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Congratulations to the Short Story
Contest Winners!!
Below are the first, second, and third place short story
endings for you to read. Congratulations to the authors
of these stories, and thanks to all who entered the Teen
Advisory Board's short story contest.
Third Place
Christmas Ghosts continued
by Casey Andrew
Terri walked up to the library circulation desk to check
out a book. It was a book on ghosts of the holidays. While
she waited at the front desk for someone to come check her
materials out, she looked through her books. She looked
at the pictures of the Headless Horseman, all the ghosts
from A Christmas Carol, and ghosts from other holidays she
could not name.
Then she heard a large noise from behind a shelf not too
far away and slowly, all the lights in the library went
out, one by one.
"Who-Who's there?" she stammered.
"Why, I am just the librarian," said a voice behind
the shelf and as she moved into view, Terri felt relief
spread all over her. The librarian was a black woman with
thick-looking black hair.
"Why, child, I'm sorry if I scared you. What are you
still doing here? It's just about time to close up,"
she said.
"I was just waiting for someone to check out my book,"
said Terri, holding it up.
"That's what we have the bell for," the librarian
said, as she walked over to her desk and rang a little bell
Terri had not noticed before.
"Oh," mumbled Terri, a little embarrassed. She
shook off the feeling and asked "Why did all the lights
go off in that weird way?"
"Some other librarian must have thought me to have
left already and turned off the lights. Mind you, these
here lights have been doing some funny things lately. Remind
me to call the power company," said the librarian.
There was a silence. "Are you going to check out that
book or are you going to stand there all night?" asked
the librarian. Terri handed her the book.
After it was checked out the librarian said, "Do you
want a bracelet? You make a wish, put on the bracelet, and
when the bracelet falls off, your wish will come true. We
weren't going to start handing them out until tomorrow,
but you can have one tonight anyway."
"Sure, I'll take one," Terri answered.
The librarian reached under her desk and pulled out a basket
with bracelets of different colors in it. She held it out
to Terri. "Take one," she said.
Terri picked a white and blue one. "Thanks." Terri
closed her eyes tight and made a wish. Then she put on the
bracelet. She picked up her books and headed toward the
door.
"When it falls off, the wish will come true,"
the librarian called after her. "And you can't cut
it off or anything, it won't count!"
"Okay, bye!" Terri called back. She jumped on
her bike and rode home.
The next day Terri woke up late, she had been dreaming very
badly. She went off to the middle school in low spirits.
She was pretty tired all day, and she soon found concentrating
on what the teachers were saying very difficult. She was
getting the feeling as though some invisible force was gaining
control over her every second. She really started panicking
though in her math class. She could barely move where she
wanted. Suddenly sweat started rolling down her face. It
was like she was hypnotized, no, it was like her body was
hypnotized. Her full attention was on the invisible force.
"Terri, please pay attention! We're doing a review
for the huge state exam! Now Terri, tell me. What is the
square root of 144?" asked the very strict math teacher.
"I-I don't know!" Terri cried out looking very
panic-stricken.
"Now, Terri, you know this, don't let that math test
get to you! You're the best in our class! You represented
the whole ninth grade in the math-a-thon, and you won!!!"
"I don't know what's happening to me!!!" Terri
yelled, not paying the teacher the slightest bit of attention.
Then Terri jumped up and ran out of the room. Of course,
the teacher didn't know that it wasn't Terri's fault she
couldn't control her own body. Everybody shouted at Terri
to come back. Terri tried, oh, how she strained herself
so hard to have control of herself! But she completely couldn't.
She burst into tears.
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The
invisible force took her out the school doors and down the
street. It made a turn, and Terri went down a couple more
blocks. It stopped right in front of the library where she
had been the previous evening. She ran up the front steps
and inside.
The librarian who had given Terri the bracelet was at the
check-out desk. She looked up and saw Terri. She gave a nasty
grin and said, "I thought I'd be seeing you here today,
in fact, I was just waiting for you to arrive. Why don't you
come with me?"
The invisible force pulled on Terri, and she followed the
librarian to a door. The librarian took out a key and opened
the door. There was a set of stone stairs. The librarian led
the way down. Terri struggled to not follow, because she knew
that those stairs would lead to nothing but trouble.
Downstairs looked like a laboratory. There were things that
looked like heavy machinery. There were some bookshelves with
books on them. There was a cauldron that was steaming. There
was also a desk at which the librarian sat down. Terri's legs
that seemed to run themselves carried her over to the chair
opposite the desk and sat down.
"What's happening to me?" asked Terri, glad that
she at least had control over her mouth.
"Why, this is all just part of my plan," said the
librarian.
"What's your name?" Terri asked.
"You can just call me Julie. Not like you'll be able
to, when I'm through with you."
At this, Terri started panicking even more than she already
was. What was Julie meaning when she said 'when I'm through
with you'? "Why can I not control my body?!" Terri
asked.
"Why darling, it's just all part of my evil plan. See,
it's the bracelet that I so sweetly gave you last night, it's
a body hypnotizer, I cast spells on them. The brac-"
"You cast spells on them? But that means you would have
to be a -"
"A witch, yes. The bracelet forces you to come here,
usually it takes 18 to 20 hours for the bracelet to become
fully activated, Yes, so it brings you here, and then you
forcefully go through the transformer and you turn into a
Christmas ghost! Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday!"
Julie gleefully called out.
"But why do you want Christmas ghosts? I mean, what's
the point of the whole plan?" Terri asked.
"I'm not finished with my plan, now if you would quit
asking stupid questions, I'd tell you the rest. Now then,
I will hypnotize your mind so then your mind and body are
under my control. You will go out, scare people out of banks,
jewelry stores, rich people's houses, wherever I tell you
to go! Then you steal stuff, valuable stuff, all kinds of
stuff! I'll be rich, rich I tell you!" Julie dramatically
finished.
Great, now how am I ever going to get out of this, Terri thought,
if my body is under her control. I have to think of a plan.
But it was no use. There was nothing to be done.
BOOM!!!
The door to the lab burst open. Terri could hear tons of footsteps
pounding down the stairs. Suddenly Terri's math class, the
teacher, and the principal were all in the room.
Everyone was jumping up on Julie. The math teacher asked,
"Terri, are you all right? We heard all about the plan
about Christmas ghosts and the hypnotizing. We followed you
here, I knew something was fishy when you jumped up and left
the classroom."
Terri did not know what to say to this. The teacher took out
some scissors and cut off the bracelet that had been hypnotizing
Terri's body and Terri could definitely feel all control coming
back to her.
"Terri! What should we do to the witch lady?" one
of Terri's classmates asked her.
"Well think! What gets rid of witches?" Terri questioned
the kid.
"Water melted the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz,"
the person answered and so they poured water on the witch.
She melted and was gone forever. And Terri never met another
witch again.
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