Austravon's Christmas Nightmare

• Emily Lee, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

Austravon, a town where the streets were full of enthusiasm and happiness, later known as the town that lives in fear. With everyone accusing each other for the murder of the richest family daughter, Amily Wasp, nobody could be trusted…

It was the morning of the 20th of December, when Amily was last spotted walking to school. With the police investigating and interrogating everyone, the town feared for their lives. Many murders has happened before this but the sherriff had a gut feeling that this was just the start of a new mystery.

On the 22nd of December, some hunters went into the cursed forest. The forest was known to be haunted and bring bad luck to you and your family. Everyone feared to go anywhere near the forest because they were scared about the things that could happen. The forest was surrounded by gates because the government ruled it as a dangerous area.

Sam, Ben, Amara and Caitlan, a bunch of 14 year old teenagers that loved to go out on adventures. On Christmas, they were all planning to sneak out and adventure off into the cursed forest. They were always told stories of people who went into the forest, never came out and were never seen again. Sam, Ben, Amara and Caitlan had no fear when told horror theories about the forest.

Christmas came and the plan to sneak into the forest was still happening. Everyone was going out to celebrate with their loved ones. With many people out and celebrating, there were more cops roaming the streets for any suspicious activities. Once 6pm hit, everything changed. Blackouts started coming in from left to right while panic arose. Shootings started coming out from nowhere and many tried to call the police stations fearing for their safety.

Sam, Ben, Amara and Caitlan didn’t care about their safety so they sneaked out and met in front of the gates at the cursed forest. Once all four of them were there, they climbed over the gates together and entered. Hell was breaking loose back at the town but they didn’t care. “Guys, I don’t think we should be doing this,” Cailtan said in a shaky voice while looking around. “You agreed to come, you have to explore with us now,” Ben said while grabbing her hand. Caitlan looked at him in the eyes and nodded.

After hours of exploring, they ran into this path. Without even thinking, they followed it without knowing if danger could be ahead of them. It was midnight by now, their phones were dead and all they had was a flashlight. All of a sudden, Sam falls over. “Ouch,” he screams in pain while Ben helps him get up. “What did you fall over?” Amara asked, as she snatched the flashlight from Sam’s hand and pointed it to the ground. When they all checked to see what Sam fell over, they all gasped in fear. There it was, the body of Amily Wasp…