by P. J. Night
BEEP BEEP BEEP! Nate’s thoughts about birds were interrupted by the sound of the metal detector going off. Nate bent down and dug around a little. All he found was an old, smooshed-up tin can. He left it there and kept walking, looking at the variety of shells along the tide line. His favorite were the jack-knife clams, which were long and thin, and the jingle shells, which his mother called “angels’ toenails” because of their golden shiny hue. Nate’s mom said a lot of things that, in Nate’s opinion, were pretty corny.
BEEP BEEP BEEP! He dropped to his knees and dug around, not finding anything at all. But when he scanned the spot again, the detector kept beeping. He dug deeper—still nothing. But when he scanned the spot again, BEEP BEEP BEEP.
He dug deeper than he ever had before, the sand growing colder and damper the deeper he went. He felt around in the sand for something, anything, but couldn’t find the source of what was setting off the detector. But still … BEEP BEEP BEEP.
He had dug maybe three feet with his bare hands when a tiny flash of gold caught his eye. He fished around until his fingers closed around something. Pulling his hand free, Nate looked in his palm and saw it: A small, perfect ruby ring. This may actually be treasure, Nate thought. He sat and stared at it as he brushed the sand off with the bottom of his shirt, squinting to get a better look. Nate realized that the late afternoon sun had gone down, and sky had suddenly grown quite dark. A strange feeling settled over Nate just then. He looked around—did anyone see him find this ring? Should he show someone? The strange feeling grew deeper, and on some level, Nate realized he felt very nervous all of a sudden.
In the story, Whitney asks Katie to choose her favorite candy to be her “forever candy” … the only candy she can ever have again for the rest of her life. Choose your forever favorites for the following things:
FOREVER BOOK:
FOREVER MOVIE:
FOREVER TELEVISION SHOW:
FOREVER BEVERAGE:
FOREVER FOOD (OTHER THAN CANDY!):
AND OF COURSE …
FOREVER CANDY:
Do you want to turn your sleepover into a creepover? Telling a spooky story is a great way to set the mood. P. J. Night has written a few sentences to get you started. Fill in the rest of the story and have fun scaring your friends.
You can also collaborate with your friends on this story by taking turns. Have everyone at your sleepover sit in a circle. Pick one person to start. She will add a sentence or two to the story, cover what she wrote with a piece of paper leaving only the last word or phrase visible, and then pass the story to the next girl. Once everyone has taken a turn, read the scary story you created together aloud!
It was late in the evening, well past midnight. My friends slept quietly in sleeping bags all around me, but I couldn’t fall asleep. The loud scratching noise coming from the closet was simply too distracting. Didn’t my friends hear it too?
Finally I could no longer take it, so I quietly unzipped my sleeping bag and made my way to the closet. The closer I got, the more insistent the scratching became. What was on the other side? I took a deep breath, grabbed the doorknob, opened the door, and found …
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THE END
A lifelong night owl, P. J. Night often works furiously into the wee hours of the morning, writing down spooky tales and dreaming up new stories of the supernatural and otherworldly. Although P. J.’s whereabouts are unknown at this time, we suspect the author lives in a drafty, old mansion where the floorboards creak when no one is there and the flickering candlelight creates shadows that creep along the walls. We truly wish we could tell you more, but we’ve been sworn to keep P. J.’s identity a secret … and it’s a secret we will take to our graves!
What’s better than reading a really spooky story?
Writing your own!
You just read a great book. It gave you ideas, didn’t it? Ideas for your next story: characters…plot…setting… You can’t wait to grab a notebook and a pen and start writing it all down.
It happens a lot. Ideas just pop into your head. In between classes entire story lines take shape in your imagination. And when you start writing, the words flow, and you end up with notebooks crammed with your creativity.
It’s okay, you aren’t alone. Come to KidPub, the web’s largest gathering of kids just like you. Share your stories with thousands of people from all over the world. Meet new friends and see what they’re writing. Test your skills in one of our writing contests. See what other kids think about your stories.
And above all, come to write!
www.KidPub.com
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