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Halloween 2021 Spooky Story Contest Winners!
Our 2021 winners
1st Place: Louis A. Age 9
2nd Place: Hadley S. Age 5
4 The Children Foundation would like to thank all participants and congratulate the winners!
1st Place winner
Louis A. Age 9
JACK-O-LANTERN
It was a cold and rainy night the night before Halloween. Jackson Oliver Lantern was a cute little carved pumpkin decoration on the front porch of a small town scientists house. There was a late night delivery from an Amazon delivery guy. As he walked up the steps to the porch, he tripped on some of the decorations and packages went everywhere! One of those boxes happened to have in it chemicals that the scientist had ordered. Green, yellow and red chemicals went everywhere. All three landed on Jack. Smoke was everywhere! The delivery guy jumped up, ran to his truck and left.
The next day the scientist left for work and noticed Jack was gone! That very night, Halloween night, all the trick or treaters were out and the scientist was excited to give out lots of candy. The first trick or treater headed up the scientist long long driveway about half way up a large pumpkin with a scary crooked smile and squinty eyes jumped out from behind the trash cans screaming. The trick or treater dropped his candy and ran as fast as he could.
This kept happening over and over and over every time a trick or treater would come up the long driveway. The scientist never could figure out why he had no trick or treaters that year and why were there so many bags of candy all over his driveway.
All next year rumors spread around the small town that the scientist house had an experiment that went wrong and turned sweet little Jackson Oliver Lantern into a scary mean pumpkin that loved to scare trick or treaters. So beware of the scientist house unless you want a good scare!! This is the legend of Jack-O-Lantern.
The End
2nd Place winner
Hadley S. Age 5
"BOO"
Once upon a time there was a little ghost who went around screaming "BOO" to everyone. So many people would get startled and pee their pants. The little ghost scared so many people the people didn't want to be his friend anymore. The little ghost ended up feeling lonely and scared and just wanted a friend to be with him. The other people told him they didn't want to be friends because they didn't want to keep getting scared. The little ghost realized it was not nice to scream "BOO" at people and that he needed to say sorry so that he wouldn't be alone and have friends. The little ghost went off and said "sorry" to every person he scared and they forgave him. They all went to a spooky party at the end of the night and all had a blast dancing the night away.
The End
Honorable mention
Victoria R. Age 12
"The Dark Story of Victoria Rose"
On October 13, 1913, Victoria Rose woke up during a thunderstorm that night. Her being tired and awake, she went to go get a warm shower. After she got out of the shower, she wiped the mirror with her towel. “Aaaahhhh!!!” she screamed. She just realized the most horrible thing that could have happened to her. She couldn’t see herself in the mirror! She ran straight to her room.
There, laying in her bed, all comfy and cozy and tucked in like her parents did, was her body. As she was looking around her room, she saw something move under her bed. Slowly, she crept over to see what it was. When she was about two feet from the bed, something rolled out from under the bed. Very cautiously, she went to pick it up and examine it.
“Oh my giddy-up!” Victoria said with fear and confusion. Labeled on the small jar she had found were the words ‘168 hour killing pills’. After she took a deep breath and thought for a moment, she realized something was still under her bed. Could it be the boogey man? Or perhaps an awful goblin? Maybe a demon? Or maybe it was just a figment of her imagination? As Victoria thought this, her bed suddenly was bumped up. “Now I know it wasn’t a figment of my imagination.” Slowly and quietly she got off her bed and looked under it again. Sitting there was a creature she had never seen before. It had pale skin, medium sized wings, three eyes, pointy teeth, most scary were the four mouths. “Gulp!” she said after she took a deep breath. At first, Victoria Rose didn’t know what to do. But then, quietly, she grabbed her bat. And I mean a baseball bat, not a flying, living bat. She lifted up the bed to hit it. But she could not.
Under all the fang-like teeth and four mouths, she thought it looked kind of cute. But, she thought too soon! As soon as she put the bat down, he flew up and BAM! It sprang onto her face! Before I continue, I need to tell you a little bit about Victoria. She lives in a two-story house in San Francisco, California. Anyway, back to the story. The creature suddenly got off her. After examining her for a long time, he surprised her. He started talking and then singing.
“My name is Gobbler. I eat people. I crawl under beds and poison them all. They turn in to ghosts, zombies and werewolves. I’m from the Underworld. Don’t be alarmed if you are a ghost. Do not be afraid. I won’t bite!” Victoria interrupted, “My name is Victoria and I don’t understand why you poisoned me. It will last forever! Oh, why, Mr. Gobbler! Oh, why did you poison me?”
“My dear, it is my job. I go around every month on the 13th and poison all you pesky little children”, replied Gobbler. “But, why? I mean, seriously, who goes around killing children?” Victoria answered, as she did not understand one bit. “Well, um, what is your name, dear?” asked Gobbler. “I already said it. My name is Victoria,” Victoria said, starting to get annoyed. “Well, Victoria, I have to because, ugh, roar. I don’t have to tell you anything, my dear! Muwhahaha!” replied the evil Gobbler. “I should have used the forever dead pills on you instead of the limited time pills.” “Wait, can I somehow get out of this before a week?” Victoria asked. “Why, yes, all you have to do is get a few things, give them to me and I’ll change you back and I’ll never bother you again,” said Gobbler. “What exactly do you need?” Victoria said with interest. “Well, first, you have to go through the Zombie Graveyard and get these two items, a feather form a dead falcon and an arm from General Rosenthal the zombie”, said Gobbler. “And then, you have to go to Castlevania and retrieve the crown jewel of the vampire, the golden fangs.” “First of all, I don’t know where these places are and second of all, how will I know what these items are?” asked Victoria. “You’ll know when you see them,” the Gobbler replied slyly.
Now, if she tried to talk or touch or somehow do something with any living things, it wouldn’t work. Since she is ‘dead’, she can’t communicate with the humans, her family or anything. Anywho, on her way to retrieve the items, she saw ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other creepy and spooky things. At first, she was terrified! But, then some of the male ghosts started coming up to her and starting getting along with her. She =asked them where the Zombie Graveyard and Castlevania were and they gave her directions.
On her way, zombies grabbed at her and pulled her to the ground. One of them threw a bomb at her and she suddenly fell asleep. After she woke up, she wasn’t in control. She wasn’t thinking correctly and remembering anything! She was turning into a real ghost, both physically and mentally. This meant that she wasn’t a human anymore. But, then it left her and she was herself again. “Oh my ghostliness! That was bad! How did I…?” After all that, the zombies went away and there sitting on the tombstone of General Rosenthal was the feather of a dead falcon and the arm of General Rosenthal. “Strange how it has Rose in his name. I wonder what his first name was”, Victoria said curiously. She dusted away the cobwebs and dust. Instead of a name, there was a box and a key. At first, she told herself to leave and go to Castlevania. But then, she would never know what was in that box. Victoria started to open it and when she opened it, out came the ghosts of General Rosenthal and the dead falcon! She felt her heart racing. He was the same age as her. She suddenly felt her face turning colors. Suddenly, he turned in to a drooling, half-boneless walking zombie. After a while of being chased, she ran straight to Castlevania where she stole the golden fangs from the vampire. She went back to her house.
After she got back, Gobbler had become himself again. “Ah, I see you brought my stuff back,” he said slyly. “Yes, now change me back right now!” “When I change you back, this will be in a dream like any other day,” Gobbler said. “Okay, I’m ready!” Victoria said confidently. “All right. Abrakazam!” And, as soon as he said it, everything was back to normal. For now….
The End
Honorable Mention
London L. Age 8
"Nighttime Spooks"
"Come on Blake my BFF" Riley called to me while picking up her candy basket. "Coming, coming" I replied excitedly. Riley, Jackie and I were going to go to a haunted house filled with scary props. It was time for Halloween. I was dressed up as the main character from my favorite series, Harry Potter. Riley was dressed up as a vampire bat, kind of half formed since she had fake wings under her arms. I picked up my candy basket. Riley waited on the front porch for Jackie.
"I'm here" cried Jackie, jumping up and down. She was dressed as a fairy with a pink dress and painted golden shoes. "Time to go" Riley said in a pleasant voice. Jackie took out a magic wand with golden glitter on the star. Jackie said "does it look nice?" It did look beautiful, so I replied, "yep!" Riley opened her arms to show her fake wings and started to flap them.
"Haunted House" cried Riley excitedly. We all grabbed our buckets and ran off into the cold, dark night. The stars sparkled like a single piece of big chunky glitter in the sky. Lightning struck in the sky but no rain. I felt kind of confused but I continued to follow Riley and Jackie.
Up on the hill I see the haunted house, It wasn't much of a house though it was more of a mansion. The mansion looked like three towers stuck together. It has windows on the top floor of each tower. The windows were brightened with light. Honestly it kind of looked like the light was cast by a fire.
We stood on the front porch. Our legs hurt like we got stabbed a million times. Jackie knocks on the door and we hear footsteps running towards us. I knew it was just the person greeting us to give us candy, but for some reason my heart was beating more than it ever had before. "Trick or Treat" cried Riley. She opened her arms to show off her fake wings and smiled to show off her fake teeth. Jackie stood there happily with her bucket for candy held out in front of her chest.
An old cat stepped out looking exhausted. He huffed and puffed like he just got back from two hours of exercise. After a few seconds he smiled creepily. He looked like he wanted to pull revenge on someone. I looked happy on the outside but on the inside, I was very uncomfortable. He held a small bucket of candy. It was mostly filled with Tootsie Rolls and Twix. "Come in, come in" he said. His creepy smile still taunted me.
He led us to a room filled with fake artwork. He had a fake Mona Lisa. I knew it wasn't the real one because I saw it at the museum a few weeks ago. Yeah Starry Night, more like sunny day. I could see on Riley and Jackie's face that after seeing these fake paintings they were uncomfortable too. And unlike me a bit scared. Next the old cat led us into another room. We all admired the beautiful wallpaper. Behind us we heard him shut the door tight.
Jackie tried to tug on the door, but it was locked tight. Jackie falls to her knees in despair. We hear some sort of chamber open. There is another door behind us. Out of the door steps a bunch of zombies. Everybody knows our body is not perfect, but the zombies bodies were not. One eyeball was ten times bigger than the other. One paw fell to the ground and the other one they held above their head. One foot was being drug behind them and the other was standing up tall and mighty like a skyscraper.
Jackie's unhappy face turned bright and happy. I knew that she had a big, bright idea. She took her fairy wand and put it behind her head like a baseball bat. One zombie ran toward her and then she hit him in the head. They shattered into dust, like glass. All the zombies started running toward her. Again, she put the wand behind her head and when the line of zombies came for her she hit them all until the end of the line. After she hit that huge line of zombies she looked as confident as the strongest person on this planet. She kept hitting zombies left and right. They were falling like bowling pins and shattering. Riley and I stood there surprised. Jackie looked at us awkwardly and said, "that was the easiest thing I've ever done."
We went through the door that the zombies came out of. The door led to a big chamber. It had a bed on one side of the room. A door creaked open. Riley says, "you've got to be kidding me, we just beat down a bunch of zombies, what's next?" Out stepped some vampires. "Of course," said Riley angrily. No matter how much Riley talked about being tired I knew that someone sucking out all our blood would be alot worse. Their teeth were as sharp as pins. They stuck out from under their upper lip. Riley got the same look on her face as Jackie did. Riley touched her sharp fake teeth and said, "its vampire time." Riley stepped back away from the vampires. From underneath her foot she pulled out a wooden stake. Jackie and I saw the vampires had a little bit of fear in them. Jackie and I giggled. She ran quickly toward one of the vampires, bit their arm, pushed them down, and stabbed the stake into their heart. Jackie said, "this is the greatest movie ever, give me some popcorn." Riley repeated her strategy over and over on each and every one. After she stabbed all the vampires in the heart she ran over to Jackie and gave her a high five. "Nice" I said and gave her a thumbs up. "Is it time to leave yet" Riley said.
We go through the door that the vampires came out of. It led to a room that was probably meant to be a kitchen. "Well at least we can eat something now" Riley said. If we ever want to get out of here, we can't be too weak. We hear another door open but this time we can feel sunlight. "Yes, this is the end, but what's coming out of this door" Jackie said. I turned around and see bouncing Jack O' Lanterns. Their eye, mouth, and nose looked lit up. They started to roar like lions in rage. "What did we do to make them mad?" Jackie whispered to me. I pull on my scarf that I wore because it felt cold to me, but I don't know if it did to Jackie and Riley. I take it off my neck and start to fling it in the air like a lasso. "Yes Blake, more movie time" Jackie said excitedly. Riley looked a bit concerned about Jackie's well-being. "Yeah, ok" Riley said. I start to fling around the scarf and the Jack O' Lanterns burst open like a nuke. "Go Blake" called Riley. Before I know it all the pumpkins are blown up. Jackie and Riley cheer.
We go through the door that the Jack O' Lanterns came through. We knew what the outside looked like and that was it. We all wanted to burst with excitement. A couple weeks later we went back to our normal life, school, weekends, and fun. One thing we all kept a secret was that none of us could shake the feeling that old cat had more to do with it than just the greeting. Really it didn't matter because we were never going to a haunted house again. Next year just regular trick or treating and some food and candy. So hey, have you learned your lesson yet, never ever go to a haunted house no matter what your friends say. Oh, and be careful of your step, you never know what lurks in the darkness.
The End
Halloween 2020 Spooky Story Contest Winners!
Our 2020 winners
1st Place: Jayne T. Age 11
2nd Place: James K. Age 6
4 The Children Foundation would like to thank all participants and congratulate the winners!
1st Place winner
Jayne T. Age 11
The Clown In The Woods
I remember a couple years ago I had the scariest Halloween ever! My mom and I lived in a little house way out in the middle of the woods. We had a very long driveway that was so bumpy. You had to drive super slow to keep from bouncing all over. There were alot of tall spooky trees that were very old. I had to be careful when I walked outside because of all the big yellow spiders and huge spider webs.
About a week before Halloween I heard on YouTube that there were clown sightings. All kinds of people from everywhere were reporting seeing scary clowns. My mom would always say "Oh, Jayne that is just people being silly. There's no such thing as scary clowns." But I knew better. Once when I went with my mom to get the mail down our super long bumpy driveway I decided to ride my bike. Halfway down the driveway I hit a bump and fell into a wire fence. "Don't laugh at me, I was new at riding a bike" What my mom doesn't know because she was so worried about me falling is when I fell I saw a rainbow colored wig laying in the bushes. By the time my mom got to me to help me up, the rainbow wig was gone!
A few days had passed since I first saw that clown wig so I began to think someone may have just been playing a prank on me so I didn't think much about it anymore. About two days before Halloween I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep because I had school in the morning, it must have been really really late, like 3:00am or something and I heard a noise under the house. There was banging and scratching sounds coming from under my floor. I jumped out of bed, bumped into my door "again, don't laugh at me" and ran to my mom's room. I jumped so far and hard, I landed right in the middle of her big bed. My mom woke up and asked me what was the matter so I started telling her about the noises I was hearing. She laughed and said "Oh punkin, Don't be silly. The noises you hear are just little harmless armadillos crawling in and out of their holes where they live. There's nothing to be scared of so just go back to sleep. Mommy loves you."
The next morning at school I learned we were having a Halloween party the next day. I was so excited but I didn't have a costume. When I got home from school I started asking and begging my mom to take me to get a pretty pirate costume. My mom said after dinner we would go. I could hardly wait so I gobbled up all my food as fast as possible and didn't even ask for dessert "ok, maybe I had a cookie or two." We both got ready and got into the car. As my mom started driving down that long bumpy driveway, super slow, I was starring out the window imagining how great I would look in my new costume. About half way down the driveway I saw something white and red flashing through the trees. I said "Mom, mom is someone running through the woods?" She said "No Jayne you're probably just seeing things, there's no one out here except us." Right at that moment I saw a clown, a real live red, white and yellow clown with a rainbow colored wig! I started screaming "Mom, drive faster, please drive faster!!" My mom started telling me to calm down, she can't drive any faster on this bumpy driveway. The clown was behind us but kept getting closer coming in and out of the trees. I was freaking out!!! "MOM, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, THE CLOWN IS GOING TO GET US!" I noticed right then that scary clown was holding our neighbors little dog, Cracker. Oh no! He is going to eat little Cracker. "MOM, we have to help Cracker, the clown is going to eat Cracker. PLEASE MOM!" My mom said "CALM DOWN JAYNE, What has gotten into you?" I keep telling you there is no one here but us. We were just about at the end of the driveway when out of no where the big scary ugly rainbow wig wearing clown ran right out in front of our car with Cracker in his arms. My mom slammed on the brakes just before hitting them. I covered my eyes, put my head in my lap and started screaming "PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!" I realized right then that my mom was getting out of the car and laughing. "Wait mom, where are you going? He will eat you... why are you laughing?" My mom said, still laughing, really hard now "You silly girl, it is Mr. Greg our neighbor chasing after his little dog Cracker that got away." I found out then that Mr. Greg was on his way to a Halloween party and the clown outfit was his costume. I guess the wig I saw in the bushes a few days ago he had dropped walking home after he bought it.
It turned out there was no big bad scary clown after all but I still have nightmares about it. My mom just giggles and says "oh punkin, don't be silly, scary clowns aren't real!" But I am still not so sure.
The End
2nd Place winner
James K. Age 6
The Disguise
Once upon a time there was a little boy named Frankenstein who was shy. He had no friends, everyone picked on him because he was quiet and different. Frankenstein had a square head, green ears, and funny looking teeth.
One day at school they had a party where everyone got to dress up for Halloween and disguise themselves. Frankenstein was excited to dress up so no one knew who he was. He found a gold crown, an orange cape with stars all over it and a pumpkin necklace. He got dressed, ran into the party and started to dance and spin around. No kids knew who it was, he was the life of the party. Dancing, singing, eating, and playing games all night long. Frankenstein wasn’t shy anymore, he was the pumpkin king. All the kids cheered him on chanting “pumpkin king”.
All of a sudden, his crown fell off, his cape ripped and necklace broke. The whole crowd went silent, Frankenstein froze, then everyone started laughing and cheering him on. Once everyone got to know the real Frankenstein, and didn’t care about his looks, they loved him. They all became best friends. Thanks to the Halloween party, Frankenstein wasn’t shy anymore and didn’t care about how he looked, no one did.
The End