13 Comments
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Erica Sloan's avatar

What an excellent use of a countdown for suspense.

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Scoot's avatar

Absolutely stunning. Gut wrenching take on the classic ghost story. I want him to succeed, and I don't know what that means.

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Nick Winney's avatar

this was a really interesting idea and the minute by minute countdown was great for tension but i was confused by the ending despite reading it a couple of times. is she a ghost... is she trapped by a ghost... who is the other "she"... i felt unable to grasp the full effect of the story because i couldnt work out quite what was going on. possibly more my problem than anything in the writing. some things are not obvious even when they stare you in the face.

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Leigh Parrish's avatar

No worries. Ashley is definitely a ghost. As for the other "she", I decided to leave that ambiguous. But you do get just a glimpse of her before Ethan is sent running. 🙂

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Laura Mollett's avatar

So glad you won the award. This is a great story!

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Leigh Parrish's avatar

Thanks, Laura!

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Andy Futuro's avatar

A well deserved victory!

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FranB's avatar

Great story!

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Jason Duck's avatar

Excellent! Loved it. Thanks for sharing.

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EJ Trask's avatar

beautiful scary story!

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Nick's avatar

Ooo. That description of the hand coming out the lake was 👌

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Liz Zimmers's avatar

Fantastic and heartbreaking. I hope Ethan comes up with a plan to free Ashley. And…I want to know more about what was in the lake!

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Leigh Parrish's avatar

Thank you!

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