Oh, this sounds fun! I'll try to make time for this.

Hey, just a friendly reminder: You have to wait until the comment is POSTED before you top. Otherwise, the thread will stay at the bottom! 

Top! And, I will extend the date too... the 20th!

Top! Please submit a story! And thank you if you are planning on doing so! Remember I am judging on the 20th.

I will post a story later. But you need to extend the judging date.

Here's mine:

Betrayal

They say good things come for those who deserve it. I guess that means I don't deserve it.

I wish I had a childhood story I could retell as if it was just something to laugh about, but instead they're all something to cry over. Especially this. I don't understand why it happened. It's still a mystery... ish.

That morning, dad and I were sitting at our small dining room table. He was reading the morning paper and sipping his coffee, and I was eating a blueberry scone. It was a quiet morning, how it usually was. Comfortable. In our tiny little apartment, like always. Right where we moved after mom died.

That's when we got a call. I understand that everyone gets calls, but dad's reaction was odd. He stared solemnly at the phone before rising off his redwood chair to answer. Dad answered, and I only heard fragments of a conversation. Just what dad said, which was always either yes or no. He got off the phone and looked at me.

I'll never forget the look in his eyes. It was like someone had sucked all the life out of them. Pure sadness stared at me. I'd never seen my dad so defeated. But I didn't know why he looked this way. He looked weak, lifeless.

All I know is he didn't say anything to me that day. He simply grabbed his satchel, smoothed back my curly brown locks, and kissed my forehead. His movements were foreighn, like a zombie's to me. Then he left.

I didn't know where he went. I assumed it was work, obviously. What else could it be? So I went to school. It was normal, at least as normal as seventh grade could get. That was my favorite year, it was so fun when people were still getting along.

I came home, and dad wasn't there to greet me. I went to bed, and dad wasn't there to tuck me in. I woke up, and dad wasn't there making breakfast.

He was simply... gone.

I don't know what happened.

And then the war came. 

Betrayal.

I'm going to wait until there is at least 3 pieces then I will judge.

-Caroline 

As the greatest righteous swordsman, leader and Grand General for the HuoXue army and rumoured official most-beloved by the people, you could imagine my surprise as I stood on my knees, run to exhaustion in a snowy wasteland, a sword at my throat, surrounded by black-robed assailants.

How had it come to this?

I grit my teeth wondering if there had been any way I could have avoided this, if there were any ways yet to escape. It weighed heavy upon my mind knowing the only way to survive would be an underhanded one. 

Yes, I had noticed the slightest of openings under the arm of the one who had their blade centimetres away from piercing my neck. But it would do me no good. How could I force my blade upon this weak-spot in such ill-faith? Was I to become just as morally bankrupt as those who attacked me in this  moment? I refused. How could I ever return with such knowledge? It would all be for naught. My fingers stood chilled and stiff upon my hilt, torn in their decision. 

Thwack!

And it was too late. Lifeless fingers fell limply from the leather casing. The moment seemed to last forever as the assailants chattered between themselves, the sound slowly fading as scarlet seeped, dying pure white in brilliant fashion. It was all over. Silence rolled over everything like a heavy paintbrush, covering up the blemishes of the past. Yes, it was all over.

Or at least, it should have been. 

But unbeknownst to all those involved, back in the Capital City, in a shadowy basement hung-over thick with perfumed smoke, something was brewing. Something sinister.

Within days, red eyes -- eyes that should have remained closed forever -- shot open. 

With that, the scheme had begun rolling forward at alarming speed, and there was no longer anything that could stop it. The future of this world would be irreversibly altered, and history would forever wonder about the truth of it.

Once there was a man who lived in mystery town. He was a mystery solver. He loved solving mysteries. And being apart of solving mysteries. And being a mystery solver. One day he was solving a mystery when he got a cool that he should come and solve another mystery. He didn't know which mystery was more important. It was a mystery. Hmmmmmmmmmm he thought. What should I do. Well no one ever knows what he did. It was a mystery. The end???