A Dead End (By: Olivia Herbert)

Have you ever just cried and cried until you have no more tears left? Until your red in the face but no longer blue in the heart.This was something i had been doing for hours once finding my sister dead in the shower. The image of her cold dead eyes still etched in my head permanently. My stomach lurched, my head hurt, and i missed my sister. We had to get out of here, but because of how my plan went previously. I was fresh out of ideas. “What are we going to do!?” I wailed. “Not only are we stranded. But now we have a killer after us.” The very thought made all the hope i had die inside me. If we didn’t get out of here soon. We were going to end up like my sister. Or maybe even worse. Thoughts of Faye ran through my head like a movie. So realistic it was like she was still alive or better yet that she was never dead. But i had to face the facts. Faye was gone and she was never coming back. “That’s it. We have to get out of here right now.” Suggested Tyler while kneeling over Mitchell's unconscious body. I wondered what he’d be saying if he were awake. Maybe he would have had a better plan. One that could save us and get us back home. “Hows Mitchell doing Tyler?” He didn’t awnser. I watched him as he paced back and forth. Making the floorboards creak incessantly as he did. “Tyler. You have to calm down. Pacing isn’t going to help us come up with a plan.” Bead’s of sweat rolled down his face one after the other. He was panicking. A sudden urge to help emerged from deep within me and i felt my cheeks grow warm once again. “Tyler. I know you're scared. We all are. But there’s one thing fear can’t take away from us. Each other. Face it. We’re in this together.” I caught sight of a small smile playing on the edge of his lips. Deep down. He knew i was right. I glanced over my shoulder to see Savannah. She had her knees drawn up to her chest like a small frightened child hiding in a closet. Savannah's ocean blue eyes darted across the room as her small rose petal pink lips whispered words of none sense. This house was driving us all mad. We were on the brink of insanity. "If we keep this up, we're all going to go mad before the killer can get to us. But, honestly I don't know what will be more horrific. Do you guys really want that? We need to take action. We need to fight back! And we need to do it now." A sliver of hope glimmered in each of there eyes as I spoke encouraging words. Suddenly, Savannah stood up from the spot where she previously cowered and said " I'll go get firewood from the shed I saw outback earlier" she said, bolting for the door. " Savannah! No! Wait for someone to go with you" it was too late. She was gone before I could stop her. Savannah disappeared into the darkness and I doubt we'd ever see her again.
Tears burned in the back of my eyes like acid. "I'm sure she'll be fine" Said Tyler who's voice echoed from behind me."Remember what happened last time someone said that. The bathroom got re-decorated. With my sisters blood!" a sudden rage surged through me like an addictive drug. I spun around and almost immediately ran into Tyler's warm embrace. I cried heavily into his shoulder. Which smelled of pine trees and cinnamon. But once my eyelids fluttered open, salt water still clinging to them, I noticed something no one else had. Mitchell was gone. "Oh god......Oh dear god! Tyler!!! Look." I screamed and pointed to the spot where Mitchell's body had been previously. He turned and his hazel eyes grew wide. "But. Where did he go!? He was nearly dead the last time I checked on him. He barely had a pulse!" My heart had leapt down my thought, preventing me from speaking. A banshee like scream came from outside. It was Savannah. "Come on! We have to try and save her!" Tyler grabbed my wrist with incredible force before I could get two footsteps toward the door. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't you dare underestimate me. Just because I didn't get to my sister in time doesn't mean I won't be able to save her." I shook off his grip and let the doors to outside swing outwards. "Savannah!?" I called. Hands cupped around my face to amplify my voice but no luck. Footsteps came from behind me and I was relived when I discovered it was only Tyler. Who to my surprise joined me in calling out. The sun had gone down and it was now nighttime. The moon shown bright and full in the navy blue sky. Although it was bright and beautiful, the bad news is: I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I stopped yelling once my throat seized up in discomfort and once I felt a raindrop land on my head. Wait....it wasn't raining. Slowly and cautiously. I looked down at my hand and saw a liquid like red dot. Blood. Without another word without another thought, I glanced above. "I found Savannah." My stomach twisted like a roller coaster for the second time in one day. She hung from a banner that faced outwards at the top of the house. A noose encircled her neck like an ugly piece of jewelry and her eyes were as white as her skin.
I could barley feel Tyler's arms wrap around me as they dragged me back in the house. A menacing voice came from outside and I froze. Like livestock about to get slaughtered I stood completely still. For there was only one person who that could be.... Mitchell

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How to… buy the perfect gift (By: Cheryl Joseph)

There is a fine art to buying the perfect gift for someone. It may take a while to achieve Perfect Gift Status, but it’s definitely worth it. There’s nothing more satisfying than the look on someone’s face when they lay their eyes on your gift, and their breathing speeds up and their eyes light up and they start screaming (or maybe I’m the only one who does that).

So with the holidays coming up, there will be ample opportunity to buy gifts. But the question is, what do you buy? Well that depends on a variety of factors. First of all, how well you know the person. Now, this has happened to nearly all of us: when you get invited to some party for some person that you know (and like), but that you don’t know well enough to know what kind of gifts they prefer. Sure, you may know their general preferences: sports, electronics, clothes, movies… this is where the gift card comes in. Once you’ve figured out their general area of interest, it won’t be too hard to find a store wide enough in variety to please even your sort-of-close friend.

However – and yes, there is a however. Gift cards, in general are not acceptable for close friends. We’ve all done it – in fact, I’m notorious for this – but giving a gift card to a best friend is, frankly, a little unimaginative. Of course, this all depends on the reason: for instance, if you know for a fact that your friend loves origami, but you know nothing as to the preferred/higher quality textures, colours, or styles of origami, it makes sense to just get her a gift card to an art store with a good variety of origami paper. In this case, let her know your reasoning, so that she knows that you remember her likes and dislikes, and that you care.

But for other circumstances, you need to find a more specific gift. Different methods work for different people. Some people like to brainstorm gift ideas before getting to the store. Now, a good way of gift-giving is a combination gift: one or more small item paired with a larger item. Small items can be anything; to think of these, think about inside jokes that you may have had with your friend, and buy a little something to make him or her laugh. For example, a friend of mine always said that she wanted a yellow Lamborghini, so we bought her keychain with a yellow sports car. These little things are what make him or her laugh – sort of like an appetizer of what’s to come.

The key here is to get a gift that you know they’ll like. This may mean that clothes are out of the question: I for one have very different tastes from my friends, so they would never like any clothes I would buy for them. The (ideal) main gift has to be something that they’ve mentioned that they like, but that they won’t necessarily expect you to get if for them. For instance, my friend loves vanilla. But she only really mentioned it once: but I remembered, and bought her a vanilla bath kit, which she loved. Personally, for their main gift, I find it much easier to puruse the stores before making a decision. Odds are, there’ll be something that you see that you know they’ll love.

Yes, it may be a bit more effort, but you’ll be surprised how great it feels, knowing that you just made someone’s day.

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Want to be a Scrooge this Christmas? (By: Lara Valles)

Around the holidays we begin to hear stories about the importance of family, giving and love. Yet you don’t hear people ask each other after Christmas has gone and past, ‘What did you give this Christmas?” So why not join in on the well-known phenomenon of getting. For those whose role models aren’t a jolly fat man who gives away presents to all the good children in the world, read on!

First to perfect the art of getting one must develop their skill to create a comprehensive list brimming with all the things that they want. Always start with the biggest things first (which is code for most expensive) and then slowly downsize. Remember not to add too much so people don’t feel daunted and give up once they get to the mall. Even though Christmas is supposed to be a season of cheer, the shoppers at the mall are not an accurate representation of that.

Next is the technique of looking away once you see those charities asking for money. Now some believe the best method is too subtly look away but come on, how can you miss the bright red donation box especially with a person dressed up right next to it. If you want to really to be a scrooge, look straight at them, frown and shake your head like Christmas generosity is a shameful disease. Or if you thinks that’s too harsh then just give them a smile with the universal hand gesture of raising your hands like you’re saying, ‘Sorry no change today”!

Lastly, look up to the Christmas scrooge role models. Follow their techniques, study their ways. I would recommend watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” or “Scrooge,” and don’t worry; we don’t need to be green or an ugly old man to be a true scrooge.

But most important of all realize how boring and meaningless getting can get. Because when you’re finished watching the movies and you get to the end you realize that gifts don’t matter. That after year and year of getting gifts the novelty of receiving presents becomes more like an expectation. That by next year the gifts we received last year are nothing but a hazy fog, but the memory of making someone else’s Christmas a happy one; priceless. After all if not one gives, how can anyone else get.

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The House Of Horrors (By: Olivia Herbert)

I didn't know whether I was awake or dreaming. And the guilt set in before reality did. This was all my fault. If I had got the stupid old car checked up on before we left as my dad suggested, then this never would have happened. I did this. Once the haze of confusion and dizziness cleared I called out to the others, "Is everyone okay?" "I am," choked Savannah as she shifted slightly in the passengers seat. "I am too. Thanks for asking," Faye spoke, she was still her typical self. "What about Tyler and Mitchell? Are you guys okay?" I asked. "I'm fine. But Mitchell. Oh god. There's a lot of blood Natalie....I-I-I think he might be dead. The gash on his head is pretty bad," Tyler replied. "We need to take him to the hospital," I said and used all my strength to drag myself out of he wreck, and into the pouring rain where lightning lit up the sky. "Come on we need to find shelter and call 911. We can't just sit here," I watched as Savannah and Faye followed out after me. Meanwhile Tyler struggled to drag both himself and Mitchell out, but he wouldn't let anyone else help him. "I'm going to call for help," I yelled over the rain. I flipped open my cellphone and realized I had no service, "Does anyone have service?" They pulled out their cellphones and shook their heads. "What are we going to do!? We're going to d- you guys look!" Savannah screeched. We looked in her direction and saw that she was pointing at a house that seemed to come out of nowhere. Without another word we all ran towards it. It was shelter. Right then, that was all that mattered. We knocked on the old wooden door several times but no answer. Tyler, once catching up to us took one look at the door, broke the glass, reached in and unlocked the door. "Tyler! Are you insane!? Somebody could be in there!" I yelled. "This place looks too old for anybody to be living here. Besides do you see any cars near here besides ours?" I didn't object. We were tired, wet, cold and injured. Besides we had nowhere to go. The floorboards creaked eerily as we took our first step into the house. "I have a bad feeling about this," Savannah whimpered. "Suck it up you wimp," replied Faye. I could tell this was going to ruin all chances of having fun. This trip to my cottage was supposed to make spring break an awesome experience, but it was official, our plans were ruined and this day couldn't get worse. "We're going to die in here," whined Savannah. "I'm sure we'll be fine. This place isn't that bad," I lied. "Yes. Let's all listen to Goody two shoes Natalie. Who is the one who got us into this mess in the first place!" Faye's voice boomed, shaking the whole house and making the cob webs dance above us. "Shut up Faye! It's not like I put the deer in front of the car!" I spat back. "Oh so you decided to swerve off the road and tumble down a ditch. Risking your friends lives doesn't matter to you because the center of the universe always and always has be you!" Ouch."Come on Faye. Sisters aren't supposed to fight." Her honey colored eyes darted across the room, refusing to look at me. "Yeah well I was always a rule breaker not a rule follower," she replied. My heart ached. She already started to walk upstairs when she said, "I'm going upstairs to have a shower if the water works. I'll be in the washroom if anyone needs me." The room fell quiet after she was gone. After a few moments of much needed silence, in a worried voice Tyler said, "Natalie? I need you to come help me put pressure on the wound on Mitchell's arm while I tend to his head." I nodded and walked briskly over to Mitchell's unconscious body. I knelt beside him and tried to ignore the smell of the coppery blood. While putting pressure on Mitchell's wound, I watched Tyler bandage his head with great agility and skill. I was quite impressed, but I quickly looked away once noticing my cheeks getting hotter by the second. "Guys what are we going to do? No one knows we crashed. Our phones aren't working and we're miles from home," Savannah asked, she has always been the worrying type but I've never seen her like this. "We're going to be fine." An ear piercing scream made me lose my train of thought. I jumped up immediately. It was Faye. Something was wrong. I ran up the curved staircase and almost tripping several times. "Natalie wait! Wait for us!" they called after me but I kept on going. Even though we fight I am still her sister. As I approached the bathroom door I could hear the water still running but there was complete silence. My heart pounded like a hammer against cloth. I reached for the doorknob and felt it's cold surface on my hand. I turned it and let the door swing inwards. Stepping through the doorframe I let out a whimper, because in front of me was the most horrific scene I have ever seen. Written on the white wall in blood was, "evil lives here....." In fear and discomfort I ran over to the bath tub and yanked open the curtain to find it filled with blood. Hot tears poured down my face, but what had happened? Then, through my blurry vision I saw it. It......it....was.....her head. A horrific scream escaped me as I was consumed with fear and confusion. She was dead. Decapitated, and skewered by the shower head. It went right through her neck and was still running. My stomach twisted into several knots I knew it would never come out of. Tyler and Savannah came in not too soon after. "Oh my god," they both said in a chorus. " What happened?" "I just found her like this," I answered between sobs. "Wait. If we were all down stairs. Who is did this and why?"

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