Wow.Toronto Community News asked its younger readers to write spooky Halloween stories and write they did.
More than 200 stories came in through e-mail, fax and regular mail as students in grades 2 to 7 wrote about werewolves, haunted houses, possessed people and other freaky things. The stories were scary, not gory, and offered a look into the creative talents of our readers, many of whom convinced their entire class to write in.
And judges were impressed.
It was hard to pick just one winner for each of the three categories, Grade 2 and 3, 4 and 5 and 6 and 7, but pick we did.
The following are the winning entries into the Halloween contest. Each student won $50 worth of art supplies. Visit www.insidetoronto.com for more stories.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
Grade 2 and 3 winner
Grandma's Hand
It was Halloween night. Two girls named Rosey and Kate, they went to a house. They knocked on the door and the door opened by itself and they went inside the house.
They saw a red blood stain. It said 'you will be my next treat.'
They didn't really care they were busy collecting candies. While they were walking, they heard something behind them. It was a grandma. She was floating in the air and then she asked "would you like to be my next treat?"
Then the grandma was chasing the girls. She got one of the girl's hands then her sister Kate pulled her hand then the grandma's hand came off from her body and fell on the ground.
The girls started to run. And then they noticed that the hand was following them. Then the girls locked the door.
In the morning, they saw the hand covered with blood and that day the grandma was never seen again.
Malisha Satharasinghe, 8, Grade 3
East York
Grade 4 and 5 winner
A Dark Muskoka Night
One night my friend and I went camping with my family. It was starting to get late when we arrived, so we pitched our tents quickly. My friend and I planned on sharing a pup-tent. Once it was up, we all went to bed.
By the middle of the night a storm started. Thunder growled and fat raindrops started to fall on our tent. I lay awake listening. A little while later the rain suddenly stopped. I went outside to see the clouds spreading away and a full moon in the sky. In the distance I could hear wolves howling.
I went back into my tent and fell into a deep sleep, until a scratching noise began next to my ear. I was so startled I jumped. I went outside to what could have made the strange noise. To my annoyance it was the dog belonging to the campers next door.
I took a deep breath and tried to shake the chill of fear. I thought it must be the cold from the wind that made me shiver so I hopped back into my sleeping bag and pulled it tight around me. I tried to go back to sleep but I could not shake the sense of fear. I wanted to wake my friend but I knew he would not listen. He hated being woken up. I thought I would try sleeping with one eye open.
Some time passed when I heard the sound of wolf again. It was an eerie sound and it seemed to get louder and louder. For a second time the scratching noise started up again. I yelled at the dog to stop but the scratching continued. My friend covered his head with his pillow and told me to shut up and go to sleep. Outside the scratching stopped and I heard the neighbours dog whimper and whine. I was so angry I went outside the tent again. This time it was not the neighbour's dog.
Right in front of me was a dark black wolf with deep yellow eyes and bright white fangs. He snarled at me and his fangs dripped with blood. I could see hunger in his eyes. I felt like I was in a trance and when the wolf turned to go, I followed him. he travelled deep into the woods.
It was cold and damp, but I could not stop myself from following deeper into the woods. He led me to a place where large black trees grew. They had no leaves. In this area there was a large figure standing in a red cloak. His face looked like it had been burned in a fire. His eyes were closed and when he opened them they were entirely red. i was so frightened I couldn't move.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
"I have many names," he answered.
"My friend is waiting at camp. I think I should go now."
He put out a small sharp finger, beckoning me forward.
"Oh no, there is no going back now...."
Rowan Leach, 9, Grade 5
East York
Grade 6 and 7 winner
The Girl at the Bus Stop
It happened on Friday the 13th. It always does. This boy, Joe, was walking toward the bus stop, where the No. 9 bus would take him to his guitar lessons. He was walking quickly because a bus had just pulled in, but he was too far away. By the time he got there, it was already moving. Oh, well he thought, I'll just wait for the next one.
Normally, there were quite a few No. 9 buses, but today there were none. Or so it would seem.
Joe waited for about 10 minutes, but his eyelids started to droop. I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes he thought. I'm a light sleeper, so even if I fall asleep, I'll be able to hear the bus coming. So he closed his eyes and soon he had nodded off. After what seemed like half a minute, he heard a loud chewing noise and he opened his eyes. He looked up sleepily and heard the noise that woke him up. He then turned his head toward the source of the noise. What he saw made him jump about a foot into the air.
A girl, Joe guessed her to be around 15, was sitting on the bench beside him. That normally wouldn't scare him, what did, was that she was the strangest looking girl he had ever seen. She had long, messy, midnight black hair with one electric blue streak, down the right side. She wore black tank top, with a black mesh top over it, a black mini skirt, a chain belt around her waist and knee-high black leather boots. She also wore so much black eye makeup that she looked like a raccoon. Her eyes were baby blue and were staring blankly ahead of her.
The scariest part was that wasn't even the creepiest thing about her.
What was was that she was carrying a strange doll on her lap. The doll had stringy dirty blonde hair that was falling out in places and her porcelain skin was chipped and scratched, giving her the appearance that she was over a hundred years old.
The doll also wore a long light brown dress (so long that covered her Mary-Jane shoes), with red flowers on it and had off-white ruffles along the hem, collar and cuffs. The scariest part of the doll, were its eyes. They were black - even where white should have been - and gave the impression that they were following you.
Casually, the girl slid another piece of gum into her mouth and turned to Joe.
"Wanna piece, Joe?" she said noticing that he was staring.
"Hey! How do you know my name?" Joe cried, both shocked and scared.
"Don't freak out!" she said defensively, "I didn't know your name, Rose just told it to me."
"Who's Rose?" Joe asked as he strained his neck to see over her shoulder, looking for another girl.
"Why are you looking over there, silly? Rose is right here." the girl gestured to the doll on her lap.
Joe stared toward the doll, dumbstruck. Great, he thought, crazy girl just had to pick the seat next to me.
"That wasn't very nice." the girl said angrily.
"What! You heard my thoughts?" exclaimed Joe.
"No, Rose did." the girl said impatiently, "Duh." She rolled her eye as though she thought Joe was incredibly dumb. Then she leaned over and whispered into his ear. "Rose hears everything, and if you want to, I'll show you how to listen, too."
Joe didn't want to hear what Rose had to say, but something was tugging at him in his mind. He didn't want learn how to talk to this creepy doll, but his curiosity was going insane. No matter how much he didn't want to, he just had to find out. He felt like his mind was going to explode with all the conflict and confusion. Curiosity won, and he said, "Okay. Show me." Then he hesitated. "But first, what's your name?"
The girl smiled, "I'm Celeste." Then her smile vanished and her face became serious.
"Now close your eyes and clear your thoughts."
Joe did as he was told, but clearing his thoughts was harder than he expected. As soon as he cleared his mind, a strange buzzing noise came into his head. He strained his ears and soon he could make out, hundreds - no thousands - of voices. Sad voices, angry voices and some voices that cried out as though they were in great pain, the voices of men, women, boys and girls. One thing they all had in common was there were no happy voices, only depressed ones.
Suddenly he heard Celeste's voice ringing in his ears, "Do you hear them?" she was saying over and over again.
"Yes." he said with great difficulty, the words were strained, he way having trouble forcing them out.
"Now listen harder."
The he heard it. An insane laughter was raising above all the voices, growing stronger and clearer every second. Soon it had drowned out all of the other voices.
Joe felt like his head was going to bust open. He wanted to scream, but somehow the sound wouldn't come out. He felt sick, yet nothing was wrong with him. Suddenly it stopped, then a voice started to speak. It was a terrible sound, much like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. If he listened hard enough, Joe would have heard the sounds of the original buzzing noise join together in one painful chorus.
"Hello, Joe. I have been waiting to meet you. I am Rose, the doll of the demons, who steals the souls of others and hears and knows all." cried the harsh, cold voice. "I'm sorry, I couldn't get a chance to tell you more, but you spent too much time talking to my human puppet, Celeste."
"What do you mean your puppet?" cried Joe forcing himself to remain conscious.
"She is merely my transportation and my way of luring unknowing souls into my mind. I can only enter this world on Friday the 13th, so I don't have much time to tell you everything before you become part of my collection, but I will tell you one thing." Rose paused and began to laugh insanely again. Joe gasped for breath, the pain was becoming unbearable. The laughter faded away until only a whisper remained. "Once you're in my mind, you can't get out."
"No!" cried Joe, but the sound was only a whisper, "No!" Suddenly, his eyes shot open, a bus had just pulled in. Not bothering to check the number, Joe ran in. Anything to get away from that girl and her doll, he thought. He handed the driver his change and ran toward an empty seat. He sat down patting for air.
"Hello, Joe." said a harsh voice that sounded like nails on a chalk board.
Slowly, he turned his head. Beside him was Celeste, but something was different about her. Her eyes were now completely black - just like Rose's. On her face she wore an evil grin. "You can't get away from me that easily." The voice sounded just like Rose, but it was Celeste mouth that was moving. Oh man, thought Joe, She's possessed! Rose (using Celeste's body) began to laugh again. Terrified Joe slid away from her and fell out of his seat, his head hitting the floor with a dull thud...
Joe woke with a start he was back on the bench at the bus stop.
"It was just a dream." he said relieved. Suddenly he heard a chewing noise beside him. He turned and saw a girl with long messy black hair with one blue streak down the side and baby blue eyes, dressed all in black. She pulled a packet of gum out of her pocket and turned to Joe, smiling and said, "Wanna piece?"
Valerie Cameron, 12, Grade 7
Etobicoke