Following the success of our Year 8 Horror Writing Competition last year, the Secondary English Faculty recently ran the 2021 edition of the competition to tie in with the students’ focus on horror fiction writing in the first half term of Year 8. This year the competition was rolled out as a house competition where students were asked to write a 400 word horror short story. We had some fantastic entries submitted and it was a close fought contest, however our winner was Sharanya in 8VA with her narrative Eternal Heartbeat. The winning entry was selected it as it captures the essence of a short horror narrative (with nods to Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories such as The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart), there is an effective use of time and a build up of suspense which leaves the reader on an unnerving cliffhanger. Congratulations to our winner and all entrants – it is clear we have some passionate and creative writers emerging in the Secondary School and the English Faculty very much looks forward to seeing what they go on to write next!
By Sharanya, 8VA
Every family has their secrets. Every family has a skeleton in the closet. My family, however, is perfectly normal. Or so I thought until the night of my thirteenth birthday.
I am going to tell you a story about my family. In the year 1915, my great-great grandmother was a nurse during World War 1. One day, late at night, she saw a ring with a radiant, vermilion, heart shaped stone lying in the mud, covered with dirt. The second she picked it up, her life changed completely. What she did not realise, is that she was now immortal. She would never die, unless someone stabbed her right in the middle of her heart. Her heart would go on beating for eternity, just as long as that one area of her body was safe.
Still unaware of her new power, she wore the ring everywhere and everyday, until a decade passed and she realised that she was not ageing. She looked exactly as she did 10 years before. This was when she decided to start reading up about her ring. After days of searching through every book in every library, she found nothing. But then, in an old history book about myths and legends, she found it. She found what she had been searching for. In bold writing on the top of a dusty page, were the words: ‘THE ETERNAL HEARTBEAT’. It had an exact image of the ring she wore on her right hand. She then found out about her immortality, and perceived the fact that she would live forever, even after everyone she loved was gone.
It was after she realised that people would question her about her young appearance not corresponding with her age, that she took off the ring, hid it in the basement of her house, took a knife, and stabbed herself right in the middle of her heart. No one ever saw that ring again, until 106 years later.
On the night of my thirteenth birthday, I was playing hide-and-seek with my siblings, when I decided to hide in the basement. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to, but I did anyway. It was pitch-black, and I could barely see anything, so I turned on the light. That was when I saw it. I saw it’s vermilion stone on top of a cupboard. My curiosity getting the best of me, I walked towards it, reached up, and slid the ring onto my finger.
