Library Literary Competition Winners

The Library is pleased to announce the winners of the Library’s Literary Competition for 2022/23! With the theme of ‘Things that go bump in the night’, we were looking forward to receiving lots of brilliant literary masterpieces featuring your own interpretations inspired by this spooky theme.. and you rose to the challenge – we received over 30 poems and short stories, and were simply amazed by the quality of all entries!

Congratulations to all of our winners and well done to all who took part. Here are the winners below. Please click on each one to view their winning literary masterpieces in full.

Joint 1st place - 'Things that go bump in the night' by Heather Montgomery

It’s funny how our minds work

when we’re alone with time to think,

When the room is dark and quiet

and we dare not move or blink.

 

Suddenly you hear a creaking noise

in the hallway or the stair,

The clocks ticking gets much louder,

you become much more aware.

 

Your movements become more ridged,

and your breathing more shallow, yet more fast,

Was that my imagination,

or did something just go past.

 

We doubt all that is around us,

and  question if we are alone,

The only light that is shining

is the one upon my phone.

 

The air in the room is cooler,

I can feel the eerie chill,

I pull the covers up much higher,

and try my hardest to keep still.

 

Then all of a sudden,

I am full of fear and dread,

My mind is working overtime,

terror fills my head.

 

My palms are cold and sweaty

but I dare not take a look,

I tell myself I should never

have read that scary book.

 

It was all about the things that go

bump, bump, bump in the night,

And all that I am left with

is giving myself a fright.

 

Morning seems so far away,

will I ever get to sleep?

I need to find the courage

just to have a little peep.

 

I peer over my blanket and that I can see

is the shining of the moon,

I realise I’m over-reading,

and daybreak will be here soon.

 

The things that are sure to scare me

are what’s made up in my head,

I grab the book and push it

so, it’s far away, under my bed.

 

These scary thoughts are leaving now,

I’m too scared to stay awake,

The chill is now departing

and in my mind, I know it’s fake.

 

Or is it?

Joint 1st place - 'Things that go bump in the night' by Maria Miclaus

It is completely dark. No one is on the road. I wonder why she is out at this time of night. She gets out of her car and looks around. She opens the boot of her car, reaches in, and drags out a coat. She shrugs it on and shovers. No wonder… it’s below freezing outside.

The girl turns around as I look on. She is short, pale, and pretty. She looks towards where I am standing, but she cannot see me. No one ever can. Why?

This is no place for somewhere like her. No place for a young lady to be. But she starts to walk towards the building, into the very room I am standing in. ‘Hello’, she says in a quiet whisper. I want to tell her not to. I want to tell her to turn around and leave, but I cannot. I am frozen in my place next to the desk. I cannot move.

She carries on through the room, to the doorway, and into the building. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a torch. I think to myself ‘Put it away!’ But she cannot hear my thoughts.

‘Hello’, she calls again. She finds herself in the corridor of the building. I want to scream at her. To shake her. To slap her to leave, but I don’t. I don’t do anything but watch on as she walks deeper into the corridor. Deeper into the darkness, closer to them. I can hear their movements, their breathing, their excitement. But she can’t. She now starts to tremble, and they smell fear. She stops and she looks once more to where I am standing, but she cannot see me. No one ever can.

She turns back around and carries on deeper into the depths of despair. I follow her to the end of the corridor. ‘Turn left’, I tell her. She ignores me and turns right instead. She continues down the long, creepy, and dark corridor.

‘Please, not her!’, I tell myself, but no one will listen. I feel their excitement buzzing through the air like lightning. ‘Please! Leave this dark, dingy, dreadful place!’ She does not hear me. I know what is coming next. I tried to warn her and get her to leave, but she didn’t listen. She stops in front of the door and turns. ‘Hello’, she calls one last time.

The door opens and I lean against the wall as she is pulled inside. This will be a long night. A long night of loud screams, shouts, and whimpers until it dwindles away to nothing. Then she will stay in this dark, gloomy, and cold place forever. Not really living, but not really dead. I walk to the door, and I look in. She knows what’s coming. She looks towards where I am standing, but she cannot see me. No one ever can.

2nd place - 'The mysterious bump throughout the night' by Scott Watson

As the sun goes down and the moon comes up

the ghouls, the creatures and the wolves wake up

to cause havoc, chaos, trouble galore

the monsters come to strike once more.

 

Around the corner from where the monsters risen

lived a young boy whose name was Christien

this boy in particular was chosen by the ghoul

in order to give him a scare that would make some items fall.

 

The silence was loud, the silence was deafening, the silence in the house deserved the ghouls welcoming

then there it was, the innocent table

the table that is suddenly knocked ever so gentle

this gentle knock made a bump in the night

which caused the young child to have a slight fright.

 

With a confidence found somewhere within him

the boy went to check what had suddenly awoken him

when he opened his bedroom door that’s when he found the terrifying ghoul

the ghoul that had given Christien a fright, suddenly lunged at the boy with all its might.

 

So let this be a warning for Halloween night

That the monsters will kill anything in sight

3rd place - 'But Why' by Michaela Slater

Things that go bump in the night,

My friend, are you alright?

Things that go bump in the day,

Are they scary? No way.

 

Why the obsession with darkness,

The morbid fear of the night?

Ghosts aren’t real, monsters aren’t either,

So what causes your fright?

 

Many misconceptions and misinterpretations,

Cause those who are gullible to succumb to imagination.

Things that bump in the night – ha,

Maybe in your dreams.

Just go to sleep darling,

Knowing nothing’s as it seems.

Library Choice - 'Labrynth of Nightmares' by Adem Turan

SCREECH!

The air screams with horror as the mist of uncertainty looms over an ancient maze with a menagerie of monsters and nightmares ready to unleash madness untold in the name of their dark master: the God of Nightmares, the King of Horror and the Archon of Fear, once slain by a dream’s gilded and immortal edge.

The Ancient dark kingdom now lies silent, it’s infernal inhabitancy is now a slumbering  hoard once created to serve a cruel and cadaverous conqueror’s sinister machinations, be weary wayfaring traveller, for even the slumbering kingdom may prey on the unsuspecting and the unprepared.

ROOOAAAR!

A hellish and thunderous call echoes throughout the shadowed Labyrinth of Nightmares, a shout that sends a chill as cold as the whispering grave down one’s very spine, a clamouring cry to signal that the Dark Lord’s will and legacy still lives.

Staff Winner - 'Things that go bump in the night' by David Wilkins

When night comes along
With its eerie black coat
Shouting a ghostly silence
Then your nightmare awoke.

So hence you listen for
Movements you really fear
The slightest sole sound
Will cause you to peer.

Into the darkness
You’re unable to see
Instead, your mind goes
On a terrifying Halloween spree.

Of ghoul’s ghosts and goblins
A plethora of horrors
Those you haven’t yet met
Nor want to see again tomorrow.

And when you finally see it
A truly horrible sight
One of those unknown creatures
That go bump in the night.

Covered by a blanket of fear
You let loose a scream
And then the realisation
It’s all a bad dream.

So, you’re so relieved
That your mind ran astray
Your welcomed by the morning
It is another bright day.

But later this evening
Morpheus will beckon you when
The god of sleep drags you
To his kingdom again.

The following students submitted work which was highly commended by Library staff, thank you for taking the time to enter and well done for creating such brilliant interpretations and responses  to the theme.

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