Here are Meraki’s winners for our 2017 Halloween and Horror Writing and Art Contest.

Jenna Greenhouse (10th) took 1st place with her graphite drawing:

Max Reid (10th) took 2nd place with his poem “Amelia”.

 

Amelia

Amelia was stung by a wasp today

In fear of the wasp, she ran fast away

She dove in water, she used bug spray

Spraying it like a priest making a demon go back to where he came

But a wasp can fly, Amelia cannot

There was nothing she could do to make the wasp stop

The wasp pierced her skin and left a small red dot

She cried and screamed from the pain which was brought

But pain is temporary, so she gradually ended her vain distraught

 

Amelia found an artifact today

A board illustrated with numbers and letters that was starting its long awaited decay

She placed down the pointer, lay her fingers, and said what they all say

“Are there any spirits in here” she prayed

The pointer trickled towards the top, without any muscles being swayed

It landed on yes, and planted itself there as if forever it would stay

Her eyes widen and she gulped, realizing the grim mistake she made

She flipped over the board, too panicked to be afraid

Following her was a tranquil translucent entity stalking her draughty, shattering every single mirror in it’s way

 

Amelia was flung from the couch today

It was like a force hit her, as she suddenly flew ten feet away

Her body collided with the TV, shattering it’s glass

She stood right up, oblivious to her cuts and her crevasse

It scared her body but she seemed impervious to the pain

There has been strange things in her house that wanes

Pictures have been pushed, footsteps when there was supposed to be one soul in this residential plane

But Amelia’s incident was the strangest that this house contains

Now it’s like there’s nothing in her eyes, like she doesn’t even have a brain

 

Amelia was taken to the hospital today

Numerous amounts of cuts have appeared on her body

A cut dashed her face, her arms, and her head

She will be put in constraints due to the dread

The dread she may hurt herself again

But something strange happened yesterday

Her mother found words etched into her skin of dismay

Her skin said “We are servants of Satan desecrating this soul away”

 

Amelia was visited by three priests today

Two walked out of the hospital bay

More words were etched into her skin

Words that proclaimed “This is our body now, let it decay!

Neither Jesus nor his angels can help you today

Let her soul die and be sent to hell with pain and doomsday!”

The first priest went pale when it entered his sight

The other went to a trashcan and vomited at the plight

The only valiant of the three trickled holy water at Amelia’s feet

Her green skin sizzled and turned charcoal without ease

With the force of a monster she lifted the restraints and launched at the brave priest

She barraged herself at him and lifted him off his feet

She exposed the state of her stinging, yellow, depraved teeth

And she dug into his neck as if the priest was a rabbit at wolf’s feet

 

Amelia had her sixty sixth exorcist today

It’s doing nothing to help with her depraved state

Her remaining skin is light green and her remaining hair light grey

As skin and hair has slowly started to simply fall away

The two priests continue their chant every single day

At this point, they show no remorse as it screams in pain

It’s voice is lower, it’s eyes are yellow

It sounds like a maniac, like nothing from this existential plane

It never stops smiling except when the exorcism is under way

It has pleasant conversations before chomping on poor nurses that come in it’s space

It has bruises and blood stains map the plains of it’s dead skin

But they become obsolete as they are always ripped off in pain

A cross and rosary is placed underneath her bed every night

Put they all are found smashed to pieces or in the neck of a rat that has unfortunately went in the way

The cost to expel the demons has become too much

They’re sending in the bishop to expel the demon that has stayed

 

Amelia was sent to hell today

In fear of the demons, she ran fast away

She dove in holy water, she used a rosary

Spraying it like someone trying to repel a wasp to back where he came

But demons can be translucent, Amelia is not

There was nothing she could do to make the demons stop

The demons pierced her skin and turned it into a flesh bag of rot and decay

They manifested in her heart and performed their decadent rituals all day, starting to become a main stay, as they were summoned they will never go away, and on the six hundred sixty sixth decay with the bishop’s blood in the guts the body that they claim, they had the power to secure the girl’s fate

She cried and screamed on the inside of her decaying brain

Because Hell is forever, and the demons dragged her nine layers down to the inferno plane.