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Page - Scary Stories - October 30, 2010

The Secret of Mort Cemetery

By Danielle Anderson “Don’t be a ninny, come on now, I dare you!”

“I’d rather not…”

“Ha! I knew you were too chicken Izzy!”

Izzy blinked, drawing her hand up to sweep a loose strand of her long blonde hair away from her face. “Jack, don’t be ridiculous, Mort Graveyard is closed once dusk settles in. There’s no way we would be able to break in.”

She was finding it hard to come up with excuses to not have to spend one night, dusk to dawn, in Mort Cemetery. It wasn’t the potential thought of being caught for breaking in that bothered her, something else sent chills down her spine. Lately, people had been vanishing, their bodies never found, but a gravestone marked with their name, in what detectives assume to be the victims own blood, was always found.

“It’s called climbing a fence Iz. Surely you of all people could figure that one out,” Jack laughed, shouldering Izzy playfully.

“Come on, I’ll even spend the night in there with you. It’ll be just like old times, you and I on one of our infamous adventures.”

“Well…”

“Please?” Jack begged, tugging at Izzy’s arm.

“Fine! I’ll do it, but you’re coming and staying with me no matter what.” She suppressed a heavy sigh. “Are you happy

now?” Grumbling she pushed Jack away.

“Perfectly,” he replied.

Izzy looked up, searching his eyes for something, surely there was no way he didn’t feel even the slightest bit of fear.

She saw nothing but excitement flashing in his emerald eyes, and frowned. “You aren’t scared at all? In less than 30 minutes, it’ll be dark.”

Jack shook his head, “Not scared at all, this is sissy stuff.”

Grabbing Izzy’s arm, he dragged her through the graveyard gates and out onto the hard rock path that lead to the center of the cemetery.

“We might as well get going, there’s no point waiting for the moon to rise.”

Izzy followed reluctantly, “Sure, whatever you say Jack.” She mumbled, trying to steady her voice as he lead her deeper into the heart of the cemetery.

Dusk had settled, covering the sky with it’s thick velvetblack color, casting an eerie feeling around the graveyard. A late-fall wind brushed through the trees, stirring up the scattered dead leaves which lay on the ground up into the air, and causing a bitter chill in the night air.

“Okay, it’s Dusk, now what Jack?” Izzy asked shivering as a breeze cut through her coat. The two teens had long since passed the center of the graveyard, and now found themselves resting on a granite bench.

“Now, we wait.”

“For what?” Izzy pressed.

“For the monster of Mort Cemetery to come out and get us Iz.” Jack smiled, “Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of The Creeper.”

Izzy shook her head, “I’ve heard of people disappearing…”

Continued on following page

Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 3

Continued from previous page “The Creeper stalks them and then kills them. All it takes is for dusk to come and for someone to be in this cemetery… alone.”

Izzy screamed, practically jumping into Jack’s lap when a twig snapped from behind them. “What was that?!” She gasped.

“It was probably just the wind Iz, calm down.” Jack tried to reassure her, “That stuff about The Creeper, I made it all up ya know.”

“Yeah Jack, I’m sure you did. It was all a sick joke to freak me out wasn’t it? I see how it is. I’ll bet one of your dumb friends is back there making those noises.” Izzy yelled, standing up and stomping away from Jack.

“Wait! Izzy! I wasn’t lying! It’s not safe to be in here alone!”

Jack rushed after her, attempting to not trip over the many headstones. But he wasn’t quick enough, Izzy had already disappeared from his sight. “Izzy! Izzy where are you?!”

“Stupid Jack, thinks it’s just the greatest thing to play pranks on me. Well, I’ll show him, I can make it all night in here, without him!” Izzy muttered to herself as she continued to stalk away from the granite bench. “I won’t let his dumb fri-” she stopped short, freezing in mid-step. “Jack? Jack it’s really not funny! Stop making those awful screeching noises and come out here right now! I want to go home!” She narrowed her eyes, searching through the darkness for the tall, gangly outline of him. “Jack…?”

Jack sunk onto the ground, breathing hard from running after Izzy. He was beginning to regret even coming to Mort Cemetery. “I should just find Izzy and take her home, but where did she go?” He listened for any sound, her footsteps, her voice, or even the sound of her breathing. Just then a wail so high-pitched, so blood chilling and eerie broke the nighttime silence and sent Jack to his feet, “Izzy!” He shouted in alarm, lunging forward in a full out sprint.

“Get away from me! Get away!” Izzy choked out as she stumbled backwards. A monster so hideous she could not avert her gaze crept from the shadows of a weeping willow.

It’s deep, blood-red eyes glinted from the light the full moon cast down upon it. Curling it’s long, yellow fingernails into a fist, the creature parted it’s mouth revealing a row of sharp, blood-stained teeth, and let forth a snarl so full of hatred that Izzy recoiled in complete terror. “Creeper…Creeper…” It hissed advancing towards Izzy.

Izzy turned, running in a blind horror. With a gasp, she fell to the ground, striking her head upon a gravestone. Her vision began to black out and her senses dulled as the teen girl waited for the inevitable.

“Creeper…Creeper…” A hiss from the shadows followed by the sinister, glistening, crimson eyes of The Creeper startled Izzy from her daze. “Jack! Jack help me!” She pleaded, half sobbing even though she knew her shouts were pointless.

Reaching for a dead tree branch that had fallen nearby, she drew it up towards the creature's face, striking at it’s horrible eyes.

Jack paused, he knew for sure this time that he had heard his name being called, “Izzy!” He shouted out into the dwindling moonlight, his gaze sweeping the graveyard. He sighed with relief as he took notice that the sky was lighting up, dawn was approaching. With an effort, he forced his fatigued legs into a jog, his search had been going on for many hours now.

The sky was turning a light pink when an unusually white headstone caught Jack’s eye. Approaching cautiously, he read the dark scarlet inscription, “Isabel Montgomery.”

The Wraith

By Meridan Markowitz

Every October, the wraiths come out. No one knows quite why October has such appeal; it could be the scent of fall in the air, or it could be the approaching of Halloween. However, it is quite well known that when September draws to a close and the first few crisp days of October approach, it is time to draw the curtains and close every door and window at night. The wraiths are dangerous.

A fairytale circulates the cool village of Solus, which lies at the edge of the Forest of Mortis. As it goes, many years ago a young boy was playing near the edge of the woods. This boy uncovered a box, and upon opening it the first wraith appeared before him.

“I will look into your soul,” it whispered in a voice like death, “and uncover your deepest fears to whisper to you at night.”

The wraith haunted this young boy for a month, until he soon became crazed and, one night, disappeared. Ever since, the wraiths have continued to grow in numbers, though they only appear in that one, most frightening month. If a wraith manages to whisper to you, even just once, it will not cease to haunt you until you’re mind is sick and twisted, unable to comprehend or form coherent thought. Eventually, those weakened by wraiths simply disappear, vanishing during the night. And the wraith count grows.

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Page - Scary Stories - October 30, 2010 Continued from previous page Because of the terror wreaked by these wraiths, once the cool winds of October begin to blow, all the people of Solus close and seal their windows, shut and lock their doors, and mend all cracks in walls and floors. This is because Wraiths cannot pass through solid matter, only through empty space. The people continue to try, but it is in vain. At least one person is always haunted; it never fails.

This October, though, the villagers have been lucky. Not a single haunting has occurred, though they are well into the second week. The days draw ever closer to Halloween, and the people begin to rejoice, believing that perhaps, just perhaps, the rein of the wraiths has finally ceased.

One chilly night as the fall wind blows, the wraiths come out haunting. They drift among the houses, searching for openings.

The doors are all shut, the windows all sealed. Even the chimneys have been covered. The wraiths continue to search, but without success. That is, until one wraith comes upon a window.

The pane is wavy, signifying its age. Inside the room, on her bed, lies a little girl, snuggled up under thin covers and clutching a ragged stuffed rabbit. The tattered ears rub against the girl’s cheek. Frost crackles as it forms on the surface of the window pane from the wraith’s icy breath, and thin, shadowy fingers brush featherlike across the glass. And it finds a crack.

A death-rattle is heard as the wraith breathes out, and it slips through the fragments of glass. The crack widens slightly as the pure darkness seeps through in a ribbon, billowing and expanding as it escapes on the other side. A sudden chill runs through the little girl in her bed, and her teeth begin to chatter.

The wraith approaches. It bends and listens to the murmurings of the girl’s soul, and begins to whisper her fears.

Now, there is no hope for the girl. The wraith shrinks, dark-

ness folding in on itself until it slips effortlessly into her ear, where it lies back to whisper cold terrors. The girl has nightmares that night, causing her to shudder and cower in fear as she sleeps. The wraith continues its whispering stream of never-ending horrors, and so the young girl continues to shake.

As the sun rises, the whispering fades until it is even softer, yet ever-present; lingering, echoing as she talks, as she eats, as she walks. No one knows of the little nightmare living in her head; no one notices. That is, until the murmurings become too loud, too nerve-wracking, and she breaks.

The girl screams as she clutches her hands to her ears, but the whispering only grows louder. And then the townspeople know what is ailing her, and they tell her parents to leave her in bed until she disappears. Her mother and father cry in their rooms as their daughter whimpers and cries in her own. But there is no cure, and their daughter is oblivious to any comfort her parents may give. So there is no use, and they simply wait.

Halloween is when it happens. The aura of evil even stronger than before, the wraiths gather in clusters outside the girl’s window, and the whispering in her head grows louder as it is joined by that of the wraith outside. They tell her to stand, to walk through her door and down her stairs. They tell her to go outside.

And so, with little choice and no free will, she does. The girl walks as if sleepwalking, swaying and stumbling as her bare feet step across the cold wooden floors, down the stairs, and out the front door where they are met with dirt and dust. Wraiths gather around, continuing to whisper, guiding her through the dark, empty streets of the town. She follows, and their hands of darkness brush at her hair and tug at her clothes as she walks into the forest.

Continued on following page

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Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 5 Continued from previous page Wraiths whisper, and the girl stumbles onto an old, dead tree.

At the base, huddled among the roots, is a dark hole. The little girl stumbles over to it, where she kneels and peers inside. The wraith that has been haunting her slips out of her ear, expanding until it is of normal size. Then it joins the others in coaxing her down, where she will finally rest in peace.

Dirt falls in clumps as the young girl slips through the hole, falling downward until she lands among the bones of last year’s victims, and the bones of those from years before that. A veritable sea of bones. Then she lays back and parts her lips. A thin stream of shadow escapes her mouth, spiraling outward until it hovers over its old, dead body and hangs, still, for moments.

Then it glides up to join the others.

And there is one more wraith for next year’s haunting.

Dangerous Things

By Beya Kadazi On Halloween of 2009, after taking his brother to get candies from his neighbor’s house, John went to a party with his friends.

John and his friends like to do dangerous things. So they sat at the party trying to figure out what they could do next week.

Then John’s friend Kelsey got an idea: she read a book about a haunted house located 70 miles away from where they live, so she told her friends they should go and spend the night there.

They all agreed to go, and John asked Kelsey if he could get the book and read it since Kelsey had the book in her car. She went outside and got it, then she gave it to John and told him, “Whatever you do don’t read it at night.”

After the party was over, everybody went home. It was two in the morning when John got home. He tried to sleep, but he could not, so he remembered that he had the book Kelsey gave him. He took it out and started reading it. At 3 in the morning, halfway through the book, John started getting sleepy. He stopped reading, and turned off the light. He lay down on his bed waiting to fall asleep when all of the sudden he saw something wrapping itself around his bed; then he remembered what Kelsey had told him, not to read the book at night. John tried to yell for help, but he was too scared to make a sound come out of his mouth, so he just laid on his bed paralyzed, not able to move or yell. He decided to count to three then jump out of the bed and turn on the light. So he counted to three then jumped off the bed and quickly turned on the light and realized that it was the fan shadow.

A couple of days later John and his friend got together and drove all the way to the haunted house. According to the book, there was a witch who lived in that house three centuries ago during the Colonial Period. In this period people used to kill witches by crushing them (putting a bunch of weight on them to suffocate them to death.) Somehow the colonial people found out that the girl who was living in that house was a witch, so they caught her and put six hundred pounds on her to crush her.

Those people who were putting weight on her kept on coming and adding weight on her after every hour so after six hours the witch used a spell to call a demon spirit called Diego. The witch’s name was Dora.

Diego made sure that anyone who came in that house never went out. He killed them in a slow painful death like Dora suffered and he ate them.

John and his four friends, Marc, Daniel, Kelsey, and Kelly, got to the haunted house. They saw a sign that said don’t go in if wise, on the door. The five friends ignored the warning and they went in the house.

Before they could open the door, something almost fell on them which scared them. They opened the door still and got in.

When they got in, they saw something evil standing by the fire place (Diego). They tried to talk to it, but it disappeared.

The girls got scared and tried to convince the boys to leave, but instead of leaving, the boy said “Come on. Don’t be scared of that thing. You got us to protect you.” The girls realized that it was impossible to convince the boys, so they took their stuff to try to leave.

Before they could get to the door, the door closed itself and they couldn’t open it. They asked the boys to do it for them, but the boys wouldn’t open it for them. The boys tried to cheer the girls up, so they took out a pack of sodas and they started drinking and listening to their IPod, then they see one bottle floating in mid air and the soda kept on going down in the bottle (something was drinking it.

They said to themselves, if this is a ghost it’s a friendly one, then they saw the Diego reappear, then the floating soda fell on the floor, and blood started coming out of space (The friendly ghost was getting killed by Diego’s power.). After the blood stopped cooling, Diego disappeared. Now the boys got scared, so they took their stuff and tried to leave but they, too, couldn’t open the door.

Continued on Page

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Page - Scary Stories - October 30, 2010

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Page - Scary Stories - October 30, 2010 Continued from Page 5 After a couple of hours they were tired and ready to go to bed, so John went to sleep in his room with his girlfriend Kelly and Daniel went with Kelsey. Marc went to sleep by himself; he wanted to prove to his friend that he was no chicken, nothing scared him.

When he went to sleep, he saw something wrapping itself around his bed, and he yelled “Ahhh, help me!” His friends heard him scream, so they came in with flashlights since there wasn’t any electricity in that house.

They asked him why he was screaming. He said he saw something wrapping itself around his bed. John with a previous life experience laughed at him, and said it was the fan, and Marc reminded him that there wasn’t any fan in the house. Daniel gave Marc his flashlight so he’d be able to see in case the thing came back.

They all left, leaving him alone. Before going back to bed, Marc went to close his bedroom door. When he turned around he saw Diego. Marc tried to scream, but his mouth got filled with worms, then Diego grabbed him, and took him where Dora was crushed and put 600 pounds on him. In the morning the rest of the guys woke up and went downstairs to eat breakfast. They saw that Marc wasn’t there. They thought that he wasn’t able to sleep last night because he was scared so he probably fell asleep in the morning.

They decided not to go and wake him up. For breakfast they brought cereal and milk, so they took it out and poured milk in the bowl to see that the milk wasn’t milk. It was blood, and the cereal was spiders. Then all the bowls got filled with blood and spiders. Then the bowls started to float and something started eating the spiders and drinking the blood. Before they could get scared, they saw Diego.

This time he wasn’t alone; he was with Marc. Marc looked like someone who hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for 10 days and had been lifting heavy stuff. Daniel and John tried to help Marc, but the ghosts who were eating spiders grabbed them, then the floor ripped open and fire started coming out of the hole. Diego threw Marc in there, where he screamed help until he died. Then Diego got him out and started eating him in front of Daniel and the others; they could not look away because the ghosts who were eating spiders held their head so they could not look away.

After Diego was done eating Marc, the ghost let go of John, Daniel, Kelsey, and Kelly, so they all got up and ran. Then when they were running, they saw two skeletons standing in their way. They all started running in the opposite direction passing where Diego was talking with other ghosts. Then Daniel found some courage inside of him. He stopped running, grabbed the skeleton and broke all 206 bones of its body. Then they all started cheering for him. Diego came and they all looked at Daniel, waiting for him to beat Diego, but when they looked for him, he disappeared.

When they turned around, they saw Daniel running away like a cheetah. They all joined him, and then they saw Marc’s spirit asking them to help him, so they all stopped running and then Diego came. John and Daniel both went to try to punch Diego, but their punches went through Diego’s body, and they knocked themselves down. Kelly grabbed a chair to try to hit Diego with it, but it went through Diego’s body, and she fell down, hitting John with the chair. Then Diego grabbed Kelsey. He opened the door to the underworld and he took Kelsey there where other demon spirit beat her up and stabbed her to death. Then they ate her.

Continued on following page

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Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 9 Continued from previous page While Diego was in the underworld, the three that were still alive were trying to find their way out of the house. When they were looking, fire fell in between them, and Diego appeared in the middle of them, so they all started running away in three different directions.

As they were running their body temperature increased to the level where they were burning. Their blood started boiling.

They all went in the basement because the temperature there was really low. While they were there they were still separated.

Daniel heard footsteps coming his way, so he grabbed an ax and hid himself.

Then when Kelly came, he cut off her head. Then John came and saw what Daniel had done. He get so mad, thinking that Daniel was friends with Diego. Daniel tried to explain to John that it was just an accident. They wouldn’t listen to each other.

They hear the floor crack and it opened and a coffin came out with snakes around it; then by itself the coffin rose and it opened itself.

Inside was Dora’s body. Dora’s body got out and gave Daniel a letter and told them that the letter would help them get out of the house.

John asked her, “Why should we trust you? Aren’t you the one who summoned this demon before?” Before Dora could answer, Diego came and said to Dora, “Stupid girl. If you were wise you wouldn’t have come here.” Then he shot her with a fireball which hit her in the stomach, and it threw her up against the wall. Then she got up and told John and Daniel to go and start doing what the letter said.

Before they could go, Diego used his power and tied them up and then threw a fireball at them, but Dora jumped in front of the fireball, making the ball hit her instead of the boys. Then she untied them. Diego threw another fireball at her, but this time Dora reflected it back at Diego which hit him and made him fall.

John and Daniel went looking for three diamond crystals like the letter said (the diamonds were located in red case).

Then they would have to put it around Diego and read the spell written on the letter. Meanwhile, Dora and Diego were fighting when John and Daniel found the crystals. They went where Diego and Dora were fighting and put two crystals around Diego. Then Diego used his lighting power on Dora which shocked her to death, killing her for good. Diego then turned around and saw what John and Daniel were doing. He used his wave power to throw them away. Unfortunately, Daniel dropped the last diamond and Diego picked it up.

John looked at Daniel and said, “Traitor!”

Daniel got up and jumped on Diego to get the diamond. Then he fell down because Diego doesn’t have flesh. He got up and went in the middle of the two other diamonds. Diego followed him, trying to get the diamond. He grabbed Daniel in the neck, and Daniel threw John the diamond. John caught it and put it quickly where it was supposed to go to make an equilateral triangle. Diego tried to stop John by using his fireball, but he was too late.

John already put the last diamond where it was supposed to go which trapped Diego, making it impossible for him to move out of the triangle Daniel also was trapped inside the triangle.

John didn’t want to read the spell because he knew the spell wouldn’t just kill Diego, it will also kill Daniel, but Daniel told him, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be alright. Just forgive me for killing your girlfriend,” and John started crying and told him, “I forgive you and I am sorry for thinking you were my enemy and for what I am about to do to you right now.”

“I forgive you,” replied Daniel. Then John started reading the spell. As he was reading it, Daniel and Diego were in a great amount of pain.

They were burning so bad that the fire was coming out their body. Then they exploded. The explosion sounded like a nuclear bomb. John then walked up stairs crying, and when he got in the living room he saw the door and he took his stuff and his friend’s stuff then walked out of the house. Before reaching the car, the ground opened and fire started coming out of it, and he fell in the fire. Then he woke up and he saw Diego standing in front of him.

Death Call

By Samantha Austin It was Halloween night, and I got stuck babysitting my little sister, Hannah, while my parents went to a party. This was definitely not fair. I wanted to go to a party with all of my friends, but instead I got to watch Clifford, SpongeBob, and Bob the Builder.

I looked out the window as I sat on the couch. Mummies, ghosts, vampires, witches, and the Jonas Brothers lined up for candy at every house. I had my bowl of popcorn, and Hannah seemed bored with the TV considering she wanted to go trick or treating with her friends. I thought to myself how could I make this night more fun? I walked over to our movie rack and found an old, dusty case with the title Death Call. I glanced at Hannah and wondered if she would be a chicken during this movie, but I didn’t really care.

Continued on following page

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Page 10- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010 Continued from previous page I put the DVD in the player and skipped to the main menu.

Hannah looked at me with a frightened face, and I told her it was only a movie. I pressed “play”, but the TV went fuzzy. I got up and tried turning it on and off. Nothing happened. Then, the lights flickered. The doors were locked, and the windows were tightly shut. I was getting scared, and Hannah was screaming her head off which didn’t make things any better. What do I do?

What do I do?

Then, the phone rang. I pressed “talk” and gulped out a hello.

A fuzzy noise erupted over the phone, and I could make out someone breathing. It was a man over the phone that spoke in a deep, heavy voice as he said…

The Thief

By Juliet Horsley The night it happened, the darkness was alight with the illumination of stars and a rotund moon hung above the trees. The sky may have been beautiful, but I wasn’t paying attention.

All I was thinking about was that I was in trouble. Even if it hadn’t been past curfew, which it was, my parents had a strict rule: be at home by 9:30 p.m. There was an implied “or else” tacked onto the end.

That night I had been careless. It was already 11:30, and I was still a couple of minutes away from my house. Even worse, it was Halloween. Fake graves adorned grassy knolls, skeletons hung from porches, and cotton cobwebs were spread over everything like snow. Cars had long since abandoned the back road I travelled. Not the best circumstances to be walking alone.

Of course, I wasn’t afraid of the dark. No sane teenager that I knew would be caught admitting that they were, and I was no exception. I wasn’t scared. No way.

But then I heard it.

Clip-clop, clip-clop. A staccato sound—was it hoof beats?— punctuated the night’s stillness. Being sure to stay on the side of the road, I craned my neck around to see what was creating the noise.

At first it appeared to be a horse and rider, calm and lethargic in movement. However, as the shape moved out of the shadow of the trees, I held back a gasp. The rider’s face was hidden by the cowl of a cloak as dark as the surrounding shadows, and only its hands were visible, pale and bony. The horse was, disgustingly, just that. Bones. A skeleton with dark skin draped over it, its tail and neck were devoid of hair and the where eyes should have been, there was a blue glow. I realized I had stopped walking.

A noise escaped my mouth, a terrified moan. The thing heard and faced me. My heart stopped as I realized that its body was that of an old man but its face was that of a girl, perhaps five years old. Her features were stretched into a scream, her eyes widened in unrestrained fear.

It was the Thief.

The Thief was believed to come out only on Halloween night, a wraith of darkness. I had believed it was only a legend—a children’s tale to scare the little ones. Until that night. It was said that the Thief stole the visages of people. If it didn’t, it would wither and fade.

Even looking at the fearsome horse and rider, I could tell that the current façade was crumbling fast.

Already, the girl’s skin was flaking off to reveal a pale face

beneath. The Thief knew this. He needed another mask.

The horse turned to face me and began to walk, its rider staring at me with the bulging blue eyes of the little girl.

I started to run, and the horse cantered behind me, bones rattling together and nostrils flaring as its rider moaned out an order. As I turned the corner of the street, I could see my house, but the lights were off. My parents must have decided to dish out the punishment in the morning.

“Hey, Willow,” a voice hailed me from the front lawn of the nearest house. I recognized it as Brandon, a kid from school.

“I didn’t expect to see you out this late.”

I didn’t bother with formalities, briefly stopping to talk.

“No time, Brandon, get inside.” The legend said the Thief couldn’t enter the homes of the ones it was hunting.

Unfortunately, my peer wasn’t one to take orders. “Hey, no need to get all snappy.”

I ignored him and ran. When I next looked back, the girl’s face had been replaced with Brandon’s, his eyes wide and his mouth in the large O-shape of a silent scream.

The horse was gaining ground too quickly. Throwing caution to the wind, I darted into the grass of the nearest yard.

Entering the house would do me no good, the Thief could follow me as long as it wasn’t my own home, but I drug a fake cauldron full of plastic bones to the edge of the road and kicked it over. The timing was perfect. The bones slipped up the skeletal horse, sending it to the ground with its rider. My house was close now, and I ran faster.

With a screech, the Thief untangled itself from its fallen steed and was gliding after me. The fall had cracked Brandon’s face, and it was disintegrating faster than normal.

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Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 11 Continued from previous page

My feet hit the bottom of my driveway. Then the walkway to my door. Then my porch steps. As silently as I could, I yanked open the glass front door and shut it behind me, hoping my parents wouldn’t wake up. Locking the door, I peered out into the blackness, half hoping that I wouldn’t ever see the Thief again, half fearing that if I didn’t I would never know what happened to it. When it finally glided up to my porch steps, I sucked in a long breath. It couldn’t go any farther. This was my house, and it wasn’t welcome.

The Thief mounted the first step, then the second. Slowly, it made a movement towards the third and final stair. I couldn’t believe it. It was going to enter.

Then, almost as if barred by an invisible force, the wraithlike creature stopped mid-step. Its bones seemed to rattle and as I watched, Brandon’s face began to crumble away. The Thief groaned and scrabbled at the façade, redoubling its vain efforts to reach me. Huge chunks of skin shattered on the porch like porcelain, then shriveled into dust and blew away with the wind.

Underneath his usual mask of human flesh, the Thief’s face was white and wrinkled, like the skin of a long-dead old man.

Its eyes were a honeyed gold color with a red ring circling his pupil, his nostrils were slits like a reptile, and his mouth was stretched into a pale, tight line that failed to conceal pointed white teeth stained with vermilion. It was perhaps more terrifying than his other faces.

The Thief lunged forward as if to reach me, but fell short and the wind began to turn it to ash. A few houses down, the skeletal horse screamed out a terrified whinny, collapsing into a gepile of bones. Out of the mouth of the Thief came an inhuman shriek of defiance, and out of its eyes rushed several wispy shapes—faces of that night’s victims, returning to the land of the living just as they were before the fall of night. Among them, a young blue-eyed girl who was about five years old, running over to her mother and Brandon, looking around and wondering how he had gotten there.

The last I saw of the Thief, it was glaring up at me in hatred with its eyes, teeth bared, before it too crumbled and was whipped away by the wind. I stood for a few moments, then pressed my hand to my brow and sank to the floor. It was real.

It had all been real.

My breathing finally slowed, and I just sat in the darkness of my home, watching a few people meander down the street.

The night was over, and the Thief was gone. His legend would always circulate as a children’s tale, but I knew the truth. I had seen it. And one thing was for sure—I would never stay out past 9:30 again, parents or no.

The Colors Swirled

By Carly Pate The colors swirled, an array of blues purples and grays.

At that moment I regretted ever picking up the jade mask, but it was so beautiful, everyone said it was cursed.

I didn’t believe them, I didn’t listen.

Only at that moment did it speak to me, in a voice so commanding I almost forgot about the colorful tornado.

It demanded me to take it to the deepest point in the town; all I knew was the dark well.

When I asked where we were going he simply said “hell.”

I then proceeded to attempt dropping him in the well, but I couldn’t. It seemed as if there was a force. He told me to jump in with him, I did.

The bottom was so dark, but falling was the worst. I felt the presence of the dead, or undead; the unsettled souls, which would never rest.

They seemed to feel pity for me, like they knew something. They knew I was doomed, condemned to be one of them.

Dying was a lot of things, pain was the most relevant.

I understood then why they pitied me, the poor little girl certain to die.

A painful, sad death, now I am of the “workers” a group of people who do his bidding. We have to take forms and bring him people.

We take the forms of items attractive to the living.

Valuable looking. And that’s why I have to kill you, you see? It’s not my fault; it’s the master. I am now the damned, my soul belonging to the underworld. And you are next, a sacrifice, because you thought about it. I came to you because you thought about it, you were scared. You are scared. I’m sorry, this will hurt, but you could have saved yourself.

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Page 12- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010

The Bride

By Abby Bailey It all started on a late evening whenever two friends were driving home from a party they had enjoyed. They were neighbors and lived in the country, their names were Rachel and Mark.

They were driving down a dirt road back through the country. The only things that were around the little town were some houses, and a barn that was badly burned and abandoned about 10 years ago.

Up ahead they saw this lady in what looked like a white wedding dress. The lady looked to be about in her mid twenties who looked very pale. The driver was a kind guy so he pulled over to see if the lady needed a ride.

When the guy stopped at the side of the road Rachel was kind of nervous who was sitting in the car with him. She didn’t think it was a very good idea since it was late at night and they were alone. He did not listen to her though and rolled down the window.

He asked her, “Are you lost? Do you need a ride?”

The young lady in the white dress didn’t say a word, all she did was shake her head up and down to indicate a yes. The lady opened the back door and got in.

Mark asked the lady “Where do you need me to take you?”

The young lady just simply lifted a finger and pointed up to the old barn up the street that was abandoned.

Continued on Page 14

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Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 13

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Page 14- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010 Continued from Page 12 Mark drove up the road while Rachel seemed very nervous and uneasy.

When they stopped in front of the barn the young lady got out of the car and left without saying a word. They watched as the lady walked into the bar and didn’t come back out or say a word at all.

The two friends were very wigged out and drove away quickly and quietly with their thoughts.

The two of them did not say a word to anybody because they didn’t want to get in trouble for picking up a stranger that late at night.

Rachel had done some research on the abandoned barn. She ended up finding out that there was a bad fire there about 10 years ago right before a wedding had started. The wedding was a huge wedding with hundreds of people there to watch two people get married and start their happily ever after. The bride for some strange reason had always wanted to get married in a barn.

About 10 minutes before the wedding a candle was bumped over and started burning the section where the bride was in a room by herself before it was time to go get ready to go down the aisle.

Everybody escaped the barn except for the bride.

Rachel had a funny feeling after she read this that the bride that never escaped was the lady who they had picked up the night before.

It was a very slim chance but she had a funny feeling that she was right. She ran straight to Mark and told her what she had found out! The boy didn’t believe her so they got online to check but something popped up on the screen when they typed in the

abandoned barn.

It was a story saying that the bride had never got her happily ever after so every night she goes to the barn in her wedding dress and waits for her groom.

Mark didn’t believe this was true, but Rachel was getting very nervous and thought that maybe they should tell someone about all of this. Mark figured it was just a very scary story that somebody had made up.

Rachel didn’t really want to go back but she would leave Mark alone like that so the two kids both decided that they were going to see if the lady was there that night or if it was just a coincidence the other night.

The two kids left at about 9 o’clock to see if they would find this mysterious lady again. Turns out they found her again at the side of the road.

Both of them looked at each other in total shock. Rachel was now very scared to ask her if she wanted a ride but Mark was convinced that it was just a coincidence that she was back again.

So he pulled over to the side of the road and asked the lady “Do you need a ride somewhere?”

Once again the lady nodded saying nothing. She got into the back of the car very quietly and never said a single word.

Nobody in the car made a sound at all until Mark’s curiosity got the better of him.

He couldn’t help it any longer.

He turned around and asked the lady, “Are you the lady that died here at her own wedding about 10 years ago?” The lady turned her head to look out the window toward the abandoned, burned barn.

Then very quickly the lady looked at them both and shouted “YESSSSSS!”

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Trick-or-Treat!

By Madeline Todd It is 5:45 p.m. and I know this because I can see the clock on the wall. The big event is right around the corner. Homework has to be done by dinner which is at six o'clock. Every night it is the same routine.

But tonight it's different. Tonight, dinner might consist of spaghetti covered with blood sauce, and meatballs that resemble eyeballs.

Tonight is Halloween night.

I've been waiting for this night for years. However, I haven't been old enough to go out on my own. But finally, after five years, the moment has arrived. I grabbed my sack, which is filled with treasures, and threw it over my shoulder to my back and agilely raced down the steps.

But my legs are slowing me down with all this hair. Black long scary hair. Enough to frighten any trick-or-treater. I go downstairs and eat a quick dinner. It’s been waiting for me and looks like it's been dead for a week.

The doorbell rings!

It's here!

It is time for me to scoot out the door while others are picking from the candy basket. There is no time to say goodbye ... just time enough for me to run by without being noticed. I yell back, "I'll be back soon and don't worry!" I know no one will mess with me tonight.

Everyone else is dressed in costumes. And some of them look just like me! Four sets of legs and 8 beady eyes. I was a sight! My mission was to get to the cemetery, drop off my sack and then make it home by 10 p.m.

I knew I could do it but I didn't realize how far it would be.

From my window at the house, the cemetery looks so close. But once I begin my journey I am realizing that I am underestimating the distance. I was starting to doubt I would make it.

As I am running, the sack on my back starts to get heavier. I need to catch a ride with someone, because at this pace I will never get back to my house. Kids start to pass me. I just can’t keep up.

Some of them are so excited about trick-or-treating that they are running, jumping and just basically creating havoc in the

Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 15 streets. Everyone, even parents come out for this event. With all the commotion I am almost stepped on!

I jump on a bike that is sitting against a fence, and at the right time, I take off. Of course it is a borrowed ride. I don’t think anyone will notice me, especially with all the excitement in the neighborhood.

There are only a few more yards to go till I reach my destination.

My plan is to jump off the bike, go past the iron entrance gate, find the cedar tree I had spotted from my window and then drop my sack. The brakes are being applied on the bike just long enough for me to get off without falling. My legs are in motion before I know it, running past the creaky gate. I enter the cemetery, which is not lit up.

Thank goodness my vision improves at night! I decide to slow down as I saw some sort of light beam come from behind a tombstone.

The light is glaring right into my eyes. It is only for a second that I heard a child’s voice say “I found a big one!” He couldn't possibly be referring to me. I was on a mission and couldn't be stopped.

I tuck myself behind a bench and wait in a place where the child can’t find me. I sit quietly for a few minutes, which gives me a chance to catch my breath. I then move on when I think that the coast is clear, inching my way to the cedar tree, that I can now see in front of me.

Once I arrive, I sling the sack onto the ground and into the grass. Very quietly and gently I open the sack and take out 100 eggs. I bid all of the eggs goodbye and turn just in time to see a big, black, mean looking cat.

Even though I feel big tonight, this cat looks even bigger than me! How am I going to get past him without him attacking me?

The cat spots me, but before he can pounce, I jump onto the tombstone where I now tower over him. The more I look at the cat, the more frightened I become.

I look down on him and know that this may be my only opportunity to get away. I scurry around the corner to a nearby tree stump. My legs are growing weaker by the minute; however I manage to reach the top.

Hopefully, my babies will hatch. I know that my time has come and I will not be around to see them. A wolf howls in the distance and the moon is full, my eyelids become very heavy as I fall into a deep sleep.

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Page 16- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010

The Fright Dome

By Jenn Meyer Do you believe in ghosts? When you think of Halloween, “ghost” is usually the first word that pops into most people’s minds. Ghosts could be defined as toddlers running around with white bed sheets on top of them, trying to scare everyone they meet. That was how I thought of ghosts until last night, Halloween night, when my perception of ghosts changed forever.

It was nine o’clock on Halloween night and my friend Annabelle and I were driving up to a well-known haunted house in our town called the Fright Dome. We had decided the night before that we were too old to go trick-or-treating, being seventh graders and all. We had heard that most people our age went the Fright Dome because it was one of the scariest haunted houses in Connecticut. A couple of years ago at the Fright Dome, a story went around that a girl was being chased by a guy with a chain saw and he got too close to her and her stomach was cut in half. Her name was Mary Jane, and she was only 11 years old. I’m not the type of person that gets all freaked out about those types of stories, so I didn’t let that get to me. Annabelle was shaking with fear next to me when we arrived in the parking lot of the Fright Dome.

“Catherine, do you think there will be real ghosts here? Like they say at school?” she asked. I looked at her like she had just decided to jump off a building eighty stories high. “Of course not, ghosts aren’t real!”

The Fright Dome was in the middle of a large corn field, so Annabelle and I had to walk a ways to get there. There were tons of people in masks and Halloween costumes. The line to the Fright Dome was very long, and the sign that said how many hours you had to wait said three hours and forty-five minutes. I looked around, but something caught Annabelle’s eye.

“What do you see?” I said. I looked the way she was looking but I only saw more crowds of people waiting in line.

“Look, over there!” She pointed towards a little house that looked like a smaller version of the Fright Dome. It looked like they had opened another smaller haunted house because the Fright Dome was getting too crowded. “Let’s go!” I said enthusiastically because we would be the first ones in line.

The odd-looking house was tucked back in the deep part of the corn field, so we had a long ways to walk.

When we arrived, there was no one there except skeletons and skulls hanging on the windows. The little house was completely surrounded by the corn field except the little entrance which was how we came in. Black shutters were outlining the windows and the main door was covered in cobwebs. On the main door, a little sign said “Come in if you dare to be scared.” A flash of lightning covered the dark sky.

“We should probably go inside before it starts to rain so we don’t get wet,” said Annabelle. We walked up the squeaky stairs up towards the door. I slowly opened the door, just to make sure no fake bats would come flying out trying to scare us. This is odd, I thought. The only thing we saw was a couple of couches, a table, and a few chairs. A faint light came from a small black candle that was on the table. There were stairs leading to the top floor. Before I could speak, the door leading to the outside slammed shut. “Ahhhh!” screamed Annabelle.

The wind that had slammed the door shut from outside had blown out the candle, so now it was pitch black. Annabelle

and I grabbed onto each other, shaking with fear.

“Look at that!” whispered Annabelle.

There was a small red light flickering on the top floor that we saw from the bottom of the stairs. We slowly but silently walked up the stairs into the tiny room that had the flickering light. The room was surrounded completely by mirrors.

Annabelle and I stood in the middle of the room looking for where the light was coming from because maybe someone was here that could help us get out of this mess. All of a sudden the light shut off and the heavy sound of breathing was coming behind us.

“BAAAAAAAAA!” screamed Annabelle.

I turned around and standing there was a blurry person holding a chainsaw. A red liquid was dripping down the chainsaw. The ghost type person was dressed in all white, and he was floating in mid-air. Beside the ghost was a little girl, clutching her stomach. I tried not to look at the girl because it was a gruesome sight. I sprinted towards the door and started shaking the handle violently, but it was definitely locked.

Annabelle, on the other hand, had other ideas. She had grabbed the white cloth off the ghost and shouted “Run Catherine!!!” The door had opened leading out towards the staircase.

“NOOO!” the ghost screamed. He tried to float towards the door but we were out before he got close enough to close it.

Annabelle and I ran so fast down the stairs that it felt like we were skating on ice. We ran our fastest until we reached the area where people were waiting to go into the Fright Dome.

I looked at the waiting clock and it said three hours and twenty-five minutes. I looked at Annabelle and said, “Next year I think we should just stick to trick-or-treating.”

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The Chance for Redemption

By Miles Wright Based on the Saw Franchise No copyright infringement intended. LionsGate Films holds the title to the names “Jigsaw” and “Billy.” This story is entirely fictional. Any and all names and likenesses are pure fiction and do not depict any real person or event. Some elements are similar or same in description as those in the Saw films. The author does not take full credit for the story's entire creation.

Darkness. The first thing Alan sees won't help him determine where he is. It is cold, and he is sitting in a chair. This is all Alan knows about where he's at. His head is throbbing as his eyes adjust to the darkness. It isn't entirely dark he realizes. There is horizontal glow of light coming from the bottom of what he assumes to be a closed door. Alan goes to stand up only to realize that he has pulled a rigged wire and triggered the overhead lights to come on.

There is someone on the other side of the cellar behind a wire fence. A man about his age. His name is Roger. He was Alan's coworker whom he had worked with twelve years ago. Alan has hated Roger since it was discovered that he was a serial killer who has killed many people; Alan's sister was one of his victims.

Due to a minor technicality, Roger only received a twelve-year sentence from the jury. He is now lying on a metal table with his arms and legs bound to its surface. An inactive buzz saw lies between his legs at his feet. A long even crack runs up and down the table for the buzz saw to follow, to cut Roger in half as it goes along. There is nothing on Alan. No contraption, no anything, as far as he knows. He is simply alone on his side of the fence with just a metal box jutting out on his side with a big enough opening for his hand to go through. A blank timer hangs above the doorway with a T.V. hanging with it.

“It's Jigsaw,” Alan mumbles to himself. Alan had read in the paper about him. He's a serial killer just like Roger, although he's never really killed anyone, he lets his victims do it themselves.

He puts people whom he doesn't think appreciate their lives into situations and tells them how to get out, but the consequences are brutal. Getting out of the “trap” usually results in the mutilation of one's own body to happen within a predetermined amount of time otherwise they die from several causes. If a victim dies, Jigsaw will return to their body and cut a piece of flesh out in the shape of a puzzle piece to represent the missing piece to their lives. This is how he got his nickname. Sometimes several people are involved at one time. Jigsaw is true to his word though. Even though he never tells his victims the rules of the game personally, he leaves tape-recorders or videos with a talking ventriloquist doll named Billy with black hair, a white face, and red swirls on his cheeks who tells you how to get out.

Alan cusses to aloud.

“Hhuh! Who's there?!” shouts Roger from across the room.

“Where am I? What is this?”

“No! Don't move,” Alan shouts.

Roger freezes, petrified with terror. “Who are you? WHY'D YOU PUT ME IN HERE?!”

“I didn't put you in here,” Alan says.

“Alan? Is that you? Where are we? Why the hell did you put

Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 17 me here?”

Alan yells “I TOLD YOU, I DIDN'T PUT YOU IN HERE YOU MURDERER!” “Then who the hell. . . it was Jigsaw wasn't it. What, so now you're working with him, huh?” says Roger frantically. “You've got guts to call me a murderer in what. . . your third sentence you've spoken to me in twelve years. We were best friends!”

“Yeah, until you murdered my sister. But yes, that's exactly who put us in here. But I'm not working with him and nor am I a murderer.”

“Well why the hell are we in here?” Asks Roger.

“I don't know but lets find out. Move your head forward.”

Roger does so, pulling a wire loosely stuck to the back of his head and just as Alan had turned on the lights, the wire Roger moved turned the T.V. screen on with crackling static.

Just as Alan had suspected, Billy the doll came rolling into view on a little red tricycle while laughing a sinister laugh that cackles like those Halloween motion-censored ghouls that are hung on doors. But given their position, the laugh seemed much more creepy. His deep, hoarse voice echoed in the room as he told the two men the rules to their game.

“Hello Alan, by now you've probably realized the identity of the man lying before you. This is Roger, the man who has killed countless times. One of the victims was your sister, as you know.

You have wasted the last twelve years of your life planning to get revenge. Here's your chance. The buzz saw at the end of the table will come into contact with Roger within one minute. It will take only two minutes, however, for it to cut through his entire body, killing him in the process. Now is your chance to let your sister's murderer feel your pain and the pain of the families he has torn apart. Will you spare the life of the man who killed your sister? To save him, however, you must put one of your hands in the box before you and hold a button at the back for ten seconds continuously while a piston will continue to pound your hand crushing the bones inside. Once it stops, so will the saw, and the shackles on Roger shall be released. In two minutes the door shall unlock. Will you become what he is, a murderer, and let him have what he deserves? The choice is yours. Live or die, make your choice.”

And with that, the T.V. Turned off, the buzz saw began to spin, and the timer above the doorway blinked to show 2:00. Roger began to scream as the buzz saw inched its way toward his body.

Alan was pleased to find that his sister's murderer was now fearing for his life. He enjoyed watching Roger scream in agony with the thought of being cut in half.

“Don't just stand there and smile, get me out of here! Redeem your life that you have wasted and we can put this behind us.

This is your chance for redemption!” screamed Roger.

Alan stood there, scared ... afraid. Roger was right, Alan had to get him out. He wrote with his right hand, but even the thought of having the bones in his left hand being crushed to dust was indeed bone-chilling. Roger continued to scream. The clock said 1:30, and the saw was at the bottom of his knees.

Roger screamed: “ALAN! GET ME OUT OF THIS NOW!” Alan looked at Roger's face, and pure hatred and malice was upon it. This was the face Alan had dreamed his sister had seen before she took her last breath. 'Besides, shouldn't the murder have gotten what he deserves, death? Yes, and that's what he'll get.'

The clock now showed there was less than five seconds for the buzz saw to make contact with Roger's body. 1:00. The buzz saw made contact, and Roger screamed the loudest Alan had ever heard someone scream.

Continued on Page 0

Page 18- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010

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Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 19

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Page 20- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010 Continued from Page 17 A few seconds later, the saw was cutting through Roger's pelvis. Roger hadn't stopped screaming. Alan started to cry. The timer now showed 0:39. Alan looked in the little box and saw the red button Billy had told him about. Alan slowly put his hand in the box and felt the button. He pushed it. The piston started pounding down on his hand rapidly, causing Alan to feel extreme pain and nausea. He pulled his hand out, and vomited. His hand was limp and he could barely move his fingers.

He couldn't do it again. The pain was too much. A loud crack echoed as the buzz saw made it's way through the pelvis.

Roger gave one last scream before the saw cut into his spinal cord silencing him forever. The clock continued its countdown.

At 0:00, the buzz saw had cut through Roger's body and the door made a thud as it unlocked and swung open to lead to a small stairway and the back alleyway of the abandoned building. Alan walked out and up the stairs into the alley. He walked onto the streets of Boston, Massachusetts, now as a murderer.

The House on the Hill

By Michael Tornaritis It was a dark and chilly Halloween night. The stars twinkled and lit up the moonless night sky. The time was nearing midnight, and all of the kids in the neighborhood were beginning to put on their costumes and sneak out of their houses with a pillow case in hand.

Although trick-or-treating was over hours ago, there was still one more house to hit, and all the kids knew that the jackpot was to be found at Mr. Janson's mansion.

Mr. Janson was a very rich and generous man, and he would give all of the trick-or treaters as much candy as they could carry with them. Unfortunately, he worked until it was very late, so he was unable to give away candy until it was way past the childrens' bedtimes.

All of the boys' and girls' parents would never let them be up that late, so they knew they had to sneak out of their house in order to receive a huge pile of delicious, sugary treats. Mr. Janson's mansion was on the top of a large hill that was in the very back of their neighborhood. It was a long walk to get to his mansion, especially for the kids who live in the very front of the neighborhood.

Everyone tried to make it up the hill, but only the oldest kids could. The younger ones either got too tired or became terrified by all of the strange noises they heard, so they headed home.

As the oldest kids arrived at the top of the hill, they saw that Mr. Janson's mansion was no longer there, and instead there was a small, beat-up house, which looked as if it were 100 years old.

One of the trick-or-treaters, absolutely determined to get some candy, went up to the house and rang the doorbell. A few moments later, an old, wrinkly, hunched over woman opened the door.

“What do you kids want?“ screamed the old woman in a nasty tone. “Trick-or-treat,” replied the kids in unison. “Oh, trick-or-treaters,” replied the woman, “I have the perfect treat for you!”

The old woman went back into her house and brought back a bowl of strange looking, multicolored hard candy.

“Try this kiddies, and you will not regret it. They are the most delicious thing you will ever taste,” said the woman, chuckling.

The trick-or-treaters each popped one of the strange candies into their mouths.

“These are incredible,” the trick-or-treaters replied in excitement, “but where is Mr. Janson?”

“He disappeared .... It was very unfortunate indeed, but enough chatting, come into my house and climb into my pot!” exclaimed the woman.

All of the kids followed her order, as the candy placed them all under a spell which allowed the evil woman to control the poor children. One by one all of the unfortunate trick-or-treaters climbed into her boiling pot of stew and began cooking slowly to perfection.

The evil woman let out an evil laugh as she prepared for her meal.

Suddenly, all of the kids in her “boiling pot of stew” broke free from the spell and climbed out of the pot and sprinted out of her house.

The old woman let out an angry cry when she noticed the trick-or-treaters had escaped her.

“I'll get you some day!” she screamed.

It might not be any day soon though, because her “boiling pot of stew” was actually a pot filled with chilly bathwater.

The Secret Closet

By Ashley Krekovich “Ian, watch out!” screamed Sarah. Ian ducked just as the evil witch was about to knock him over with her broom. “Let’s get out of here!” yelled Sarah. “I’m right with you,” said Ian. Ian and Sarah started running through the haunted pumpkin patch while all the evil creatures from the underworld followed. As Ian and Sarah reached the end of the pumpkin patch, they saw a door, the door that they had come from inside their house.

They both quickly pulled the door open and ran inside. They slammed the door shut and looked at each other and said, “We are never going to open that door again!”

The next day, the day after Halloween, the two young children were very inquisitive about what had happened the night before.

“How did we get there?” asked Sarah to Ian. “I’m not sure, but something must have happened, maybe the door leads to a secret world or something,” said Ian. “But it doesn’t make sense,” said Sarah. “What do you mean?” asked Ian. “Well, you and I have opened that door plenty of times before and nothing has ever happened,” said Sarah. Both kids pondered this question, thinking how could this be possible. “Wait, I think I got it,” said Ian. “What?” said Sarah. “Last night when we opened the door it was Halloween,” said Ian. “Ya, so what, it was Halloween?” said Sarah. “Well, the evil creatures or whatever you want to call them must come out on every Halloween and that’s when the door leads to that pumpkin patch,” said Ian. “That’s really weird,” said Sarah.

Continued on following page

Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 1 Continued from previous page A year went by and the children had almost forgotten about the whole incident until the night of October 31, Halloween. The children had thrown a Halloween party for the people in their class. Everything was going great until this one boy, Tony, said, “Let’s go play hide-n-seek. Ian and Sarah thought this was a good idea at first, but when they were about to hide, they heard yelling coming from upstairs. “The closet!” Sarah and Ian both said. They both hurried up the stairs to find Tony standing right in front of the open closet door with a bunch of kids around him.

“What is this?” said Tony. Ian explained everything that happened to Sarah and him a year ago, and what he thought had happened. “That’s cool,” said Tony, “Let’s go in.” “NO!” yelled both Ian and Sarah at the same time, but it was already too late.

The poor unfortuanate souls that followed Tony were doomed.

Ian and Sarah didn’t go in after them because they were scared for their own lives and didn’t want to jeopardize anything.

Good thing it was only a dream ……….

The It...

By Allie Huene It lived in the woods outside a small village long, long ago.

The thousand year old folktales and rumors had nearly been forgotten and many village folk, even when the old medicine woman on the outside of town began ranting again, simply ignored her.

“Its time is comin’,” she’d repeat to all who came near. “The 70 years is nearly up, in the fall by the full moon, its comin’ back for its feed.”

No one in the village really believed the tales many had heard as young children from there grandparents. The stories told of a masked beast that comes to replenish itself every 70 years or so, but no one new what it was or why.

Many ignored the tales to continue their average peaceful lives, not to let a probably fictional old folktale scare them into uprooting there lives. They continued on with their happy simple lives until that year's harvest season came around and they began to gather the yearly crop and prepare for winter. The old medicine lady had began to grow increasingly agitated about people ignoring her warnings and had secluded herself in her little house in the outskirts.

One cold, cold night in the middle of November, many villagers awoke to loud shreeks coming from the woods, and when one family went to check on their new baby girl, they realized she was gone from her crib. The next day they informed the whole village and searched all through the days and nights but she had disappeared completely, this same process continued for another few families as well.

The next week, a large beautiful woman was spotted in the woods outside the village, the man who had spotted her was hunting for deer to dry meat for winter. He reported this woman looking nearly god-like, glowing and walking as if her feet barely skimmed the ground. Of course no one believed this sighting and the disappearances were related. When the old medicine woman heard of this sighting she warned the village once again.

“Find it and kill it. Tear it up and burn the peaces, throw the ashes in a river and let them drift away never to return and curse this village”

The old woman said the creature searches for young children and babies she can suck the life out of to restore her young and beautiful appearance.

“The creature is not humanly,” she would say. “If you saw its true appearance you would know for sure.”

The villagers, stricken with fear, started to head these warnings. The fathers that went hunting began to keep a lookout for the mesmerizing creature, and kept their children under tight wraps.

One night a young daughter of the village miller was disturbed in her sleep and began shrieking, the father ran into the room just in time to find the young girl's blood and eyes being sucked out by the young woman he had seen hunting. But she now had a long pointy tongue and lizard-like eyes, his entering didn’t even disturb its feast. The father was sickened by watching his daughter's life being sucked away, but he knew this beast must be killed now. He grabbed his sword and chopped the beast's head right off its shoulders. And the next day took it to the medicine woman.

“Ahh yes,” she said examining it. “Job well done, this beast will no longer be disturbing this village.”

The Old Barn

By Kristen Francis Whack! The giant barn door slammed shut behind me by itself. I had no idea what I was doing here. Well, that is not exactly true.

I knew what I was doing here, but why I had made the incredibly stupid decision to actually come I did not know.

I was now locked into Mr. Henderson’s old barn. As if it was not creepy enough that the door shut on its own, a mouse then ran across the dusty floor in front of me. To top it all off, it was October 31st.

It had been the same old, routine week that my family and I had every week; School, soccer practice, work and everything else.

This morning I woke up, ate breakfast, went to the grocery store with my mom and little sister, then came home and lay around the house. Before dinner my mom said, “Casey, could you ride your bike over to Mrs. Keller’s house and pick up that frying pan I loaned her last week?”

“Sure,” I replied. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Can I go too Mommy?” my little sister Hannah asked.

“You can go if you promise to be a good girl and not to give your sister any trouble.”

“I promise, let’s go Sissy!”

“Aw, Mom! Do I have to take her?” I complained.

“Just do it before it gets dark.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Sissy look at that bunny!” Hannah yelled with excitement as we rode our bikes down the country road, weaving through miles of corn fields. The sun would set in less than an hour, and nothing is more annoying than having to drag your 6-year-old sister back home after dark. So I really did not want to do that.

Mrs. Keller’s house was on the other side of Bakers Hill, about 4 miles up the road.

“I see it,” I said, trying not to yell at her just because that was the eighth bunny she had pointed out.

“You could be happy about it.” She said.

Continued on following page

Page 22- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010 Continued from previous page I rolled my eyes and sighed but otherwise ignore her. Once we got to the house, I told Mrs. Keller what my mom had said, then she gave me the frying pan and said to tell mom “thanks.”

It would be dark in less than twenty minutes now, and it took me at least twenty-five to get home, when I was not burdened with a 6-year-old that insisted on stopping to look at something every two seconds.

It had gotten completely dark now, so it was even harder to get Hannah to focus on getting home soon. Then, it happened; she saw a stray dog (of course). We had less than a mile to go when she jumped off her bike and took off running at full speed after the dog, which was now sprinting in the opposite direction of home.

“Hannah!” I yelled. She just kept on running after that stupid dog. “Hannah!” I yelled again, still she did not stop.

As I chased after her, she disappeared around the side of Mr. Henderson’s old barn.

To call that building a death-trap would be an understatement.

The last time anyone went into it, they were found the next day trapped under a wooden beam with a broken leg, broken arm and a concussion.

“Ahhh! SISSY HELP!” I heard Hannah scream at the top of her little lungs. Her voice was coming from inside the barn.

What on earth had she done?

After the million times I told her not to go into the barn, she chose tonight, after dark on the thirty-first of October, to go into the barn.

I immediately ran into the barn – what a stupid choice – to save my little sister. If we survived this, I was so going to kill her when we got home.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized where I was.

Half a second later, the barn door slammed shut, and the mouse ran across the floor.

“Hannah?” I called uncertainly as I took a step forward; the old floorboard creaking as I did. “Hannah, come on this isn’t funny.” I said taking another step. Just as I spoke I heard a crashing sound in the corner that shook the barn with the force of a hurricane. “Hannah, I’m not joking!” Still no reply.

So I was pretty sure that there were three possibilities for what was gong to happen in the next few minutes. First, I would find my sister hiding in a corner, we would break out of the barn, grab our bikes, and ride home as fast as we could.

I liked that option.

Second, some crazy monster like the ones from ScoobyDoo would pop out from around a corner with a chain-saw, hack me to death, and then eat my insides. I did not like that option at all.

Third, the barn would collapse on me and my sister – if she was even in here – killing us. If it was a quick death, that would not be nearly as bad, but if it took a while, that would not be good.

I still liked the first option the best.

I took a few more steps forward, not sure what to do, then I felt someone tap me lightly on the shoulder.

I turned around slowly and looked up with horror into the face of a man – can you believe it – with a chain-saw.

Just then the lights turned on and my entire town jumped out – including Hannah – and shouted “Happy Halloween!”

My parents had planed a party and decided it would be fun to play a trick on me.

Boy did it work.

House of Nightmares

By Bonnie Schuett One Halloween night, a young group of kids was strolling through their neighborhood trick-or-treating. They lived in a small old rundown Illinois town that was close to being deserted.

As they were walking through the neighborhood one of the girls in the group named Jane noticed an old weary house off in the distance. She then suggested that they go and check it out so they sneaked away to see the house.

The house was even scarier up close with a black gate around the yard, paint peeling off the sides, and an overly grown landscape. All of the windows and doors were shut so there was no seeing inside from far away.

The four girls decided that they wanted a closer look so they entered the gate and started to walk up to the house. On the way to the door, Jane tripped on a root that seemed to come out of nowhere and the girls started to question whether they should go back or not.

Letting their curiosity to the best of them, they decided to go on.

On their way up to the porch, the stairs creaked loudly and some of the nails were starting to come out. They reached the door and all four girls stood still hesitantly.

After a long moment of silence one of the girls touched the doorknob and the door flew open and pulled them in before shutting the door forcefully behind them.

They ran to the door and tried to open it but it wouldn’t budge. The girls were trapped.

Inside the house it was dark and dreary, old furniture scattered the house covered in dust and cob webs. Franticly the girls tried to find a way out or a light to turn on so they could see when they all of a sudden heard a loud shriek.

One of the girls had disappeared into the darkness. Now the three remaining girls were starting to go crazy and one of them wandered deeper into the house not knowing what to do. The other one ran after her, leaving Jane all alone in the entryway.

All she could hear was the wind rustling the leaves outside and then a loud crash that rattled the house. She ran in the direction that her friends had gone which led her into a kitchen where she found her friends. They were on the floor stabbed to death.

Horrified, she tried to flee but then froze in her spot when she saw a face across the room staring at her. The face was pale and sallow with bright yellow eyes staring into hers. She blinked and the face was then only a foot away from hers. She screamed and the figure grabbed her and she closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes she saw a bright light thinking it was all over but then focused in more seeing that she was actually in a hospital lying on a bed.

Then her three friends walked into the room and she found out that she had tripped and gone unconscious. She was so relieved to know that she had dreamed the whole thing.

When she left the room to check out she noticed a man sitting in the waiting room reading a newspaper.

All of a sudden the man dropped the newspaper and Jane could see the man’s face, pale skinned with bright yellow eyes.

Scary Stories - October 30, 010 - Page 3

Page 24- Scary Stories - October 30, 2010

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