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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

“Grocery Shopping” by Gurupavan Sudhakar

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Trees had shades of orange, yellow and red. Only a few infrequent trees were still somewhat green. The sky was a bright blue dotted with clouds. Pigeons flew in cohesive groups around buildings. As I walked past the door, a cold breeze smacked my face. The weather was deceptively cold for the bright sun. I pulled the metallic zipper of my gray hoodie in order to try to negate the effects of the cold weather. I had not been outside the house in a long time due to the pandemic. But I stil...

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“The Element ” by Jennie Mead

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were already on fire. Since the turn of the season they had been a vibrant display of reds and yellows, but as soon as the flame settled down upon them they erupted into a breathtaking picture of amber and gold. Breathtaking, not because of the beauty of the colours, nor because of the awesome speed at which the small flame spread. But breathtaking fear.  It could have been me.  It should have been me.  If I’d been a good person, if I’d have told the truth, I’d have saved her. Bu...

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“Liar, Liar, Leaves On Fire” by Simran Kaur

Submitted to Contest #63

Liar, Liar, Leaves on Fire“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. And you were too Beatrice, like ignited copper.”The wind pulled at copper haired Beatrice, her hair looked more alive than she did--a dull fire in a game of tug of war with the wind. Beatrice tripped over a storm gutter breaking the illusion. She was just a girl. A girl that Agnes had missed like a warm fire. “Agnes, buddy I was gone for like a week, how did your mind apocalyze the world so quickly?” Beatrice smiled the way a fire would--flickering and fa...

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“Autumn Air” by Sage Henry

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Red and orange bloomed off the trees, devouring the few green leaves that still clung to the branches. The crisp October air filled my lungs as I watched them tremble in the breeze. The grove was at its most beautiful this time of the year, but this was the first time that I had been able to see it. The brightly colored leaves decorated the ground, burying the wilted brown grass that was dying underneath. It was a sight for sore eyes after so much time locked away inside. I sat down on...

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“Allman” by Matias Matias

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. An eternity of stories returning to the earth as all life does. Even our books cannot last forever, at least with their original intentions intact. They may physically survive but their interpretations will eventually crumble the primal concepts. The only hope of a solution to the human condition was burned to the ground by ours truly. The library of Ertus-Cenrik was a collection of books started by a man who has been present all our lives but with different faces. This man witnessed th...

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“Burnt Leaves” by Varun Balodi

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I could still hear the mysterious stranger’s voice ringing inside my head, “Your relationship was like a tree. Full of fresh, green leaves. And now, it is withering, dying. The leaves are dry and ready to break at the slightest touch of the finger. One wrong move and it all breaks. One reason to mistrust you, and it burns.” Oh, he had been so right… ________________________________ It had been late at night; I had decided to go to the local diner. An old stranger with blonde hair and ...

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“Scar Tissue” by Diona Reeves

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Not actually on fire, of course. I hadn’t been close to a real fire since my early twenties, when the world last seemed exciting and not in the least bit scary. This kind of fire was the orange, red and gold of late fall, yet I had been too shut up in my own house to notice the colors creeping into the trees. Like the dying leaves, my own life was slipping away, and it had been for years. My dog finished her business, and I let her wander a bit as I picked up the leaves cascading ...

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“Leaf Lucidity” by Tikhon McGill

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Their graceful, orderly orange-yellow forms became engulfed by chaos and inelegance of the same color. This chaos moved along each leaf, I observed, turning everything behind it into a crumbling ruin of its former self. I looked around to see if this was all, and soon found that it was. Everywhere I looked, leaves burned, soon morphing into piles of unrecognizable ash. I looked up, and found the sky was burning too, dark-grey rainclouds rushing away from the setting sun, like the smo...

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“A Replica of Goodbye” by Karl Ekstrom

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” He swallowed hard, the taste of smoke still in his mouth. “You have no idea what we went through, no idea what that psychopath did to us. I watched my friends die one by one while you assholes did nothing to help!” Myles looked at the officer across from him and scoffed at the impartial look on her face. “I know you think I did this because I’m the only left, the only one that escaped that freak’s death trap. He’s still out there though and he’s going to kill again or come for me next...

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“The Spirit of Hallahan” by Courtney Thomas

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” The scrawny, red-faced boy gasped. Breaker paused for dramatic effect and took a swig of mead, amber droplets sloshing over the sides onto the wooden table. His captive audience of one was supposed to be bussing his table, but his rag hung limply from his hand, forgotten. “Oh go on, what happened next?” he squeaked. “Well…” he whispered, leaning forward and giving a dramatic, furtive look around before continuing. “I made sure the tribe leader wasn’t looking, and I swiped a few of the...

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“Wild Fire” by Steak AndEggs

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. They were a burnt mix of brown and bright yellow. The life was slowly fading away from them. Smoke billowed throughout the trees around my home. Honestly, I was a bit surprised it spread so quickly. The tv blared in the living room. Some reporter going on about a local wildfire. I’d like to see that reporter get this close to it. I want them to taste the burning tree sap. Nobody would be crazy enough to make their way up here now. There’s far too much smoke for that. If they could only ...

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“FIRE DANCE” by Dolapo Omoleme

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I’d gotten too close to her too soon, and I’d noticed the books before I could control it. Mrs. Simpson discarded the burning books as quickly as she could and jumped a few steps back to put as much distance as possible between her and the flames. She hissed, and then scoffed, and then contented herself with a scowl. That wasn’t the first run-in I’d had with Mrs. Simpson. We’d had many run-ins in the past, some as early as a few days before the encounter on the front porch that morning....

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“The Sun and the Ashes” by Adriana Tapia

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. My dreams from countless nights had apprised me, but once I laid my eyes on it, I knew I wasn’t ready to see it. To imagine I had to endure it, what could remain from such destruction and what beautiful colors would be lost to leave behind burned wood and black piles of ashes that the October wind would make sure to vanish as well. My dreams had already warned me, and yet, I preferred to avoid it. Every morning the ache I felt on my body ended up on nothing but glimmers of denial and ...

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“YELLOW LEAVES” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #63

YELLOW  LEAVES  I walked a long time after I came out home. I started my walk towards….I did not knew where, passing through the park. Walking across the park, I felt the grass still damp under my feet, but I should say under my shoes. Feeling the grass you step on, walking on it___and your feet are inside your shoes___(feeling the grass) damp, wet, still drenched in rain, it is a sensation which I have never been able to explain myself, since I have always worn waterproof shoes. After leaving the park I walke...

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“Seven days” by Roberto Nava

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Those leaves were intended for my children to jump on when they went outside to play. Now, all they were going to find, were ashes. This was not the first time my family and I had been harassed in such way by god knows who, and it was really getting to my nerves. The police had done nothing about it and that bothered me even more. I had figured out a pattern of these attacks and I told my wife that they would come again in seven days. Seven days.“Buying a gun won’t solve anything, let t...

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