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| What are you afraid of? |
| Clowns |
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14% |
[ 2 ] |
| Spiders |
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7% |
[ 1 ] |
| The Dark |
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7% |
[ 1 ] |
| Other |
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71% |
[ 10 ] |
| Monsters |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 14 |
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fallenangel_Asha Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:53 pm
In homage to the coming spirits at the end of the month I am opening a contest. You are all challenged to produce a tale commemorating those things which hide in the dark recesses of our minds, emerging when the wind blows cold on October 31st.
The contest is open immediately, it will close at midnight on October 31st. Judging will commence on November 1st, hopefully it will done by then as well – but please allow a day or two for the judges to convene and reach our final decision. As of yet I would like 2 more judges, besides myself. I have 2 in mind, but didn’t want to take the liberty of posting their names without their permission. Please send me a PM if you would like to judge. A post containing the names of all 3 judges will be posted as soon as they are finalized.
1 entry per person
There is no minimum or maximum word count, but use your better judgment. A story that is a paragraph long is probably not going to contain anything spellbinding enough to make you a winner. On the other side of the spectrum, a story that goes on and on and on (unless it is awesome) will probably bore us half to death and make our eyes fall out of our skull. We appreciate your consideration in this matter!
This is a scary story contest. Any story that is spooky, scary, creepy, etc…is welcome. We are looking for stories that keep us up at night or make us check our closets before we turn out the lights… Casper is a good example of a story that does not fit into these parameters. Brain storm with this in mind.
Judging criteria:
The winner will be the individual who manages to accumulate the most points – highest points possible being 100.
Grammar/Readability/Proper use of the English Language: 10 pts
These are easy points, type your story in Word, it will do almost all the correcting for you. If you are still unsure contact someone about proofreading. I’m sure Undesired Desire would be more than happy to proofread your story for you seeing as how she volunteered to Beta Read.
Creativity/Originality: 30 pts
Note: when I say originality I don’t mean that you can’t use already existing characters – but fanfics are not allowed. An example is: writing a horror story about Strawberry Shortcake being chased by zombies is very original and creative in my opinion! Writing a story where Bella Swan is harassed by Vampires or werewolves is NOT! In fact, Vampires are being very overdone right now, you may just want to steer clear.
Fright/Chills/Induced Fear/Crying Judges/Etc…: 40 pts
This is a horror writing contest after all, it makes sense that your scary rating should be worth the most points!
Plot/Story Flow/Character Development/Etc…: 20 pts
This is a writers guild after all, what kind of contest runners would we be if we didn’t require you to produce a valuable piece of literature?
Have fun with this, feel free to send me a PM if you have ANY questions – I want this to be fun for everyone!
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:56 pm
I may change this before the contest ends - so check back!
As of right now I am only go to have a First place winner, and a Second place winner. If people are genuinely interested in the story and I get a lot of entries - I will not only increase the prize money, but I will include a 3rd place and Honorable Mentions (maybe a 4th place as well). So a lot of this is dependent on YOU!
First Place Winner (most points): 5,000 gold
Second Place Winner (2nd most points): 2,000 gold
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fallenangel_Asha Vice Captain
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fallenangel_Asha Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 2:44 pm
All right, the Judges are set!
1) fallenangel_Asha - the contest creator
2) zoje872 - our fearless capitan!
3) blackhawk3475 - a scary story lover!
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 2:48 pm
Alright! Now we just need some entries!
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:10 pm
i'll definitely try to come up with something scary for this contest. give me some time to think of something good.
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:13 pm
Woohoo! I shall write the scariest story ever!
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:15 pm
Lol im glad to see people are so interested. mrgreen
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:15 pm
Go for it guys! I look forward to being terrified!!!
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fallenangel_Asha Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:26 pm
OK, so I dunno if it's very scary or not, but whatever. Here's my entry: ___________________________ Running. The world is a blur. I can barely feel the ground beneath my feet. My arms flail, my hands and wrists smacking into trees, the rough bark scratching them up. My hair, long and brown, whips around my head, getting caught and torn out by the upper branches of the trees. Before me, I can see the grey twilight, a color matching my eyes, where the darker forest ends. Only a few trees to pass now. I tear through thorn bushes at the edge of the forest, hardly noticing the pain as the thorns leave long gashes in my skin, only feeling the blood as it is cooled by the air. I hear a crash as a beast rips its way through the bushes. A new pang of fear shoots through my heart, and I will my legs to go faster. They went numb long ago. My lungs are burning; the only thing I can breathe is the choking fog that hides everything from view. My foot hits something, and the suddenly the ground rises up to meet me. I can’t move. I lay waiting, paralyzed with fear. I can see nothing. Only the grey fog that shifts and swirls around me. I’m lying on a mound of dirt. Twisting my head, I see what I tripped on. A broken headstone. I’m in a cemetery. How fitting. I can hear them, the creatures, and they know it. The panting of their rank breath moves the fog around me, and I am given faint glimpses of their bodies. Horrible. Huge. Hairy. Hungry. They stand in a circle around me, just out of sight. They’re waiting. I still can’t move. My body is wracked with pain. The feeling is coming back into my legs, and they’re trembling from unused adrenaline. My whole body is trembling. I have to move. My heart beats faster, faster, faster. I’m waiting too. Then the fog stills, and I can see him. Zimero. He walks towards me, slowly, catlike. He’s tall and handsome, and yet cold and terrifying. A shock of orange hair tops pale unblemished skin. His eyes are as black and endless as a well, and just as cold. My eyes travel up his body, black in jeans and hoodie, but orange in shoes and shirt. Around his neck is a collar, with a small pumpkin instead of a tag. He smiles at me, and my heartbeat quickens. He only gives that smile to those who’ve angered him. Now I understand why his enemies fear him so. “You’re afraid.” He says. I do nothing, and he knows it’s true. He is the Master of Fear. Crouching down, his long pale fingers touch my arm, seeming to shine against my much darker skin. I flinch away from his icy cold touch as images of pain flash through my head. The Master of Fear knows what I fear most. “Why are you afraid? You didn’t disobey me, did you?” Again, I say nothing, but the tears now flowing down my face are enough. Besides, he already knew the answer. “You made it out of the forest. I congratulate you. Not many people make it that far. You gave my beasts quite a chase.” He straightens up. “Did you enjoy that?” When he calls to them, his voice does not echo through the fog. The howls of the beasts bring that cursed smile to his face again. Crouching down before me again, he grabs my neck, and I gasp, the only sound I’ve made since I escaped. An iceberg is as hot as a flame compared to his hands. He picks me up to his eye level, and my body gives no resistance. “Aw, you’re shaking. Are you cold? Or are you just afraid?” From behind him, he pulls out his scepter. It’s nothing more than a black cane, topped with a small jack-o-lantern. But, I know what it truly is. The eyes and the mouth of the face start to glow green, and it becomes all I can see. I scream, but it is futile, fading into the fog. My soul is sucked out by the jack-o-lantern, to join the other tortured souls in the scepter. Zimero sighs as the jack-o-lantern’s eyes fade back to black. “Pity. I really liked you, my dear.” He idly tosses my lifeless body aside, and the beasts descend upon it, noisily ravishing their meal. Another headstone appears, with my name on it. Shayla. _______________________________ Ok, so technically, the character of Zimero isn't that cruel. I just made him a little OOC for the contest.
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:30 pm
Thanks so much! Our first entry! Good luck Naeshira!
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fallenangel_Asha Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:31 pm
It sounds awesome. Good job.
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:36 pm
Thanks! I know it's not too scary or gory or anything, but oh well. ^^
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:00 am
you can count on me for something worth while to send a chill up your spine, wink
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:12 am
been working on this one already, but tweaked it a little for the contest. hope you like it. ;D
oh, yes, as you may read. the name. well, that was just for my malicious fun. hyuk hyuk hyuk.
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Adrenaline pulsed through my veins as I ran as fast as me legs would take me. My feet pounded on the ground like weights, slowing me down. I didn’t dare look back. Faintly I heard a wolf’s howl, cold and deep like the vast heavens that hung above this graveyard. My breaths were short and desperate; I had to get away at all costs, and I knew my time was limited. As long as the night sky was vastly shrouded by the thick trees overhead I knew I was in trouble. As long as the darkness plagued the dense air around me I knew there was little chance of escape. Though the blood from my shoulder hadn’t stopped entirely I kept pumping my arms at my side, urging my body to move forward faster. Fear welled up inside my chest as the atmosphere grew even colder and my limbs felt close to falling off from exertion.
If my breathing had been normal I might have gasped, but all I could do was keep running as hard as I could when I saw an opening from the trees. An eerie mist covered the land that my legs swept through, finally slowing down, though not stopping entirely. I looked back at the thick forest from where I had emerged and was flung back tripping over a tree root stuck out of the ground. I didn’t get up, I sat there instead, suddenly too afraid and cold to move. I watched with baited breath at the opening, waiting for a sign, a figure, movement, anything. I almost closed my eyes, wanting so badly for this all to be a horrifically realistic nightmare.
The silence was tense and my heart was in my throat. I began inching back, still on the ground. I turned my head both ways, looking for any kind of change in the winds. I looked up at the sky and was not calmed at the unnaturally luminescent glow the full moon cast on the ground, forming different shapes and shadows in a twisted, sinister manor. A twig snapped and my head shot straight ahead, eying the clearance. I clenched my jaw and tried not to think about how there was little chance of seeing the morning light. In opposition, the clouds covered the moon’s light, and darkness permeated everything including my mind, and my flesh. I knew I wasn’t alone now, but I could hear nothing save for my own shaky breathes of the cold night air.
And in moments, I couldn’t even hear that.
I had backed up against a large tombstone, and I pressed my back to it tighter and tighter as the tense, silent seconds dripped by and I heard the demonic wind sweep up to my feet and its presence come upon me.
A level of fear I had never known before twisted up my spine, and I was immobilized by the shadowy figure suspended over me with its hungry gaze. I could no longer even see the soul of my friend within. He had been taken over without a doubt, and I wasn’t about to acknowledge the gun my belt strapped on as a weapon. He advanced slowly and I could barely whisper in protest. Having stopped here to regain my breath, too much distance had been closed between us, and I knew if I started running again now I’d still have little chance. I was willing to risk it.
He suddenly lurched at me as my hand found a sharp rock and smashed the side of his face with it, slipping out and running faster than I could have hoped. I gritted my teeth, knowing I had to be strong and keep fighting. My feet pounded the ground with every eager, fast-paced step I took got me closer to safety. Somehow I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I saw him dart in front of me, his form some mutation between darkness itself and man.
I changed direction with a rash new plan. I roughly brushed the tears on my face away as I ran to through the trees and onto the cliff that housed the haunted castle where this had all started. I remembered fleetingly how that night I came here with my friends and had gotten into much more than we really knew about. I regretted it all, but it was too late. Coming back here alone tonight to try and reverse what it had done was a mistake I couldn’t take back.
More tears fell onto my cheeks as the shadows moved with eerie coordination. I flinched for the gun as he quickly advanced again, suddenly up close to my face. The elongated nails on his deformed hands dug into my neck as he held me tight. Slowly I couldn’t breathe. I brought my knee up into his chest with a swift thrust, then kicked him back towards the cliff’s edge. He was fast, but weak, like me. I aimed the gun.
“Asha,” he said suddenly, his voice coarse and pained. I jolted hearing my name.
I shook my head, “Don’t start…”
“Please…” he managed, “…don’t,”
I cocked the barrel. “No!” I screamed, and my voice pierced the night’s chilled silence. “You know there’s no way back for you. I have no choice.” Even though my words were steady my voice shook unsurely.
I pulled the trigger, just before I saw the true human in his eyes, the one I had known all those years. The one I had fallen in love with. The one killed at my own hands.
His eyes closed halfway as he staggered to the ground, blood pouring from the gaping hole in his head. My eyes burned at the sight and, faintly, I heard creaking gates swinging in the mist of midnight, the soft lullaby playing in my head that haunts my nightmares. A demonic wind crept around my feet and swirled up my legs, and my vision blurred a little as I felt my skin crawl. Faintly I heard a wolf’s howl, cold and deep like the vast heavens that hung above this newly found graveyard.
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Undesired Desire Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:38 pm
I would love to proof read; that doesn't stop me from entering myself!! Muahahaha!!!
__Isa walked home an a cloudless night; the moon shone brightly through the fog. She had left the sounds of the city behind her, knowing that the real party was outside. Nothing could ruin her night of cruelty. Not this year.
__She was going to be the "bell of the ball", only this ball was one of terror. All Hallow's Eve had come around once more, and she wanted the world to know she was still the queen. Nothing topped the queen.
__She glanced over her shoulder. No one could follow her. This party was only for those who were invited. It was the most exclusive party of the year. She had to be sure that those who followed her were punished.
__From a block away the blaring sounds of Ozzy and Manson could be heard over the screams. This was one haunted house most would avoid.
__She entered the house after passing the men at the gates; all they had to do was see her face. "Step inside, Madame Dervois." The first thing she was greeted with was a staircase. She gathered her skirts and climbed the thirteen stairs into the main hallway. The sound of chainsaws filled her ears over the music. Several screams of fright sounded through the hallway; girls ran out of one of the rooms. They were chased by her friends who were the ones behind the noisy saws. She stepped into the room to find it covered with "blood" she knew was fake.
__She touched it to find that it was quite warm; they were getting better. She looked around her to see a body on the floor. She shook the boy to wake him up; he wouldn't move. He was warm. Her fingers were once more covered in the blood-like liquid. She raised them to her lips; they tasted of salt and iron; it wasn't fake.
__ Her pupils dilated as she realized this was her best friend who was lying at her feet. The gash across his neck wasn't fake; who had the chainsaw? She looked around the room for some other clue. The only other clue was another lump across the room. She did not know the girl.
__The sound of a saw ripped in her ears as she realized the murderer was at the doorway. In the dim lighting, she couldn't see who it was. There was a table separating the two, and when the man moved it was easily done away with. She screamed a blood churning scream as the splintered wood flew at her.
__He backed her into a wall; she had no escape. "What do you want from me?!" she screamed at him. He laughed at her behind the drone of Thunder Underground. She was thrown into the light of the strobe in another room, she could see the stairs. The man lurked toward her, keeping to the shadows.
__She kicked him to the chest and ran for it, stumbling at the threshold of the door. She regained herself and continued, until a second marauder came. She screamed and ran back the other way as the second man chased her. There was a second way out of the house.
__With each step the house shook under her momentum; it was very old. The crystal chandelier fell to the floor with a deafening crash. Shards of stone sliced into her skin. The seeping blood only added to her fear. She could hear the men behind her as she ran down the back stairs into the dining room.
__Her exit was blocked by a fallen grandfather clock; she didn't know if she caused it to fall of if one of the men had purposely blocked it. All she knew was that was the only way out.
__The men had found her. The man who had killed her best friend was closest. "Don't come near me!" she screamed. She grabbed a plate and threw it. The man merely sliced through the porcelain with his chain saw. The china tore into her face, more droplets flecked onto her dress.
__She grabbed a knife; he was approaching her. She ran toward him; he side stepped her first attack. The saw ate at the sleeve of her gown. She had gashes from the teeth in her arm. The pain seared through her from head to foot.
__She ran at him again; he was ten feet away from her. The other man made a scrapping sound on the rug covered wooden floor; she tripped. She heard laughing as pain spiked through her chest. She felt warm liquid soak through the dress that has long been ruined. Darkness pulsed at her; ebbing her into the abyss.
It turns out that Isa's boyfriend (Todd) was the one behind all of the gore; he and his friend had been out earlier that night smoking weed and drinking booze at another friend's house. They got a hold of chainsaws from Todd's shed. Neither had the intention of killing anyone. Isa's best friend got into an argument with Todd over the drinking in the first room. It was Todd's friend who had pulled a knife and sliced his throat, not knowing he had a chainsaw in his hand.
The girl was an innocent bystander who witnessed it all. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. When the other girls had heard her scream they came to see what was wrong; the haunted house hadn't started yet. They were slaughtered because they had seen what Todd's friend had done.
Isa had tripped and stabbed herself, not knowing she wasn't in any danger at all. Todd was just trying to give her a night to remember; he thought she wouldn't check the bodies to see if they were dead. It was their one year anniversary.
Well, there's my entry.
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