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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Start your story with the line, “By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” (Whether this is a literal fire is up to you.)

Posted in Teens on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 324 stories

“What did that add to the narrative?” by Pepe Bellerin

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It wasn’t a convenient time for them to be ablaze as I hadn’t yet adjusted to this narrative. I was stood on the doorstep of a building I wasn’t yet familiar with, looking ahead at a road that stretched straight on into the distance. This road was flanked on either side with these strange tall trees - willow trees I think (an impressive deduction to make within a minute of existing if I do say so myself). And yes, the leaves were on fire. It wasn’t a warm fire, from what I could te...

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“Magic in the Fire” by Double Stitch

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time the nurses got outside, the leaves were on fire. The residents of Mountain Rest Nursing home shuffled to their front porch rocking chairs before the sun rose every morning. And this warm, muggy October morning was no different. The majority of residents’ bones were fragile, worn with age, that they needed assistance to get in and out of these chairs. Every morning it was the same scene. The well watered trees were covered in the same green they were back in May and some time in November, all the summer leaves would turn brown a...

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“My sister's keeper” by Julianne Baldiga

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The copious amounts of burgundy, crimson, and gold that splashed across the forest took me by surprise. The trees were standing upright and strong. On front center stage, they boldly displayed their colors. After a long summer that focused on hot rays of the sun and blue skies, the expanding color palette of the leaves cued the forest it’s his time to shine. The last time I stepped foot outside these prison walls, there was still a cold wet chill in the air. The sky was g...

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“Seasons Change But So Do You” by Clare Coyle

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time we stepped outside, the trees were all on fire. The breeze snatched the amber leaves and waltzed them way up higher.Orange, red and crimson were all up in ablaze. A scrimmage of yellow shone beneath the gold sunrays. Naked branches poked up through the madness of the coloursHigh above us beautifully, one of natures truest wondersThe wind it sings its eire song through the maze of woods aloneAs it does in every season, through every milestoneAll around us autumns here, alive in its full glory.It is waiting right now...

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“The Ember In The Wind” by Grace Sigurdson

Submitted to Contest #63

"By the time I was outside, the leaves were on fire," Sapphire told her therapist. "Then what did you see?" Dr. Green said, nodding. "There was this little ball of fire, just, walking, er floating? around." Dr. Green went deep in thought about what to say to the doctors and Sapphire. She interrupted his thoughts when she got up and walked to the window. "Doctor, it's outside," She said calmly. The doctor got up and looked out the window. He saw nothing, but people were either running away from the middle of the road or staring at, nothing...

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“An Unsuitable Season ” by Lily Lucero

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The bright leaves of ember which fluttered and scattered the sidewalks did not suit Mom being gone. Her death had come a season too early. It should have been winter, when the trees were barren and desolate of life; when everything once vibrant was drained of all substance.       “You need a jacket?” My little brother Garrett raised an eyebrow. He was always trying to take care of me; it made me feel like an insufficient elder.     &nbsp...

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“The Autumnal Adventure” by Amna Ayub

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Everywhere around were myriads of red, yellow and brown leaves who looked forlorn and desolate. The sky was deep blue accompanied by snowy clouds and they seemed to me an invitation for a thrilling adventure. On the western side, red and orange colours were spread throughout the sky just like the colour of leaves I was surrounded by. It was evening time and the sun was about to set. This is the beauty of autumn that I have adored since my childhood. Autumn is my favourite time of the ye...

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“New Autumn” by Sarah Porter

Submitted to Contest #63

CW: Mentions of suicide, anger management issues. By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I had only caught glimpses of the upcoming equinox during my six month stay at the Cedar Crest Residential Treatment Center: nurses shaking off wet umbrellas in the lobby, my psychiatrist meeting me with fallen green leaves stuck to his shoes. With no windows— that would be a hazard to us, after all— in the facility, these small clues of autumn were the only evidence of this literal change of scenery. My view, however, had not chan...

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“Fires” by Korin Enochs

Submitted to Contest #63

"By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire." I began, my eyes trained on the floor. I sat in a dimly lit therapy room, the colors resembling the warm feel of the autumn season. It had taken me six months to tell the woman sitting before me what I was forced into therapy for in the first place. Now that I had spit out the first sentence, a wave of existential dread flowed over me. What the Hell was I even doing here? I strongly believe therapy is overrated, but then again, when you aren't paying for it, you don't have much of a s...

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“Hexed” by Kara O

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. From the upstairs loft, the tendrils of smoke had looked like a mirage, a trick of the mind. But standing on the porch with the heat blazing and the leaves cracking, it couldn’t be denied. The spell had worked. And my heart bubbled with joy. And I did a little jig. Now I knew hexing my neighbors would work. Not that the spell not working would have stopped me, but now I knew it was going to work. Hosing the pile of leaves I’d raked till they were a hiss...

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“The Apple Tree” by Luna G

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” “Sir,” the officer began, head tilted to the side and pencil in hand hovering over a notepad. “Are you aware that your house caught on fire?” Tay slouched further into the couch, arms resting against his knees. In one hand he held a leaf, it’s stem between his thumb and forefinger, and he gazed deeply at it. His expression laid ambiguously between despair and calmness, one could even say, if they believed that such a thing could be seen, that his eyes were empty. “Who knew that leav...

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“The Leaves Were on Fire” by Charly Woods

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I thought back to the vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow that would dance as the wind blew shifting everything in its wake. This wasn’t a new occurrence, so I continued on my way. I tuned out the different shades focusing on the ground that was littered with more pale tones of browns as the dead leaves continued to flow downward. The rapid movement of the wind made me huddle closer in my coat, and soon my vision began to slightly blur as my focus shifted from the sidewalk to the ...

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“Hell to Play” by Tucson Richelson

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The warm sun sagged in the sky. The big blue above me bore down and invited me to keep walking forward, but it was so hard. I couldn’t help but stop and look at things. I felt reborn the way someone who has a near death experience feels alive for the first time.  The all new game from Facebook, cutely called, “Faceplace” was not anymore a game than Facebook was a game. It was a simulation, a very, very real simulation, filled with other real people.  It’s not really my cup...

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“About Halfway” by Judy Buechner

Submitted to Contest #63

About halfway By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.  Or at least that is how it felt when I, the youngest (and the only) of 7 children, was let go from a position for the 2nd time in my life.  As I am pretty sure that none of them have ever been let go… from anything.  Hey just another great experience to chalk up to my 45th year on this planet, marking about the halfway point here on Earth. It started about 7 weeks earlier when one of the other Account Managers had agreed to let me shadow him for a day.&...

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“The Kitchen Window” by Halle Brewer

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire as the colors of red, orange, and yellow, swirled and followed the gesture of the wind. The old crooked woman seems to rake it, but unfortunately, the winds are stronger, and made her bonnet fly out of her reach. It landed to my hand. I held the old worn out bonnet and gladly approached the woman. "Here you go, Mrs. Buckely," I said, as I handed her the bonnet. "Thank you dear, you have such a kind heart," She said in almost a whisper, might be because she has some problems in her sp...

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