Drum roll, please! It’s time to announce the results of our Night Fall™ Scary Story Writing Contest. And the winner is Macy from Spring, Texas! We read through hundreds of wonderful entries, but Macy’s ending made us cringe with fear.

As the lucky winner, Macy will receive a set of Night Fall™ books for her own personal collection and another set for her school. But the best part of all is that Macy will be featured in one of the new Night Fall™ novels coming out in the fall of 2011.

And now, the world premiere of Macy’s scary story:

Meredith zipped her bag and set it down. The long main hallway was empty on either side of her. Classes had ended two hours earlier, and the rest of debate club was already on its way home. She stuffed the debate captain’s binder in her locker and pushed the door shut.

She walked slowly toward the exit at end of the hallway, flicking padlocks with her finger and listening to them clang against locker doors as she went. Between the clangs, Meredith heard what sounded like footsteps. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. The hall was empty as far as she could see. She gripped the last lock she’d flicked in her hand to stop it from making more noise. But no one was behind her.

Meredith started to walk again, more quickly this time, until she felt her phone vibrate near the top of her backpack. A text from her mom: ENCHILADAS 2NITE! R U BRINGING NE1 FROM DEB8? Meredith winced. “N-E-1, mom? Really?” she half-whispered. Even though the school was probably empty, Meredith felt weird about how loud her voice sounded when she was alone in the halls—like she was in a cave or something. She glanced at the flickering EXIT sign over the doors maybe twenty lockers ahead.

Nope. Not today. See y—. Meredith quit texting mid-reply. More footsteps, she was almost sure. Once more she peered down the dim hallway. Nobody there. “Whatever,” Meredith muttered, shaking her head. Then she saw them: black, almost inky-looking footprints, larger than hers, in a trail that ended a few lockers away.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Adrenaline poured through her and she drew in a deep breath, slowly, as though preparing for something big. In many ways, she was.

She turned quickly, before she lost her nerve. She’d expected to see an empty hallway, so seeing the hulking, dripping mass in the poorly assumed shape of a man was even more terrifying. The thing was large in frame, though nothing else about its features could be discerned. Everything was literally blacked out, and the inky swirls that made up his form slithered and writhed. As she watched, some mysterious substance dripped from its hand onto the floor. She screamed. The power died.

She fled towards the EXIT sign, which was still running on back-up power, flickering frantically. As she watched, streaking towards it with painful desperation, it shuttered out. She was thrown into complete darkness with the unknown creature, and she was trapped. Meredith wouldn’t stop though, and so she continued to run in what she thought was the right direction until she hit the lockers.

Lost in her own high school with a creature of the night: she’d never be able to explain that one. She let out a pitiful whimper as she felt something cold brush her cheek, and then, with sudden clarity, she could see the half-man.

He was looming towards her, his eyes bottomless pits of black that threatened to suck her in at any moment. She didn’t know what he wanted, but she didn’t feel like it was anything good; he radiated evil, pure darkness. The thing moved closer to her, and she shrunk back into the lockers, trying not to scream again.

What was she going to do now, argue it to death? Why had she chosen debate over something more physical and intimidating, like karate? But it was too late to change now, and she struggled to find some way out. A dripping hand raised, threatening to crush her, and she ducked, grabbing one of her shoes and hurling it at the figure in the same second.

There was a squelching noise, a muted grunt, and then she fled straight down the hall without another glance at the thing or its footprints. She found a door and shoved it open, not caring where it went. She slipped out into the fading sun with a cry of happiness.

Inside, the darkness swirled, gathering itself together, and the lights flickered back on. This one had gotten away, but the next wouldn’t be so lucky.

Congratulations, Macy! You give us chills!