![\"\"](\"\/\/www.candlelightstories.com\/images\/MysteryContestLogo.jpg\")
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If you want to enter the mystery contest, just finish the mystery we’ve started below by entering your part of the story into a comment.\u00a0 We do not need any personal information about you.\u00a0 You can just enter your name or your online nickname.\u00a0 We don’t need an email address or anything else.\u00a0 Of course, we are hoping that kids will be the primary contestants since the mystery is a kids mystery.\u00a0 There’s no real prize other than getting a lot of attention for your writing on this site.<\/p><\/div>\n
We’ll post the winner in our blog sometime in May 2009.<\/p><\/div>\n
Good luck.<\/p>\n
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Here’s how the mystery starts:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The trees of the forest bent over sideways in the howling wind. The white disk of the full moon shimmered behind the swaying branches. Southbay Forest was being battered by the storm. Rain began to pelt the ground. It was an altogether nasty evening.<\/p>\n
Riley Hitchens made his way along the muddy path with dread. The lantern’s feeble light swung wildly back and forth across the narrow way as his fingers gripped its handle tightly.<\/p>\n
It was just an old crypt. That’s all. Nothing but a pile of old stones with a rusty iron door. That door was clanging in the wind now. It had disturbed Riley’s sleep.<\/p>\n
So now poor Riley staggered in his soaking nightclothes toward the crypt that was creating such a din.<\/p>\n
A wolf howled.<\/p>\n
Riley stopped in his soggy tracks and glanced behind him. A shape flashed between the trees. He lurched forward and bolted down the mud path toward the old stone crypt.<\/p>\n
He burst through the half-open door and sucked the dank air into his lungs. His mud-caked slippers echoed in the stone chamber. The rain pounded the forest outside. Just ahead, Riley could make out the dim shape of the tunnel entrance.<\/p>\n
He stopped and felt the cold sweat of terror at the back of his neck.<\/p>\n
From far down the dark winding way of the tunnel, underneath the raging of the storm, came the delicate sound of… music.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, continue the mystery in a comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you want to enter the mystery contest, just finish the mystery we’ve started below by entering your part of the story into a comment.\u00a0 We do not need any personal information about you.\u00a0 You can just enter your name or your online nickname.\u00a0 We don’t need an email address or anything else.\u00a0 Of course, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[68,69,67],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mystery-contest","tag-contest","tag-kids","tag-mystery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t