Adult Division
“Legends Don’t Lie”
By Gadusi Crowe
Cherokee, N.C.
Sarah and her little brother Connor stood side by side as Jordan, Sarah’s boyfriend, pulled up to their driveway in his silver 2008 Mitsubishi Endeavor.
“Whuddup, nerds?! Ready to see some ghosts?” Jordan chirped as they climbed into his car.
“Yeah, as soon as we pick Jessie up,” Sarah replied. Jessie’s house was only ten minutes away from Sarah’s and was, luckily, on the way. Sarah was beginning to worry that Jessie had fallen asleep when she saw the front door open as Jessie came bouncing down the steps.
“I didn’t think my mom was gonna let me come. I had to convince her that we’d be fine,” Jessie stated dismissively.
“Again?! It’s Halloween! And we’re almost legally adults. Well, except for doofus back there,” Sarah sighed.
“I’m 14, you’re only three years older,” Connor mumbled, annoyed.
They rode in silence around curve after curve towards The Road to Nowhere. Jessie broke the silence,
“I heard all kinds of creepy stuff happens up here on Halloween. Like, cult gatherings,” she said to Connor, trying to keep a straight face.
“Me too,” Jordan agreed while glancing in the rearview mirror.
“Whatever,” Connor tried to say nonchalantly.
“Guys, knock it off. I don’t want to get blamed if he freaks out,” Sarah scolded.
They arrived at the parking lot just as it began to rain. They jogged to the tunnel and slowed to a walk as they were enveloped by darkness, the only light coming from the flashlights that Jordan and Jessie carried. Jordan and Jessie led, Sarah and Connor tucked between them. It was so quiet, they could barely even hear the vicious thunderstorm outside, despite seeing the flashes of lightning in the distance.
“Stop breathing in my ear!” Jessie hissed at Connor as he took three steps backwards, putting himself at the back of the group.
“I wasn’t breathing in y-ahh!” Connor’s scream echoed through the tunnel as they all turned around to see what happened.
Connor had disappeared completely. They began frantically calling his name and as Sarah walked toward the entrance, she disappeared, too!
“Sarah!” Jessie screamed.
Jordan swatted the air where she disappeared, foolishly hoping to find a trap, as if this were some kind of joke. He then knelt down and started to pat the ground but jerked his hand back when he realized it was not pavement, but water. Jordan became overwhelmed and fainted as Jessie remembered her phone and immediately called 911. Meanwhile, Sarah and Connor had fallen through this…. Portal? Connor was terrified to open his eyes but Sarah didn’t hesitate. What she saw was beautiful: green trees, green grass, a flowing river, but, something was off. Sarah could sense danger and she realized there were no animals in this magical place. Suddenly, thunder boomed so loud that it vibrated her bones, followed by an eerie cackling.
“Come on,” Sarah whispered in her brother’s ear as she pulled him toward the noise.
“Are you crazy?!” You never go towards the scary noise!” He whisper-yelled back.
“I just wanna see what it is… Besides, I don’t even think this is real.” She said as she gestured for him to look at the forrest that surrounded them.
Connor was mesmerized but quickly realized that his sister was leaving him behind. Sarah began to climb a large hill and Connor barely caught up to her as they reached the top. Thunder roared again as the teens saw at the same time where the cackling was coming from. They could not believe their eyes! Spearfinger stood in front of them, jumping up and down, clapping her hands, and laughing maniacally.
Their hearts sank at the sight of her, until they saw what she was looking at. Uktena, the horned serpent, and Judaculla, the slant-eyed giant, were fighting. Each time one bested the other, Thunder would boom and Spearfinger would throw her head back and laugh.
“I don’t like this dream,” Connor whispered in Sarah’s ear as he began to back away, stepping on a twig. Spearfinger spun around to see them, instantly drooling.
“Ahh, children! My favorite!” She exclaimed as she slithered closer.
“Are you lost? You know, it’s been soooo long since I had liver,” She pouted. Suddenly, as if remembering her death, she straightened her body and stopped.
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” she hissed,
“Myths and legends only.”
“Where is ‘here’ exactly?” Sarah asked as she tucked Connor behind her back.
“The Other Side. Where legends go when we’ve served our purpose to the People,” She said, gesturing to the fight. Thunder roared as Judaculla slammed Uktena into the ground.
“We need to get home… Can you help us?” Connor whimpered.
“I can,” Spearfinger replied confidently.
“But! You must do me a favor too. When you return home, you must tell them who helped you, so that I can rest in glory like Judaculla,” she said with longing in her eyes.
“We will,” the teens agreed.
Spearfinger took them up the mountain to Gihli, the dog who created the Milky Way, and explained their situation to him. Gihli gave them cornmeal and told them to sprinkle it as they ran off the cliff in front of his house. Sarah began to cry, afraid it wouldn’t work. Connor believed Gihli and was not afraid, so he ran full speed towards the cliff. The stars carried him into the sky until he shot out of the air and landed on hard ground.
“I made it!” He exclaimed, waking Jordan up. Just then, Sarah came bursting out of the water and he fainted once again.
“Where did you go?!” Jessie asked.
“You wouldn’t BELIEVE what-” Connor was interrupted by a siren.
“We have to tell them,” Connor urged his sister.
“We need proof,” she replied as she patted the solid ground beside her.
We don’t need proof! “Connor snorted,
“Legends don’t lie.”
Age 12-16 Division
“Skinwalker”
By Lexcy Ortiz
Cherokee, N.C.
Friday, Oct. 13, 2012. Dao and Theismann were sitting in a truck smoking cigarettes when all of a sudden the dogs started barking and running into the distance. Dao wanted to check it out and Theismann agreed. They followed the dogs and they saw something standing in the distance, and when they got closer, they saw a person wearing deerskin with a painted face and long hair. They started chasing it, but after a while, it disappeared.
They swerved in the road and almost ran into the ditch along the side of the road but kept driving to look for it. After having no luck, they finally started driving back to their house. The dirt road was surrounded by dead bushes and nothing else. There were no lights anywhere because nobody lived within miles. The sky was dark without stars. They saw a tall, old hitchhiker with long white hair up ahead. They kept driving when they saw his thumb.
After a few minutes they saw something running after them in the dark. It kept getting faster with each step. It started knocking on the car door, and they sped off. After a while they reached their house, and they ran inside. Dao almost fell, and Theismann was running out of breath and was trying to tell everyone what they saw and heard.
Everyone was confused and their sister Khristyne ran into the kitchen and got them both water. She went back into the living room and asked, “What’s going on? Why are you so out of breath?”
Dao had a worried look on his face. He replied, “The dogs started barking and so we followed them over there and saw a Skinwalker!”
Theismann’s mom knew it was serious because she had seen one when she was ten years old.
“We need to go to the medicine man, or they will keep haunting and cursing us,” she said.
But it was in the middle of the night, and she knew she couldn’t wake him up, so they blessed themselves by smudging with sage, and they felt safe at home. They both went to the living room and sat on the couch and were gonna watch movies to get their minds off of it.
At 12 p.m., they were finally getting tired when Dao heard scratching on the window. He got up to look outside and saw nothing but the dogs barking. Theismann was getting ready to go to bed, and Dao decided to head back home. But then Theismann heard scratching on the window, and he asked Dao if he heard it too.
Dao paused for a second and realized he wasn’t just hearing things. They brought a Skinwalker home with them! The scratching got louder and louder, until it sounded like a screeching and woke Theismann’s sister and mom up. They came running out of their rooms. The screeching was hurting their ears.
The scratching went away but then they started to hear footsteps above them.
“It’s on the roof!” said Dao.
Theismann grabbed the gun and started shooting at the roof right through the ceiling. The dogs started to whine and then Theismann stopped shooting. The Skinwalker was choking the dogs and killing them. The dogs grew quiet after a while. A large hand slammed the window and there was a big bloody handprint on the window. The Skinwalker ran off and then their hearts were still racing from what they heard and saw. They felt like it was all a nightmare.
Age 5-11 Division
“The Creature”
By Wakinyan Raines
Cherokee, N.C.
A group of friends wanted to have a party at a haunted lake. The friends’ names were Jimmy, Tom, Mark, and Cody.
Tom invited his friends Scott, Isebelle, and Peg. Scott said, “No, but Isabelle and peg said yes.”
All of the group of friends started to head there. Jimmy, Mark, and Cody took the same car there but, on the way, an old man came up to the car and told the friends not to head up there. Then the old man died right there, and the friends drove off. Tom, Isebelle, and Peg made it but there were blood stains on the car. They just thought it was deer blood and just thought nothing of it.
Then they set up their tents with Jimmy, Mark, and Cody. Then came the afternoon. It was just a little sunny but then Jimmy and Cody saw trees fall and heard people scream. They tried to tell their other friends what they just witnessed but they just laughed at them. Then Jimmy and Cody headed home.
Nightfall came Tom and Isabelle hopped in the lake, but Mark and Peg sat down by a fire they built, still shocked at what Jimmy and Cody told them. Then Tom felt a sudden pull on his leg, so Tom grabbed a stick and jabbed at the thing that grabbed him. They hurried out of the lake and dried off, then sat back down. They started to talk about what was going on.
But, then a giant hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed Tom. Isebelle ran off but a giant tree crushed her. Mark and Peg drove off screaming and yelling at what they just saw. To this day Tom and Isebelle are still missing, and Mark and Peg are still shocked.
