Friday Story 4 - Joe Craig

[WP Central]

Kris was already half way up his street before he noticed anything weird. He pulled his earphones out and hitched his school bag higher on his shoulder. Why was there nobody else around? Usually when he got home from school his road was pretty busy. There should at least have been one or two people who’d got off the bus with him. But there was nobody.
He walked more quickly, peering into the homes as he went, searching for a sign of life – something that would tell him he was just being paranoid. Then he noticed the only sound – the insistent wail of a car alarm. Chris jogged the last few steps to his front door. He was so busy looking around him and reaching for his key that he nearly tripped on the object that was sitting on the front step: a box. A sealed cardboard box, planted squarely in front of the door.
Kris reached over it to open the front door, but has he pushed his key into the lock, the door swung open.
“Mum?” Kris shouted. “Dad? Tami?” His voice was blown away along the street. Kris shivered and went to edge round the box and go inside. But that’s when he noticed that coming from the cracks in the corners of the cardboard box was a soft blue glow.

[Sarah Love Mandurah Cath Coll WA]

Niamh Loader, Chandler Besson and Alyssa Palladino, Mandurah Catholic College, Australia

Shivers ran up and down his spine as the glow grew in strength. He took two shuffling footsteps towards the box and poked it with his big toe. The box stayed innocently still and Kris felt brave enough to get closer. He crouched down beside it and flipped the lid open with his finger. The light blinded him and he scrunched up his eyes in pain. When his eyes had adjusted he leaned over and stared into the box.
A vast expanse of aqua blue sky swirled beneath him the clouds floated along leaving wispy trails of white. Kris’s eyes widened and he leaned over to skim his finger over a passing cloud. A large gust of wind brushed against his face and pulled him into the box. Kris screamed as he tumbled over and over. He shut his eyes and waited for his life to end, praying that God would forgive him for when he had strapped his sisters teddy bear to the wheel of a tractor when he went to the farm at the age of five. The swishing wind filled his ears and then abruptly stopped. He opened his eyes cautiously, and then stared around him in wonder.

[Caroline Roche]

As he looked around him shivers went up his spine.
“Where am I?” he asked himself.
A mysterious voice appeared repeatedly saying “Kris you are in the future”
He tightly closed his eyes praying that he was dreaming, but when he opened them he was still there.
As he looked around he didn’t recognise anything apart from, wait a minute what was that, it was a red door at the bottom of his street, could it be his house?
RUN! There was a scarecrow in a dumper truck and it had a pitch fork trying to catch him up. Kris ran for all his life, not knowing where to go.
“I thought this was the future, not some horror movie!” he screamed
Kris ran to the red door and jumped inside the house, he could see a family all sitting at the table having dinner, there was a mum, dad and a daughter
Kris listened to what they were saying.
“Kris’s funeral will be in 4 days, so if you all want to write a message”
“No mum I just want my Kris back!”

By Anna Gibbs-Murray and Ashleigh Savoury (Year 8)

[Anita Vine]

He listened in horror, he wondered why they were saying this In the future , was he really going to die at such a young age? He realised that Tami was crying in her mums lap.
“This can’t be true” he kept repeating to himself.
He felt something prickling the back of his neck. It was the scarecrow. He turned around feeling a chill all over his body. The scarecrow was staring at him with his big beady emerald eyes. He had a face with straw poking out of every corner. His pitch fork had blood stains as red as a ruby. Kris ran upstairs into his room and could hear footsteps behind him .Kris realised that his room had blood stains on the floor and nail scratches on the wall. was this how he had died? When he turned round the scarecrow was gone...
By Charlotte and Annaliese (y7) Pendle Vale Collage

[Craig Martin]

Kris looked up,down and all around for the scarecrow but it had
disappeared."Am I Crazy? Deluded? Or just seeing things?" Kris whispered
to himself "What's with that scary scarecrow anyway?"
He double checked the blood stained room to see if the scarecrow was
hiding.It had gone completely.He moved into the kitchen and shouted to the
family "look at me! I'm alive!"
"They can not hear you Kris..." A dark shadowy figure was behind him
carrying a silver scythe clean enough to see his pale white face looking
back at him. "There is no point trying, it is not you time."
"W-w-who are you? w-what are you...? How do you know my name?" he stuttered.
The Skeletal man laughed and stared into Kris's eyes and held up the
cardboard box in his rotting hands. This time it was glowing a blood red.
"How did I G-g-get here? What's that box?" The Dark man looked at the box
grinning, "beware the hare that lies upon the shield and regard the fox as
an ally."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kris asked angrily but before he finished
his question the Skeletal man had vanished, leaving only the box and Kris
alone.

By Mollie and Bethany (YR7) Hadleigh High School

[Anita Vine]

Kris thought about the rhyme and wondered what it must mean. Was it a riddle or was the answer right under his nose. He thought and thought and realised what this could mean. Beware of the people with a hare on their shield , think the fox as a friend. What people with hares on their shields and what fox he thought . ”This must be a clue to this mysterious death I seem to have” he shouted. He heard his family talking in the background on the phone and then he heard the words “ Have you found the murderer yet? “ Kris heard Tami crying again. ”Yes , it was a murder . have you seen his bedroom!!?”Mum said again. Kris felt like he was going to be sick. I was murdered he thought. He stepped out of the house still feeling pale and sweaty. He was determined to find out who did it. Then he turned around and what he saw was his worst nightmare, poking through a bush was a blood stained pitch fork and big emerald eyes...
By Charlotte and Annaliese (y7)Pendle Vale Collage

[Bev Humphrey, Woolwich Poly, UK]

The scarecrow was waiting for him like when an animal hunts it prey. Shaken through fear he stands their like a statue , while the scarecrow holds his pitch fork. Those big emerald eyes glanced at him like, an eagle waiting to swoop down on a mouse. He start thinking about what to do next to go to the scarecrow or just sit lost in his thoughts. After a while he didn’t decide so he ran and ran and ran, As far as he could go. But he still wondered about what that scarecrow was doing, at his house. He didn’t move he just sat their in silence waiting for the right time to go back and just get out of this nightmare. He still couldn’t get his head around what was going on, if this was real or a nightmare. After a while he gained the strength and set off to find the scarecrow and finish this....
by Tommy and Adam from Woolwich Polytechnic school

[Linda Thiebaud]

As Kris set out searching for the strange scarecrow he wondered “where has everyone gone?” he still ran until he was out of breath. When he looked up he was in the outskirts of town, there in front of him was the scarecrow. The scarecrow said in a raspy voice, “Come with me child.” The scarecrow snapped his fingers and a door appeared, “Enter child” and Kris followed the scarecrow into a strange place. “ do you know why all of this has happened child?” “No, no I don’t, where am I!” “You have been brought here because you are dead” “how?” Kris shuddered at the thought of him dead “how am I dead?” the scarecrow replied, “let me tell you….

[WP Central]

Paragraph from Monks Walk School
I’ve had enough of this. What does this freaky scarecrow want with me anyway? It crept out the bush towards him, I planted my feet to the ground. As It came nearer, my bravery started to waver. It carried on coming closer until he is right up to my face, then suddenly it shouted “WHY THE HELL WERE YOU RUNNING AWAY! I TAKE THE EFFORT OF COMING HERE AND YOU RUN AWAY. DESPICABLE!”

While I was taking in his words, I also thought of how his breath smelt of straw. I just stood there staring into it’s emerald eyes and finally muttered, “So you’re here to help me then?”

[Dhesiree Ellery Maggioni]

... this: you don't know, but you're the heir of a powerful ring that can resuscitate every kind of life and that can create whatever you want. A lot of people tried to steal the ring from you, but I have been protecting you since you were born because your grandfather asked me right before he died to do that. Unfortunately,I failed and the enemy of your grandfather killed you to get the ring. All this happenned because your grandpa was the best wizard of the world and the man who killed you was jealous of him. When your grandpa died you became the guardian of the ring and because of this he murdered you." Kris started to cry and the scarecrow said "Calm down! You still have a chance to come back to life. All you have to do is get back the ring and find your body." Kris stopped crying and followed the direction that the scarecrow pointed...
By Amanda Barros and Fernanda Queiroz from CBL- Brazil

[Allison Painich]

As he runs down the hall, it is covered with blood. He walks into his parents room and sees his dad lying on the floor with blood gushing out from all parts of his body. As he sits there in silence, he sees an arm come out from under the bed. In the dark, the scarecrow pops out. Thrilled with excitement, he runs to the door. He screams, "Mum" from the top of his lungs. At first, the door would not open, but suddenly the hinge broke off. As he ran outside screaming with horror, he finds his sister. He sees blood gushing from the side of her neck and asks what happened. Suddenly, she starts closing him. With fear, he runs for his life. Then finally, the scarecrow starts catching up with him and his sister with a bloody pitch fork. He trips over a rock to see the scarecrow standing over him. As he starts to close his eyes, he opens them and realizes that he was in his room dreaming. He gets out of his bed to make sure everyone is still there. When he gets back in his room, he sees his closet door start to open. Shaking with fear, he walks to the door slowly. As he reaches to open it, the scarecrow pops out with the pitchfork.

Written by: Angel, Cooper, and Cameron
Sallie Humble Elementary
Monroe, Louisiana, United States