Tonight
By Janan, Year 8
The sound of tired, old hairdryers filled the room and everyone was coming to the end of their cut. The hairs on their heads were preparing themselves for a style.
“Tonight, it’s happening tonight,” the mysterious woman insisted.
“We can’t, it’s too risky, she’s gonna know,” another whispered back.
“How would she know, it’s go time NOW, tonight!” she whispered in a stern voice.
“We can’t ki…” the minion stuttered, giving up on convincing her boss as the hairdresser returned to her boss’s station. The minion then nodded to the other one beside her, and they continued to nod at each other until everyone got the message.
“Hi, my name is Emma and I will be finishing off your hair for you as Miranda finished her shift today and had to go home,” Emma explained to the mafia boss.
“Oh, no worries, my name is Camila. AND YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT OR YOU WILL REGRET IT. I KNOW WHAT YOU HEARD!” Camila threatened in a quiet, yet terrifying whisper.
Emma’s hands began to quiver as she picked up a curler and put on her heat proof glove. She wasn’t sure of what she had heard, but Camila’s threatening words reassured her that what she thought was real.
This excerpt is from The Killer of Innocent, a novella written by Janan Yaghi in Story Factory’s Year of the Novella. In this program, young people write their own novella over the course of a year. Their book is then professionally edited, published and launched into the Sydney literary landscape.