Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Bonja Bilingual Coordinator Angela Cristina Cardoso for bringing the project to life. We would also like to thank Teacher Daniela Avancini dos Santos and Teacher Ricardo Luiz Carneiro for instructing, advising and encouraging us.

We could not forget about the effort and dedication that the team leaders Larissa Mazza de Freitas Xavier Pereira, Isabella Silveira Busarello, Bianca Barp Lenz and Eloísa Hermann Moser put in the book, editing, proofreading and coordinating the students. We would like to thank all of the students that were engaged and participated on the project. 

It was an honor to have this experience and to work in this project with our teachers and colleagues.

Summary

Bianca Lenz............................................................................................6

Ana Beatriz Bussmann.........................................................................8

Ana Carolina Timm..............................................................................10

Vitória Bonatti......................................................................................12

Maria Mattos........................................................................................13

Larissa Mazza.......................................................................................14

Fernanda Pitzahn.................................................................................16

Pedro Mélega........................................................................................18

Isabella Busarello.................................................................................22

Summary

Davi Clemente.............................................................................................24

Gabriela Schmitz.........................................................................................29

Amanda Xavier............................................................................................30

Bernardo Redondo......................................................................................32

Eloísa Moser................................................................................................39

Otávio Valim................................................................................................52

Antônio Bisso..............................................................................................61

Letícia Antunes...........................................................................................69

Alexandre Paladino....................................................................................77

Summary

Pedro Thum.......................................................................................................89

Gabriela Brognolli............................................................................................91

Mark Quad........................................................................................................106

Julia Macedo.....................................................................................................118

Marcela Coelho Brito .................................................................................... 125

Helena Hofmann Rodrigues..........................................................................139

The importance of education in our lives

By Bianca Lenz

    Some time ago important people in society were supposed to study and learn. Nowadays, everyone has the right and duty to have basic knowledge in their lives. In order to have a decent life in today's society it is necessary to put effort into this opportunity. Do you agree?

    Education is very important in a person's life. It's what differentiates us from wild animals. It can help people as much in their personal life as in their career. Considering someone's personal life it helps you to  make better choices based on what you want and believe and it is more difficult for you to be convinced into the wrong way. 

    Now considering someone's career, the best education is a better chance of getting a good job, and the more effort one puts into it now, the more it will be harvested later on. Unfortunately, many countries do not care as much as they should about any kind of education. 

    Due to all the information presented above, we can agree that education is devalued, considering  

 the benefits it brings to people's lives on a personal level and to the future of the world. We should let everyone have access to at least a decent quality education.

My new life

By Ana Beatriz Bussmann

   I was just a 17-year-old girl at a party with my friends, what could go wrong? Well, everything went wrong. 

   I was at a pool party at my friends' house, everyone was happy, and a bit drunk, so we decided to play truth or dare. Everyone was choosing truth, but I wanted to be the brave one, so I chose dare, and my friend said “Jump in the pool”. As I was drunk I jumped, but when I was on the pool floor, I hit my head, so everything started to spin and get dark. 

   I woke up in the hospital with serum on my vein and my family and friends were next to me, so the doctor came to me and said the sentence that changed my life: “I’m so sorry, but, you can’t walk anymore.” 

   Since that day, I had to re-learn how to live.  ‘’If it wasn’t for that stupid game, I would still be able

to walk, run, jump’’.  That is what I used to think. Now I value the little things, like playing board games, spending time with my friends and family, playing with my dog, everything.  

   Today I’m 30, and I’m happy with my husband, who loves me, and our dog.

People‌ ‌with‌ ‌differences‌ ‌and‌ ‌their‌ ‌place‌ ‌in ‌society‌

By Ana Carolina Timm

   My name is Haley and I wanted to dye my hair, so when I turned 15 I told my mom I wanted to dye it. I went to the beauty salon with my brown hair and I got out with a beautiful purple hair with some blue shades. For me that was so beautiful and normal, but that was what I thought…

   Everything changed after that day. In the next morning I went to school and everyone was staring at me with a weird face, I didn’t know why they were doing that, but then I went to talk with my friends and they didn’t even say hi. They just looked with a disgusted face and said that they couldn't be my friends anymore because I dyed my hair.

   People think that it is weird teenagers who dye their hair with a flashy color, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. We are free to do what we want, to dress and to eat what we want, so why this preconception? Usually young people dye their hair to change their style, their looks, so people

can’t judge us or things like that. This won’t change who we are. We are going to be the same, just with a different look.

Education nowadays 

By Vitória Bonatti

Hungry neurons

By Maria Augusta Mattos

    I believe that everybody has been through this situation where it feels impossible to say “no” to a second round of food, even after a big and full meal. But why? That’s what the scientists of the Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, have been searching for. 

    By working with mice they identified a region of the brainstem that is home to a set of neurons whose activity is influenced by food or water intake. These brilliant scientists discovered that activating the neurons inhibited eating. This activity caused the mice to eat or drink less than usual, even when the little animals were well fed and hydrated. 

    They started to do more experiences with the mice, the researchers served them different liquids during the neurons activity monitoring. Scott Sternson and his colleagues noted that when the mice drank water or ate bitter-tasting compounds the neuronal activity was reduced, the inhibitor neurons were still activated, but when they gave them the tasty drinks the reduction was bigger and the inhibitor neurons weren`'t activated. This shows that the neural feedback “allows” you to  consume more the yummy foods to trick the brain into wanting more.

 Diana's Diary

  By Larissa Mazza

     July 6th, 2020

    Dear Diary, 

    My name is Diana and I am a 14-year-old teenager from a small town called New Westminster, in Canada. You might think that I am an average girl. Guess what! I am not. Since a young age, I was considered different from other people, not only because of my “not feminine” style, but also because of the way I see things. 

    I would say I am pretty confident, and that’s something I like about myself. Self-esteem is a thing that is getting harder and harder to have as time passes by, mainly in our judgmental society. If you don’t like yourself, you are being dramatic and if you like yourself, you are snobbish.

I don’t understand that! If I like the clothes I am wearing and I feel comfortable with them, why would someone say they are ugly? I am the one wearing them and I like it. I guess I just don’t get  why people are so mean, just to let others down. 

    The person I feel the most comfortable around is my best friend Olivia. I can tell her anything and she is never going to judge me. I can be myself around her. She is super crazy and always has the best ideas. Olivia will always be by my side, no matter what.

That’s it for today!

            Diana :))

It's just my style

by Fernanda Pitzahn

    I’ve never been into dresses, makeup and stuff like that. Since I was a kid, I liked to wear clothes that are supposed to be for boys. My grandma hated it,she forced me to wear pink or yellow dresses and tiny flat shoes that hurt my feet. Once I heard her screaming at my mom, saying that it's her fault that I’m like this because she is always working and I don’t have a female example to follow, which makes no sense at all because most part of my family is composed by women and my father is not really present in my life. My dad doesn’t have a big problem with it, but he likes to make fun of me, like presenting me to other people as “his big boy”. I always laugh at it, but, honestly, it kind of hurts me. I’m sure he’ll feel sad if I tell him that, so I just pretend that I don’t care. The other members of my family just do not care. These days, I don’t have to deal with my family anymore, I hardly ever visit them (my dad doesn't live with us anymore). 

   It is difficult at school. I don’t wear the female uniform, it is too small, it’s impossible to breathe in it. Twice a week, we have swimming classes and most girls feel uncomfortable changing clothes next to me. In the beginning, I didn’t understand why, until our advisor called me at her room, and said the girls asked not to change clothes in a room where I’m in because they are afraid that I’m going to attack them, that I am supposedly lesbian, which I am not, and, if I was, I would not do it. I said it to her, but the girls continued to complain, and now we don’t have swimming classes anymore, girls are apprehensive when I’m near them though, I’m lucky that it is not all of them.

Obsession

by Pedro Mélega

   She thought that she had everything, good friends, a nice job, a quality school,  and most importantly, a seemingly perfect boyfriend. Little did she know that perfection relies on the eyes of the one who sees it.

    Georgina Jackson is an average girl who somehow got a perfect boyfriend in her job. She works at a cafe. She lives alone because of some things that happened to her in the past. She has dark ebony hair, onyx eyes, and a little scar on her forehead. 

    Her boyfriend is called Solaire and is apparently perfect. He is caring and thoughtful. He is very handsome and always supporting Georgina.

    One of these days they were getting out of the cafe when a cat scratched Georgina's foot. She remembered that she had left her cell phone at work. Solaire slowly walked in the cat’s direction. 

The cat was later found dead in a river.

   At 7 o’clock, the alarm clock goes off, it is the first day of class. Her best friend Laine will pick her up at exactly 7:15 so she needs to be fast. Georgina is now a 16 year-old girl. Her body has changed throughout the last vacation. As she arrives at school, everybody was impressed. The way she walks slowly and creepily makes everybody gaze at her.

    She walks into the classroom, her secret stalker is there and stares at her the whole class. The moment Georgina left to drink water, he saw an opportunity and put a letter into her bag. After school, Georgina rides the bus to work, passing the Freak forest, famous for the number of people that killed themselves there. Some dead trees on the floor, the frozen lake, and the snow on the ground composing that beautiful scenario.

   Her boyfriend was jealous, so every time she arrives home, he looks inside her bag to see if it has anything unusual, but this time would be different. When she arrived home Solaire, as usual, looked into her bag. The moment he saw the letter, Georgina noticed that something was wrong, 

The way he looked at her, a psycho gaze, showing all the emotions he felt.

   It’s a Friday night, as ordinary, they went to have dinner in a pizzeria called “Mama Mia”, a small restaurant constructed in 1899, very cozy. At the end of the dinner, she told him that she wasn't comfortable dating him and she wanted to break up. He was outraged and sad but apparently he accepted it. After some weeks a hooded guy started pursuing her. She started to be afraid so she opted to stay in her best friend’s house while her parents were traveling.

   After a few days, at night, Georgina heard a noise in her backyard, so she went to see what that was, When she opened the door she saw a masked man, holding a machete. Georgina froze. She tried to run, but it wasn't possible. The way the guy walked towards her, slowly, showed how much he wanted to kill her. Georgina was never seen again.

   Georgina explained that she didn't know what it was, but like always he didn't believe her. In the letter it was written that Johnny Parrish, a boy from her class, was in love with her. Of course Solaire wouldn't like that. On the next day he would go to school to "talk" with Johnny. Two days after, Johnny's body was found next to an abandoned hospital, broken walls, a smell of musk, 

without lights, making that place frightening, Georgina knew that it wasn't a coincidence. One day her boyfriend discovered her stalker and not long after he was dead, She started suspecting of Solaire.

 She noticed his conservative way of loving her, she decided to go talk with someone, Frank, a psychologist. Georgina told him  the whole situation. Frank advised her to break up with Solaire. 

She thought about it the whole night. She analyzed the pros and cons and decided to break up, but she didn’t know how to do that. She thought that he could get angry and go after her, so she decided to do it in a restaurant because if he tried to react she would be helped.

Presidential Speech: we seek...

by Isabella Busarello

Inspired by Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall” speech. 

   What do you seek for? I seek for a country in which our children have the same opportunities. A country in which people are not discriminated by their skin color. A country in which you are respected over your sexual orientation. A country in which women don’t need to be afraid of walking alone in the night. Our people need to have the liberty of expression without being afraid of dying over it.

   We need to break the huge silence that has been persisting over years in regards to important social issues. Being a president is more than being head of the government. It is more than being responsible for the execution and enforcement of the laws created by the Congress. Being president is being the representative of what the citizens of our nation want. The president should represent what all of us have been fighting for years.

   We seek for education for all of our children, we seek for public health, we seek for human rights being executed, we seek for a country free of judgment. We seek for a better nation. We seek for a better America. 

   What we need for the change in our country to happen is: know what is our goal, fight for it, and teach our children to continue our legacy. 

A Perfect Boyfriend

By Davi Clemente

Chapter 1  

    She thought that she had everything, good friends, a nice job, a quality school, and most importantly, a seemingly perfect boyfriend. Little did she know that perfection relies on who sees it.

    Georgina Jackson is an average girl who somehow got a perfect boyfriend in her job. She works at a cafe. She lives alone because of some things that happened to her in her past. She has dark ebony hair, onyx eyes, and a little scar on her forehead. 

    Her boyfriend is called Solaire and is apparently perfect. He is caring and thoughtful, is very handsome and is always supporting Georgina.

    One of these days they were getting out of the cafe when a cat scratched Georgina's foot. She

remembered that she had left her cell phone at the job. Solaire slowly walked in the cat’s direction. The cat was never seen again.

    The sun has risen and it’s a new day. Georgina is going to school. She is kind of popular in school. She’s very smart and a lot of boys find her pretty. When she was arriving at school she saw a bunch of people around one guy. She recognized that guy as the new transfered student. His name is Jace. He was handsome but short. Georgina didn’t care that much so she just passed by.

    Arriving at class. Georgina was greeted by her best friend Kala. Kala is an energetic girl who is very extroverted. The class went by and Georgina noticed that her friend Kala was being a little bit too nice to her. So knowing her best friend Georgina asked what Kala wanted. Just like she knew that Georgina would notice. Kala gently asked if she could copy her assignment that had the delivery date to the next day. Georgina accepted with the condition that she would change something and wouldn’t tell anybody.

    After going to work and having a little snack with Solaire she went home. She studied a little bit and started to use her cell phone. Strangely the class group was filled with messages. Nobody says 

anything in that group. But  what surprised her the most was what the messages said. People were talking about how nice she was for letting everybody in class copy her assignment. She immediately asked for satisfaction from Kala. Her excuse was that everybody was desperate and she couldn’t let them hang like that.

    Very understanding girl that Georgina was. She understood the situation but asked Kala to not do it again. She went to sleep saying that was okay but deep down she was preparing for the worst.

    Next day is already today. And Georgina was in class. And everybody had given the assignment.  Everything was going okay. Until she was called to the principal's office.

Chapter 2

    Georgina's body was petrified. She had just been called to the directory. And she knew why. She knew that letting Kala copy her assignment was a bad idea. But now she had no visible escape. Walking slowly through the corridors. The feeling of uneasiness ran all over georginas body and the worst part of that was that she didn't even know why. There was no visible reason for fear. But she knew that it was real. So real that it was almost instinct.

    The world suddenly felt colder as she arrived by the principal office. Entering the room. The principal greeted her with a smile. He is a middle aged man. His head was shaved and looked like a crystal ball. His beard was white. Many people think that he is creepy but can't quite explain why. Georgina began to explain herself but was quickly muted by the principal gesture of silence. He said that he knew why she was there and if she’s willing to do some things for him he could solve this problem in no time.

    While menacing, the principal was smiling as he was getting closer. Georgina was scared. So 

scared that the only time she felt as scared as this. Was when she was 9. She was trembling as the principal got closer. Feeling like prey. She started thinking of ways to get out of that situation. And the best thing she could think of was throwing the coffee that was on his table directly in his face. And that’s what she did. While running away she could hear the principal saying that he wouldn't let that pass. But she didn’t care. Because she knows that there are much scarier people in the world. And she knew that first-handed. 

    Afraid, Georgina went home. And shortly after that. She went to sleep. The dreams were particularly bad that day. The tall figures were taller than ever. And she felt even more powerless than normal. And just like that. Another day had passed.

A message of hope

By Gabriela Schmitz

    My name is Maria de Lourdes. I have a diagnosis of ASD (autism). It's a disorder that impairs my day-to-day activities, from having relationships with people to getting involved with little things I should be able to do. People that have this diagnosis, like me, need help to do little things, I have difficulty to initiate a dialogue and maintain myself on it. I also have difficulties expressing my feelings and thoughts. People think I’m always in the clouds, because usually I don’t answer what people ask. I have some behaviors, like start spinning around, I like the movement of swings, they calm me down.  When I’m in a uncomfortable situation that I am not on control or I can’t deal with it I can panic.

    I’m not ashamed of who I am, I know that we are all different and I have my own special way of being.

    The only thing I want is that all people respect people with autism, that they accept that we are people and we deserve to live with dignity and social equality.

Dear Diary...

By Amanda Xavier

Dear diary,

   Everything sucks! I don’t know what to do. I’m struggling with my circle of friends. Again. They are all so pretty and nice but they are not like me… And the fact that people probably assume I’m like them MAKES ME SO MAD! I don’t wanna be like them but I’m scared of what people will think of me. I want to post random stuff on instagram. I want to dress up exactly like the way I want to and not care about what others think. Lord, if it was that easy… The problem is that I’m super sensitive and actually care a lot about what people think of me. Wait, about my friends, don’t get me wrong though. I absolutely love them. I would die for them. But you know… I just don’t wanna be like them. At the same time I think that people assume I’m that typical girl, I feel like they know that I’m different from my friends.Ugh, THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! Basically my logic is that ***maybe*** people’s first impressions of me are usually: “Yeah, she’s basic” or not, I don’t know. My close friends, colleagues,people who kind of know me and etc, probably know that I’m kind of 

different???? I have no idea. I mean, people have already told me that I’m kind of an alternative girl and that’s good because that’s what I’m aspiring to be. But while I’m trying to be this type of girl, my thoughts are that I have to be the standard girl so then society doesn’t judge me. However, I need to be this different girl. It’s who I am. Well, if I want to be myself, I need to do it fast. A lot of people are starting to become the different and alternative kid I’ve always wanted to be. The problem is that if I “go with the flow”, everybody will think that I’m a basic girl who wants to be different because it’s “now a trend”. I HATE THIS. Does this mean that at the end of the day people will still think that I’m basic? Ugh, I don’t care anymore. I hate society for creating social standards. I hate that just because I don’t want to fit in I’m kind of “hating” on the “basic” girls. Okay, diary. My final thought about all of this is: BE WHOEVER YOU WANNA BE! If you wanna be basic, be basic! If you wanna be a nerd, be a nerd. If you wanna look like an apple, freaking look like an apple. Do you get me, diary? Being different is awesome (even though I still care about what people think but let’s just ignore that for a few minutes)! Always be proud of who you are.

Horror Story

by Bernardo Redondo

    In a small city of Hungary called Szeged. There was a house up in the Kékes mountains. These mountains were known by the population for being haunted. The only thing the population knew is that there was a family living there and they were searching for an exorcist, but nobody knew what was happening there . So it was a big mystery. No exorcist wanted to go there to help the family.

    In India, a tall and brave man accepted the challenge, nobody knew his name. He was called “the hat guy” because he was always using a big and posh hat. 

    The man arrived in Hungary in the airport of Szeged. He was very tired of the trip so he went first to a hotel called Szent János Hotel. It was a very small hotel. The next day he went to the mountain, however, to get up the mountains he needed to go through a trail.

    It was a very beautiful trail surrounded by nature, but approaching the house the nature started 

disappearing. There were no trees. So after walking more than 2 miles he arrived at the house gates. His first impression was that the house was abandoned for years. He did not find any bell to ring or something to call someone. He was already going back to the hotel to come back another day. Then the gate suddenly opened, He decided to enter.

    When he was walking to the front door he could hear screams of a child. As he got closer, the screams became louder. 

    Getting closer he perceived that the door was already opened. He got a long breath and entered the house. At the same moment the door behind him closed in an abrupt way. He could not leave the house anymore. The house was very dark with almost no light. There was only one lamp in the corner, which was illuminating all the main room.

    The screams disappeared. On the sofa there was a very beautiful and tall woman. She looked at him and said that something was wrong with her child. She explained that the boy was sick and that at night he gets up to watch her and her husband sleeping.

 She said that the husband was taking care of the boy too. But the hat guy was confused because she did not say her and her family names.

    She invited him to meet the boy. Getting closer to his room, he felt like an earthquake was shaking the house. The woman said it was normal so he just entered the room. At that moment the woman disappeared and the husband was not in the room. He tried to get out of the room, however he could not move the door. He was there stuck with the boy in his room. The boy was not in bed, not on the floor and he could not find him.

    At that moment something touched his shoulder, something that came from the ceiling. As he looked up the boy was there like a spider, looking with demons' eyes at him. He was drooling on him.

 He was shocked with the situation he had never experienced before. The boy dropped from the ceiling and started facing him.

The child started saying that he already knew him. He was confused. The child got closer to the guy.

    ‘We have the same blood’ - cried the child.

The hat guy knew it was fake because he knew all his family. He was just confused that his family was all  Indian. His mother Eliana was black and his dad Mastiff was black too, but he was white. His mother always said that he suffered from vitiligo, but after really thinking of that, the child could be right.

There was just one way to know the truth, so he got closer enough to the child to whisper in his ears a question. The question was what his name was. That was the perfect thing to say because nobody knew that, he was known just by the nickname ‘hat guy’.

    ‘Sergio’ - said the boy.

    He was so surprised. He was sure that the child would be wrong. How could he know that? He lived all his life in India and this little child is from Hungary.

     But somehow the kid knew it.

    ‘That is impossible’ - said the man

    He was surprised with that. He was so scared that he thought the best thing to do was to fight with the kid. He prepared a punch, but the child dodged it.

 Then, in a very strange moment the child shot a web with his hands in the direction of the guy. The web trapped him. He was stuck, He couldn't move. It was a terrible feeling, he couldn't get out of it.

    The child got even closer. He could feel the breathing. It was a calm breathing so he opened his mouth and vomited inside the hat guy's mouth. 

    It was strange because he couldn't feel something bad for it was just something entering his body. However, seconds after that, he passed out. When he woke up again, he was in a different room in a bed. His arms were tied to the bed legs.

    When he looked around the room was gigantic. There were more beds than he thought, and on the the beds were bodies of people, some skeletons. He got desperate. He was sure he would stay there until he died. He decided to wait some time. He had hoped something would happen. So after some hours of waiting he saw a door in his left opening. It was the boy. He was not so palid like that. He was more normal, however, the voice was the same, that horrible voice.

  The boy said that he wouldn’t kill the man if he helped him get out of the house.

    ‘Help me and you will get out this alive’- said the boy

 The man only needed to cut a strand of his own hair. It was an easy job for what he expected so he gave it to the boy, even though he did not know what was behind it. The boy thanked the man, tied him out and got out of the room.

    He decided to go after him, so after some minutes walking in a straight way he perceived he was in the underground. They finally got to the stairs and went directly to the boy's room. The boy  grabbed like a potion and put the hair inside it. He divided the potion into two cups, the boy drank one and the man was forced to drink the other.  

‘FINALLY” shouted the boy

He ran down the stairs and went directly out of the house, he ran so far away the hat guy could not even seen him anymore, so he thought all was done and he could just leave the house and escape fast from that country, however at the time he would go out of the house, he just couldn’t do it, was like an invisible wall.

So he got desperate, the first thing he thought was to go after the mom or the dad. But how if he didn't even know their names. He went in all the rooms there and not even a sign of someone. So after hours and hours searching for someone he realized that he lost all his hope, because he knows that his death is clear, so he lays down knowing he had failed his job and that cost him his death. And the boy now is free to spread evilness around the world.

Scarred for life

By Eloísa Moser

     Now I add the zinc dust to the hot water, that is evaporating, and the hot smoke should turn cold. All I hear after the first powder particle hits the water that I mixed with baking powder is the sound of the becker breaking and some shattered glass on my face. Dang it, I can’t believe it, these are the third pair of glasses I’ve broken this month because of the thermal shock created during my experiments. If my mother was actually paying attention to what I do, I would be in trouble, but she’s too busy fighting with my father during the divorce. I turn my head sideways, still with my eyes closed, to face the mirror. I open my eyes slowly so no glass pieces go into them. Thank goodness, I wasn't hurt. Now, I’ll have to go to the battle field, the living room, where my parents are shouting at each other so I can ask them where my extra pair is.

    I get out of my room and close the door, so when my mom walks past it she doesn’t see the mess I made. I go down the stairs and scream as loud as I can, so they can hear my voice through their

arguing, “MOM, WHERE IS MY EXTRA PAIR OF GLASSES? ”, finally, I hear nothing. Oh silence, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you. “Hey honey bear, it is down in the basement, inside one of the boxes.” - my mom tells me. “Do you want any help looking for it, Theodore?” - my dad asks in a soft voice, “No, I’m good, thank you anyways.”

    I leave the living room in complete silence. Just as I get to the basement door, the peace goes away all at once. I don’t get it, what did I do to make them fight so much? I know it’s my fault, even though no one told me so, However I just can't stand seeing the hate they feel for one another. Anyways, back to looking for my glasses.

    I open the door right in front of me, turn on the lights and immediately close it again. I can still listen to them, but it’s kind of better. I go to the pile of boxes that’s in the corner of the empty room, pick up the box that’s on top of all the others and start searching. When I open the fifth box, I’m already pretty tired, but I see something interesting. When I look inside I see the shadow of what seems like a figure with a humanoid form, like a doll, not like the ones girls play with but like the ones that those people put their hands inside and they suddenly start talking. It must be a present they got because my mom

would never allow my dad to buy something like that.

    That was the last box and, except for that weird doll, I found nothing. ”How hard can it be to find a pair of glasses? ”, I thought, when I said I didn’t need help. Well, it turns out it can be very, very hard. I decide to go to the living room again and ask my mom if she knows what box it is in, however, when I get there, she’s outside stuffing my father's stuff into his car. I choose not to bother and try to look a bit closer to see if I missed anything.

    Once again, I’m at this same doorstep ready to look through that mess. The first thing I do when I get in is turn the lights on, though it seems that the light switch stopped working or the light bulb burned out because the room is still ink dark. I figure I should go tell my parents and then I can also ask for their help, but, weirdly enough, when I look towards  the door it suddenly closes. I act nonchalantly, “Maybe it was the wind” - I think. Nevertheless, I try to open it so I can warn my parents. It is locked.

    “What’s happening?”,I whisper to myself. In response, all I hear is a whistling melody. “Who’s there?” I hear the sound moving, it is coming from behind me. “Nighty night” - is the only answer I get

before something hits the back of my head and I fall down the stairs, unconscious.

    I wake up with my head hurting and a dizzy kind of feeling. All of a sudden, I listen to someone, no, that’s not right, something talking non stop, in a low pitch voice, behind me, “Finally, you’re up. What took you so long? Were you having sweet dreams about me?” I try to turn around but then I realise I’m tied up to a chair. “ I’m so sorry, hahaha, but I had to take some precautions in case your response was how I expected it to be.” After the thing finishes talking I hear steps, not footsteps. They're too subtle to be that but even though I can’t listen to them that well, I know they are coming towards me.

    Before I even notice, it is before me. It’s a creepy ventriloquist doll and, although it doesn’t have any muscles, it is smiling and constantly staring at me with its disproportionate head tilted to the right, like it is waiting for a reaction, which is something I don’t have. I’m too strained to feel or scream anything. I just keep staring into the thing’s still eyes, trying to understand what is happening, but I can’t focus because of its old, shadowy looking suit. It adds an important aspect to the doll’s character. It shows that it has been ready for something for a long time, however, I don’t know what.

    “Well, so we finally meet. Thank you, by the way, for releasing me so I can continue my quest.” “What are you?” - I whisper to myself. Unfortunately enough, it hears my question, “First of all, not it, him. Second of all, you can call me your worst nightmare”. ''What a selfish doll.” - I think. “I know you think I’m joking,” he makes a brief pause and then says in a grisly voice, “but believe me when I tell you, I’m not.”

    After saying that, he sits on a box right in front of me and while he does that, I realize that the knots he made are not actually that tight, so there’s a chance that I can untie the rope. “Ah” - he makes a relaxing sound as his legs stop touching the floor, “So, answering the questions you asked me right before you passed out, what’s happening is that I’m not only a doll, as you probably have already noticed by now, I’m just stuck in this crappy toy I owned as a child. So, properly introducing myself: ‘Hi, my name is Vlad,’ kind of a cliche, I know, right? Well, I embrace it as you can see,” he says lifting his shirt’s winged collar, “That’s not the point. The point is that I was murdered, so I guess you already know how I ended up in here,” he knocks on his wooden head. While he is giving this whole speech I’m trying to free myself and just as the noise of him banging against his hollow head is created, I'm able to

do it. I get up as fast as I can and run towards the door. During that moment, all I hear is his hysterical laughter as it makes its way into my brain. I can’t listen to anything else so my instinct is to cover my ears, but that  doesn’t help either. It just keeps getting louder and louder as I go up the stairs. However, in my mind, I know that when I get to the door this will finally be over. When I push the door away with my whole body and expect to be in my living room again, I’m not.

    “Hey there, you want to escape? Awnn, I’m so sorry” - this psychotic creature says, “it’s not going to happen any time soon.” He growls. What happened? I was supposed to be out of here. It was all going to be a dream and when I woke up I would be relieved and go back to my usual, boring, scientific life. But no, I had to get back in the same room when I tried to get outside of the room. “Why is this happening to me?” I whisper, as low as I possibly can, so he can’t hear me like he did before. “It’s not you specifically. You see, 59 years ago, when I was killed, I was not living my best life, that’s how you say it nowadays, isn’t it? Let me stop stalling now. I wasn’t feeling great, however, I was still alive,” he says shrugging. He pronounces the words in the next sentence giving emphasis to each and every one of them, “BUT SOMEONE HAD TO COME UP WITH THE ‘BRILLIANT’ IDEA OF KILLING ME.” He seems so

dark and blue, but also so full of rage at the same time that I can’t quite describe the exact feeling I see in his eyes when they look deep into my soul. Now, he speaks just like an actor would when acting a scene that’s related to drama “I’m trying to find who had such courage to come into my house and kill me,” but, out of the blue, his melodic voice changes like if he had been possessed, and he goes on in a deep darkened voice, “so I can do the same to their family”.

    Following his scene, I think, not out loud, to avoid the same situation from happening once again, “Think Theodore, think. Before this doll, because, let’s take this rationally, that’s all it is, a wooden puppet used to entertain people. Before it appeared, when I opened the door, I would go into the living room. However, now, when I do the same, I get into the basement again, which means I’m in a loop. A LOOP, THAT’S WHAT IT IS, A LOOP. To break this cycle I am trapped in, all I have to do is destroy what started this madness and, of course, I know what that is, it is that stupid doll who calls himself ‘Vlad’. Okay, now I have that figured out but ho” my thoughts are interrupted by it, “So, what you’re gonna do is help me figure out who committed this atrocity. Let me tell you a bit about what I’ve found out by questioning other people, because, I’m sorry to tell you, you’re not as 

unique as you think, I have terrorized others before you. Most of the information I got is useless. You wouldn't believe how little knowledge you get when mentally torturing someone.” The creature says and laughs creepily.

    Now, what am I gonna do, just sit here and listen about how “amazing” at being scary that doll is and about the information it discovered so I can help finish his quest? I have to destroy this thing, not help it with this unending quest. I start trying to focus on finding something to help me with my quest, not the doll’s. “However, there was one person who was actually really helpful, my brother, Crimson. I know! What was the problem with my parents, who would give their children such names? Well, I guess no one should because just look at how I turned out: perfectly abominable.” I’m trying to see what I could use to help my escape, because, since I’m untied, I can just walk around. This whole time I was so scared that I was petrified, but now that I’ve pulled myself together, I start walking and taking a look at the boxes. The doll doesn’t even care about me because it is so into its own story. “Crimson was the first person I visited after getting sucked into this carcass, he didn’t believe it was me. However, I made him so scared that he ended up giving me information anyway. Oh, what a loser he was!” In the

meantime, I find what I’ve been looking for, a match.

    A single match inside a box. How I didn't see that when looking through stuff to find my glasses is something I’ll never know, but that’s not important right now. I need to be fast, elseways, “Vlad” is going to predict what I’m going to do and stop me from doing it. I think fast, grab the match and run to the doll’s direction while dragging it against the wall to create friction so it lights up on fire. When I get to the doll, I pick it up by its neck, as if I was choking it, and throw the lit match inside the cardboard box it was sitting on. “Well, that was unexpected!” The doll says in a surprised voice and starts laughing at my face. “You’re gonna get what you deserve for being such a horrible thing!” “Again with this ‘it’ stuff, I have already told you once, I’m not going to repeat myself.” “You are pathetic.” “ Well, I could say the same about you, I mean, why would you think I wouldn’t attack you?” The ventriloquist doll jumps from my hand onto my neck and starts scratching me with its long, pointy and sharp nails. I push it away and blood starts dripping from my neck onto my shirt. The doll laughs psychopathically with blood all over its tiny but dreadful hands and tells me, “ Never forget me!” And jumps into the flames fueled by the cardboard box. I run as fast as I can up stairs and scream, "HELP!",

right before I pass out.

4 years later…

As I wake up, I look into the mirror lifting my head up, wishing to see no scars. But they’re still there. They’ll never go away.

No one knows what really happened, except me. Why would I even tell them? They would think I’m crazy. A scientist saying a doll, an object, something that doesn’t even have a brain, talked to him? They would think I’m mad. So my cover up is that a bat was hidden inside the basement and when I tried to scare it away, it got mad and scratched me. Before going there again, my parents called an exterminator, so they never saw the ashes.

I’m gonna be marked for the rest of my life and I have accepted that, but when growing into the scientist I’m today, during college, I told myself that I would do everything I possibly could to get the perfect revenge, at least the best one I could since he was turned into ashes by the fire. I began thinking about finding his family and making them pay for what he had done to me. However, I realized I would be having the same attitude he had when facing his problem, and the whole point was to

contradict him, not make him proud of also leaving scars, which would affect my actions, in my character. That’s when I realized what I had to do to accomplish my goal.

I understood that, to make him regret what he had done to me, the best thing I could do was to find out who killed him, because that’s the answer he had been searching for since he had entered that hollow doll. So, after I graduated, I got a job at the police station as a forensic scientist and, because of my role there, I had access to all the files about the cases the police had investigated. It took me a lot of time to find something because the crime had happened a long time ago, but I found just what I wanted.

Post-mortem Examination

      Name: Vlad Hemlock

    Date of birth: 10/31/1922

    Family: Parents: Desdemona and Hades Hemlock

                   Siblings: Crimson Hemlock - Brother

    Date of death: 10/31/1959

    Time of death: 9:59 am

    The body was found: Laying in bed

    Cause of death: Accidental suicide

    Substances found internally: Ricin - Poison

    Observations:

    The individual was depressed and was getting help from people who were close to him. However, he managed to buy ricin, already planning on killing himself, and to add it to a container containing yogurt. The poisoned food was eaten by the

individual by mistake, and when absorbed by the subject’s system, caused death.

    Signature:

An unlucky life

By Otávio Valim

           Chapter 1 – Who am I?

    Vacations, I love vacations. We’re free, we can do everything we want, like playing Minecraft with my friends and my older brother, playing football on the street. We do not need to go to school. We can stay with family and friends, watch Netflix and YouTube videos.

    Hi, I think we didn’t get to know each other. My name is Pedro but you can call me Pedrinho, I’m 12 years old. I lived in Whitehorse, a small city in Canada. There are 25 000 habitants, it is a very beautiful and small place. There you can see the amazing and famous northern lights. You can go water-skiing, ride a snowmobile, see polar bears and dive in freezing water. It can be a little bit difficult to do all these things if the day is not contributing with -25ºC.

     Now that you have already met the city I’m from, let's meet my family. I have a brother called Augusto, a mom called Petra, a dad called Robert and a dog called Lucky.

  Augusto, my brother, is 19 years old. I just like him because he is my brother. He is the dumbest and laziest person I have ever seen in my life. But, for some reason, he is beautiful. He has green eyes, he's a bodybuilder (very strong). He has a pretty smile and brown hair.

    My lovely mom Petra, is 40. She is from New Zealand. She met my dad there in 2000. She is perfect, the best mom. She does everything for me, I love her to the moon and back.

    My Dad, Robert, is 42. I really like him. He is a good father. He gives me everything I want. He works a lot and provides me with very good moments, but sometimes I think he drinks a lot of wine and vodka, normally when he is with his friends, but ok, I’m a child, what can I do?

    When I was 11 years old, my parents prepared for us (me and my brother) a surprise, an amazing trip to Alaska.

      Chapter 2 - The place

    At this time (8 pm), we were going to Alaska. It takes 10 hours from Whitehorse to Alaska.

    - Wake up, wake up my little sun - said my mom;

    I woke up, got out of the car, and saw a beautiful and extraordinary view of the whole small city on the low part of the mountain. My parents were awesome. They rented the best house on the top of the mountain. In this house there were 4 suites with a king size bed, 2 of the suites had a very, very big bathtub, it had a kitchen and a living room that were interconnected, another bathroom, a very big backyard with a hot tub for 6 people, playground with slide, swing, spinner, and a wall for climbing. My brother and I thought it was a dream. It was an unbelievable house.

    We started taking out the big, small, and all types of backpacks that my mom brought. I did not know why, but she brought too many clothes, more than necessary. Lucky kind of helped us, he brought his little teddy and his ball to my bedroom, where he was going to stay and sleep.

Chapter 3 - A good place to live

    The night arrived, we called Papa's Pizza for dinner. Google said it was the best pizza from that region, I think it was the only one.

   Google was correct, the best pizza I have ever eaten, the tasty border with cheese, the pepperoni slices put in the correct place that was not too much, not too little, the perfect pizza.

    After we all ate the “divine food”, we went to the living room to watch American's got talent. We watched it for 2 hours, and then everyone went to their room to sleep.

    Primm primm primm! The alarm from my IPhone 8 shouted. I woke up, opened the window, organized my bed and backpacks, and brushed my teeth with the Bionic 3000, the toothbrush that my father gave me 3 weeks ago.

 Ploc ploc ploc, the sound of my slipper knocking the floor was funny. In the kitchen, my mom made pancakes with honey and molasses for breakfast, they were delicious.

    I went to my bedroom and put on winter clothes on me and on Lucky. They were very heavy and hot, but we needed that type of clothes. That day was -10ºC and we both weren’t prepared for that type of climate. I asked mom if we could go outside. She said we could but we had to be respectful with nature because what you plant you reap. 

    We went outside and I started playing with the snow, Lucky just was there because he wanted to

lick the snow and roll in it.

    We played all day, we made a snowman, snow angels, threw snowballs at some birds, went to the hot tub, tried to play football with snow but it was a complete disaster, taught Lucky how to swim in the hot tub and at the end of the day watched the sunset.

    At night, my dad tried to cook a cheese lasagna. He really worked hard on it. The lasagna was tasty but a little bit burned, but logically everyone said it was perfect and that we were proud of him. He was so happy at the moment that we didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

    I went to my bedroom, took a look on Instagram to see my friends' photos and to write to my girlfriend. Yes, I have a girlfriend. Her name is Julia, I really like her. We are so cute together; everyone thinks that.

Chapter 4- A different day

    Toc toc toc! - shouted the alarm this time. I changed it because this one is better and the last one wasn’t waking me up more, I got used to it.  I woke up, looked around. Lucky was there, looking at me with his gunky eyes. I cleaned his eyes, organized my bedroom, brushed my teeth and went to the kitchen.

   Mom wasn’t there, so I made my own breakfast, omelet with cheese and bacon. Lucky wanted a little bit so I made 2 slices of bacon for him. We ate it and returned to my room.

    We wanted to go outside, so we put on winter clothes and went to my parent’s room.

    She didn’t answer, so I went to her bed to see if she was sleeping. Nobody was there. My parents weren’t sleeping, so I thought they were in Augusto’s room. I went to his room and he wasn’t there either.

    I went to see if the car was not there. It was, so they couldn’t be in the city. I called their phone, but they were ringing in the living room. I called my grandma’s phone. She was in Whitehorse so she could help, but she didn’t answer. I decided to call the police, 190.

-    Pruum, pruuuum, pruuuuuum...

    Nobody replied. I started screaming around the house. Where was everyone? Where could they be? Why didn’t the police reply? Why did they leave me and Lucky alone here?

    I called more and more people. Nobody replied. I sent messages to my girlfriend and my friends, nobody replied. I kept doing that all day. At night I had the hope that my family was going to arrive home, It didn't happen. I kept doing that for one week, no one replied.

    I decided to take the car, put Lucky inside it and went to the city. I did it right and I didn’t break the car. It was simple because the car was automatic and I knew how to drive it from my video game.

    In the city I stole food from the supermarket, stole some medicines, stole some clothes and phones from the outlet. I returned “home” with Lucky and just cried and slept. Tv channels, wifi, 4g, radio stopped working some days later.

            Epilogue – Life is not fair

    I realized that I, Pedro Jonson Jorge, was alone in the world. No one was there. For some reason 

    everybody disappeared. Earth only existed for me and Lucky now.

    That week me and my baby Lucky didn’t eat well. I just slept, cried a thousands liters of water. I lost 10 kilos.

    In the following week, I went to the city again and stole food there. I kept doing that for some days, weeks, months. But I forgot one thing. The small city didn't have a place to charge my dead parents' Tesla. The nearest charging station was 25 kilometers from there so the electricity finished and I couldn’t go to the city to get any more food.

    The food was finished, so I decided to kill some birds for me and Lucky to eat. In the beginning, Lucky didn’t like it because the taste was very strong but it was the only thing we had to eat, so he ate.

It was the 28th, my birthday again. I celebrated it with Lucky. I clapped and sang happy birthday to myself alone. My cake was a different type of bird that afternoon, a pigeon.

   On the same day, some hours later, Lucky, my little husky that accompanied me for 7 years, my baby, my best friend, finally died because of malnutrition. He was suffering a lot without food.

The food was so scarce that, sadly, crying, I had to eat him.    

Some days later the solar panels broke because of a very strong snow storm. I was in the middle of nowhere, without food, electricity, a heated home, in the middle of a winter reaching -25ºC.

        - I had a beautiful and grateful life…

 The Uber Ride

 by Antônio Bisso

  I was at a party and the night was very rainy and misty, so I took an uber to go home. When I got in the car the driver introduced himself. He spoke in a very polite way and was acting very calmly. He was wearing a black suit and sunglasses. He was black and bald and his name was Babu.

    Babu was driving me home when suddenly he turned the car around in the wrong corner. I said that he was taking the wrong way but the driver ignored me. When I realized we were on a countryside road. Babu stopped the car and asked me to get out of the car. I was quite afraid but I got out of the car. When I got out he knocked me out.

    When I woke up I was in a very small room, which looked like a basement. It was dark and stinky. In the corner there was a pot with some dog food and another one with water. There were only three light spots, a candle , a hole in the locked door, and a window.

   Later I heard some footsteps going downstairs. Because of that,  I perceived that probably someone was coming. Then I heard  the door being unlocked, so the door was slowly opening.  An old woman appeared. She entered the basement, put some old cassette tapes in a corner and left. I screamed a lot but the woman did not seem to hear me because she just ignored my screams. How didn’t she see me there? What about her eyes? Why were they so white?

    One day has already passed since I woke up. I was starving and alone, I had nobody to talk to. Are my family and friends missing me? Are they looking for me? Or they just forgot me? Will someone save me from this lonely basement? Or will I be alone here forever?

    Two days have already passed. I decided to just give up. Not even the old woman with the strange eyes came here again, but  I would always keep hearing  footsteps above me. Later a rat appeared in the basement and I wanted to kill it and then eat it.  When I found a stick to kill it, I saw some babies following the rat, which was the mom. I decided to not kill it because her family would miss her the same way I miss my family.

    On the third day I heard some footsteps coming down here.  They seemed to be way heavier than the old woman's. A big bearded man appeared and he was very similar to those Canadian lumberjacks that appear on TV. He  was also carrying some cassette tapes.

    He also ignored me, so I decided to escape. When I was leaving the room the lumberjack said: “ You are going nowhere, little girl…”. When I turned back I saw that he had the same white eyes as the old woman's.

    The man was way bigger than I thought and he said that if I tryed to escape again I would never leave that place.  I asked the big guy some questions but he ignored me again.

    At least this time a piece of bread was left behind. Then I deduced that if I waited and behaved, I would leave that place as soon as possible.

    One  week has already passed and I am very skinny. Nobody came here again and they didn’t give me any sort of food. To my delight,  I found a shovel inside some boxes, but I was so weak that I couldn’t dig. I used it to kill some spiders that entered there. It wasn’t good, but it was food. I decided to wait and I thought about a plan.

     I looked through the small window trying to get my mind set. I couldn’t recognize  where I was, but I was sure  that it was the countryside because there were no car sounds, no huge buildings and the smell was very similar to my grandfather’s farm. 

    I think that maybe the only good thing is that every midday and midnight a bell  was supposed to ring, so at least I have some notion of time and have some idea of when I should pray. I come from a very religious family. The bell  also helped me to understand a little bit about their routine and then have a plan with more details.

      If I follow them, they might lead me somewhere safe and maybe someone would be there, but I was tired and I predicted that the man was still following me.

     I decided to rest a little bit hidden in some bushes beside the road. Suddenly, I heard the noise of a car engine. Then I got up to see the car. It wasn’t the bearded guy from the farm. He seemed to be older but he had the same dead eyes as the others. Hopefully he didn’t see me. Those people are strange

    After half an hour walking beside the road I found a gas station. It was very uncared for. Hopefully there was an open car in there with the key inside and gas. Lucky, right? At least I hope it is luck and not a misfortune. I started driving on the lonely road.

    After sometime driving I heard some strange noises coming from the trunk.  I decided to stop the car and take a look. As I was getting closer, I could feel the smell and it smelled extremely bad. When I opened it I just saw a dead body of a little blond girl. I was shocked and she was hugging a piece of paper, so I decided to get it and see if there was anything written on it.

   Actually there was something written on it, but I wish I hadn’t read it. It was written “ Why did I leave the corn farm? It was way better there. If you are reading it, don’t let them see or find you and…. Run!” After reading it I looked around and I didn't see any of those strange guys. When I got back to the car I found a lot of cassette tapes on the back seat and they were very similar to the ones that were taken to the basement. I decided to leave the car because I couldn’t feel good there after finding the kid in the trunk.

    After some time walking beside the road I found a small town. I was afraid to enter there it, but I was so tired that I just wanted a bed to sleep. Luckily I found a house which was empty, so I decided to enter and sleep there. When I woke up I was shocked because the sky was still dark and the moon was shining and I was feeling a dark presence around the house.  I decided to go downstairs very slowly because of the strange presence. When I got to the living room I found the same cassette tapes, again. Then I heard a “knock, knock”.

   I started shaking And I didn’t know how to react or what to do.  If it was one of the strange guys, I would be in trouble, but if it was a normal person like me I should open the door and help. What if there really was something about that dark presence?  I decided to ignore the knock, maybe the thing that is on the door would leave. And the knocking gladly stopped.

  Then I started to feel hungry, so I went to the kitchen and prepared something to eat. After preparing it  I went back to the living room and decided to take a look at the cassette tapes. I had a feeling that they were involved in something.

   I took a look around the room to see if I could find a cassette tape player. I didn’t find any of those, but I found something written in one of the cassette tapes. It was written: “ The Frontier “.

   When I whispered “ The Frontier “ the windows blew and the house started to shake.  I decided to leave it and when I got outside everything was dark. I couldn’t see anything. Then I looked back and saw a Tv, but it was an old one and the signal was failing. On top of the Tv there was a cassette tape and it was written “insert here”.

   My legs were shaking, I was extremely nervous and afraid of what could happen after inserting the tape inside the thing.  When I put it inside I started to hear a very loud sound. The sound was similar to a bee sound and a very bad smell popped up and it was coming from behind me. It was the little girl from the car. She looked at me and I just saw hope in her eyes. It was a strange feeling after all those days, “hope”. Then she grabbed my hand and said “ let's go home “. And we jumped inside the Tv. 

   When I opened my eyes I was at home in my bedroom. I decided to go downstairs and I found my father in the middle of the way and hugged him extremely hard. Then I decided to turn the Tv on to see the news and the first news was that a uber driver called Babu was in jail. He was actually a pedophile. Then I asked my father “ Dad, where was I last night? “. He answered “ You had dinner with us and then you went to bed and slept”. So there was no party, nothing really happened, but the Uber driver... It was the same, how did I dream with him? And there was a photograph of a girl, which was found dead inside a car, in the corner of the news. It was a very strange “dream”.

A Broken Promise

By Letícia Antunes

    In the pitch black night, I make my way through a lonely road. Getting to the place where my car is parked, I hear a noise coming from behind me. As I turn around I see a  tall, hooded, kind of creepy figure making its way towards me. I try to get to my car faster but he calls me.

    “Hey,” he calls me in a raspy, low voice as I get a better look at him. The man is wearing an oversized, black hoodie and is using his shirt to cover his mouth and nose, making the only thing visible his piercing blue eyes and tuffs of his blonde hair. His pants are full of holes, making me wonder how he is not freezing on such a chilly night. He looked as though he was gripping something tightly in his hoodie pocket, making me curious as to what he was hiding. “Can you perhaps tell me where the nearest hotel is?” he asks, completely snapping me out of daze.

     “Oh yeah,” I find my voice, his gaze making me feel intimidated. “I’m actually staying there, The Arcadian is about ten blocks away. It’s the biggest building there, you can’t miss it,” I tell him with a 

quick glance at his pocket.

    He seems to consider my answer before saying “Oh thank you, lass, maybe we will cross paths again at the hotel,” his sentence lingers in the air as he pulls the hood even higher on his head and then turns around and starts walking, disappearing into the night.

    I finally enter my yellow VW beetle and let out a breath I didn’t even realize I was holding. I take a moment to catch my breath. Somehow his last words made me feel more uncomfortable than I normally would, but something about him made me uneasy. As I start my car I try to ignore the unsettling feeling that was forming in my gut, the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

    Driving to the hotel, I think back to the man I met and can’t help but feeling that he looks oddly familiar. Just something I can’t put my finger on, maybe something I’ve tried blocking from my time in the foster system. I shake my head at the thought, refusing to remember anything from that dark time. Whatever it is, I feel like it’s something important.

        Entering the doors of the Arcadian, I take in the familiar surroundings as I make my way to the elevator. Waiting for its doors to open, I feel eyes in the back of my head and, instinctively, I turn 

around to be met by the startling blue gaze of a hooded figure, the gaze of the man I’d just met. We stared into each other's eyes for what feels like ages, studying one another.

    “Aren’t you gonna step in, Emma?” he questions, breaking the silence, but not the eye contact. “What?”, I ask, completely confused, not even realizing his use of my name. “The elevator, Emma,” he says. Oh yeah, the elevator. I hesitate a bit and take a deep breath before getting in and he follows me, not far behind. He presses the number 5 and 8 buttons and we ride in silence.

    We stop on the fifth floor and I get out. Getting to my hotel room, I start fumbling with the key hole and I realize something that has the alarms in my head blaring. He knew my name. He knew which floor I was staying in. Plopping down in bed, my head aching with so many unanswered questions, I try to remember the stranger, or was he?

        After pondering for some time, I close my eyes, attempting to let myself drift to a much needed sleep. Keyword: attempt. Between tossing and turning, I knew it was pointless. So when 3 o’ clock finally rolled around I got up to go for a walk on the beach to clear my head from all the questions. Ever since I was a kid, I would always find it comforting, the breeze blowing my hair back, the ocean 

 scent, not to mention I always get the tendency of getting antsy after a long time in a confined space.

   Outside the hotel I look up to see one room with the lights on. Squinting a little, I can see the silhouette of a tall figure. As soon as I blink, the dark shape is replaced by the man (stranger?) I’d met earlier this evening and as I blink again, he is gone, and all the lights are out. I try not to read too much into it as I make my way to my destination on foot.  I arrive at the beach and start walking on the shore breathing in the fresh air. The sound of the waves is ever so calming. Taking in the feeling of being free I walk for I don’t know how long. That is until I hear the distinct sound of a gunshot, making me jump. The sound was definitely close, but not close enough so I could see the shooter. I run back to the hotel, not giving myself the luxury of looking back.

   I finally make it there and go straight to the elevator bumping into someone there, the blonde man. “Hey, careful there, lass,” he says in a nonchalant way. “Just close the door,” I urge him. He does so and I run my hands through my face, leaving them there, taking a few moments to catch my breath, which was harder considering the confined small space. Suddenly, the elevator 

jerked to a stop and, panicking, I peek through my fingers and find that the space was now dimly lit since the only lighting there was from the emergency.

   Before I know it, I can’t breathe. My blood runs cold and there is adrenaline pumping through my veins. I look across the tiny room and see him there, smirking. I’m gasping for air. I feel like the walls are closing in on me and I start thrashing about. He says something I can’t quite make out through the noises I’m making. I try to focus, but my oxygen-deprived brain is going a mile a minute, making the task impossible. I suddenly am sinking to the ground but he catches me before I do, putting me down gently. There isn’t enough air, my eyes start heaving. At first I try to fight it but soon realize there’s no point. The last thing I see before succumbing to the relieving darkness are his stormy blue eyes.

    My head is pounding as I start to wake up. Everything is blurry as I open my eyes, blinking it away as I take in my surroundings. I’m lying on an old couch inside a white room, the only other thing in it being a plastic table. Panic begins to settle in my gut when I realize I’ve never seen this place before.  I raise my hand to my throbbing head and find that I can’t. Looking down I see my hands 

are tied with a rope, along with my legs and feet. My rushing mind tries to make up a plan, but it stops as soon as I hear a sound that reminds me a lot of a gunshot. I finally feel the adrenaline leaving my body, making me dizzy.

    Before I’m able to recover, the door bursts open and I see him, yet again. He’s not using his hoodie anymore, only a short-sleeved shirt exposing his face covered in sweat. “Glad to see you awake, Emma,” he says casually and starts untying my hands and feet. “Who are you?” I ask. “An old friend,” is his short response. “Now let’s get you out of here, they’ll get here soon.” That’s when we hear the second gunshot.

    He finishes and offers his hand. I just stare at it. “How do I know that I can trust you?”, I question. “You can’t,” he says, “But we’re running out of time and I’m your only option.” Bang! It’s the third shot, the closest one of them all. It’s all I need to hear to take his hand and make a run for it.

    Apparently, there was another door in the room, one I missed when scanning it. We run through it and find ourselves in what looks like some sort of maze, the hallways all looking the same. My “old friend” seems to hesitate for a moment, just a moment though, because in the next, we hear 

  footsteps approaching and he guides to the dark corridor on our left.  We don’t really outrun them, so when we get to a giant room with, seemingly, no exits, he hides behind one pillar and I hide behind another and we immediately hear shots. I cover my ears, focus my gaze on the ground and try to steady my breathing, the adrenaline making my heart rate pick up. I turn to look at him for guidance, but find him busy, using his own gun (when did he get that?) to shoot the others.

    The fire dies down for an instant and I finally allow myself a glimpse of the battlefield. There are debris and dust everywhere, blood spattered on it. The absence of the gunshot noises makes the silence deafening.  “Emma,” I hear him whisper. “We need to get out of here. I found a door. Follow me and step where I step.” I nod, not trusting my voice in that moment.

    He carefully steps in a rubble mess, trying not to make any sound. I try to do what I was told, but I’m not as careful as he is and end up making a piece of rubble fall on the floor and hear a loud bang and a pained yell.

    We break into a run for the door and, when we make it, he closes and locks the door while I take a moment to breathe. As soon as the adrenaline wears off, I feel a sharp pain in my stomach and 

look down to see it covered in blood. I fall down, grasping my wound, the pain too great, now I know whose pained yell it was.

    He hovers over me and I see a shed tear on his cheek. “I’m sorry, Emma,” he tells me in a dark voice, “But that’s how it had to go.” I meet his eyes, confused, and wince, the simple movement making the pain worsen. 

    The memory of children hiding in a closet comes to my mind. They were there because they were afraid their foster father would hit them if he saw them. “Don’t worry,” 16-year-old Emma promises to a blond haired 6 year old with piercing blue eyes, “I promise I will get you out of this place, August.” Her foster brother looks up to her, “Pinky promise?””Pinky promise,” she assures him.

    I blink the memory away and cup his face with my bloodied hand, “I’m sorry, August”, I manage to croak out. 

    And it is with the image of the only person I’d ever broken a promise to that I slip away to the darkness one last time and let death take me away.

The dream

By Alexandre Paladino

   I was walking in the street when it started to rain. I entered an old house to shelter from the storm. I heard a strange noise and went there to see what it was. I walked to the kitchen and I saw the worst thing I hadever seen in my life.

   It seems like an amount of human flesh with legs, arms, black spots that I judge to be its eyes and a huge hole in the place of its mouth. His mouth looked like a cave entrance with giant sharp teeth. His mouth was dirty with blood and the smell of rotten meat. It was very tall, maybe 8 feet tall. It was using a jacket so I deduced that it was human once. His arms and legs were very long and thin. He walked in my direction and I tried to run, but I fell and this is the last thing I can remember.

   When I woke up I realized I was tied to a chair. I was in some kind of lab, but everything was very dirty. The lights were blinking and everything seemed very old. The door and the walls were corroded by the time. When I took a better look at the lab I saw some human parts on the table. I was almost 

vomiting when a cold hand with long and thin fingers held my shoulders. Those hands were extremely hard. I looked back and I saw the monster that I saw earlier. A noise came from a door and then a very old man entered the room. He is quite small and very skinny. 

   I deduced he was a doctor a long time ago. He wears an old white coat with the name Dr. Kannenberg written on it. He started to say something about the lab we were in but I couldn't hear very well because he was quite far away from where I was and the monster was making some weird noises. With time the doctor got near me and said that we were in an old Chinese military base that was abandoned during the cold war. 

   The doctor started to laugh and got out of the room with his monster. Somehow I was able to untie myself and I ran out of the lab.

    When I escaped, I realized I was on some kind of farm. I looked back and the lab vanished from the Earth. I started to hear some weird motor noises and when I looked behind me there was a S790 chasing me. I ran the fastest I could but the harvester got me. 

    I was being sucked by the spinning blades of the harvester when I jumped off my bed. I  was in my 

   room. That was all a dream. I was very happy when I realized that the house smelled very bad.

I went to the kitchen and when I arrived a zombie jumped in my back and again I woke up in my room. A dream inside another dream. It never happened to me before.

    I woke up very hungry and went to the kitchen. I heard some very weird noises and saw a brain flying. No way I was in another dream. I was very tired of all this so I just jumped off the window and this time I woke up in a different place. It was a lab, but not as the other one. Everything there was clean and new. I saw a doctor and I thought it was a dream but I still got a knife that was near the bed and pointed it to my throat.  The doctor jumped and stopped me. He explained that it was real life, not a dream. He said that he was making an experiment about dreams and asked me if I remembered him. I said that I did, I started to remember everything and that I agreed to do this experiment.

    He said that he could see everything in my dreams through a new technology that the US government created. He was confused and he said that he thought dreams inside other dreams were impossible. Then he screamed and  said that he would become rich with the research. 

I said that I wanted some of the money, because, after all, I was the experiment.

    He got very mad with it and screamed that nobody would know he needed people to do the research. Then he got a knife and stabbed me. To my surprise, it was a dream too. I needed to see if the reality I was in was a dream or not. I got a knife and ran to the hospital. I entered there and stabbed myself. 

This time I did not wake up in another place. In that case, I was agonizing on the floor of the hospital waiting room. 

   I died and I became a ghost. I started to follow my body and when the police appeared I decided to test my new ghost powers. I possessed a police officer and started to shoot the cars. Then I exploded some of those cars. I was running when a truck hit me. And again, I woke up in my room.

   I woke up very angry. This time I was hearing voices. They say that they imprisoned me in my own dreams and it was the last dream. It means that if I died in this dream, I would die in real life. They also said that I needed to survive in the most horrifying scenario of all dreams. If I survived 30 days, they would wake me up.

When I woke up again, I was in a ranch in the United States. I got up and the voices said it was better if I didn't make any noise. I saw a letter on the desk of the room and I got it. The letter said that there were monsters in this world. It was written exactly like this: 

   The monsters are vaguely humanoid creatures. Their bodies are covered by many plates of chitinous armor. They are almost the perfect living being and can resist shots of firearms. Their limbs are very long. They have abnormal claws in their hands and can cut metal without any effort, and it is their main weapon for killing their prey. 

   They are also inhumanly fast, able to travel miles in a minute, quickly moving to locations faster than their prey can react. Due to their lack of eyes, the monsters hunt by sound, and are completely blind. They have sensitive plates lining the front of their faces that can extend and contract to help them detect the direction of where a sound is coming from. The back of their heads are capable of unfolding into massive ear-like structures with pronounced eardrums. Using these, they can detect even the most subtle of changes in sounds as little as a stick creaking miles away.

 The creatures also do not need to breathe, sleep, or even eat, and are able to survive in seemingly any climate.

   With that I got very scared and went downstairs. I was walking down the stairs when I stepped on a nail. I wanted to scream but if I did that the monster would hear me and I would be a dead man. I sat in a chair and got a first aid kit to make a bandage on my feet. When I opened the box it made a really loud noise. 

   The lights started to blink, and I knew that the monster was near. Everything was quiet when the monster used his abnomal claws to cut the ceiling. He was almost touching me with his long arms when I heard a big noise of a gun shooting. He got out of the room very fast. He was following the sound. I looked at the camera recordings and I saw a man shooting one of the monsters. He shot him about five times and nothing happened. When I looked at the cameras again, the only thing I could see was a big black dot jumping in the man's back and cutting him in half with his claws.

I went out of the house and I saw that every single building was covered with plants. Immediately I thought I was at some time at the end of the human kind. Then I realized I was wrong. 

There isn't the end of the human kind only, but all the species, and I think it is those monsters' fault. I saw the body on the ground with a gun in its hands. I walked in his direction to get the gun even though I knew the monsters were nearby. I quietly got there and grabbed the gun. I entered a car and started to think about what I was going to do. 

   I realized we were near a big city, because I saw some big buildings. I started the car and I saw the monster running in my direction. I started to run with the car in the direction of the city. 

But the car wasn't very fast and the monsters got me. When they got me I crashed into a tree and when I woke up, the car was upside down. The monsters were looking at me. I managed to get out of the car without making any louder sound then the one a burning car could hide.

   I went back to the house to get some supplies and the first aid kit. I decided I was going to the city.

I slept in the house and by the morning I took the way to the city. I walked about five hours to arrive at the entrance of the city.  There was a big sign and it said "Welcome to Chicago"in it. I walked a little bit more inside the city until I found a good place to stay sheltered till those 30 days ran out. I found an old pharmacy and got some medicines in case I got ill. 

   The shelter was a big building. One of the highest in Chicago. I installed myself on the highest floor. In the dining room there was a table and on it there was a magazine teaching the language of signs. I realized that, because people couldn't talk to each other, they used signs. I got the magazine and put it in my bag.

   Before sleeping, I studied sign language. I was trying to do the letter “P” when I accidentally hit a box and threw it on the ground. The lights started to blink. I went to the kitchen and the first thing I saw was the monster near the window. I saw a sax on the table and without making any noise, I threw it from the window. It made a huge sound.

The monster jumped from the window and when he hit the ground it did not move. After 10 seconds

it started to walk again. How was it possible? I didn't know. I saw a knife and tried to throw it in the monster's neck. The knife hit it, but nothing happened.

   The next 15 days were very calm. But the quiet was broken by gun shots in the main street of Chicago. I sprinted to the window to see what happened and the only thing I could see was a dead body in the middle of the street.

I went back to the room and I saw a girl lying on the bed. She was beautiful. She was blond and had very white skin. She was very short, maybe 5 feet tall, and wore glasses. She looked at me with fear and said, using sign language, that this was her house and she left to find food. She said that she was getting her things because she was going to Peoria. She said that there is a colony of survivors there hidden behind a waterfall. She also said that they can talk there and make sounds because there isn't any monster near the area and the waterfall covers the sounds.

   I asked if she could leave something for me there but she said I should go with her. I agreed to go.

The next day we took the road to the city of Peoria. But we didn't get further into the entrance of the city because there were many monsters there. 

  We camped near the border of the cities and we woke up early to get back to the road.

She saw a car and a cylinder with gasoline. She entered the car but I warned her the monsters would hear her but she said the car was faster. She started the car but it didn't end well. The monster hit the car before she could even put the belt. 

   The car was upside down. I managed to take her off the car in time. I said that I knew she was excited to get there, but we should do it calmly. I warned her that the only type of car we could use were the electric ones because they don't make any noise. She said she saw an electric car. I thought she was lying but she was telling the truth. We got in the car and I started it. It didn't make any noise.

   I drove it at max speed. It was so fast that the monsters got confused and the thing they could hear was the tires on the asphalt. The car was so fast that when they attacked the car was metters ahead.

In 30 minutes we got to Peoria. We just needed to find the colony. We searched the whole city and when we found the colony it was almost midnight and nobody was awake. We waited until morning until someone opened the gates for us. 

   When we got out of the car, the girl was so happy that she passed out. Some doctors helped her to get up. A guy asked me my name, in spoken language. I said it to him and then I realized that I didn't know the girl's name.

   She said that her name is Karah. I told to her that I was glad we got there safely. I questioned the reception guy from the hotel and he showed me a little house to spend the night. Some days went by. The food there was great and everything was very calm. There was a big sign saying “Death Angels” and when it starts to glow, people get very quiet. The colony wasn't big. It was actually very small. In two days they assigned me a job. I was responsible for alerting people if there were any monsters nearby. 

   One day, I couldn't sleep. The same voice that said that I should survive 30 days said “So, this is your last day here. You are doing very well, but we want to see your despair. This will be your last day, but it will be awful. Get prepared”.   The next day I got to my position in the sentinel tower. It was already evening when I saw a group of sixteen monsters. Quickly I warned the rest of the colony. 

The monsters started to climb the walls. It was almost midnight when a little girl made a noise.

I could just hear her screaming. Her father got incredibly angry and set the house on fire. The other houses were on fire too. There was only a minute to midnight when I decided to get out of that tower. I got up and went to the door. 

When I opened the door there was a huge noise. I was wondering how far I’ve gone. I saw the monster running to my direction and when he attacked I woke up in a bed in a lab with lots of scientists. 

There was a big sign saying "congratulations" and a guy with a mustache came to congratulate me. He said that they were making a research about fear in dreams and they wouldn't let me die anyway.

They gave me a prize in money and let me get back to my house.

Strange People

By Pedro Thum

A long time ago, during the feudal period (between the years 500 and 1500), many things were totally different from nowadays. It seems correct to say that one of the most different behaviors was how physically or mentally different people were treated. At that time of history, at least in the European civilizations, those people were totally excluded from society or just physically eliminated. Even though it's been a long time since that mentioned period, and discarding the literal elimination of those people, this bad spirit of excluding “different” people still exists in innumerable people until nowadays.

    Surpassing those difficulties and oppression is the hardest part, particularly when the person lives with bad people, or people that simply do not realize that they are being mean. Sometimes those “different” people can be helped with a simple act of kindness, like having a conversation or even a hug. A very adequate example for this situation is the movie “Wonder”, where a boy with physical deformations in his face has to go to school for the first time. Everyone looks at him strangely, but 

after a girl starts talking to him he finally starts getting along with the others and vice versa.

Internal Demons

By Gabriela Brognolli

   It was another foggy, cold and grayish day in Virginia, and Maxine was still arguing with her parents about her last text in religion. Her teacher liked it and showed it to Maxine’s parents. She had written about satanism and her mother, who was a Christian, thought that she was involved in some sort of satanic ritual. Maxine Benner was a 16-year-old teenager that has always been a “wonder girl”. She was always alone at school, but was also the best student in her class. She had beaten many teachers in chess and regularly corrected many of them, too.

   The more her mother yelled at her, the more she ignored her. After about half an hour she just told them she had no stable religion and she studied many of them.

— Are you kidding me?! - Her mother brutally asked.

— Yes. I’m in the 16% of people that have “no religion”.

   After that, Max went to her room, a poorly illuminated place, filled with books, and old movies. She