Fortnightly Writing Competition - Spooky! ***WINNER***

Started by Ponch, Sat 13/10/2012 04:39:36

Previous topic - Next topic

Ponch



That's right! It's time for another writing competition. And since it's October, the theme is
Halloween! Write a story / poem / whatever with a suitably spooky theme and have it posted by
October 26. Any kind of scary story will do. Murder mysteries, witchy tales, unspeakable
Lovecraftian horror, unsettling happenings in a small town in Maine -- anything goes!*

Once the deadline is here, we'll vote and I'll officially announce the winner on Halloween.

I'll have trophies and candy corn ready to pass out before then. Good luck everyone!  :cheesy:

[embed=425,349]http://youtu.be/AxcM3nCsglA[/embed]

(* Even leprechauns in space!)

Baron

Nice graphic!  Who's working the sock puppet behind WHAM?  Or is that just some sort of weird neck growth?

Ponch

Quote from: Baron on Sat 13/10/2012 05:06:29
Nice graphic!  Who's working the sock puppet behind WHAM?  Or is that just some sort of weird neck growth?

Thanks! I spent almost twenty minutes drawing it on my lunch break today!  :cheesy:

And for the record, that's not WHAM. It's only a kid dressed as WHAM for Halloween (we AGSers are incredibly popular with kids, don't you know). The sock puppet is a young girl who is going trick or treating as Cat's avatar. You can see her arm and part of her hair behind not-WHAM's helmet. I can only assume her legs line up perfectly behind his, explaining why you don't see them (it's certainly not because I was in a hurry trying eat my spicy chicken sandwich at Jack in the Box and made an obvious mistake while drawing -- no sir! And I resent that you would even suggest such a thing. How dare you!)

The trick or treater costumes are (from left to right): Ryan Timothy (old avatar), Cat, WHAM, Darth Mandarb, Baron, ProgZmax, Frito Master, Tzachs, and SSH. I was hoping that the Ponch Ghost-Cow costume would be a big hit with the kids this year, but I guess I just couldn't compete with "Tireless Ron Paul Supporter." The tweens just love that dreamy Ron Paul! (Curse you, Ron! Let a cow share a little of the spotlight too!)

Ryan Timothy B

That's a great graphic, Ponch. I may even enter this competition.. I may have to dust off my writing skills.
I always knew I was hip enough for people to wear my face (and he's black). ;)

Ponch

Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Sat 13/10/2012 17:59:42
That's a great graphic, Ponch. I may even enter this competition.. I may have to dust off my writing skills.
I always knew I was hip enough for people to wear my face (and he's black). ;)

Thanks! I put almost no time into it, but it seems to have done the trick. I hope it inspires lots of people to enter the contest. And I have it on good authority that the "Ryan Timothy" mask is the most popular one in the AGS Avatar line among inner city youth, ages 8-12. Canadians have lots of "street cred" with the urban market -- but you knew that already, I'm sure.  8-)

kconan

That "Ghosts...Arson" tagline is hilarious :)  Hmmm...have a semi-spooky tale rolling around in my head.

Ponch

Quote from: kconan on Mon 15/10/2012 04:13:24
That "Ghosts...Arson" tagline is hilarious :)  Hmmm...have a semi-spooky tale rolling around in my head.

Thanks! If you look carefully, the trick or treaters are carrying shaving cream, toilet paper, a plastic bag of rotten veggies, and a carton of eggs. Ryan Timothy is also carrying some chinese takeout, but that may just be for snackin' if he gets hungry later.

I look forward to reading your story, Kconan.  :)

tzachs

Great pic!! Gonna frame it and hang above my bed!

Though I have never seen Halloween except in movies and TV shows, I feel compelled to join this competition!

I hereby declare that I'm doing this out of my free will with no outside pressure what-so-ever.
Spoiler
HELP!!
[close]

Ponch

#8
You've never experienced Halloween first hand? Oh Tzachs! You missed out on all that is best in life... Halloween is second only to Christmas morning in terms of childhood awesomeness! Oh well, at least you still have Santa Claus.

Oh wait... You're Jewish...

Oh Tzachs! You're missing out on everything that made childhood magical!

Well, at least you can still start your day off right with a nice plate of bacon and eggs. It's the simple things in life that matter the most.

Oh wait...  ;)

I look forward to reading your spooky story that I am in no way blackmailing you to write.  ;-D




----------------
p.s. And if you want to frame it, here's the full size version  :-D
http://www.barnrunner.com/pics/misc/AGS_Kidz_Large.png
The SSH mask is even creepier at this size!  ;-D

SSH

12

Ponch

Quote from: SSH on Tue 16/10/2012 18:13:01
No-one dressed up as a ghostly cow?

I know! It's an injustice! I guess Scottish Hooligan and Friendly Canadian were the more popular choices this year!  :-\

Also, where's your spooky story, SSH? This thread has lots of room for it.  :)  Oh! I know! You could write a chilling tale about a blog that rarely gets updated!  ;)

SSH

President Mitt Romney


What could be scarier! ;)
12

Ponch

Quote from: SSH on Tue 16/10/2012 19:02:52
President Mitt Romney


What could be scarier! ;)

President Cow!  :=

Vote for me and everyone gets a free gun! And all the women get free breast implants! And free spankings! And I promise to invade Canada and use its stronger economy, moose-covered oil fields, and large natural reserves of politeness to carve out another 50 states of God blessed awesomeness!! (The bagged milk we'll give to starving kids in Australia or something. Can't have that sort of abomination in my New AmericaTM!)

VOTE COW 2012!

Hmmm... I think I'm going to have a new avatar in November. Until then, get to work, SSH! Stories of haunted blogs aren't going to write themselves!  :-*

OG

Here is my entry, in the form of a poem. Before anyone asks, indeed, twas' influenced by the writings of the great Friedrich Schiller.

QuoteThere once was this nice wee pumpkin
he heard a wee bit thumpin
it came from the kitchen
the thunder and lightenin' was bitchin

A knife from the drawer
a mother and her daughter
murdered the poor wee pumpkin
Or something.

If my poem doesn't win, but can inspire atleast one person, job done.

Ponch

\:cheesy:/ Hooray! An entry! Thanks, Onker.  :smiley:

I hope the rest of you can take inspiration from Onker's fine example and compose your own entries.

Ponch

Five days left. I hope we get a few more stories!  :undecided:

Baron

I thought I saw something resembling a ghost story appear in the Afrika Korps thread... but I can't be sure if I just imagined the whole thing.

Ponch

Oh wow! That is strange! A ghostly appearance, right here on our very own forums! Gosh! Someone should write a story about that! Perhaps right here in this very thread.  ;)

Sinitrena

Alice


„... a week later the mother went to buy flowers again. She noticed that the shopkeeper now had a stump instead of her left hand...”***

The fire cracked ominously and the five young people shuddered appropriately.

“Who’s next?”

Alice shook her head. “You know nothing about ghosts...”

“I am.”, a boy said. “And I know just the right story. You see this house over there?” He tried to deepen his voice and give it a spooky cadence while he showed them the old and burned-down house on a hill not far from their bonfire. “That’s the MacAllister house. Fifty years ago, to the day, the son of the old MacAllister killed their only daughter.”

“It wasn’t the brother.”, Alice said.

“You see, he raped her a few times and the girl got pregnant and â€" even worse â€" the son was training to become a priest.”

The kids gasped in fake shock.

“There was no pregnancy and no rape. It was an ordinary burglary gone wrong.”, Alice said.

“Anyway, when the father came home that night he found the poor girl dead at the foot of the stairs. There was blood everywhere: on the ground and the walls, between the cracks of the hardwood floor, even on the ceiling...”

“There was a lot blood, that much is true, but I doubt it splattered to the ceiling...”

“The boy â€" his name was Frank, by the way â€" had stabbed her over a hundred times, ripped her unborn child out of her body and smeared blood everywhere, especially on himself.”

“The murderer was long gone when father came home.”

“The old MacAllister was devastated...”

“That much is true.”

“... and being a sorcerer and devil worshipper he called on his evil master to bring back his beautiful Alice. And evil as he was the devil agreed as long as the father sacrificed his son in a dark ritual of blood magic and death.”

“There was no dark ritual, no devil, no sacrifice, just a lot of tears.”

“And the girl came back. But the devil, being the devil, lied to the father and the girl came back changed: On the day of her funeral a decaying hand opened the coffin that was laid out in her fathers house and the young girl crawled out of it. She looked at the guests and especially at her father and then she slowly advanced on them all... Nobody knows what happened next, not exactly, but no guest survived that night and the house burned down. She’s still in this house. She can’t leave but you should not go near the ruin. Nobody who goes there survives. The lucky ones go mad and kill themselves, but most...”

Alice didn’t listen to the rest of the story. She walked slowly away to the house of her childhood. On the fragile steps to the front door sat an old man in a priest’s robe.

“Why do you still try to correct them? They can’t see you, they can’t hear you. And even if they could, they wouldn’t understand.”

Alice sat down next to the old priest and leaned her head against his shoulder.

“You are getting old.”, she said with a sad smile.

“True. So?”

“Frank, you will die one day. Whom should I talk to then?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps, when I am dead you can leave this world as well or at least our house and find an other ghost.”

“57 years. It’s been 57 years since I died. We found no explanation why I stayed behind, no explanation why you can see me and nobody else. We tried every ritual, every exorcism and I am still here. The only myth, the only theory left is that people need to stop believing in the MacAllister ghost but that won’t happen. It’s not very likely anyway.”

“No, not likely, unfortunately.”

“It gets more elaborate every year. A tragic murder, a fire during a funeral and the fact that the brother of the killed girl thought he saw her some days later...”

“Don’t talk about yourself in the third person, Alice.”

“Don’t scold me, Frank. You’re not my older brother anymore.”

“I am not?”

They both laughed a sad, companionable laugh like so many other over the years while a group of four sneaked through the old house. It was the last time they talked.

There’s this story about a girl called Alice MacAllister who was killed during a robbery and her brother Frank who died in a mental ward because he became delusional in his old age and believed to talk to his dead sister. And there’s this haunted house that burned down because someone knocked over a candle during a funeral. Some people think they hear a whisper when the wind touches the old walls. Some people even think they see a priest and a young girl sitting on the steps of the veranda laughing and talking and just living. They never approach those two because it is clear to everybody who sees them that they only need each other.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** That is basically the end of the only horror story ever that gave me nightmares for some rason. I tried to google an english version of the whole story but couldn't find one quickly. For everyone interessted (and able to read it) here is the german version.

Happy spooky (early) halloween, everybody!

Ponch

Another entry!
\:cheesy:/ \:cheesy:/ \:cheesy:/

It's becoming quite the spooktacular event in here.  :smiley:

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk