Creepiest Cliffhanger: The Cellar
By Gianni Feliciano, 7th Grade, St. Ferdinand
My family moved into a new house not too long ago. The first night after putting my children to sleep I stayed up to read a book. As I was reading, my
daughter, Ari, came into my room, eyes half open, stopping in front of the bed.
She stared at me with worry on her face. Concerned, I said, “What’s wrong?”
She put her right arm out and started rubbing it with the other and quietly said,
“Where is the girl with the burnt arm?” I thought I had heard it wrong, so I asked,
“What did you say?” She repeated it more loudly, almost yelling, “Where is
the girl with the burnt arm?!” Confused and terrified, I said, “Go to sleep, Ari!”
Without saying anything, she began walking back to her room. I sighed, and put
my book away. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.
In the morning, I got up from bed to get breakfast ready. While placing
the food on the plates, I hear Ari coming down the stairs. She sits and begins to
eat. “Good morning, how was your sleep?” She replied, “good.” Then I ask her,
“Who were you looking for last night?” “What do you mean?” she answered,
looking confused. I thought she was joking, but from the look on her face,
she wasn’t. “Are you okay?” she said worryingly. I replied “Yes, I’m fine.” I
dropped the subject. She must have been sleepwalking, nothing to worry about.
I’ll read up on it when I find the time.
The next day, my husband and I were going to remove the carpets in the basement the previous owners put. I hated the basement, it needed a lot of work. We
took out the carpet in one room, and moved to another. As I walked to the middle
of the next room, I felt something move under me. It felt like a loose board.
“Strange,” I thought, the floors under the carpet were all cement.
After removing the carpet, we lifted the board. There was a small door! Surprised, we tried to open it. It swung open easily but this smell was horrible. It
was dark but we could see a ladder. It looked like it was leading to an underground cellar. We grabbed a flashlight and climbed down. It looked empty.
Moving the flash light further down we saw something on the floor, a dead body.
I called the police quickly. I was terrified, I felt like my heart would pound out of
my chest.
When they arrived they began investigating the cellar. They removed the body.
Before leaving they told us, “ We believe you just found the body of a girl that’s
been missing for five years.” I asked, “how’d you know if it was her?” The cops
responded, “the girl’s left arm was burnt from an accident when she was little, the
body you found has a burn mark on the same arm.”

Most Terrifying Twist: The Sleepover
By Liliana Lempera, 6th Grade, St. Vincent Ferrer
It was Halloween night, and my two friends, Annie and Maggie, and I were having
a sleepover. We had a very fun night, trick-or-treating, watching movies, eating candy, and
listening to Harry Styles. The two girls were OBSESSED! It was a long night, and we were
peacefully sleeping when I heard the shrill noise of the alarm going off.
I jolted upright in my bed and rushed to the guest room, stifling a yawn. On the way,
I passed a clock: 3:32 A.M. Why was the alarm going off at this time of night? I looked in the
guest room: Annie was there, but not Maggie. “Maggie”, I called. “Where are you?” She answered from downstairs in a rushed and scared voice, “I’m downstairs Lily, HELP M…” She
never got to finish her sentence. “MAGGIE,” I yelled! I was disoriented and still half asleep,
but I did the first thing I could think of: I locked us in my room and pulled up the kitchen
security camera footage on my iPad. Annie started to protest, but I cut her off with a hand.
She looked mad, but then quickly got an understanding, yet terrified, look in her eyes as she
focused on the video.
I skipped to the timestamp 3:32 A.M. First, I heard my door opening, then me yelling
to Maggie. I didn’t see Maggie, though. I switched to the living room footage. I saw Maggie
alright, and with her, a mysterious man. I heard her yell, then the man cut her off with a hand
over her mouth. He said something, too quiet for me to hear, and then walked her into the
hallway, keeping a tight grip on her arms. He stopped her in front of the alarm, and he held a
knife above her head. “Tell me the code,” the man said. “I DON’T KNOW IT” Maggie tried to
yell, but it was muffled since his hand was still over her mouth. She shook her head, terrified.
“Why me?” She wondered helplessly. They both knew that if the alarm wasn’t turned off soon,
the police would arrive. That thought comforted Maggie, but not the man. He scowled and
dragged Maggie to the basement door.
That was all Annie needed to see. She ran to the door in tears and pounded on it. “Get
me out,” she screamed! She turned the lock and bounded down the stairs! “MAGGIE,” she
screamed in tears. She pounded on the basement door in a desperate attempt to help. “MAGGIE,” she screamed again! I rushed downstairs and frantically gestured toward the front door.
I tried to tell her in my eyes that she was making a HUGE mistake, she gasped as she realized
she was basically calling the man to her! Shocked at her mistake, she started back away when
the door slowly creaked open.
I recovered from the fright first. “RUN” I shouted! But Annie was frozen with fear
and didn’t move a muscle, even when the man grabbed her arm and pulled her through the
doorway. “ANNIE,” I sobbed! I was all alone now. The door slowly creaked open again, and
I realized he was coming for me next! The man turned toward me, and I saw the man’s face
for the first time. He had a malicious grin on his face, and his eyes were wild with insanity. It
was…Harry Styles

Most Ghastly Ghost Adventure: The Stalker
By Abigail Ortiz-Ferrer, 6th Grade, Roosevelt Middle School
I am 14 years old. My name is Taylor, and I’m an only child. I recently moved to a small town called BurtchVille. A town where not a lot of people live. A great place to
hide. I moved from California to BurtchVille to get away from my mom’s boyfriend, Rick. A bad man. Yelling every night. I also moved with my best friend Emma. We have been
friends since kindergarten. The town was okay. But I wish that we could go back home where I really belong.
I was unpacking all of my stuff from the moving van. We lived in a condo, a two bedroom, 1 bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. It was okay. As I was unpacking
Emma came in. “Hey Taylor.” I looked at her and put a fake smile on. “Hey.” Emma came to me. “You look so happy, it’s not that bad.’’ As I put my clothes in my dresser. I turned
around. A black man in the window with bloody teeth smiling straight into my soul. “Emma…Come here.” I said with terror. “I swear to god Taylor if this is some dumb pra-“As
Emma turned around, we both saw a man in all black smiling at us with bloody teeth, then he was gone. I went straight for the phone and dialed 911. I told them about the man in
my window. 10 minutes later the police came. We told them the truth but they thought we were lying. After the police left, my mom had grounded me for a month and also Emma’s
parents too.
The next day, he was back and I was going to know who this man was, I got Emma and we started chasing him. “Hey get back here you weirdo.” The man sprinted even
faster. It leads to a haunted old house. Me and Emma stopped. “We have to go in.” I said. Emma agreed, and we entered the house.
Emma and I tried to look around but it was pitch black. Then a bloody knife was put around my neck. “Hi Taylor, why did you leave?” I heard a familiar voice. “Rick is
that you? Pls Rick” I looked at Rick but Rick still had that look on his face.” You’re going to die, now your mom would learn to not have left me.” Emma pushed out Rick. “Let
her go!” As Emma pushed him away, the knife went into Emma’s arm, leading her to fall on the floor. “NO! Emma you’re gonna be okay, okay?“ A knife went into my back, leading me also to go on the floor. Rick left, never to be seen again.
My family had our funeral, everyone sobbing. Emma’s parents, mine, wishing that we were alive. The police never found our body, they thought that both of us were
dead. What they didn’t know was that they were still alive in the house somewhere. Alive still, breathing every second but light. Come rescue us. Help us.