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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story in which characters are warned not to go into the woods.

Posted in Mystery on Jan 7, 2021

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✍️ 102 stories

“Little Red Riding Hood” by Heidi Hanson

I am used to the chemical smell in the air. We all are. We all have to be. It coats our throats and hurts when we breath, but we fight through it. There simply aren’t enough gas masks to go around. We don’t have a choice. We need food. We need wood to keep the furnaces going.  Without the precious logs that others bring in, we would all freeze to death in the only thing keeping us safe fro...

15 comments 15 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Don't Go Into the Woods” by Janetra Waters

Eldmere, Finland"Äiti, why can't we go into the woods again?" a small seven-year-old boy asks, voice curious, as he gets into bed. He pulls his covers over him as he lays down. The boy's mother gives him a small smile and helps him settle in. The moonlight casts a soft glow through the window."The woods are very dangerous." she answers him, sitting on the bed. "And holds a great evil within that preys on people." the boy looks at his mother with curious yet confused eyes."The Näkki live there." she supplies...

11 comments 11
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“Forests of Bone” by Joshua G. J. Insole

1“You remember where to shoot ‘em?”“In the head! Always in the head!”“Good girl.” He tousled her blonde hair. It was short and cropped so that it couldn’t get caught on anything. Short hair also meant that nothing could grab it very easily, either. “Did you remember to do it?”A guilty silence. Her eyes looked shiftily from side to side. She didn’t know what he was talking about...

11 comments 11
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“The dark side” by Yoomi Ari

They say we all have a beast contaminated in our souls but the beast can come out, like William Golding said, “Evil is written inside of us and society is the only thing that can keep it in.” Nothing can stop it. Basically Good vs Evil, however evil can sometimes overtake.Streaming tears cleansed her red, wind-slapped cheeks. Few droplets remained, forgetting their way as the path was swept from beneath them, consequently blurring Rachel’s vision with waves of sadness only the broken encounter. The salty ...

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“The Man in the Woods” by Sarah Kreiger

She could feel him out there.   No, she couldn't see him, but he was out there in the woods, watching.   Standing out on her porch Macy stared out into those woods, holding her mug of tea tight in her hands. She was scanning the area where the trees lined up almost perfectly along her b...

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“Don't Go Into The Woods” by Adriana K. Maxwell

“Don’t go into the woods,” they said. Do not go under the emerald leaves, do not venture on the twisted paths. Fools see a shortcut; wise men went around. Strange things lurk there. “Stay in the light,” they said. The shadows move. If they catch you, if they touch you, they will steal your shape and leave you flat. “Don’t trust the beautiful,” they said.  Don’t look at their faces, beautiful women though they seem, or their eyes will trap you. Look behind. They have no backs. Hollow they a...

3 comments 3
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“The Escape” by Melanie S.

We lived in a quiet town - a small one too. There were only fifty or so kids in our high school class. Everyone knew everyone; there was nowhere to hide. When they said you could never go into The Escape, you obeyed, no questions asked.  The Escape - where do I begin? On the outskirts of town was a large wooded area that paralleled the highway. It was an appealing place for those who enjoy...

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“The Danger in the South Woods” by Kaysie Davis

“What do you mean, you dared Barrie to go in the South Woods?” I was trying to keep my anger out of my voice. The little boy in front of me was digging his foot into the dirt. “Tell me what happened. Right now, Burton!”“I didn’t think he’d actually do it.” Burton’s grey eyes were wide. “He was bragging about how brave his is and how he could do anything! He was calling me a scardy cat because I wouldn’t go climb trees with him! So, I told him that he still wasn’t brave enough to go into the South Woods!”

2 comments 2
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“Guilt” by Najwa Zandlo

Growing up around here, we heard all the stories. To us, they were tall-tales – passed down through the generations around campfires and told in the dark with a flashlight held under your chin. They weren’t real. I heard so many variations on what was hiding in the woods. In some stories, it was a monster comparable to the abominable snowman. In others, it was a witch brewing stray children in her cauldron. The lesson was the same in each one, though – don’t go into the woods. Don’t go into the woods in the morning or night. Don’t go into...

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“don't go into the woods” by Waverley Stark

Andy sneaked out of her house when she heard the bedroom doors shut and saw the lights twinkle out of the candles. She grabbed a bundle next to the front door and tried hard not to grin.“You need to be careful around here,” Arabella said.Frozen gras...

2 comments 2
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“The Antics of Erik the Drunk” by Lee Witkowski

Erik the Drunk was drunk again. By this point, the townspeople had stopped keeping track of how many times they had awoken to his intoxicated yelling in the middle of the night. They had stopped ushering their children quickly away from his crooked finger pointing and his twisted mouth laughing in their direction. They often saw Erik swaggering up and down the town’s dusty main street, pretending to face off with dragons or bandits or barter with invisible merchants, but a...

3 comments 3
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“The blue-haired witch” by Marte Van Der Linden

Grandma used to tell me all sorts of stories before she fell ill. She told me about the witch who lived far away in the deep dark woods and would grant wishes. But only if you completed the tasks she set you. If you failed, she would cook you and eat you.I loved listening to those stories. Once, when I was about six, I declared that I would go and find the witch and ask her to give me wings so I could fly. But grandma grabbed my shoulders with her bony fingers and shook me until my teeth rattled. “Never do that!” she said. S...

3 comments 3
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“What Lurks Outside the Forest” by Lily Kingston

“Hey, do you ever wonder what’s out there. In the forest?” “Emma!” I hushed. “You know we’re not allowed in there! Sister Scarlett warned us, remember? It’s dangerous!” “But what makes it dangerous?” Emma questioned. “My granny said out ...

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“The Big Surprise” by Deborah Mercer

It was one of those days that seemed so close to perfect it was hard to know whether to glory in it or not quite trust it. The mid-morning May sunlight was clear and warm, but there was just a little breeze to stop it being too warm, especially when it was filtered through the burgeoning crowns of the trees just come into full, hopeful, rich springtime leaf and it made little dapples on the sandy paths in the woodland. To the left and right of the paths, in both shade and sunlight, the bluebells clumped together as...

1 comment 1 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Diamond Pond” by Renée Chatelain

My people fear the forest.  Why?  I don’t know. No one in the village or in my family has ever told me why. All they say is “do not venture past the forest’s edge,” or “your fate will meet you if you traverse the forest’s domain.” Sometimes they simply say “you will die if you dare enter the forest; do not...

4 comments 4
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