I just got married to the love of my life! Orpheus. Orpheus is a famous poet and a musician, though because of his jobs he is rather busy, making me rarely see him. It is quite sad, but I know he is doing it to provide for us.

Anyways, lets fast forward to today. Today I am spending my time with my girlfriends, well my best friends. They make me feel loved when my husband is away, which is most of the time… That’s beside the point. Me and my lovely best friends were just walking through a lovely, ravishing garden. This garden was special to me. My husband and I would always walk through here when we were younger. Ah, such beautiful memories.

As we sniffed the gorgeous flowers suddenly a poisonous snake attacked me! I sobbed, wept, screamed, wailed for help. Yet my so called “friends” just watched me suffer. Just watched me getting killed. I was appalled.

In the underworld, I had time to think about everything that took place. It was all Orpheus’s fault. If he spent more time with me this wouldn’t have happened. My anger grew like wildfire the more I began to think about what happened. The underworld isn’t as bad as you think. I would say that it is a place to reflect on my life. It isn’t that bad. This is a place where they accept me for me.

Then Orpheus came. I overheard Hades and Persephone making a deal to Orpheus about taking me, however if he looks back then I stay in the underworld forever. I wouldn’t give up the opportunity to stay here for a second. I knew he would worry if I was following along so I kept my mouth shut. I want him to feel how I felt for all this time. All this rage built up was for this very moment. I knew he would look back. And he did. I am finally free.

Abigail, Year 7

A moment.

Neglected and voiceless.

How to save them? How can you save yourself?

Let us consider whose tongues are caustically held.

Is your voice heard?

A moment lost, should not be a moment forgotten.

A lack of a voice then, isn’t a call for permanent silence

but a reminder of the power to listen, to hear the voices of others as well as your own.

Together we can change the narrative by using our voice.

Daisy, 3rd Undergraduate student

Orpheus and Eurydice were dating. Orpheus was a semi-famous singer with a couple of hit songs and very rich parents and therefore he was very rich. He was also a terrible singer. Eurydice was a very clever College student, but she was very poor. She dated Orpheus because Orpheus paid for her College tuition. Orpheus dated her because he was in love with her. Eurydice lived in South Oxford, and to get to university she had to cross the Abingdon Road. At the place where she crossed there was no proper crossing; she just had to wait for the lights to turn red. One day, she was waiting at the crossing and when the lights turned red, she started to walk across the road. However, she forgot to check if anyone was speeding (which people often were) or running red lights. As she got to the middle of the road a lime green Lamborghini smashed into her driven by none other than Hades.

Hades was very worried about getting sued now that he had hit her with his car and so instead of driving past and worrying that someone would see the incident he decided to take her out of the road and put her in his car. Nobody noticed this because people on the opposite lane were just speeding past and running the red light and people in his lane were just honking at him because he wasn’t moving – they had somewhere to be. Although initially Hades had thought Eurydice was dead, he soon realised that she was simply unconscious. He then thought that he could use her to get it once the money as he was in a bit of a hard time financially trying to pay off his lime green Lamborghini. He got out her phone, only to see that Orpheus was already calling her. He answered and explained that he required 50,000 pounds of Ransom money for him to ever see Eurydice again. Orpheus explained that he could not afford that as it was coming up to the time where he had to pay Eurydice’s College tuition. Hades agreed to let him have Eurydice for only 50 pounds if he managed not to look at her the whole way back to his house. He agreed and went there immediately.

However, after he picked her up and walked for a couple of minutes, he began to be doubtful that she was actually following him, but he couldn’t just talk to her to find out, as he was paranoid the paparazzi were following him, and if she wasn’t there they would take videos of him talking to himself and his career would be ruined. So, he turned around to check, and there she was. But, because he had looked at her before they got to his house, she was finally free of him and his awful singing. She ran away, booked a plane ticket to Australia and went to work on the wildlife conservation project, where she fell in love with and married a girl named Lucy. Orpheus’ career was ruined because the paparazzi took pictures of him crying she fled. Hades got a job at Oxford University Press and after a few years managed to pay off his lime green Lamborghini debt.

Annie, Year 7

Kaya Y9

“Walking back to the village, I stumbled over a rock as my eyes were still glued to my trembling hands, desperate for her soft touch to meet mine once again. Finally, I stopped walking and I peered down at the dirt-ridden path beneath my feet I could not remember a time when I walked this path alone. Like rust, dull, sombre tones had engulfed the tree we spent so many springs beneath, the blossoms lay decayed and wilting under a thin layer of murky dust. The tree’s colourless, life drained branches, made my heart leap into my throat. I saw her body drift away in my mind like one of the blossoms, I heard her faint farewell play over once more in my head. I watched as another lifeless blossom glided down towards me, I reached out and enclosed it in my hand; its petals felt almost as silky as they do in spring, yet people can’t see that beautiful part of it. I thought about the blossom as I ran my fingers along its smooth petals, it is a cycle. A flower’s life is a part of an ongoing cycle, they are mortal, as we are, and we are a part of a cycle as well. We live and we die the Gods designed it. The cycle is what killed her, life killed Eurydice. But if I could stop the cycle…, could I? Kill before nature gets the chance, I understand. If I stop the cycle the Gods will surely send me to the underworld, and I can be with her once again as I crave.”

Emily, Year 9

Eurydice walked straight ahead, oblivious to her surroundings and ignoring her friend’s conversation. She was drowning in a sea of her own thoughts and couldn’t find a way to the surface. Ever since the marriage, Eurydice had experienced a roller coaster of emotions. At first, she was nervous, but her nerves had quickly turned into regret and self-pity. She had abruptly realised that now, for the rest of her life, she would be confined by the chains of marriage. No longer was she free to do as she pleased. The entirety of her existence would now be for Orpheus. Is that what she truly wanted?

In a split-second she was dragged back to reality as she stumbled and fell to the ground. As she regained a sense of awareness, she realised that something was moving in the bushes ahead of her. A pair of beady, gleaming eyes glared back at Eurydice, almost unblinking. Before she had time to get up, it lunged forward hissing and displaying its lethal fangs. A jolt of terror rippled through her body as she laid helpless and weak on the ground. Her heart raced as adrenaline coursed through her veins, forcing her to move. But she couldn’t. It was as if something heavy was pinning her to the ground. She was frozen like a stone statue. Suddenly, pain shot through her arm as two needle like fangs sunk their way into her delicate skin. She looked up to where her friends were, but all that she could make out were shapes as darkness swarmed her vision. A single shimmering tear trickled down her pale cheek as she took one last shallow breath before slipping away into the depths of the underworld.

Sophie, Year 9