She was going to die.

There was another quiet moan in the not-quite distance, and any second now it was going to become very loud moaning and she was going to die.

Marie kept walking.

The intercom had woken suddenly, screeching directions for the boiler room to anyone who still cared.
Apparently, escape was an old service tunnel away.
Marie really wondered what had made people think a school with boiler rooms and old service tunnels wouldn't become a haven for the damned.

The ranks of which she would likely be joining, since she couldn't actually find the boiler room.

She knew she was close. The directions were clear, even through the static.
She'd followed them exactly.

But...

That didn't mean the boiler was here, did it?
Maybe They wouldn't understand a broadcast, but the infected could, and scared people could be so loud.
With one message they could avoid uncomfortable situations, and...

And have one hell of a distraction.

She could understand that.

But damn if she didn't hate them for it.

The moaning started again, so much closer.
"Well, if I'm going to be a decoy, I may as well be a good one"

She kept walking.

Here is my entry. Sorry if it's not very good but I'm still perfecting my art, so to speak.

Anyway...

Title: "Fear of the Name"
By: blue_dahlia
Word count: 198

I latched the stall door while Tristan huddled in the corner, clutching his head, and sobbing. A whistle blew out in the hallway before Coach said, “Boys, I’m not afraid to come in there.”

“Tristan, we have to go out there and meet her.” Tristan shook his head and clutched his inhaler; I sighed.

The bathroom door hit the wall with a bang then, and before I could say anything else to Tristan, Coach said, “Boys, let’s go for a run.”

Tristan clutched his chest and began to wheeze as she pounded on the stall door.

“Boys, open up or I’ll kick the door down.”

Something hit the door hard enough then that the latch rattled. I begged Tristan to speak but he shook his head. Coach had begun to count and on three the hinges broke. She stepped past the ruins giggling and shaking her head so her pigtails swished. When she reached me, she blew her whistle in my ear and said, “Get moving!” She repeated this performance on Tristan, who, after the whistle blew, said, “Yes, ma’am, Coach Devlin!”

The bathroom door squeaked open then, and the real Coach Devlin asked, “Boys, is something wrong?”

Thanks for reading.

I don't fancy myself a writer, but this anime horror fan just couldn't resist throwing his hat into the ring. My word counter has this story pegged at 200 words on the nose, so here goes! Best of luck to everyone.


“Ingredients”

It was lunchtime.

However, Miss Bell’s culinary school for girls was still in session. Today was Dawn’s entrance exam to fill its only vacancy.

“Please come forward, Dawn,” Miss Bell instructed. Her enormous, captivating yellow hair ribbons beckoned the newcomer closer.

Nervously, Dawn approached the battered table, caressing with her frilled apron the bento she painstakingly prepared since 4 o’clock that morning. The lunchbox’s gorgeous bow begged to remain intact, but alas…

After Miss Bell sampled a finger roll, her voice rang with approval. “Is there enough for the class?”

Dawn’s lunchbox wasn’t prepared to serve her 39 frilly counterparts. “I’ll need more ingredients.”

“Don’t worry. We have ingredients here.”

“Huh?” Dawn looked around, puzzled. “I don’t see any—”

“Test her food, class,” Miss Bell interrupted. The maidens rose and approached the table, but strangely, not one reached for Dawn’s lunchbox. Then she realized...

They were reaching for her.

Miss Bell pinned her onto the table and fastened the yellow ribbons around her, while a classmate covered Dawn’s mouth. From underneath the others’ elaborate dresses peaked skewers, knives, and cleavers.

Their recipe was underway.

Dawn quickly passed. Tomorrow, another student would come, but until then…

It was lunchtime.

I thought about it all week. Here goes:

Remnants

“LA's new High School’s cursed...... Students are disappearing on the way to their lockers.”

Jeff ignored Maria’s whispers. He never used his locker.

He stared at the breathtaking girl sitting beside him...... What’s her name?

“Tolmalok? .....The Tongva goddess?”

Her eyes sparkled at his excitement. “You know them?”

“ You’re kidding! Fourth grade Mission Reports; I picked San Gabriel and learned how they lived on acorns and pine nuts, hunted the hills, and fished the coast in tar covered boats. I studied Quaoar, the creator; and the trickster Coyote god. I picked this School for the rumor it was built on sacred ground.”….“ But, I never hear the teacher call you.”

“She says it wrong!........ I ignore her.” She laughed musically.

He was in love!



The school seemed empty, after History Club. Jeff agreed to walk frightened Maria to her locker, and watch her leave.

He saw Tolmalok close his...... She danced away...... Curiosity drew him.

It looked empty.… Something on the floor?.... An acorn? ....He reached down.

Darkness grabbed his ankles and pulled!

He heard the locker door slam shut.

He was sinking in goo! ......It smelled like the La Brea Tar Pits!



A coyote howled in the distance.

Normally I'm a weenie who can't stand Horror, but my mind has been wandering in dark places lately.
Here's my entry. Different kind of horror, I guess.



What do you think? I find it to be rather terrifying, myself.

The Face



It wasn’t noticeable at first. As we fed the class hamster, she was absent-mindedly scratching the palm of her hand. When she opened her palm, there was a simple smiley face in the center. She had no idea how it got there, and seemed upset when it wouldn’t come off. She spent the next week home sick. On the third night, I woke to a frantic call. She tearfully explained that she had just found the face halfway up her arm. When she finally returned to school four days later, her arm was bandaged. She told me she knew that when the face reached her head, it would become her face, and everything that was her would be gone. She begged me to look and see how real the face had become. It still looked like someone had drawn a simple face on her shoulder. The next day, she was acting like she didn’t know me. The following day, she was gone. The police have been looking for her for weeks, but they won’t find her. They can’t. And as I ponder what I could have done, I try to forget the palm of my hand has begun to itch.

The Cursed Tree

‘Cho? Wake up Cho!’
My little sister Tooka crawls into my bed, shaking like a leaf.
‘What is it?’ I asked sleepily.
Sobbing heavily, Tooka explained, ‘Its really stormy out there and the girls in my dorm stole my lucky scarf and its now hanging onto the top of the cursed tree.’
Stammering, Tooka asked ,‘Wwwhy did our parents have to send us to this horrible boarding school.’
‘Come on now Tooka, its not all that bad.’ I take her hand and we head towards the cursed tree to retrieve her scarf.
We wander through the school grounds, a misty and rotting foul smell clings at our clothes, and a frenzy of wolfs howling and thunder in the night air.

We turned round the corner and there was the cursed tree. But something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
I turned on my torch and looked closer and what I was a girl in the tree, with branches wrapped around her limp broken body, blood poring down her distorted and torn body, there on the ground was a severed hand, tightly clenching Tooka’s lucky scarf. I take a closer look at her face to see branches around her neck, her head at a funny angel, and a frozen scream on the real Tookas lips.

A Desk Note

Out of boredom, I drew a cute anime girl on my desk.
The next day there was a message written on my desk "Your drawing looks just like me."
I giggled and wrote back "Wow really, I didn't know someone could look like an anime character. Who are you?"
I got another message, "I can't tell you (winky face)."
It made me smile.
I wrote back "Haha fine then, How's your day?"
We exchanged notes everyday. It got to the point where my desk was a mess. My teacher noticed how dirty my desk had become. I asked him if I could clean it later.
I wrote to her "I can't write anymore. Can I see you? You only said you couldn't tell me who you are."
She responded, "Ok, but promise not to freak out."
I replied "Of course not, I promise."
I waited for her after school. I felt sleepy and dozed off on my desk. I woke up to a dark room.
On my desk were the words "Here I am, look down."
As my eyes slowly looked down, I felt a chill and finally saw her face.....
"You broke your promise"

Just about to leave the school for the day I realised that I had forgotten my text book in my desk in the classroom. I turned back to get it, but on my way I found a little girl standing in the hallway. She was crying, and looked very pitiful, so I asked her what was wrong. "They are gone, I can't find them" she responded, so I promised her to help searching for whatever it was she had lost, but I had to pick up my book first. She seemed comforted by my answer, and followed me to my classroom. As the sun was setting I went over to my desk, and opened it, but in terror I staggered backwards. Instead of books, my desk contained tens of sharp, bloody teeth! I felt that I was about to throw up, so I ran to the door, but realised that it was locked. Searching for another exit I turned around, only to find the little girl, with a big smile on her face. "Here they are!" I heard her say, "finally I can eat again"!

I think for me, at least, I find the world terrifying enough without having supernatural horror. And it can be slightly harder to use the "It's just made up magic thing."

Are we allowed to have multiple entries?

I kinda think it'd be cheating for grab an environmental hazard by setting the school on the Moon or Underwater.

As for my other idea, it's probably in bad taste, but...does Godwin's Law apply to horror stories? 'Cause Nazis are probably pretty terrifying. Though I suppose if I wanted supernatural gore, I could do a "Show and Tell: The Lost Ark" story.

awww... this sucks I do have a scary story, but it's like, 2,000 words long

I guess if not for the contest... I'll post it for fun, if anyone wants to read it... I don't really remember if it's school related but the kids all go to the same school? O:) lol here goes... :$

They all sat together in a circle of about seven, all more or less of the same age. It was just a week until Halloween, and as tradition in their small city had it, most large groups of thirteen years old had sitting circles with horror stories to scare each other just before they scared others. Vince Mack didn’t believe in this silly little kid’s nonsense, of course, but the crush of his teenage life was sitting opposite of him and he just had to impress her. After all, he was one of the most popular boys in Middleton Middle High… or so he felt.
“Who’s going first?” Lacy Bourgis asked, plopping down between Vince and Vince’s best friend Ted Mosby. “Otherwise, I have the perfect story to start with.” The way she said “story” (like store-ay) made Ted and Vince suppress laughter. No one knew why, but Lacy thought she was the most gorgeous creature in the world; no one, not even her parents, took her very seriously.
No one sprang up to the base plate, so Lacy flattened out her mini-mini skirt and fluffed her already fluffy hair before she smiled widely and started:
“So, there was this girl—” Wait, to make Lacy’s story more effective, I’m going to write it exactly how she said it. Again, from the top:
“Sow, there waz this gurl, aynd she like, had a partay to att-and, bu-h har boay-friend like, didn’t tell har when he was comeen to pick har up! An she wahz like, tow-tall-ee fuhreakeen out! An sow, she like had to quickly like, throw on her make-up because he cawlled like, last minute! Tha jerk… any-waay, when thay arrived, she tow-tally did not get voted queen of tha daynce! An it was awll his fa—”
“Stop!” Vince’s crush, Valorie, raised her hand, her eyes closed shut.
“Wasn’t that intense and scary?!” Lacy cried, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
“It was pretty scary, Lacy,” Valorie sighed. “But it’s not my type… unless you have some gore and actual horror, please give someone else a chance… please!”
Lacy glowered at Valorie and waved her hand, trying to seem nonchalant. Ted, who lived for gore and horror sat up straight and gathered attention pretty quickly.
“This story, I heard from my Grandpa… it’s a true story. His dad told him. It happened in his time period. Here goes: those weak in the heart and stomach, leave now.” Ted smiled mischievously, looking at each friend in the face before starting. Vince felt that Ted had stared at him the longest… even a little worriedly.
“It was in the middle of the night. There were no stars to illuminate the dark sky; even the moon had taken cover behind her dark blankets of clouds—” he was interrupted by Lacy.
“Are you sure your grandfather, like, told you that? Or you, like, memorized a university book or something?”
“Yeah, I’m sure the old guy who rarely ever wakes up from his rocking chair is my grandfather and not some university book, Lacy,” Ted grumbled. “No more interrupting!” There was a hushed mumble before Ted continued. “A little girl was running along the street, trying not to get caught; she was being pursued by an old man, thought to be a child molester, but he was merely just a drunk citizen of the city who was possessed by the evils of alcohol. Wait,” Ted stopped, “you guys know that place where it’s just a street and it leads into a tunnel? There are hills on both sides of that lonely street, and the tunnel that continues for like, about twenty yards and that street leads into the main square. It’s coming from a highway, that street. And the hills on both sides and over the tunnel, they consist—”
“Oh yeah!” Valorie added in, “That’s where the older houses are, right? And that one big manor at the end of that little part of town that’s supposedly haunted.”
“Exactly,” Ted smiled at Valorie, who returned a friendly grin, making Vince jealous. “Those houses… old mansions, now… they were pretty new when this story takes place.” When the majority of the group nodded in agreement, Ted continued once more. “Anyway. So, this girl was running as if her life depended on it… because it did. This man was chasing her relentlessly down this lone street that led to the tunnel. When the little girl made it to the tunnel she could see her new home on the hill. It was the biggest house at the end of the new neighbourhood. The little girl thought she could make it up the hill and escape this ruthless man. She tried, once, twice, three times, before she fell in the grass hopelessly. It was too slippery for her, and by the time she would have made it up there and tried to climb the fence, the man would have been at her tail. She looked over her shoulder, and saw the man coming closer and closer. She stood up defiantly and tried once more. And she made it… half way, before the man caught up, dragged her to the empty tunnel by her hair, her screeching and calling for help: ‘Help! Help me! Someone please help!’ But although even her neighbours heard her faint calls, they did not go to help her. Maybe it was that they didn’t like her, she was by far most different from other girls her age, with her quiet nature, large different eyes, long black hair… everything from her physical appearance to her inner thoughts.
“There was more screaming that came from the tunnel, but it was slowing down more and more with her slow departure from the world. In the morning, her parents set out a search for her, worried all night when she did not come home from her friend’s party. But in the morning, even when the tunnel was searched, the girl’s body was not found. It was as if she did not exist.
“Now, there’s a myth, saying that the little girl’s ghost haunts that tunnel every moonless night, exactly like today,” Ted pointed to the window, where every frightened head turned and had their eyes widen even more with terror. “Whenever someone goes in, they are not seen coming out. Now that there are cars around, on nights like this even they don’t make it out.”
“What happens to them?” Mason, Ted’s close friend and step-brother asked, his voice quiet with fear in the darkened room.
“They go in about five feet, and suddenly, they stop working. The driver becomes confused, and tries to start the car again, but to no avail. Even the engine, which would be running so smoothly just seconds before, would not even make that grunt of attempting to start. And then, the driver would hear nails scratching on metal, nonstop, as if trying to get in. The nails make the sound once, for about ten seconds, pause for five, and then start again, continuously for about three to four tries. The driver would be trying to unlock the door, trying to escape. None of the locks would work, and suddenly, just as they are about to try some other way out, they hear a splat, and when they turn around, they would probably be heard screaming, because on their window is found the blood-splattered body of the little girl.” Ted paused to hear the satisfying scream that only Lacy could make. “The car is found in the morning by other drivers, but inside, it’s empty, and the outside is covered with dried and crusted blood.
“The ghost of the little girl is trying to get revenge,” Ted paused and took a sip of his Coke.
“On the murderer,” Valorie whispered. “But that doesn’t make sense, because she’ll never find peace.”
“Because the murderer must be dead, too,” Vince murmured, entranced by the horror of the tale.
“How did he die?” Lacy asked. “Did she get him?”
“She couldn’t have!” Mason cried out excitedly. “Because then she would be at peace and find no reason to kill anyone else! He must’ve died of old age or prison or something, but she’s looking for his kin so she can feel like she’s done her revenge!” Six heads turned to see Mason jumping excitedly on his cushion, his illuminated figure looking eerily excited.
“Wait,” Valorie said doubtfully. “If she murders the people and drivers every moonless night, wouldn’t that be too suspicious? Because this night comes about once every month… and I’ve not heard of any mysterious disappearances this year.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Ted agreed. “She kills every October, on the exact moon date of the exact month she died.” There was low murmur amidst the friends before Lacy brought up a horrifying point.
“Ted, you said the man was a citizen of this city… and rarely anyone moves out… so his kin must be here, right?” The hushed chattered stopped completely as all eyes turned to Ted, who looked gravely at Vince.
“The man’s name was Anthony… Mack. Vince’s great-great-uncle.”
“No way!”
“Oh my God…”
“Vince?!”
“That’s bunk,” Vince cried, looking angrily at who he thought was his best friend. “Ted, that story is a myth. My dad told me Uncle Anthony was no good, but he didn’t hurt little girls!”
“I’m not lying!” Ted cried back. “My Grandpa doesn’t lie either.”
“I don’t believe you,” Vince shouted angrily and got up. “I’m out of here!” He grabbed his hat and ran out from Ted and Mason’s house. He ran about half a block before he saw a mailbox and kicked at it angrily. An old lady driving by waved her fist at him from her little car before turning the corner. Vince sat at the curb of the sidewalk and panted angrily. He heard footsteps behind him and stood up, startled. Although he would never admit it, he had been shaken by his friend’s story.
“I hope you don’t mind I followed you out,” Valorie said shyly. “You didn’t look happy, and it wasn’t fair of Ted to open your family history like that.”
“It was so unfair,” Vince mumbled, nervous and unsure of what else to say.
“Walk me home?” She smiled at him, sweetly, hiding her crush from him.
He gestured to her silently to go on ahead and strutted beside her. They chatted a little before they reached her home, where she grasped at his hand and squeezed it.
“Don’t stay mad at Ted… his intentions weren’t bad,” she whispered, leaning in close.
“I know,” he replied. They leaned in but the porch light flashed on and Valorie’s mother was caught peeking through the window. Valorie smiled sheepishly and ran in, with a fast goodbye hug.
Vince groaned when he was out of reach of the house lights and trudged his way home. He remembered then that he had to pass through the tunnel now that he was half way into his shortcut home. He gulped and walked up to the tunnel when he was about five meters from it.
“Oh, it was a myth!” he cried out loud, and walked bravely in. As soon as he walked into the tunnel, a cool breeze met him. He shivered and walked a little further. When he got about half way in, he began to relax, but then his hat blew off with the cool breeze. He stopped and looked back. When he made to move, his feet did not budge. He looked down and saw his feet had just turned in the direction he had just come from, but did not do anything else.
He looked back up at his hat and saw a little girl crouched beside it, her black hair covering her face. She seemed vaguely familiar, but the more he racked his brain, the more she resembled some little kindergartners at his primary school.
She looked up at him and smiled sweetly. “Is this yours?” she asked, her voice sweet and very little girly.
“Yes, can you please give it to me? I can’t seem to move,” he requested, pointing at his frozen feet.
“Did you hear a ghost story that you’re so scared?” the little girl asked, her voice in a joking manner.
Vince laughed. “Yeah,” he answered. “But I doubt that’s the reason.”
The little girl’s smile vanished as she picked up the hat and flicked it back in his direction. Vince raised his hands to catch it, but the hat hit him squarely in the nose.
He screamed out in pain, dropping to his knees and clutching at his face. When he moved his hands from his face, he felt his nose swelling up immediately and a steady thick flow of blood streamed from his nostrils down into a puddle on the ground.
The little girl’s voice made him jerk his head back up, making the blood come faster. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It’s okay… can you please call for help?”
“No.”
Vince looked at her, startled. “W… what?”
“No,” she said in a low steady voice. “No one came to help me… why should I help you? You’re family is the reason mine doesn’t exist anymore.”
Vince’s eyes widened with alert, but before he could do anything, the little girl’s hands came up and curled around his neck before she snapped it in one swift move.

In the morning, Vince’s search party led out across the city, but he could not be found anywhere. His friends, especially Ted and Valorie, were frozen with shock in their beds when they heard the news of his disappearance. But at least the city was safe from anymore mysterious disappearances… after that one, there were no more reported. At least the city was safe.

The screams and cries of my classmates were all around me as I sit in the corner of the classroom trembling in fear. They were almost about to break in, the zombies. There were tables blocking the door and students trying to jump out the window but was three stories high making it impossible. Everyone was pushing one another in panic that a couple of them fell out.
"There are some outside too"
"It's really over we're all going to die, why!"
"Are you freaking kidding me, I knew I shouldn't of come to school"
I heard my classmates say when Megumi, my friend sat, next to me. "Minami, good bye." She said as she held my hands tightly. Finally, they managed to break in. Their faceless expression of death and rotten bodies with the need of flesh. they came in bulk as they teared apart the living and ate their organs. Blood scattered every where, puddles were being made. My heart was pounding fast. I wished this was just a dream but it wasn't- It was real. It was happening right before my eyes. Everyone tried to fight back with what they could but there were too many of them. It was over.

It all started as a rumor among the seniors, "If you stare into Mr. Shinji's eyes for 5 seconds, something bad will happen."

No one knew where the rumor came from, but everyone who dared to stare at the teacher's eyes, did indeed meet with misfortune and never finished the semester.

Victoria had heard whispers of the rumor when she entered high school but disregarded it as idle chatter.

However, in the spring of her junior year, the captain of the tennis team, Michana, Victoria's close friend, accidentally fell onto Mr. Shinji and stared into his eyes for 5 seconds. Later that week, after Michana had won her tennis match, she came down with a severe cold and was forced to stay home for the rest of the semester.

Determined to find out the truth, Victoria looked for Mr. Shinji. When she found him, she stared into his eyes and counted, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. A grin spread across Mr. Shinji's face, and in a flash, Victoria thought she saw a cute white cat...thing...with red eyes.

Horror filled Victoria's eyes as she finally understood. Mr. Shinji was actually Kyuubey.

Happily accept criticism both for story as well as the story itself. Arigato!

Title: Moonlight sonata

I awoke from my slumber by a high-pitched scream that send my foggy mind reeling. Involuntarily I shuddered and was suddenly fully alert. Scanning the surroundings, I realized that I had fallen asleep at my workdesk at school. I stapled up from my desk and started walking towards the corridor. I somehow knew exactly where the scream had come from. How I couldn’t say, I just knew.

The pitch black darkness and eerie, heavy air were making it hard to breath, let alone move. Outside, the rain was pouring down, sounding crescendos of endless small taps that were only interrupted by the lightning. A lightning strike lit up the corridor partially, revealing the blood on the floor, small droplets gleaming. My heart skipped a beat and my adrenalin started to flow.

Just behind me I could hear footsteps. I started to run and passed a room with its door open. Without thinking I entered it and immediately after the lightning struck again. My eyes were drawn to a student hanging lifeless from a snare, staring down at me with a grotesque expression. Again my heart skipped a beat and with the footsteps coming ever closer I noticed an open window…

Horror in the Auditorium
by Mattilde C. Arredondo
aka Castrolmatt


[Her name is Mona; she was on her way to a school she has not seen since her discharge. She looked out the window with dismay as rain began to tap across the glass. She was meeting a young detective by the name of Anders. She was dropped off at the school.
“Mona?” asked Anders.
“Yes, and you are Anders,” she said gripping her stuffed bunny rabbit.
“Right. Shall we?” Anders led the Mona to the auditorium.
They entered the dimly lit room. Mona grabbed Anders’ hand.
“What’re you doing?”
“I had a dream, we marry some day.” Mona said with a smile.
“You know, I don’t really believe in psychics/mediums, but the chief wanted you to try to contact the deceased. Focus!”
Mona’s smile turned to a frown. She closed her eyes and concentrated, soon she saw children with their brains blown out. She could feel their eyes on her. Mona began to repeat “Go away,” until she broke down crying.
“Mona! What’s wrong?”
“There’s something else here.”
This time even Anders could see it; a black figure with charred skin.
Anders grabbed Mona and took her out of the auditorium, “I won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise.”]



I would like to add more to it, but given the rules, this is what I came up with.
I appreciate your time reading it and it was a fun contest!
Thanks!!!