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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

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 324 stories

“All the Voices” by Kaylee Tinsley

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I step outside, the leaves are on fire. Panting, I run straight past the pile of leaves that had, only moments before, been a symbol of fall and new beginnings.   I run straight past the hot dog cart that has been there ever since I can remember. My mom used to bring me here as a kid. We were happy then- but that was before. Now, in place of the friendly older man who promises a smile with every sale, there is a monster with his sharp teeth bared and claws poised to attack.  Where are you going? I’m here to help yo...

75 comments 75
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“Gardening in Hell” by Spencer Steeves

Submitted to Contest #63

Gardening In Hell By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. "Ugh, I overslept again," I muttered to myself, walking along the winding, uneven path that led from my house towards the flower beds I maintained in my free time. The fires only started at half-past noon, never a moment later. If it wasn't for these trees' punctual and practical design, nobody would ever know what time it was in the Aboveworld. Though, to be fair, I couldn't fathom why anybody would need that particular information. I raised my eyes to ...

9 comments 9
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“Ghosts and Falling Leaves” by Crystal Lewis

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.I felt it as soon as I awoke. The subtle shift in the air, the sudden surge of life’s busy bustling, the quickening of the sun rising in the east, as night-time tried to steal the day from the sun’s golden fingertips.Autumn was here.I breathed deeply, feeling the faint chill that touched the air and the smell of sickly-sweet, damp earth and everything being overripe.I had chosen this spot specifically for the great trees that towered above my small little cabin. In the autumn, their leav...

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“The Cabin” by 💖♎ℂℍℝ𝕀𝕊𝕋𝕐 ℍ𝕆𝔽𝔽𝕄𝔸ℕℕ♎💖

Submitted to Contest #63

"By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. There was nothing I could do. No water to speak of since the cabin is so far out of town." Jaxon said with a huff as he watched the cabin slowly burn.There's a lake right there, Jaxon!" Sawyer pointed to the water. "Why didn't you grab a bucket? There is a bucket!""I know there is." Sarcasm was thick in the air. "You mean this bucket?" Jaxon showed it to her. She looked at it and laughed."Why doesn't it have a bottom?" Sawyer threw up her hands."You tell me and we'll both know." He ran...

4 comments 4
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“Aureolus Ashes” by Elizabeth Inkim

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I was too late. I didn’t find the bomb in time. Ashes rained down from the sky. The glittering cinders caught the fading twilight sun. Standing on the steps of the Fleurs Séchées ball, I watched the once vibrant fields of lavender turn into a sea of flames. Releasing a breath, I could not help but stare at the burning trees. Gilded tongues of fire licked up the barks of the surrounding forest trees, igniting the once full canopy into a dazzling inferno. Lurid towers of ash and smoke bur...

25 comments 25
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“The Mask of Life” by Rachel Cerbito

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I was fascinated of the true beauty of nature. The blue clouds that genuinely brought happiness to my cold and dejected heart. The sun that was really transparent without any prejudices. It made me feel exceptional. I decided to find a shady place to lean on. I finally found one. I was mesmerized of the gigantic tree with lush leaves and felt secure, for it would be my shield from hypocrite sunbeams. I stayed there for a long time, and felt the light touch of wind on...

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“Feuille-morte­” by Prachi Kumbhare

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. A maple abscissed over the top-soil of the green grass in the park. I fetched out the deckchair to the park with me. It was crispy, so I put on a vest. My residence was right across that maple tree in a wooden house. It was just like me. Old, rusty, yet lively and attractive. I was seated next to the tree in the park, waiting for my friend, Greg. I was munching some apples a kid gave me and observing people at a glance.I felt nostalgic by seeing a couple who was sitting across me on a b...

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“This Corner of Hell” by Philip Clayberg

Submitted to Contest #63

When I stepped outside the command center at base camp, all the leaves along the perimeter were on fire. The view through the transparent front shield of my helmet was like looking at the outer edges of Hell itself. Trees were like huge torches. Bushes were reduced to nothing but piles of dust and ash on the ground. The temperature gauge on my right wrist read 200ºC and still climbing.I don't think I had ever felt that much heat before, except the first time I left the reservation and visited the foundry where my father worked. Without an em...

18 comments 18
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“Melancholic Beauty” by DeMStiny - Queen Of Writing

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. On fire due to an unstoppable pain in the heart. I felt it, the pain that autumnal leaves had. Then I started walking there.Leaves of those oak trees were in a mournful mood as me. The moment was sad but the whole environment had a beautiful and eye catching scenery which suits the mourn. The total environment had only few specific colours. Mostly at that time period the lady milieu seemed to be wearing an orange mixed brown dress. The ground below to those oak trees was exactly a beaut...

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“The case of the GrassYard cafe.” by Fplldg Wakdwwdg

Submitted to Contest #63

  N.B: A general parody of Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. I'm not even close to his shoe's level but, just wanted to give it a try as a fan. In this parody, Jhonlock is equivalent to Sherlock, Sherlson is equivalent to Watson. Decided to keep Mycoft and Moriarty unchanged.  The case of the GrassYard Café :     By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It's Autumn alright, the season of letting go. But in my case, it brought an end to my long wait for a vacation I wa...

9 comments 9
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“Lead By A Dream!” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #63

(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.) ) By The time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire….but WAIT, I’m getting ahead of myself,  a tale this fine needs to be told correctly! ~~~~~ The passage of time is agonizingly slow or is it so fast we cannot comprehend.  That is the thing about the tunnels of time and terror.  They are different for each man or woman, each creature who enters.  If there was but one defin...

3 comments 3
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“Pillar's Power” by Cheryl H

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire! Pillar just stood there, in total shock while I ran to get the water hose to try to put the blaze out. She kept staring at her hands murmuring to herself “What happened? What did I just do?”. Thankfully, one of my neighbors, Patrice, who was also outside walking her dog saw the fire and immediately called the fire department. Within minutes, firefighters arrived on the scene and hosed down the tree in our front yard. I explained to them that I didn’t know exactly how the fire got starte...

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“Withering Dreams On An Autumn's Evening” by Christopher G

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire,” thought Kurt Lawson as he strummed his harp in an uncomfortable chair beside his grandmother Iris who lay on the cheaply built hospital bed. Not a modicum of sentience coursed through her rapidly dying body. Her own name roused irony as her irises were tinted a milky and discolored gray from their usual beam of intoxicatingly icy blue. Iris had taught Kurt to play the instrument, and he, like any perfectionist, sharpened his skills so that it would be virtually impossible to discern t...

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“Autumnal Fire” by Tim Maddox

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The winter lockdown had extended so long that it stole the blooming spring, and then it stole the joys of summer, but now with the maples turning to their blazing orange I was free. As a society we had come close to losing our minds from the forced isolation. Some pessimists still claim it is a flash in the pan, that the iron bars will swing shut again. It is not an idle thought. The killer still lurks out there and our leaders continue to fear it, right or wrong. For me though, I wante...

3 comments 3
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“Fall Fires (and Other Things That I Deal With on a Daily Basis)” by Nataleigh Sandberg

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Now, how they got that way is rather complicated, so I'd prefer not to tell you. But alas, when I introduce a story like that, it's hard to not tell you. So I'll start from the beginning. 30 minutes Earlier I stepped outside onto my front porch, and was greeted by a chilly gust of autumn wind. I tightened my scarf and smiled to myself as I stepped out from under the porch, and overlooked the many piles of colorful leaves placed in neat piles all around the front yard. The sun hid behind...

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