Many thanks to Isaac Perry and Paul Hyde of Marion’s Harbormaster department for another informative trip to Bird Island. The Marion Natural History after-school group heard about the history of the lighthouse and the important role the island itself plays in the life history of endangered terns.

It’s that time of year again, and we’re very excited. Starting this week, we will be publishing the entries for our Annual Scary Story contest, and they are really great.

We’ll also be holding a Halloween photo contest on Facebook; you can email your favorite Halloween photo to support@wanderer.com. Deadline for entry is November 2, so plan ahead for a chance to win. If you haven’t already, you can check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wanderer.

There’s still time to enter our Halloween Cover Contest. Your best Halloween artwork could be on the cover of The Wanderer, and you could win an iPad mini! Submit your best Halloween drawing, photo, compilation, or anything else we can print on our cover to enter. Deadline for submitting artwork is Friday, October 17 at noon. Online voting will take place from October 19 to October 27. The winner will be on the cover of the October 30 edition of The Wanderer. For details on entering, visit www.wanderer.com and click on Halloween Contests.

So let the fun begin. Here’s this week’s selection from our Halloween Story Contest!

Halloween Story Contest #1

Two Little Kids Go Into The Woods

One spooky night, when the wind was howling, there was a little boy and girl, who were brother and sister, and they were walking in the woods all ALONE!!! Suddenly they found a house out of nowhere. They were awfully scared because the house was old with no steps on it and there were spider webs all over the roof BUT Jack went in there anyway so Sally followed him in so he would not get lost.

Jack and Sally saw spider webs everywhere! Spiders were hanging down from the webs, big, black, hairy ones! They were spooked and wanted to get out of that room. Sally found an upstairs so they both went up. While they were walking upstairs Jack and Sally thought about their mom and dad. They wondered if their mom and dad were looking for them, well Jack and Sally were right. Their mom and dad did not know where Jack and Sally were so they called the police. The police did not know why the kids weren’t at their home. So the police took some notes. On the other hand, Jack and Sally were still in the house.

Upstairs they found a room that had a stuffed deer, moose, fox, and a large bear. It looked like a haunted museum. This room spooked them even more!

They went down some stairs and down a long, dark hall. It was a good thing they had a flashlight with them. Jack found a garage at the end of the hall so Jack and Sally went in there. They saw tons of antiques. They also found trophies all over the place. Then Jack noticed that pinballs were falling one by one down a ramp on the wall. They thought that that was scary so they were excited to see a different door. That door did not lead to the outside but it led them to a bedroom. The lights were flickering on and off. Sally thought that was scary and so did Jack. There were snakes in there and Jack could not believe that the snakes were still alive. Sally saw jewels in a box. Jack was looking around and his eye spotted a new door. The new door led Jack and Sally to a maze in the house.

Jack thought the maze was AWESOME but Sally thought that there was going to be something HORRIBLE at the end of the maze. But of course Jack likes to explore so he ran in to the maze and Sally ran as fast as she could after him. When they reached the end of the maze of course they found another door. When they opened that door there was another bedroom but Jack and Sally did not care. Then Sally spotted some more jewels. The jewels were in a lock box but the lock box was open. She had to see the jewels but Jack pulled her out of the other door that was straight ahead of them. They were finally out of that spooky house.

The BAD news was that there was a big, black, bear in front of Jack and Sally! The GOOD news was that he had a chocolate in his pocket. He threw the chocolate as far as he could. The bear ran after the chocolate and Jack and Sally ran the other way as fast as they could! They found their house. Their mom and dad were so happy to see them. They told the police that they could leave and thanked them for their help. Jack and Sally learned their lesson. They said to their mom and dad that they were never going to leave the house unless their parents came with them.

Halloween Story Contest #2

The Haunted House

I could hear the wind breezing through the trees. Tonight was Halloween and I had a plan to enter the haunted house on the corner of Norway Street. I didn’t believe it was actually haunted mainly because I don’t believe in ghosts, vampires and all that jazz. Tonight I was dressed as a ghost. “DING, DONG, DING, DONG!” That was my friend Elizabeth she decided to come with me. I said bye to my mother and little brother.

We started to go trick-or-treating first. Once we got a bunch of candy we headed down to the next street over, Norway Street, to the corner where the haunted house was. It looked very old. It had spider webs all over it, the windows were all cracked, and there was a rusty swing set in the yard. The wind started to blow softly on the wind chimes but the chimes didn’t chime.

Elizabeth and I stepped up on the porch stairs. The stairs screeched and made Elizabeth and I jump high in the air. When I knocked on the door it just opened! We stepped inside. There was covered up furniture and a bunch of dust and spiders. Every step we took we could hear cracks and creaks in the floor. We turned down the dark, creepy, and dusty hallway. The walls looked like they were falling forwards and then backwards again. We could hear voices but couldn’t see anything. At the end of the hallway there was a door, my hand reached to open it but before I could Elizabeth stopped me. She said, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea after all!”

I ripped my hand out of Elizabeth’s and before she could stop me I quickly opened the door. It was pitch black. As we were about to step inside we found a flashlight on the nightstand next to the door. I grabbed it, turned it on, and walked through the door. Elizabeth wasn’t too thrilled to go into a dark room but I made her come anyway. I pointed the flashlight around the room. There was dust, cobwebs, dusty furniture, and a rocking chair. In the corner of my eye the rocking chair started rocking! We jerked our heads around but nobody was in the rocking chair! We ignored the rocking chair and started to the next door.

I opened the door and it made the sound of creaking. I peaked inside while Elizabeth followed. When we finally got the courage to step inside I pointed my flashlight around the room, it looked like a little girl’s room. There was an old rocking horse, bed, toys, bins, cobwebs, and dusty things! The windows looked like they had been closed for years. Then something seemed a little peculiar. We heard singing coming from the corner on the chair. I silently walked towards the chair in the corner. When I got there, there was a jewelry box sitting there. Elizabeth finally got the courage to come check it out. At that moment something opened the door! We screamed and ran before we even could see what or who opened it!

The next door led to a garage. There was a rusty car and a bunch of old rusty and dusty tools. Out of nowhere the car turned on, it freaked us out so we ran through the next door, which finally led us through the back door. After that Halloween night, Elizabeth and I NEVER EVER dared to even go ANYWHERE NEAR that haunted house!

Halloween Story Contest #3

Afterlife

            I’m dead. The first thing that I remember is a white light in my eyes. It was so bright that’s all you could see. I heard someone talking but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The light moved. Finally, I could see again. I was in a room with bright white cubed like walls. There was a glossy white desk at the front of the room. Behind the desk was a woman. She had big glasses so foggy that you couldn’t see her eyes. She was wearing navy blue jeans and a pale green t-shirt. Her lips were moving but couldn’t hear what she was saying. Just then, she stepped out from behind the desk and walked over to where I was sitting. She pulled out two rubber neon orange ear plugs from my ears, “that must be better” she said in a light soft voice.

“My name is Jesse and I know everything about you. You look confused … by the way you are dead.”

“What! I’m dead? But I’m only 14 and I have over half my life left. What about my family? How did I die?” I exclaimed.

“That’s the problem nobody knows. All we know is somebody murdered you,” she said as she got out a stack of papers. Printed on the top paper was Autumn Lucy Hiller, born on October 31, 2015 in Mattapoisett MA. Parents: Alexandra Donahue and Robert Hiller.

“Yup, everything is here, Yup, Yup” Jesse said as she flipped through the stack of papers. “Okay here’s the deal … If you catch the person who killed you, you will earn a prize. However, you only have four days to solve the mystery. Starting tomorrow, since you need time to rest and adjust. I should probably bring you to your room.”

The next day I woke up to the rattle of the breakfast cart. A skeleton was pushing the cart into my room. The skeleton stopped and looked at me and said in a hazy voice, “You are going to the human world. Nobody can see you unless they believe in you. The first clue is a name, Derk Von Bob. If you succeed you will win a prize. Go, go, go!”

Poof! I landed in a cemetery. There was a large crowd around a stone. I wanted to check it out. I could not tell if I was crying or just had watery eyes. The gravestone said Autumn Lucy Hiller. Born October 31, 2015. Died October 26, 2029. Just then, I saw a black flash go by. I turned my head. I saw a man about 100yards away. I could not make out the description of the face but I knew who it was. It was the murderer checking on his dirty work. I headed towards him but then he vanished into thin air. I ran to the place where Derk vanished.

“I wish I had a mystery kit.” Sparkling dots appeared around my waist. The dots transformed into a dark leather brown belt. I looked down. There on the ground tucked safely between the scarlet maple leaves laid a dark green cork screw bottle. I reached down and picked up the bottle. I brushed off the dust and popped it open. A dirty piece of stained ripped parchment was in the bottle. I sniffed the stains. The smell of strong red wine entered my nose. I unrolled the paper.

It said: 1 Homestead Court, Barrows Cemetery. To Derk Von Bob, The murder case is closed, we’ve got the money. From Billy Bob Jr.

“Oh I don’t think so. The murder case is only about to begin!” I said in a murderous voice.

I zoomed over creeks and through woods. Finally I arrived at a huge pearly white mansion. I tested out the wall and fell right through on top of mounds of money. It was an astronomical amount of money. All of a sudden the money slid from beneath me. I fell right through the floor into a fancy room. A man stood facing the wall. He wore a velvet trimmed coat and a silky red bow tie. “I was expecting you, Derk” he said in a deep voice.

I looked through my mystery belt and I found a voice potion clipped on. Written on the bottle was Are you in need for voice imitating? Try this.

I will give it a try, I thought.

I took a swallow and spoke in a deep smooth voice. I said “the money … I need the money.”

“Derk, I already told you the money is mine. All mine. All Billy Bob Jr’s,“ he replied.

I looked down at the belt where I saw silver handcuffs and a glossy white gun with a huge black net attached at the end. The paper on the gun read, “We’ll send people to the After Life.”

I walked up to him but he could not see me. I scanned him for weapons but there were none. I pounced on him and tied his arms behind his back. Once the cold metal of the handcuffs touched his ghostly hands, he struggled to free himself. He screeched “Let me go, let me go Derk!”

“I’m not Derk. I’m Autumn Lucy HILLER” I said in a clear confident voice.

From the way his eyes widened, I could tell he could NOW see me. I stepped back and shot my gun. The net spiraled wrapping itself around him. The material turned purple and he screamed in pain as the material burned his ghostly skin.

Just then a dark curly haired man leapt out of nowhere with a knife. He pierced Billy’s cold heart. Just as he vanished.

“Derk?!” I said.

“Oh I am so sorry Autumn. Billy Bob Jr made me do it,“ he said in a soothing voice.

“WHAAAAT?” I said.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

“Yeah, he threatened me. And then took control over me so that I would kill you,“ he said in a grim voice.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” I said. And saying those words made my heart glow. “Wait a moment … you’re a ghost, too?”

“Yeah, I killed myself after I killed you. I felt so bad,” he said.

Just then we glowed and shimmered and turned into humans again.

And so we lived happily ever after as human.

That was the story of how I died.

Halloween Story Contest #4

The Jack O Lantern Gossipers

It was the night of Halloween when our owner brought us outside to be lit. She lit us and then the magic happened we could talk!

It was me who first found out we could talk when I was thinking about how fun Halloween can be and poof the words just came out.

My brother Jack and sister Jackie both asked “Jacqueline wait we can talk?”

I said “I did not know that Jack O Lanterns could talk either when they are lit. Let’s have some fun when the kids come by, by talking to them about their costumes.”

“Okay” my brother and sister both said.

A few minutes later I suddenly got hot. I asked my relatives if they were hot too.

Jack said “Yes.”

Jackie told me “I think the candle makes us like this and when it gets cold we warm up. Also, I think it gets warm because the fire in us is warm but helps people see us in the dark.”

Me and Jack both said “that seems reasonable.”

A few minutes later the trick or treating began. The first kid was dressed up as a hippie and Jack said to him “What is this the 80s?” That kid ran off crying to his mommy. His mom asked “Joey are you okay what happened up there?”

Joey said, “That pumpkin talked to me, he said, that my outfit was from the 80s!”

Joey’s mom said, “that’s not true honey. It was probably just a little trick. There is probably a person using a microphone to scare the little kids. If you don’t want candy from that house then we can go to the next.”

So little Joey went to the next house for his candy. Then a little witch about 9 years old came and I said to her “Oh look, how cute now only if you were ugly you could look like a real witch.” After I said that I said that it was not as scary as I thought because that meant she was cute. Darn it!!

The night went on and we decided to comment on this little 11 year old zebra by saying “What happened to you did you try to frost the cake and it went wrong?”

That little girl was the toughest all night she said “No what happened to you did you try to dye your hair and miss the head because you are all orange?”

We all said “No!”

That little girl went to go get her candy and got extra candy because she was the last kid of the night.

Once she left we said our goodnights to everyone and then fell asleep for our Halloween hibernation when we go to sleep and next Halloween we wake up and start a new life.

Halloween Story Contest #5

The Ghost of Mattapoisett

Long ago, in the Medieval times of Mattapoisett, lived a ghost who would terrorize the whole town. He would distract kids in Center School, mix up the books in the library, and put detour signs in the street, and many other bad things. Everyone hated this ghost, and they finally had a meeting to decide what to do. One person said, “Let’s destroy him!” Another said, “Let’s trap him!” The mayor knew this would not stop him. So, the ghost was still at work terrorizing the whole town. The worst was when he mixed up the street signs on one way streets, causing a major accident. The mayor of Mattapoisett would not let this happen anymore.

“This is Mattapoisett, we will not let this ghost terrorize us anymore!” So, the whole town of Mattapoisett came together to decide what to do. The ghost was nowhere to be seen. The mayor started the meeting by saying, “we can stop this ghost with your help if—” Suddenly, the doors flew open and a huge gust of wind ripped through the building, causing all of the papers to fly up and create a tornado above the tables. Everyone looked up in confusion. A second gust of wind followed, causing all of the people to fall off their feet. All of a sudden, the ghost could be seen cackling as he caused destruction. Then the winds died. The mayor’s voice boomed from the rubble, saying, “That was the ghost!”

After the shouting and mayhem quieted down, a much quieter voice came from the other side of the room saying, “Mayor, I have an idea, why don’t we scare the ghost away?”

“He’s on to something!” the mayor responded. Everyone considered this idea. The mayor started talking again. “Okay, we know the plan, but what should we do to scare him off?” Everyone started to talk. Finally someone said, “Let’s build an animal to scare him away!

“How about a moose?” someone suggested.

“No, not a moose” the mayor said. “But an animal would be good.” Suggestions rang through the building: duck, deer, fish. The mayor thought that these were all terrible ideas. But he did like an ocean creature. He told his thoughts to the crowd. More shouts broke out. One person said, “How about a jellyfish?” Next came suggestions of a tuna, an octopus, and a seahorse.

“Wait,” the mayor shouted. “I like the seahorse idea, who said that?”

A thirteen year old boy raised his hand. “Me, sir.”

“Well, you’re a brilliant young man.” the mayor said. Many people disagreed.

“A seahorse? Have you gone crazy mayor?” Nobody was on the mayor’s side.

The mayor stood up. “This is Mattapoisett, we should be unique! I truly believe the ghost will be afraid of the seahorse!” Oddly, everybody seemed to agree with this. So after of month of building, the seahorse was completed. Because of the ocean, the seahorse was named Salty. “Salty the Seahorse” the mayor said as he beamed up at him. “You should do the trick.” That night, the ghost took one look at Salty and scrammed, and never bothered Mattapoisett again.

Halloween Story Contest #6

Sally the Witch

There once was an ugly witch named Sally. Sally looked like a toad but taller. She was a bad witch. She haunted children, killed cute animals for no apparent reason, and ate disgusting lizard legs for dinner.

One day she was taking a walk (scaring children too), when she heard wailing. The witch followed the wailing to a big maple tree. She couldn’t see what was wailing, but she thought it was a baby ghost, because she had studied ghosts. She really wanted to meet this ghost, so she ran quickly to her so called house. The reason she wanted to meet the ghost so badly was that she needed a minion, and baby ghosts are stupid. The witch made a potion that allowed her to see ghosts. When she stepped outside she felt like she was in a whole different world! There were ghosts everywhere! But she knew she was only looking for a wailing baby ghost. She looked everywhere in town. Then she finally found the ghost in an ally. “Hello can I help you?” the witch said. The baby ghost looked at her wondering how she saw him then answered, “Can you help me find my mommy?” “Sure,” she said. “How about you come to my house?” Sally said. “O.k” said the baby ghost. They walked onto Sally’s house. When they got to the house, Sally made the ghost a drink, but that nasty witch put a potion in! When he drank it, he fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, every year, near Halloween, the kids in the town dare two kids to go inside the witch’s house. This year Cam and Max were picked. They were really scared because every year the kids who were picked never came back. So they walked up to the door and then quietly turned the knob. It was open. The witch was home. They had to be very quiet. They heard the witch come downstairs. Cam saw an air vent and they climbed into it. When the witch came downstairs Cam and Max couldn’t believe what they saw. All the kids that got dared to go into the witch’s house in the past years were there. They seemed to be in a trance because they stood straight up and did whatever the witch said.

When the baby ghost woke up, Sally named him Jack. Jack did whatever Sally said. Every night, Jack would be sent to children’s houses to scare the Children and make them drink the juice to make more minions. There would be more and more minions everyday. Cam and Max hid until the witch was asleep. Cam and Max sneaked out of the house. They ran until they couldn’t see the witch’s house. Then finally Max said “How about we have a sleepover so we can do research?” “O.k” said Cam. So they walked to Max’s house. He told his parents that the reason he had been gone so long was that he was at the library and that he saw his friend Cam, and asked if she could sleepover.

They did their research and found out that the witch was a human and then an evil sorcerer came along and made her into an evil witch. They were surprised about that. It also said that the secret to defeat the witch was daisies. She was allergic to them. They looked at each other and then Cam said, “so now we know what to do.” “Get daisies!” said Cam. “Do your parents have daisies?” said Cam. “Yes, I will go get them.” said Max. So Max went downstairs and got them. When he came upstairs he was holding a vase with purple flowers in it. He set them down on his desk. He checked the time. “Wow, it’s really late. We should go to bed.” said Max. So they went to bed.

The next morning, the witch had every kid in the world (except for Cam and Max) in her control, because of the juice. The parents were afraid of Sally too. She rounded up all the kids and ordered them to bow before her. Cam walked up to the witch and put the daisies up to the witch’s crooked nose, she hit the flowers away and yelled “guards!” Two eleventh graders picked Cam up and tried to make her drink the juice. Before she drank the juice Max thought what about in the wizard of oz? When they defeated the witch by pouring a bucket of water on the witch’s head? I should do that! So he saw a water bottle with water in it and picked it up. He ran up to the witch and poured the water on her head she yelled “guar…!” meaning guards, while melting. When she was all melted the kids who were in her control said “what are we going to do?” The eleventh graders let go of Cam, and they ran to the witch’s house without looking back. When they got to the witch’s house they found the potions book. It was open in front of them they saw the page that turned the kids back to normal. They made 9,200,000 gallons of the potion. Then they ran back to the park. They handed the cups of water out and then all the kids turned to normal and a lot of people said, “What just happened?” They lived happily ever after and all the kids were safe.