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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

“Maple” by Emmett Wrighter

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. But the tingle of smoke in my throat and lungs had nothing to do with the autumn orange and yellow spattered across the neighborhood. The simple leafy fires of October nature couldn’t compete with the vivid flames of my memory painted into the scars trailing up my arms and across my body. The twist of my mouth and ugliness of my face I knew everyone was too nice to point out, had been born from true fire. Damaging fire. I stood on my porch with the hood of my jacket far over my face...

2 comments 2
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“A Different Sort of Autumn” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I sighed. “Alexaaander,” I called in a big-sister tone. After a few moments, Alex’s face peeped out from behind a maple tree at the edge of the forest. “You always ruin the fun,” he grumbled, loping slowly to me across the leaf-scattered lawn. I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Alex. Put it out. You’ve already burned the house down once; isn’t that enough?” When he hesitated, I added, “You know, if you do, Mom’s gonna take it out on me.” Alex scowled. “Why can’t we just let it burn?” “You know...

8 comments 8
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“Fire and Identity” by Marian Reiley

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. Great, I thought to myself, this dream again. I sigh and walk down the now blazing street in my neighborhood. I know who I'm looking for and where they'll be. This time I ignore the flaming trees, I know they wont hurt me. She's standing in the middle of the park, long silvery hair dancing in the updrafts from the inferno that surrounds her. The heat smoke and fire don't seem to bother her or char her body. If that isn't weird enough, she's floating six inches ...

2 comments 2
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“Believe it or not!” by Tithi Banerjee

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.’’ What if the leaves were really on fire? Cut to day one, from where it all began, if it was anything it was a tale of mediocrity. A set life of the usual monotonous routine of heading to college and coming back and to take care of her younger brother, since her mom was suffering from over-dosage of drugs and happened to have been spending her time in some rehabilitation camp on the outskirts of the metropolis of Mumbai. Aisha had always wished how her life would be if she eve...

3 comments 3
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“Natural reality show” by Philip Ebuluofor

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It was totally engulfed in flame like the type we witness in California and Australia each year. The only noticeable difference between the California, Australia and Achara fire is that: the formers were well known places but the later is not. Again, the Australian and Californian fires were shown in televisions world wide but Achara fire is known only in Achara and environ. There is record of durability, continuity,followership and stability to deal with too.But I guess ...

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“The Heat He Brought” by Warrior C

Submitted to Contest #63

I stepped outside, and the leaves were on fire. It shocked me. Was it because of the hotness of his broad body that made it happen?Late 80s were my unforgettable years when I studied in college at the same time looking for someone as my pen pal. The internet was not existing that time, so the only thing I did was to write to Jordan who lived in Georgia. My uncle who was an immigrant gave me his address. He was his colleague.I received a long-distance call coming from him and asked me if I wanted a pal from there. I was such an innocent ...

18 comments 18
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“A Champion for our Youth” by Josh Vogt

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.I had smelled the smoke through my open first floor window, but since my classroom was only two doors away from the exit, I was certain I’d have time to disperse the offending pile and stomp out the embers, but the dancing orange flame and the thirty-odd sixth graders frozen in awe (not including the three running away screaming) provided a startling tableau to my overconfidence. Had I been a younger man, more full of wind and vigor, the chaotic half hour-long investigation would not hav...

2 comments 2
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“Waning Crescent” by Rimi Ray

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I’d been up in my unlit room, lighting matches and throwing them out of my second-story window. When I would strike a match, the flame burned red-hot against my face, but I didn’t turn away from it. I stared it straight in the eye as it darted around in the breeze and lit up my room for a brief second. And as it fell, it would sway with the wind until it became too much and the light flickered out. And it would fall to the ground. Another disappointment. The movement was almost mechanic...

0 comments 0
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“All Good Things” by Cal Carson

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Eurus’s breath had blown my orange hair curling into the sky like tongues of hot flame and setting the trees swaying.“It’ll be fine,” Tye lies into my ear. “They haven’t been seen in months, we can go outside.” I brush him off.Lies, they were all lies. Outside wasn’t safe.  He’s telling lies I wanted to hear, but they’re lies nonetheless. I can feel it. The trees are ablaze with red-decked flames, embers shooting off and swirling, purple and orang...

10 comments 10
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“Writer's Story” by Micheal Sanjay

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I always knew a time like this would come, but I never expected it to be that soon.  I was born in a country where things weren't done to favour it's citizens, a country where only the government enjoyed the riches of the people while the governed, especially the poor governed suffered greatly both in the shadows and in the light. "Dad!" my four years old daughter Mariam calls, "what are you doing?" "I'm writing sweet." I look at the wall clock. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" "I c...

3 comments 3
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“But No One Told Me” by Kerry Chaput

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. Bright flaming red and auburn glowing from the branches. I’d been holed up in my house since Olivia was born, going on eight weeks. We brought her home from the hospital, wrapped in a soft pink blanket that was probably too hot for the sweltering August day. Over the last two months, I watched from the bay window, as the trees transformed from the emerald green of summer to the amber warmth of early autumn.  The blurry days came and went, but out the window, the shivering leaves an...

1 comment 1
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“Stretch Out Your Hand” by Elizabeth Burrows

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire,” a broken voice had whispered, “We did not stand a chance.” A man had uttered those words when he had stumbled into their village, hardly able to stand. His body had been battered and torn. Ugly burns had littered his skin and the air around him was filled with the stench of burnt flesh. Storm had been a young boy at the time. He had not understood what was going on, but the image of the man was forever burnt into his mind. Just like the symbol that was burnt i...

2 comments 2
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“Red is a Strange Color ” by Christopher Gibson

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I was on the receiving end of a cruel ambush by the enemy insurgents. My squad and I had been sent into Armenia in early June to settle the conflict with Azerbaijan. We hadn’t seen much action until October. The leaves had transformed into brilliant, vibrant colors, but now they were burning like a box of matches. I was reading a book about a boy journeying to find a powerful red apple to a class full of children at the local school near our base when the explosions went off. I had the ...

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“The day the sun fell” by Vameerah Darren

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.I woke up, smoke filling my lungs, the hot air around me making my hair stick to my sweat covered forehead. My eyes filled with tears as my throat burned, the stinging like swallowing a rose covered in thorns. This wasn't the first time I have woken up like this, and it wouldn't be the last.I coughed harshly, knowing no one would hear, my feet hit the floor and I stumbled out of my bed, through the doorway, and down the stairs.The day had come, and soon, we would all go up in flames.I kn...

7 comments 7
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“Bonfire Magic” by Roth Sassin (inactive)

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I held two cups of coffee from the Starbucks nearby. They were the perfect temperature, and I handed one to Matt.  "Here's you're Pumpkin Spice Latte." "Well, here's your bonfire," he says, gesturing to the flames. "By the way, what did you get?" "The same thing," I tell him, "Pumpkin Spice Latte is my favorite Fall coffee from Starbucks." "Cheers to Pumpkin Spice Latte," He calls, lifting his cup to the sky. I bump my cup against his, and we both take long sips. We stare...

2 comments 2
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