Blackness. I looked around. The only thing that I could see was a door. It was made of glass, but I couldn’t see through it. It was as if someone had put something in front of it. I walked in the door. There was nothing blocking the dIt was a gas station. But, I hadn’t seen any gas or gas pumps, so would you just call it a station? I looked around, searching for candy, but as far as I could tell, there was no candy. I walked up to the counter.  

“Hello,” to the store person. “Do you have any snickers bars?”

“I might. Did you look for them in the store?”

“Yeah. There is nothing.”

“Alright, loser. No snickers bars for you.”

“Nooooooooo! I screamed.

When I came to, my mother was shaking me awake.

“Will you stop that yelling and get up?!”

“Sorry,” I apologized tiredly.

“You should be. You woke everyone up…”

“Well, it’s time to get up anyway,” I said, looking at the clock. It was 7:00.

“You didn’t let me finish. You’ve been screaming for the past 15 minutes!”

“Wow.” Now that I thought about it, my throat was parched. “GIVE ME SNICKERS.”

“Here I come.”  The voice calls, curling around me the same way this fog does.  I think I have the best hiding spot ever, half under a big rock, half under a bush with leaves covered in splatters of reddish paint.  I wonder who would paint leaves. I hear my brother scream, he must have been found already. “Ha! I beat you!” I hear the soft crunch of feet on the grass, soft breaths, hand on my collar to pull me out.  “You got me!” The stains on the leaves drip down to join the stains on me.

Cinnamon Rolls

By Cecelia B.

I woke up to the sweet smell of cinnamon rolls downstairs. We usually only eat them on special occasions, so I could tell today would be a good day. I was so tired I could barely move, but the wonderful smell made me kick off my blankets, lift myself up and slowly walk down the stairs, trying not to wake up my brother, who I thought was still sleeping. When my feet hit the last step, I realized that I was wrong. Everyone was downstairs. They were crying. I looked out of the big window in the living room. It was pouring rain outside as if the earth was crying too. I didn’t know why they were all so sad. Just seeing them made me want to cry too, and the cinnamon rolls in the kitchen didn’t help at all. They told me to sit down on the couch. My mom, in her softest voice, told me the news. The news that would change my life forever.

Later that day, I went on a walk in the pouring rain.

I Try to Stay Calm

By: Stephanie

I feel the wind rushing through my hair, the burning sun on my rosy cheeks, the feeling you have on an elevator when your stomach turns upside down. I look down and my hands are turning red from gripping the handlebars so tight. I hear the laughter of the kids behind me, the conversations of the adults in front of me, but as hard as I try to stay calm, all I feel is fear, straight up fear. And at that very moment, I hear a scream, a scream of a young child, a scream of horror and fear, my own scream. Then it stops, everything stops, I hop out of my seat and look up in the air to see a giant roller coaster that I somehow convinced myself to ride. And right then is when I shout “I want to do it again!!!” And I run to the back of the enormous line.

My dad picks me and my sister up from the Y. We start to go out of the building as my dad says that he has to talk to us about something. I start to get curious about what he is going to say, I wonder if it will be good or bad. We get into the car and then he finally says what he wanted to tell us, “Okay kids, me and mom just went to get a check-up on the dog and they said  that we have to put him down.”

“NOOOO!” my sister and I scream at the same time. “Why is he going to be put down.”

“He is very sick from a disease that makes dogs’ lungs bleed.”

We go to the animal hospital where I see tears streaming down my mom’s face with our dog by her side.

When we get in the doctor asks if everyone wants to see the dog getting put down and all say yes.

We go into the room and lay down the dog and they inject a needle into his ribcage and then my sister asks “Is he dead?”

“Yes,” the doctor replies to our soaked faces.

This is the is the final battle of the Dynasty Games I have all my weapons ready, it’s win or die. The stadium is packed as the battle starts and I slash my sword at the Vaporfang. With such foul breath and jagged teeth with giant razor-sharp claws, you would’ve thought I would be no match for such a bloodcurdling, spine-chilling, beast such as the Vaporfang. I grab my set of daggers holding them up to to the sky bracing for impact but he knocks me 20 feet clear across the ring as I come down with a crash knocking my daggers out of my hand. Now I have no weapons. I can only fight with my bare hands. The Vaporfang charges toward me again. I know that these could be the last moments of my life, so I have to make a split second decision. As he charges toward me I duck down and slide under him. As he slams against the arena wall I jump on his back and pull one of his fangs out and stab him right in the heart. His body goes limp as the stadium erupts and I know, victory is mine.     

The Walk   

I was walking downtown to go to a restaurant to eat with my friends when I saw this man on the road he was hungry I could hear his stomach grumbling, he had a sign and I saw that he was homeless, He started moving and he asked me for money, I felt really bad because this was during a really cold winter in Michigan but I only had $10, that was barely enough for me to eat myself, but I talked with a friend for a second and he said that he could pay for me but I had to pay him back, so I went back to the homeless man and I gave him my $10, I felt really good and he was so happy, after I ate dinner I was walking back the same way and I saw him eating food with the money I gave him and I was so happy that money didn't go to drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.

What did it cost you? Was it worth it? What did it cost? I trusted you with my biggest secret my deepest, darkest, one. Something I had never told anybody before. I don't care what they threatened or bribed you with but that wasn't yours to give away! Tell me what did it cost? He leans over and pulls me in close by my waist he lowers his mouth to my ear and whispers “Everything” he lets go and just like that he's gone. I know the next seven hours are going to be the worst of my life, and now I don't have him to help me through it. I'm on my own.
 

My whole team is stunned as we walk in to the gym called The Cage. The walls are fenced in and there is only one court. We look at the other team, all of them are at least 6 feet tall. We get ready and then we start to warm up. First we stretch and then we do lay up lines. Our coach calls us into the huddle. He tells us even though they’re tall we still have to play hard and fight. He picks the starters and we go line up for the jump ball.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning.” “What do you mean?” the room went quiet. She just stared at me. “I don’t know like I’m drowning and everyone else is on the surface. And they keep pushing me down. And they won’t notice until I hit the bottom. But then it will be too late.”

I was trying to push back tears

“Then just keep swimming, because when you get to the top it will be worth it.” “YOU DON'T GET IT!” “Lyric calm down….” “YOU CALM DOWN!!!!”

 I just stared at her. Her dark brown eyes started to water.

“You don’t get it, I’ve tried to swim!” A tear rolled down my face. “But I’m tired…. I ache all over, What’s the point of swimming when I’ve already drowned?!”

“PLEASE!!! Just keep swimming!!”

“I’m sorry.....but I can’t keep swimming.”

I stepped away from the mirror, away from her.

I walked to my door and locked it.

I wrapped it around my head and looked in the mirror one last time.

She was sobbing, begging me to stop.

I shook my head. “We're going to float!”

I jumped off the chair,

and everything went dark.