Dread Nation

 

The American Civil War comes to an abrupt halt at the Battle of Gettysburg when the dead begin to rise and attack the soldiers on both sides. Too busy dealing with the new threat to worry about each other or their differences, the issue of slavery is resolved. Or is it? Because former slaves are forced to be the front line in the new war on the dead, and Negro children are rounded up and sent to combat schools to learn the necessary skills. If they are lucky, like Jane McKeene, they are sent to a good school like Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore. There are far worse schools. But when Jane notices that several prominent citizens seem to have gone missing, she opens a can of worms that lands her and her friends in the soup. She is in far greater danger than she ever imagined and must find a way out of certain doom. But she can handle it. She’s a Miss Preston’s girl.

This alternative history has it all. Amazing, strong characters, evil villains, action, adventure and humor. And…zombies. Did I mention zombies?

4.5 stars.

DoloresS

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Horror Story #4

I yawn and look at the clock, 12:30 am, time for bed. I take a quick hot shower and brush my teeth. I walk into my room and see my window open. Wind poured through the window. Did I leave it open? I shut the window  anxiously and wished I had a roommate. Then, I set my alarm for 9:30 am and hopped into bed. Beep, Beep, Beep, the alarm clock goes off and I look at the clock. 3:41 am? I rub my eyes and feel a breeze coming from my left.

The window is open? I… I closed it, I thought in confusion. I walked over to the window carefully and slammed it shut. I walked back into bed and put the covers  over my head. I closed my eyes in hope of finding sleep again but there was no hope. I lifted the covers over my head to see an 8 foot tall black creature looking down at me. I screamed and tried to run but it grabbed me by the neck. Tears ran down my cheeks as he lifted me up by the throat. I struggled to get loose but it’s clutch was too strong. He grabbed my face with his other hand and made me look into it’s dark, pitch black eyes. As I saw them, my chest burned as if someone had put a match to it. The creature lifted his blade-like arm, and as the arm broke through my flesh, my eyes opened and I realized I was back in bed. I stood up in pure joy realizing it was all a dream and that I was alive. I looked around, and smiled; well, until I saw the window open. I ran over and looked at the glass pane. In the reflection, dark, pitch black eyes stared back at me.

DIY Dream Catchers

 

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Dream catchers are a fun and easy way to recycle old bracelets and make pretty decor- here is how to make them.

Materials Needed

• Old bracelet or other small hoop
• yarn
• string or floss
• feathers, beads, or other decor
• glue
• scissors

The first step in making a dream catcher is to wrap the hoop in yarn. All you need to do is tie a length of yarn to the hoop and wrap it around until the entire hoop is covered, then tie it tightly.

Next, you need to begin weaving the center of the dream catcher. This can be tricky, and there are different styles of doing it, but the way that I have done it is more simple. There are videos online though for other styles. First, I tie about a foot of string (to be safe) to the dream catcher. Then, I take the string and bring it over the hoop and make a knot, continuing this motion until I have made loops around the entire circle, then without undoing it or cutting the string, I do the same motions, but use the previous loops instead of the hoop to make the loops. This is a bit confusing to understand in writing, so refer to the photos attached. Just keep doing this process until you get to the center of the dream catcher. If you want to, you can add a bead onto the string before you tie it off, but you don’t have to.

After you finish weaving the inside, you can begin decorating! I usually add feathers and strings of beads, but it is up to you. You can attach the feathers with Mod Podge or hot glue, and tie the strings on. Whatever works is fine!

Now enjoy your freshly made dream catcher and sleep well!

 

Stuck

 

I wish we never met.  And went our separate ways.

I thought you’d be like them

Loving you one minute. Then over it

and every time we try to say a word

we leave each other mid- sentence,

and you leave me wondering when we’ll finish.

 

I know you never liked me

and you probably never will.

Made the biggest mistake of life

So now I pay the price,

Being close to someone else yet,

I still think of you

 

I’ve tried to forget you over and over,

but at the end of the day

you are always stuck in my head.

We’ve went separate ways,

I’ve tried someone else.

You forgot me yet,

I can’t be rid of you.

 

All my memories, none of them good but, one.

Why does it matter anyway?

You never really liked me.

My Erased Memory

click. click. click

That was it. Its done. No more memory. No more pain. A great machine to erase memory, the head goes through the white box, a beam of eye protected light goes through your eyes into your brain and just like that. click. click. click. The memory that’s torturing will be erased. You might think why I want to do it? Well welcome to my writing. I am Alice Davis and I am about to erase my most torturing memory. The one that drives me crazy, makes me sick, makes me want to die. I want to document everything as the great writer I am but, and even this writing won’t be able to bring back my memory. Since it will just be one of my “fantasy stories”.

Start

Alright, all the way to the beginning, I am Alice Davis and I live in the West community. There are four communities East, West, North, and South. Lets get the first thing straight. We don’t mix with other communities because, it creates different opinions which leads to arguments, which leads to war. Simple to follow right? Well, that’s what everyone says. They have no problems, so why do I? One thing I don’t understand is why do all the communities share the same schools. I mean we go to our own community school until grade 6. When grade 6 hits we get to choose our careers and go to the school dedicated to that career. The rule book of our community says “Everyone needs to build a strong relationship with their careers from a young age or else students have a loss of interest in the future and, a huge amount could lead to downfall of work”  So I am a technology nerd going to Tech Department State school.

Normal girl, normal life. What could go wrong? The first day was exciting so many kids from North, South, East, and West in the same hall. All croweded. I haven’t seen so much people in my life! Second day went by and the next, and next, and next. Then one day it all changed starting with you Alex Cavensworth from class 6 of Tech Department State School of the East community.

By the way Alex, if you ever wonder why I did, what I did its because, if we step over the line something terrible happens. Something so perfectly, purely evil. You can’t even imagine the pain and us in the West sees it while those in the East don’t. All Easts are blind and have no clue of reality.

A Pirate’s Journey: Part Four

There was a great deal of trepidation about leaving the port to sail to Halloway’s hideout. First, the crew had never sailed such a distance without Timberwolf; but second, most of them had never sailed so far north as to pass through the Fryst Sea. Many strange things were said to happen on the Fryst, and it was often hard to discern fact from folktale. However, every soul on board was determined to see their captain safe and sound, so they set about their duties as soon as Silas gave the order to weigh anchor.

Silas felt a sense of relief as the sea breeze began to buffet his hair about and the port started to fall behind. He felt that the hardest part of the quest had been accepting his role as leader. Now that he was no longer fighting that part of himself, he could focus on the mission at hand: rescuing Timberwolf.

It was only a few hours before the ship reached the true entrance to the Fryst Sea. A swathe of blue ocean cut between two weather-hewn columns of stone, a setup quite resembling some sort of gateway. Silas was eyeing the approaching strait when the ship’s navigator, Maldir, ran up to him carrying a stack of yellowed parchment.

“Silas,” Maldir panted. “I was looking at the maps of the Fryst, and all of them are quite old, a couple centuries or so, so this could be nothing but a superstition. However, as we’re coming up on it I thought you’d like to know –”

“Mal!” Silas exclaimed. “Calm yourself and tell me what’s wrong.”

“Sirens,” Maldir said, his face dead serious.

Silas blinked, not sure if he had heard the other boy correctly. “What?”

“Not one, not even two, but three of these maps say there is a nest of sirens just beyond this right column.” Maldir pointed at the column. “I wanted to warn you, because, well . . . it’s not unheard of for folk to go missing around here.”

“All right then, I’ll keep an eye out,” Silas reassured him. He adjusted the wheel so their course would take them as far from the right column as possible. As they sailed through the passage, both boys stared intently at the stack of stone. For a moment, Silas could have sworn he’d seen the glint of shining scales in the water next to the column, but Maldir said nothing so he figured it was a figment of his imagination. However, he knew he wasn’t imagining things when something thumped against the hull and made both of them run to peer over the railing.

In the water was a body, but it had two legs, not a tail. Maldir jumped overboard to retrieve the body, and Algreve came down from the crow’s nest to help Silas pull them up with a rope ladder. After a few tugs, Maldir appeared over the railing, half holding a sopping young man with dark curly hair. The boy was lowered to the deck, where he coughed up half an ocean’s worth of water and tried to push himself into a sitting position. Silas ran to fetch him a glass of water and a blanket, and when he returned the boy was standing on wobbly legs, supported by Algreve. The boy glanced up at Silas and gave him a grin – a grin so familiar that Silas dropped the glass of water, which shattered on the ground.

“Silas, are you okay?” Maldir asked, staring at him with a worried look on his face.

Silas darted forward and pinned the new boy against the mast, consumed by rage. “What are you doing here?”

The Tale of the Dead King pt.2

The beginning of this tale starts way back before I wrote a thing about it.

Centuries ago there once was a kingdom, the king’s son was unwillingly betrothed to a princess.

 And then he carelessly fell in love with the princess’ lady-in-waiting.

When the King found out he confronted him.“You have shamed this family.

You are sworn to never to see that wench you call your love, and you are ordered to apologize to the princess before it’s too late.”

 “No.”

 “What did you say to me boy!”

 “I said no. I’m tired of not having a say to what’s said of me. If I can’t be with the one I love I won’t be with anyone else. And that’s my decision! Not yours, not anyone’s!”

“Then you’re not my son.”

The prince was caught by surprise at this and didn’t notice the palace guards walking in to escort him out and never in again.

 Soon after this sad moment the King died from old age, or sorrow, or maybe even by the hands of his disowned son.

Months later the daughter of the late King, (the prince’s sister), was crowned Queen, and has been Queen ever since.

 Here my dear readers is where this tale of mine began, because I might quiz you so……

  Meanwhile, Iris in distress, was trying to comfort her hysterical mom. “Mom! Mom! Please calm down. I have no idea what you saw or what I heard, because there’s no one there.”

“But the royals were here, they were right……….”

Suddenly, she went dead quiet and stared intently out the window.

Iris was quite frightened by this and slowly turned her head to the window.

The vast sky went from the pink and purple colors of dusk, to the pitch blackness of  midnight in seconds.

Utterly terrified, Iris slid from where she was kneeling on the floor and slammed the door shut.

“Mom what is going on?” Iris cried out in fear.

But her mom just sat there staring out the window with the blankest face and the emptiest eyes.

You are probably as frightened as Iris is and don’t want to receive any more of this frightening tale of mine.

So if are not brave enough to read on then I advise you to read something else.

Iris, in pure panic, quickly got up and bolted the door, then ran to the window to bolt it too.

As soon as her fingers clasped around the bolt, the window flung open throwing her across the floor hitting her head.

The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious, was a shadowy form silhouetted in the window.

Finally at dawn, Iris, head aching, vision blurry, and heart pounding woke up in the only room of her now empty house.

Panic struck her as she realized her mom was nowhere to be seen.

The frightening but strange happenings of the that night still flashing in her mind.

Slowly, she pushed herself off the floor to a slight wabbly up right position.

Tears started streaming down her face and her heart started hammering against her chest from all the anger over flowing inside her.

If you have ever have lost a family member then you would understand what Iris was going through at this moment.

What I mean by “lost” isn’t that person has passed away, but that they are missing.

She felt so much hatred towards the person that took her mother away from her.

She didn’t know where her mother was or where she was going or if she was even alive.

She was panicking so much about these three questions that she didn’t even notice the person standing in the doorway.

Basil, Iris’ best friend and the only boy who lived in the village, concernly looked through the door at Iris. 

“Ummmm…… what happened to you and where’s your mom?” “Basil! Thank God! You need to help me find my mom, she’s been kidnapped!” 

Now my dear readers I’m leaving you here, so be puzzled, be scared, and I’ll speak to you soon.

P.S To all you reading this you thought I was quizing you didn’t you?

 

To be continued…

 

Inspired by Lemony Snicket (also known as Daniel Handler)

Anna, age 14