used to be my favourite place to visit until I heard the frightening story of a girl named Francis Brandywine.

Francis was a carefree 17 year old girl with pitch black hair and an adventurous personality. She wore a brown denim jumpsuit with ripped tights, a woolen hat and thick brown boots. Francis and her family regularly visit Quetico park, one year they were camping alongside one of the deeper lakes. Whilst her parents were asleep she snuck out of their tattered blue tent with her notebook and a lantern. She crept towards the family rowboat hearing nothing but the faint sound of crashing waves. She slowly paddled through the crisp cold water until she eventually believed that she had passed the deepest part of the lake.

Francis was relaxed, alone and in her own bubble. Francis lay down and gazed up into the sky of bulging neon stars. As time ticked by she was nearly asleep when suddenly she heard a loud knock, knock, knock she lept up with fear and she slowly turned around looking for the answer to her question, what was that? Her mouth went dry as she stood in silence she grabbed the ores with her slender arms and lowered them into the deep blue water. Nothing came back so she told herself that it could be anything from a  turtle to a stick so she lay back down and dreamt some more.

As ten more minutes passed she lay lonely in the boat, she was deserted it was exactly how she liked it. When she woke up she was so calm until suddenly she heard another series of knocks, it was coming from the bottom of the boat, this time they were crisper and louder. Francis grasped onto the ores of the boat as she reached for them she knocked her lamp into the water, leaving nothing but the light of her emerald eyes to guide her.

She started to move them at a rapid pace, it got to the time when her arms started to get tired, she realised something, she hadn’t moved at all something was holding it back. The suspense made her feel sick  and she was on the verge of crying, but she was trying to be brave and keep the tears in. She glanced around at her surroundings hoping that someone was going to come and rescue her, but no she was completely deserted, isolated. Francis curled into a ball and rocked herself back and forth until suddenly the boat started to shake and then it rocked from side to side. She stood up hoping for it to stop. Francis peered into the deep blue water looking for a creature underneath the boat.

She lowered her ores into the crisp water but she felt nothing, she attempted to replace the ore back into her boat but as she maneuvered her ore it slipped and she accidentally let go of it. It slowly drifted away. All of Francis’ hope was lost. She had no options but to stay put in the boat for the night. The knocking continued all throughout the night. To pass the time Francis wrote in her brown notebook that was filled with many creative ideas, she doodled and wrote in her memories and that was the last we have heard of Francis.

It was only because of her notebook that we know what happened that night.  She can’t reveal to us what happened but her notebook did give us a clue, every one of Francis’ pages in her book was filled with technical stories and many detailed drawings except for her last page which read, I did knock first written in rushed writing and had been written with muddy fingers and Francis was never seen again.