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Scary story contest winners
Tamara Mondragon of Passow Elementary School in Franklin Park provided us with this piece of artwork with her scary story.
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Updated: October 26, 2012 10:31AM
Pioneer Press invited our young readers to send us the scariest story they could imagine for our annual Scary Stories contest. Our third-, fourth- and fifth-grade writers didn’t disappoint. They showed plenty of imagination and talent. We read the stories and picked first-, second- and third-place winners in each grade. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
FIFTH GRADE
FIRST PLACE
“Zombie Pig”
Farmer Pete was a poor farmer. He barely had any food for his animals. They all died except for one pig, who the farmer loved and fed with almost all of his food.
The pig was very loyal to his owner. He stayed near the owner because the pig was scared of all the wolves by their farm.
The wolves were very fierce and wanted to kill that pig for their supper. But the farmer kept the pig safe and let the pig sleep with him at night.
One morning, after the farmer slept for the whole night, he awoke and couldn’t find his pig. After looking everywhere, the farmer finally found the pig, but the pig was dead.
When the farmer finally saw this, it was a sad sight. However, soon the farmer went on and went to do his work.
After work, he read his book before he went to bed. Suddenly, he heard a soft whispering sound that said, “oink, oink, oink.” The farmer thought he was just hearing things and kept on reading. A couple of minutes later, he heard a sound that was even louder that said, “oink, oink, oink.”
This time he thought he was just hearing the wind. Though a couple of minutes later he heard a loud sound that said, “oink, oink, oink! The farmer had enough and busted down his door open and below was the pig that Farmer Pete loved. But the pig looked mad and different. The pig was dark green with his body parts stitched together.
The pig jumped on the farmer. The farmer pleaded to the pig to remember how much the farmer loved him and all the good food he gave the pig to eat. But the pig was evil now and bit the farmer on the leg. The farmer was so sad that the pig bit him, that he died of a broken heart. To this day the pig attacks unsuspecting farmers everywhere. “Oink, oink, oink!” — Grace Richards, Whittier School, Oak Park
SECOND PLACE
“Halloween Party”
Hi, my name is Cathy. Guess what?! The cutest boy in school asked me to go to his Halloween party, but he’s weird. He hates the sun, he’s very, very, very pale and he carries an umbrella when it’s sunny. His name is Max. For some strange reason he wants my Pomeranian puppy named Maggie. Anyways, the party takes place at his mansion on Halloween night and I’m going. I’ll have to wear a gown, but which one? I chose a purple gown with fake flowers on it. Max is sure to like it. Tonight is the party and I can’t wait …
My Dad drove me to the party and he waited until I was inside then went back home. I brought Maggie with, since I knew Max liked her. As soon as I walked into the party with Maggie on her leash, Max greeted me. Max’s house was like one big ballroom. Thousands of women in huge gowns and men in slick bullet black suits. Once I was in and Max was gone, I decided to explore the place. I saw a door and it was locked, but I opened it with my hair band. It was dark in there. Some bats flew in my face.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Vampire!!!!” BOOM, the lights went out! “Max? Is that you?” All of a sudden Max appeared. He was even more pale than before and he had fangs! I didn’t know the whole school’s boyfriend was a vampire! “I VANT YOU!!!!” Max said. Then, I remembered I had onions at dinner that night. I breathed on him. He disappeared into thin air.
Max is NOT my boyfriend, he is a vampire, how do I escape? A window! I grabbed Maggie and jumped. Down I went. We landed in a pool, SPLASH!!!! I went home.
My Dad said “Why are you home so soon, sweetie?” I answered by saying, “Max isn’t what I thought he was.” We just laughed. — Christine Donovan, Whittier School, Oak Park
THIRD PLACE
“Beware of the Other House”
Once upon a time in a land, there was a house in the beautiful city of Chicago. This was the worst trick-or-treat house in the WORLD! I’ll tell you why. This house had zombie dogs guarding it and if you went over there the dogs would swallow you whole! If you were to enter (which is highly unlikely!) fingers would crawl up your nose and tickle your brain. Your own grandmother would try to murder YOU!!!
George Washington would come out of nowhere and swing an ax to try to kill you! Loose eyeballs would jump at you. Stalagmites would come out of nowhere to try to rip your head off! Nobody has ever tried to TP this house EVER!!!! Scorpions try to sting your FACE! Bears will claw at your eyes! Jaguars will jump at you! Snakes will slither into your ears!
That is, if you survive the Dogs!
The End ( or maybe just for you!)
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! — Angel Lopez, Roy School, Northlake
FOURTH GRADE
FIRST PLACE
“Gone Missing”
Many years ago in the city of Oak Park there was a man named Sean. He worked for the Haz-Mat team.
One day on his way home from work he saw a fire in a factory and tried to help. He ran into the factory and heard a lot of screaming. He opened a door that took him to the tunnels of the factory. All of a sudden there was an explosion and he was covered in poison gas.
Over the next few days he started coughing, his tongue turned purple and his eyes turned yellow. He became scared and wondered what was happening to him. He started to feel evil and wanted to hurt somebody.
A couple of years later, two friends named and John and Frank were walking near the burned out factory. John asked Frank if he wanted to check out the tunnels. When Frank said yes, John laughed and said, “I hope we don’t see the tunnel monster.”
John stared walking to the factory and Frank walked slowly after him.
Frank was scared but he did not want to admit it to John. Frank had heard that other kids had gone missing while playing near the factory.
John made it to the factory first and went over by the tunnels. In the blink of an eye he was gone. Frank ran over to see if John was pulling a prank on him. When he got there he did not see John. Frank got scared and turned to run away, but the tunnel monster grabbed him and pulled him down into a tunnel.
John and Frank were never seen again.
Sean went back in the tunnel to wait for his next victim. — Richard Jones, St. Giles School, Oak Park
SECOND PLACE
“Smoky Man”
My name is Jimmy and I live across the street from the forest preserve. If I look out my kitchen window I can watch the leaves change color, fall off and snow and ice cover the branches. You can see deer eating the bark off of trees and if you are lucky you might see their babies. The forest preserve is a wonderful, magical place except for last year.
Early October I was looking out the window when I saw smoke coming out of the forest. I thought there was a fire but my mom said it was too wet from all the rain to be a fire. I was worried about the smoke, so I watched out the window until bedtime.
Every night I watched and waited. A few nights later I saw the smoke again. This time it seemed to be a large man with a head of smoke. By the time I called my mom to come and see he was gone.
Every night he would come and I would watch until he disappeared taking the smoke with him. For weeks he never missed a night in the forest and I never missed a night at the window.
One day our neighbor was talking to my mom. My mom told her about the smoky man in the forest. Our neighbor laughed when she heard the story.
I was confused. There was nothing funny about a man with smoke for a head who stared at me and walked around the forest!
My mom explained that the man I saw was a neighbor from down the street who liked to walk his dog in the forest preserve. The smoke I thought was his head came from the pipe the man smoked every time he walked his dog. The mystery was solved and I wasn’t worried any more until I saw our neighbor with his dog in his backyard but when I looked out the kitchen window the man with the smoky head was in the forest preserve. Staring at me like always. — James Di Paolay, Rhodes School, River Grove
THIRD PLACE
“Vampires”
One dark evening, an ordinary boy named Luke, his dog Oberweis and his friends were at Luke’s house. All of a sudden, the vampire leader bit them! They all turned into vampires! They had blue fangs with red eyes.
Luke became the leader of the “Fangs.” They are called this because together they have 36 fangs. Their red eyes can hypnotize you. After two minutes, you can died. They kill almost everybody they see. Watch out for the Fangs!
The gang went to the mayor’s house. Luke bit the mayor. There were security cameras everywhere. The people of Wab City saw everything. Vampires became outlaws.
One stormy night, the Fangs were in their expensive clubhouse and were thirsty. They were plotting to turn everybody into vampires. Suddenly, Luke had an awesome idea. They would launch a bomb over Wab City filled with vampire potion. When the bomb goes “BOOM,” everyone will become a vampire.
Luke and his friends worked on the plan. They tried it out on a boy, but he turned into a frog because they were missing an ingredient. The boy went crazy and tried to hurt them. The Fangs got angry and locked him in a cellar.
It took a long time to make a new potion. They needed an ingredient — frog juice. They didn’t know where to get it so they went to the boy. They were happy that they finally had the potion ready. They installed it in the bomb.
They went to the Halloween pep rally in Wab City. They couldn’t figure out where to put the bomb so they walked a mile. Then they remembered that they could fly so they flew over the whole city.
They finally found a scary place to put the bomb. It was the mayor’s office! They were in and out in three seconds. Once they put it down, they set the timer for five minutes. The pep rally was supposed to last an hour. But it only lasted five minutes because the bomb exploded. The potion went everywhere. Everyone was turned into a vampire. Now everyone was out for blood. — Luke Coffey, St. Giles School, Oak Park
THIRD GRADE
FIRST PLACE
“The Coca-Cola Machine”
It was a dark and windy night. My friend, her dad and other friends were talking in a very old cabin. All of a sudden the dad said, “I have to go back to the lodge. You guys stay here. OK?”
“OK,” said the girls.
The girls only stayed there for a minute until one girl said, “I am scared. Let’s go back to the lodge.” The others agreed. When they were walking by the cafeteria, one girl said, “do one of you guys have a flash light?”
“No, why?” said the others.
“Because it’s not that dark,” said the girl. All of
a sudden the girls turned their heads and saw a glowing red thing spying on them behind a tree. The girls looked back at the cafeteria. The Coca-Cola machine was not there. They looked back at the tree. Then one girl screamed. “It’s the Coca-Cola machine!”
All of the girls screamed like scared horses and they all ran as fast as a cheetah back to the lodge where I was building a fort made out of blocks for me and my brother. All of the girls said at the same time, “We saw the Coca-Cola machine!” They said panting like a tired dog. But I just stared at them like they were crazy cans of coke. Then I said, “You guys are crazy and you’re just trying to scare me.”
But the girls said, “No we are not. We saw it spying on us. Behind a tree. It was glowing red too.”
Then my mom said it was time to go to bed. Then the girl and her dad went back to their very old cabin but, when the girl looked at the tree the Coca-Cola machine was gone.
And so, when it is dark, windy and you are walking with your friends in the forest by the cafeteria watch out for the Coca-Cola machine. — Elise Vivas, Lincoln School, Oak Park
SECOND PLACE
“The Cursed Bathroom”
It was a dark and stormy night in California in a campground where a boy named William Thompson lay awake. He couldn’t sleep, because he had heard a rumor about a bunch of kids going missing at this campground. The first kid to go missing was in 1935. His name was John Philips. He was going to the bathroom. And William knew that every single kid who went to the bathroom at night was never seen again.
He also knew that the bathroom was cursed.
He had to go to the bathroom really bad. But he didn’t want to go to the cursed bathroom. He looked at his watch. It was 12 a.m. Good, it’s almost morning. Because the bathroom was not cursed in the daytime. The he could go to the bathroom and it was not haunted. But he had to go to the bathroom so bad! Then he decided ah, I’ll just go and be back really quick.
Then he walked out of the tent. And he walked down the spooky path, which was connected by other paths to the spooky bathroom.
Then he opened the bathroom door and he saw a bunch of skeletons. Then he heard a bang and everything went black and cold and he died!!!
And his body was never found!!! — Mitch Brumirski, Lincoln School, Oak Park
THIRD PLACE
“Peter and the Rising Haunted House”
It all started in a cabin in the woods. A boy named Peter went hunting. He saw a fox and ran to chase it. Suddenly, a creepy old house started coming out of the ground. Peter went inside and stepped on a button on the floor. A net came out of the ceiling and fell on him!
Then the door fell over and in came three monsters and a vampire. The vampire didn’t see Peter and ran over him.
Peter broke free of the net but, when he stepped outside, 20 ghosts, vampires and monsters surrounded him! Peter ran back in. Another monster was inside! The monster frightened Peter and he stepped on the button again. This time it set off TNT and the monster exploded into 20 more monsters.
Peter knew the only way out was a window. He jumped out the window and landed on a gravestone.
Five seconds later he felt the gravestone rise and out came two skeletons. Peter jumped over them and started running, but he ran into a monster. The Peter saw a ghost rise out of the chimney … then a man with red eyes came and attacked him. Peter fell into a trap and the scary things started to fall on him!
Peter ran down a tunnel and ended up in a room. He found a cannon in there and a ladder, too. He leaned the ladder against the wall and fired the cannon at the ceiling.
The remains came crashing down and Peter climbed up the ladder.
Suddenly a vampire started chasing Peter. The vampire tripped on the button and the house and all the scary things exploded. Peter escaped and ran home.
After that, Peter decided not to be a vampire for Halloween. — Michael Drobot, Longfellow School, Oak Park
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