THIRD PLACE - SHORT STORY COMPETITION
Theresa Rajah won third place in the 2021 KREST annual short story competition. Theresa is a 29-year-old journalist from Johannesburg, South Africa. She works as a features journalist for a mining and engineering publication. She is also a mom to an almost-two-year-old boy. Theresa lives in a small town called Springs in Gauteng. Here is Theresa's third place-winning story: I would never have thought this is how my time on earth would end. My mind and body slowly begin working as one, pulling my consciousness out of subconsciousness. I am slowly being pulled, nudged even, out of sleep and into alertness. I feel it happening, and as I do every morning, I grasp onto the familiarities of my surroundings. My senses begin to feel around for reality as they move further away from my dream realm. I feel the slight crisp of the cold morning air, and sluggishly pull the duvet to cover my exposed shoulder. That movement, in a real space, speeds my other senses along. My ears are sudden...