The Mystery of Three Keys - Ghost Stories by First Grade Students at Falk School
Image provided by Mr. Goodwin
In honoring the Victorian tradition of telling spooky stories throughout the winter season, we are pleased to share with our readers the original tale The Mystery of Three Keys written by two first-grade classes. Mr. Kevin Goodwin, a teacher at Falk (University of Pittsburgh Lab School), kindly shared his students’ tales for our publication. Every October, the first-grade students work collaboratively on writing a scary story and drawing images to accompany it. They also work on designing and fabricating elaborate costumes to celebrate the spooky season. This year, students discussed what made a story scary and why - a topic that we frequent here at What Sleeps Beneath. We are so happy to have young writers here, and very excited to share the love and importance of the horror genre with them. We think The Mystery of Three Keys is truly spooky, and we hope you do too.
A Note from Mr. Goodwin on the project:
“1st grade students worked on creating two spooky stories. These stories were developed by two separate classes. Each class first talked about what makes something scary as opposed to funny. We mostly came to the conclusion that both feelings come from unexpected things happening. We then read some spooky stories and watched a really good video from the illustrator of The Creepy Carrots (Peter Brown). Once we were well versed in the art of telling a spooky story we started to make our own.
Both classes started a story. They had to come up with ideas for settings and characters. We then worked together to combine ideas to come up with a beginning…
Writing a story on your own can be hard. It gets more challenging when you have a whole group of people sharing ideas. Both classes were able to figure out the beginnings of the stories. Then they traded the stories between the rooms. They would then have to come up with a middle of a different classroom’s story. This was tricky. But, we went through the same sharing process of thinking of our own ideas and then combining them together in a way that made sense. Finally, each room got back their original story and were able to make a conclusion. This was an exciting project. The kids came up with some very interesting ideas and it was nice to give them a chance to see what it's like to give your writing to someone else to work on. We hope you enjoy our stories.”
The Mystery of Three Keys
A long time ago…
There was a creepy castle that stood in the middle of the deep dark woods. It was surrounded by a moat and a graveyard. Inside there were lots of haunted rooms. There was a movie theater, a board game room, a dungeon, and lots of other magic rooms. Inside there lived two monsters, one of them was made up of a bunch of tiny monsters all stuck together. They lived together for hundreds of years…
One night an owl, a black cat, and a mouse were walking through the deep dark woods…They came upon the castle. Lightning flashed! The forest closed in behind them. They turned to run but were met with a wall of vines and three locks.
A voice called from the castle, “You must find the three keys before sunrise!” The owl and the mouse started towards the castle. “Don’t be such a scaredy cat!” they called as the cat slowly followed behind them. Lightning flashed again…The cat, the mouse, and the owl jumped back, startled. They quickly grabbed onto a swaying vine and swung over the swamp. They saw something shimmering below the murky water… It was a gold key!
The mouse leaped into the water, grabbed the key, and was rescued by the owl moments before a crocodile snapped his jaws at them! Quickly, they flew away keeping the key safe. They flew far away from the swamp until they saw the graveyard…The graveyard was filled with dead remains of those in the castle and those who never left…Walking on quiet feet, they tried not to disturb anybody, until the cat pounced on a stone and opened up a trap door! They fell into a dirty, dark pit. All they could see were small pairs of glowing eyes. They walked down the tunnel for a long time and ran into a big, metal door. Where did they end up?
It led to the castle. The door creaked open and they walked into the hall. It was quiet. Too quiet… It was coming right for them—A huge monster ! They tried to lose it, using their small quick bodies, but the monster led them right to its lair. It looked like a dungeon. All of the tiny monsters surrounded them. They were doomed. They were locked in a cold, dark cell with no way out. They heard the click of the lock. Then they noticed them… The monster must have dropped the keys! The mouse squeezed through the bars and got the keys. While they tried to escape the dungeon, they noticed a shimmering gold key in the hand of an ancient skeleton. It was alive!
The cat, mouse, and owl shrieked when they saw its axe. Then the skeleton said “hello” and told this story: He tried to find the three keys hundreds of years ago and never made it out…The critters think the skeleton must be lonely. The cat said, “We will take you to the graveyard if you give us that key.” The skeleton just looked at them, so they took that as a yes. All together, the critters and the skeleton looked for a way out. They had one more key to find before sunrise and the sky was already turning orange and purple…They made it out of the tunnel and to the woods when they saw it… An ancient cave. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed. What came out of the cave was terrifying… The second monster was a threeheaded dragon. They knew if they looked into its eyes, they would be forever turned to stone…The four of them cowered at the sight of the dragon. The dragon bellowed, “If you stay here till sunrise I will turn you to stone!” As the dragon moved close they could see the third key dangling off of one of its scales.“To get the third key you must beat me at a game,” said the dragon as smoke curled from its nostrils. There was a flash of light. A haunted deck of Pokemon cards appeared out of thin air. They grabbed the cards and quickly played the first round. The dragon won. The cat, the owl, and the mouse won the second game. It was a tie. They played one final round. The game came down to the very last card. The skeleton placed down a Gengar VMax and destroyed the dragon’s entire deck.
The dragon disappeared in a poof of green smoke, leaving the key behind on the ground in front of the cave. The owl grabbed the key and the three of them ran for the locks. The skeleton waved goodbye and turned towards the graveyard; It was glad to have helped his new friends.
The sun was slowly coming up over the horizon. They started to place the keys in the locks. The mouse turned the first key. The owl turned the second one. The cat fumbled with the third key. It was getting lighter out as the key found its way into the lock. The cat started to turn the key…
Image provided by Mr. Goodwin
The writers of this story could not decide on an ending. So we are leaving it up to you. Did the three friends make it out of the forest? Or were they cursed to stay there forever? It’s up to you and your imagination.
Thanks for reading.
Special Thank You to Kevin Goodwin and his students for allowing us to share this spectacular spooky story. What do you think of the ending? We look forward to reading your comments, and reading what the kids write next!
Article written by WSB in collaboration with Kevin Goodwin & Falk Students
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