Please enjoy the entries we received for our Chilling Tales Contest (January 2023)! The challenge was open to teens (grades 6-12), who had to write a horrifying tale in just TWO sentences. Which one is your favorite?
Example: I awoke to a susurration emanating from the closet, ghastly whispers behind the mirrored doors. Cautiously, I sat up in my bed, covers pulled up close to my chest, focusing my limited vision on my blurry image, which then burst into shards as something exploded from within.
#1: I opened the fridge. It was empty.
#2: Around 2:00 a.m. Bailey awoke to loud noises, BOOM BOOM, and after several failed attempts to wake her sleeping husband, she decided to go follow the sounds for herself. As she went outside, she saw a black figure standing not far off, BOOM BOOM, everything went black, and a whisper in the air, “I’m sorry.”
#3: It wasn’t the way the night seemed darker than death, or the blood-red moon that woke her. It was the chilling scream, the kind that froze her blood and wrapped around her heart, the kind that sucked all breath and life out of her, the kind she had hoped never to hear again.
#4: She was walking to her room when she heard a creepy noise. A vampire-mummy-zombie exploded out of her closet, then she screamed and ran for her life.
#5: As Ron was walking down the hall, he heard a raspy voice say his name, “RON.” Then he felt a cold and furry hand touch his shoulder, and that was the last time he was seen.
#6: I found a note on my bed after I took a shower that my singing was pretty. I live alone.
#7: Creak – I hear something walking across the hallway up the stairs to my bedroom, and I know it’s not one of my family members because they never get up at night. I pull my covers up to my noise, then all of a sudden I hear my doorknob start to turn open, but when I start pulling my covers down I hear a loud slam and a scream coming from my littlest sister’s room.
#8: Michael heard a rattling noise from the oven, so he cautiously opened the door a crack. Instead of four peaceful Russet baked potatoes, he saw angry potato monsters, ready to spring from their baking pan – onto his face.
#9: My hotel room was dark and quiet, as if an eerie presence had planted itself there and would not go away. As I entered the room and stared into the mirror reflecting my image, I noticed something that did not belong; a dark figure standing behind me, smiling maliciously, as if waiting for me to yell, only for me to realize that it was not really happening, just a reflection in the mirror.
