Tenth Grade 2020
First Place: Mariam Voskaryan, Vanadzor
You point out a strange looking house in your neighborhood. Your friends say they don’t see anything.
Everything started when one day I noticed a strange looking house in my neighborhood. It made a really deep impression on me. That big dark and scary house seemed to be lived by a psichopath who tried to avoid meeting people in the light and when it started to get dark, the psichopath escaped his den to meet his victims. At that moment I thought it was just my sick imagination based on horror movies, but it was interesting for me to find out who was the owner of the house. One day I asked my best friends Jack and Tony to help me with my discovery. I showed them the house and suggested going closer to it. They looked at me in a stupefied astonishment.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Are you okay?” They wondered.
They claimed that there wasn’t a strange house. But I really saw that house covered with web and surrounded by dead trees.
“Hmm…. Maybe my imagination played an evil joke on me,” I thought. But I couldn’t sleep. I was afraid to ask anybody else if they saw that house, but I didn’t want them to think that I was a psichopath. One morning I decided to find out everything. I got closer to the house and tried to look through the dusty windows. It was in vain. There was a lattice on the windows, so I couldn’t enter the house, I found bravery in my head and knocked the door, just to see the owner. While I was waiting I planned how I was going to run away there was no answer. I tried to open the door. Fortunately it wasn’t locked. But I was afraid to enter the house. I looked inside and saw a dark laboratory. There were many liquids of different colours that I had no idea about. Then I heard footsteps , coming downstairs. I hid myself in the bushes. A middle-aged woman with long red hair opened the door. She seemed very tired and angry. Then she locked the door and I could hear scary screams from inside. I ran away to my parents and told them everything. They didn’t believe me. I told them the way to the house. My mom started crying and dad screamed at me. They took me to the doctor. During the next month I saw that house and the woman in my nightmares. And one day I heard her voice: “You’re next.” And I answered: “You’re just my imagination!”
Second Place: Alisa Nazinyan, Vanadzor
You have just received a strange letter. The sender claims to be you 20 years in the future.
My biggest wish has always been having a twin sister. Not a dream, but a wish, and I knew it’s not possible in any way. However, it still was my biggest wish until today, the day when it came true. How?! Let me explain.
Everything happened so fast that I hardly remember any details. I woke up in the morning, and as I am they type of people who always have to roll from one side to another side in the bed, it was unexpected from to me to not do that and just get out of bed immediately after waking up. The thing is, that woke up with a great filling of doing great things today. So, I got out of bed and the moment I stood up a letter hit my face, then it bucked off a little and was just floating in the air, facing to me. Of course, I was amazed, surprised and scared at the same time, but the feeling of something supernatural happening to me, whether it was a dream or not, was much much stronger. So what did I do? Um, well. I rushed to the wardrobe, put on some adventurous clothes (I had them always ready in case something like this happened to me ‘cause that was my other big wish/dream) and only then opened the letter, which was still in the air. It said:
“Dear Alisa,
I’m sorry if the letter behaived itself kinda stupid, but there is nothing to be afraid of, though I know you’re not , cause you’ve been waiting for something like this, right? Where I, I’m sorry, where WE know that from? Well, that’s because WE are You!!! No time for explaining what that means, so we’ll come back to that later. We’re wrighting you from the future and we need your help. At first, we want you to know that you were strong and ambitious enough to make your wishes come true. Now you’re saving humanity, the world and you need a little help of yours. Oops, so many “you”s in one sentence. I hope you understood what I was trying to say. Omg, just a few days are left, we need to hurry. All I want to say is just hurry up, have your brain in place (ha-ha just kidding, it’s always there 😊) and after you finish reading this, press the button in the lower part of the paper. Don’t be worried, everything’s gonna be OK.
PRESS”
While reading the letter , I walked in the house and when I finished reading, I was standing in front of the mirror. I slowly raised my head and looked in my eyes for some ten seconds and then …. Then I was running in the house with the happiest face I had ever had. For making it clear for you there was no one in the house: my parents were at work and my brother was probably, um? I don’t know where he was. After I stopped running (I was just expressing my feelings) I took my brain and pressed the button. I think I wasn’t ready for that. It was a portal obviously, and it was very bright and colorful and I still have a headache from that, but it was worth it. So, I was teleported to the FUTURE! And now I’m with me and my future twin sister! They told me everything, the important things, which explained how I have a twin sister and I’m a superhero. And so my twin sister is not actually my twin sister, she’s my imitation? We are talking about the future in 20 years, you know, and anything is possible there. So yeah, she’s not an biological human, but she’s my sister, whom I love so much. And about being a superhero, and portals with just a button, I leave it your imagination about how it happened. Now I’m here in the future, and I need to help us. How? It’s simple. Future me and my sister are on mission. They have to solve a task to the key of distroying supernatural creatures. And for that task they needed teenage mind. And for them I was the best option.
I’m standing in front of the task trying to figure out how they couldn’t get the right answer without any help. Wanna know what the task was? OK.
What needs a teenager before doing anything wrong?
They had the answer in front of their noses all the time!!! They even wrote that world in my letter making a joke with it. The answer is, if you haven’t guessed yet, brain! I’ve unlocked it and we have the key now. I don’t want to go back to the present. I want to stay and fight and be a hero earlier than I will. But, unfortunately, I have to press another button now, which will not only take me back to home, but will also delete all of what happened, and leave just a little thing, and with its help I will know that I had an big adventure and that my wish came true. Which wish? I won’t know for twenty years. It’s sad, but it’s alright. I’m happy and satisfied. Actually, I’m the happiest person right now. And I hope I will always be. Bye-bye! I have to press the button now.
Third Place: Marina Kotsinyan, Yerevan
You point at a strange looking house in your neighborhood. Your friends say they don’t see anything.
It’s been only a month since I moved here. Everyone at school is really kind and welcoming. But to tell the truth I’m not so sure if that is any kind of helping me. I’ve always felt like a half person – not needed person. There are days when I simply want to run away from my own life, live a week without this never ending thoughts that keep torturing me. Why is everyone so kind at school, is that because they’re pitying me? Or is that becaus headmaster called and forced them to be? Or is that just my imagination and everyone isn’t actually so kind? Is it me making up stories to make myself feel a little better again?
It was an ordinary day. I was walking to school with one of my new friends. Everything was normal until I saw a house in the middle of the street. “Oh my God, how weird these people are, how did they come up with an idea of buiding a house in the middle of a street?” I thought to myself. But as we were approaching the house feelings I couldn’t and can’t explain woke up. It seemed like some kind of new soul just got into me. Looking at that house I wanted to shout until my voice would break, cry, laugh and do anything that was possible. I wanted to get in, I wanted to run in. Was I dreaming? Nope, I probably was not. But I couldn’t breath, I was shaking, I couldn’t pronounce a word, seemed like I was dreaming and wanted to wake up, but I wasn’t capable of doing that. Was it a nightmare or just a sweet dream? I guess we’ll find out.
The next thing I knew was my friend was shouting my name. I looked at her.
“Are you OK,” she said.
“Yeah, yeah, I am, I’m fine. This house just seem so … weird.”
“Which house?” she said with a surprised face.
“This one, in the middle of the street.”
“What are you even talking about? We’re gonna be late for school, come on, let’s get going.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about the house the whole day. It was all over my head.
Later I decided to go back home alone. When I approached the house the same feelings woke up, but only this time I was sure it wasn’t a nightmare. I decided to go in, what if one of my relatives lived here and I could remember them. The next thing that I remember I was standing in front of the house’s door and then some loud voices, then pain and … nothing, absolutely nothing.
I woke up hours later in a new world. Everything was so beautiful here, I couldn’t stop watching. Maybe this was my fairy tale, the same I’ve been dreaming to appear in since I was 5. I started walking down the road, flowers surrounding me from all over. I decided to use the opportunity to make my fairytail come true. First I imagined my prince and he appeared to be right in front of me. Then I imagined a little girl playing with butterflies. Everything was so perfect, I wanted to live the moment for an eternity. But some time went and I realised they were gone. The prince and the little princess and I was now all alone in a cave. At the very end of it was a little light. I wanted to run and catch it, but I couldn’t move. Tears were running down my cheeks. I wanted to take the little light and feel it with whole my heart, but I couldn’t. I stood there for about an hour and didn’t move, because I simply gave up. What is the meaning of trying so hard, what is the meaning of this maze of sufferings, will I ever be able to get out of it? I’ve went through hell, but I was still smiling so heavenly. What was the reason of pretending to be OK, was I here, why am I here, why can’t this stop. Why can’t I stop?
“Your past doesn’t need you, but your future does!” said the voice very quietly.
“What was that? What’s happening?” I was thinking.
“What if all you have is you, and what if that’s enough?” said the light.
“Where did they disappear? Did you take them? Why did you take them? Please let them come back.” I was crying and screaming through tears.
“You have the chance to choose. Either live now your fairytale or go and make your lif a dream.”
“No! No! I don’t want to go back without them. I can’t!”
“Just listen to me for a moment and then decide what you want. It’s up to you.” I tried to clear my eyes.
“Look at my eyes!”
“What are you saying, how can I look at your eyes, you’re just a light.”
“You know what I mean. Eyes talk, but yours are lying! You know what you have to do.”
I closed my eyes. Memories started coming and going. There was my father singing for me our favorite song, and my little sister playing with that butterfly. Everything was so beautiful again, but it kept fading away. I wanted to catch the moments, turn back the clock and live them again.
“No one is going to come and save you. No one is going to come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself day by day, little by little. This world is full of mountains to climb, oceans to swim, cities to see, but you’ll never feel any of it if you’re scared of the depth of your own soul, height of your own dreams. This world is a miracle but you’ll never understand that until you let this go and accept that you are one yourself.” whispered the light.
“Could I actually handle leaving these all behind, could I handle to never approach that warm house in the middle of the street? Was I strong enough? I took a breath, a deep breath. It seemed like life was just a moment between birth and death, just a moment, a deep breath. Could I handly to let that breath go or was I going to actually breath?
I opened my eyes, looked at the light far away from me still shining. I colleted all the strength I have left after the feeling of guilt, suffering, loneliness ….
I AM strong enough, I have to be strong enough for them, for my prince – my dearest father and for my little princesses playing with butterflies – for my little sister. They are looking at me, they have that their best in the light and gave it to me to keep in my heart forever.
I shouted, shouted like I’ve never had before, it was coming from the deepest party of me. I was letting it go.
It wasn’t my fault that I wasn’t with them in the car that day, it wasn’t my fault that all that is left from them is this little light now. It isn’t my fault that the warm weird house in the middle of the street was only theirs, and for now I wasn’t welcome there. It wasn’t my fault that house is in my imagination and will never be real, that I had to suffer so much to realise this. It wasn’t my fault. It was no one’s. No one is guilty for what happened. My past doesn’t need me, but my future does. And I’ll be there for it! I’ll be there for the future me every step of the road! We’re in it together and we’ll get out of the maze, we’ll take this breath! All I have is me and that is more than enough!
You point out a strange looking house in your neighborhood. Your friends say they don’t see anything.
Everything started when one day I noticed a strange looking house in my neighborhood. It made a really deep impression on me. That big dark and scary house seemed to be lived by a psichopath who tried to avoid meeting people in the light and when it started to get dark, the psichopath escaped his den to meet his victims. At that moment I thought it was just my sick imagination based on horror movies, but it was interesting for me to find out who was the owner of the house. One day I asked my best friends Jack and Tony to help me with my discovery. I showed them the house and suggested going closer to it. They looked at me in a stupefied astonishment.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Are you okay?” They wondered.
They claimed that there wasn’t a strange house. But I really saw that house covered with web and surrounded by dead trees.
“Hmm…. Maybe my imagination played an evil joke on me,” I thought. But I couldn’t sleep. I was afraid to ask anybody else if they saw that house, but I didn’t want them to think that I was a psichopath. One morning I decided to find out everything. I got closer to the house and tried to look through the dusty windows. It was in vain. There was a lattice on the windows, so I couldn’t enter the house, I found bravery in my head and knocked the door, just to see the owner. While I was waiting I planned how I was going to run away there was no answer. I tried to open the door. Fortunately it wasn’t locked. But I was afraid to enter the house. I looked inside and saw a dark laboratory. There were many liquids of different colours that I had no idea about. Then I heard footsteps , coming downstairs. I hid myself in the bushes. A middle-aged woman with long red hair opened the door. She seemed very tired and angry. Then she locked the door and I could hear scary screams from inside. I ran away to my parents and told them everything. They didn’t believe me. I told them the way to the house. My mom started crying and dad screamed at me. They took me to the doctor. During the next month I saw that house and the woman in my nightmares. And one day I heard her voice: “You’re next.” And I answered: “You’re just my imagination!”
Second Place: Alisa Nazinyan, Vanadzor
You have just received a strange letter. The sender claims to be you 20 years in the future.
My biggest wish has always been having a twin sister. Not a dream, but a wish, and I knew it’s not possible in any way. However, it still was my biggest wish until today, the day when it came true. How?! Let me explain.
Everything happened so fast that I hardly remember any details. I woke up in the morning, and as I am they type of people who always have to roll from one side to another side in the bed, it was unexpected from to me to not do that and just get out of bed immediately after waking up. The thing is, that woke up with a great filling of doing great things today. So, I got out of bed and the moment I stood up a letter hit my face, then it bucked off a little and was just floating in the air, facing to me. Of course, I was amazed, surprised and scared at the same time, but the feeling of something supernatural happening to me, whether it was a dream or not, was much much stronger. So what did I do? Um, well. I rushed to the wardrobe, put on some adventurous clothes (I had them always ready in case something like this happened to me ‘cause that was my other big wish/dream) and only then opened the letter, which was still in the air. It said:
“Dear Alisa,
I’m sorry if the letter behaived itself kinda stupid, but there is nothing to be afraid of, though I know you’re not , cause you’ve been waiting for something like this, right? Where I, I’m sorry, where WE know that from? Well, that’s because WE are You!!! No time for explaining what that means, so we’ll come back to that later. We’re wrighting you from the future and we need your help. At first, we want you to know that you were strong and ambitious enough to make your wishes come true. Now you’re saving humanity, the world and you need a little help of yours. Oops, so many “you”s in one sentence. I hope you understood what I was trying to say. Omg, just a few days are left, we need to hurry. All I want to say is just hurry up, have your brain in place (ha-ha just kidding, it’s always there 😊) and after you finish reading this, press the button in the lower part of the paper. Don’t be worried, everything’s gonna be OK.
PRESS”
While reading the letter , I walked in the house and when I finished reading, I was standing in front of the mirror. I slowly raised my head and looked in my eyes for some ten seconds and then …. Then I was running in the house with the happiest face I had ever had. For making it clear for you there was no one in the house: my parents were at work and my brother was probably, um? I don’t know where he was. After I stopped running (I was just expressing my feelings) I took my brain and pressed the button. I think I wasn’t ready for that. It was a portal obviously, and it was very bright and colorful and I still have a headache from that, but it was worth it. So, I was teleported to the FUTURE! And now I’m with me and my future twin sister! They told me everything, the important things, which explained how I have a twin sister and I’m a superhero. And so my twin sister is not actually my twin sister, she’s my imitation? We are talking about the future in 20 years, you know, and anything is possible there. So yeah, she’s not an biological human, but she’s my sister, whom I love so much. And about being a superhero, and portals with just a button, I leave it your imagination about how it happened. Now I’m here in the future, and I need to help us. How? It’s simple. Future me and my sister are on mission. They have to solve a task to the key of distroying supernatural creatures. And for that task they needed teenage mind. And for them I was the best option.
I’m standing in front of the task trying to figure out how they couldn’t get the right answer without any help. Wanna know what the task was? OK.
What needs a teenager before doing anything wrong?
They had the answer in front of their noses all the time!!! They even wrote that world in my letter making a joke with it. The answer is, if you haven’t guessed yet, brain! I’ve unlocked it and we have the key now. I don’t want to go back to the present. I want to stay and fight and be a hero earlier than I will. But, unfortunately, I have to press another button now, which will not only take me back to home, but will also delete all of what happened, and leave just a little thing, and with its help I will know that I had an big adventure and that my wish came true. Which wish? I won’t know for twenty years. It’s sad, but it’s alright. I’m happy and satisfied. Actually, I’m the happiest person right now. And I hope I will always be. Bye-bye! I have to press the button now.
Third Place: Marina Kotsinyan, Yerevan
You point at a strange looking house in your neighborhood. Your friends say they don’t see anything.
It’s been only a month since I moved here. Everyone at school is really kind and welcoming. But to tell the truth I’m not so sure if that is any kind of helping me. I’ve always felt like a half person – not needed person. There are days when I simply want to run away from my own life, live a week without this never ending thoughts that keep torturing me. Why is everyone so kind at school, is that because they’re pitying me? Or is that becaus headmaster called and forced them to be? Or is that just my imagination and everyone isn’t actually so kind? Is it me making up stories to make myself feel a little better again?
It was an ordinary day. I was walking to school with one of my new friends. Everything was normal until I saw a house in the middle of the street. “Oh my God, how weird these people are, how did they come up with an idea of buiding a house in the middle of a street?” I thought to myself. But as we were approaching the house feelings I couldn’t and can’t explain woke up. It seemed like some kind of new soul just got into me. Looking at that house I wanted to shout until my voice would break, cry, laugh and do anything that was possible. I wanted to get in, I wanted to run in. Was I dreaming? Nope, I probably was not. But I couldn’t breath, I was shaking, I couldn’t pronounce a word, seemed like I was dreaming and wanted to wake up, but I wasn’t capable of doing that. Was it a nightmare or just a sweet dream? I guess we’ll find out.
The next thing I knew was my friend was shouting my name. I looked at her.
“Are you OK,” she said.
“Yeah, yeah, I am, I’m fine. This house just seem so … weird.”
“Which house?” she said with a surprised face.
“This one, in the middle of the street.”
“What are you even talking about? We’re gonna be late for school, come on, let’s get going.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about the house the whole day. It was all over my head.
Later I decided to go back home alone. When I approached the house the same feelings woke up, but only this time I was sure it wasn’t a nightmare. I decided to go in, what if one of my relatives lived here and I could remember them. The next thing that I remember I was standing in front of the house’s door and then some loud voices, then pain and … nothing, absolutely nothing.
I woke up hours later in a new world. Everything was so beautiful here, I couldn’t stop watching. Maybe this was my fairy tale, the same I’ve been dreaming to appear in since I was 5. I started walking down the road, flowers surrounding me from all over. I decided to use the opportunity to make my fairytail come true. First I imagined my prince and he appeared to be right in front of me. Then I imagined a little girl playing with butterflies. Everything was so perfect, I wanted to live the moment for an eternity. But some time went and I realised they were gone. The prince and the little princess and I was now all alone in a cave. At the very end of it was a little light. I wanted to run and catch it, but I couldn’t move. Tears were running down my cheeks. I wanted to take the little light and feel it with whole my heart, but I couldn’t. I stood there for about an hour and didn’t move, because I simply gave up. What is the meaning of trying so hard, what is the meaning of this maze of sufferings, will I ever be able to get out of it? I’ve went through hell, but I was still smiling so heavenly. What was the reason of pretending to be OK, was I here, why am I here, why can’t this stop. Why can’t I stop?
“Your past doesn’t need you, but your future does!” said the voice very quietly.
“What was that? What’s happening?” I was thinking.
“What if all you have is you, and what if that’s enough?” said the light.
“Where did they disappear? Did you take them? Why did you take them? Please let them come back.” I was crying and screaming through tears.
“You have the chance to choose. Either live now your fairytale or go and make your lif a dream.”
“No! No! I don’t want to go back without them. I can’t!”
“Just listen to me for a moment and then decide what you want. It’s up to you.” I tried to clear my eyes.
“Look at my eyes!”
“What are you saying, how can I look at your eyes, you’re just a light.”
“You know what I mean. Eyes talk, but yours are lying! You know what you have to do.”
I closed my eyes. Memories started coming and going. There was my father singing for me our favorite song, and my little sister playing with that butterfly. Everything was so beautiful again, but it kept fading away. I wanted to catch the moments, turn back the clock and live them again.
“No one is going to come and save you. No one is going to come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself day by day, little by little. This world is full of mountains to climb, oceans to swim, cities to see, but you’ll never feel any of it if you’re scared of the depth of your own soul, height of your own dreams. This world is a miracle but you’ll never understand that until you let this go and accept that you are one yourself.” whispered the light.
“Could I actually handle leaving these all behind, could I handle to never approach that warm house in the middle of the street? Was I strong enough? I took a breath, a deep breath. It seemed like life was just a moment between birth and death, just a moment, a deep breath. Could I handly to let that breath go or was I going to actually breath?
I opened my eyes, looked at the light far away from me still shining. I colleted all the strength I have left after the feeling of guilt, suffering, loneliness ….
I AM strong enough, I have to be strong enough for them, for my prince – my dearest father and for my little princesses playing with butterflies – for my little sister. They are looking at me, they have that their best in the light and gave it to me to keep in my heart forever.
I shouted, shouted like I’ve never had before, it was coming from the deepest party of me. I was letting it go.
It wasn’t my fault that I wasn’t with them in the car that day, it wasn’t my fault that all that is left from them is this little light now. It isn’t my fault that the warm weird house in the middle of the street was only theirs, and for now I wasn’t welcome there. It wasn’t my fault that house is in my imagination and will never be real, that I had to suffer so much to realise this. It wasn’t my fault. It was no one’s. No one is guilty for what happened. My past doesn’t need me, but my future does. And I’ll be there for it! I’ll be there for the future me every step of the road! We’re in it together and we’ll get out of the maze, we’ll take this breath! All I have is me and that is more than enough!