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Congratulations to the Short Story
Contest Winners!!!
Here are the winning contest entries: click to view the
first,
second,
and third
place short stories 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
by Annie Carracher, grade 5, St. Mary
The forest creaked around Dylan, the moonlight on the
dead leaves dancing. Dylan pulled the collar of the jacket
she wore up around her face, the wind biting at her. She
had no clue what drove her here, but she could hear the
voice at the end of the path.
It called to her. It said, "Heeeeeeeeeeelp,"
then again in a lower voice, "Heeeeeee," but it
was suddenly cut off like a hand being slapped over a mouth.
Then Dylan saw it. There was what looked to be a piece
of wood lying on the wet ground, but it had a dirt covered
brass handle on one side of it. Then it started to move.
First just a little, but when it started to come off the
ground, she darted behind an old oak. As soon as she was
concealed, two men came out. One was short and fat with
a beard and moustache, and the other was tall, lean, and
scruffy looking. But something felt weird. She recognized
them. Then it hit her! They were the new shop owners that
were always fighting.
Scruffy says, "You think anyone heard them?"
Then, the short one replies, "Nope. These parts of
the woods are deserted. You'd have to be crazy to come to
this place."
As soon as the men were out of sight, Dylan flicked on
her flashlight and walked over to the board. She touched
the cold, dirty handle and lifted the board. It creaked
as she slowly and cautiously lifted the wood off the ground.
She looked down and saw a ladder going down the side of
a 25 foot hole, which widened at the bottom.
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She was thinking, "There's no way that I'm going down
there," but her feet already had her halfway down the
hole, and she knew that she had to go down all the way.
Once she got down, she scanned the room with her flashlight
beam, and suddenly, she felt like an elephant was sitting
on her stomach, because what she saw there, or who, was
exactly who she was looking for.
There, lying helplessly in the hole, tied up and gagged,
looking thin and dirty, were her older brother and sister,
Keegan and Michael. She quickly and nervously untied them,
knowing that any minute the two men could come back. They
quickly scrambled up the ladder, Dylan leading the way,
and ran all the way back to their home. As soon as they
got there, Keegan told Dylan how they'd been kidnapped the
night they were playing hide-and-seek in the woods. Keegan
and Michael then took showers, and they all went to bed.
Keegan and Michael were feeling happy and safe, but Dylan
was worried. Worried about what would happen to the kidnappers,
and what would happen to them if they weren't caught. The
next morning, they woke up.
Their parents were extremely happy to know that they were
safe and made pancakes, eggs, and biscuits for breakfast.
When their father walked in from feeding their animals,
he told them that the game warden had stopped by to tell
him that the new shop owners had been proven guilty of kidnapping
seven children in four different states, and that they were
going to prison for a long, long time. Dylan got up from
the table and hugged her dad. That night, Dylan went to
bed feeling happy and safe for the first time in a very
long time.
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