October 2021 Issue

Welcome

TO THE KEN CARYL TIMES

Like a phoenix, a new magazine rises from the ashes of its predecessors, as the old way of literary magazines is reborn in glory. This magazine is bona fide and like a newborn phoenix, better than all before it. Prodigious writers, artists, photographers, and poets all come together to create an astoundingly masterful publication. And now, without any further ado, we present to you: The Ken Caryl Times.

Enjoy!

What's

INSIDE

04 & 05. Art and Poem
KCMS Spooky Pride and The Pumpkin Queen

06 & 07. Story
The Thing

08 & 09. Comic and Art
Brains and Cute Ghost

10 & 11. Comic
Trampoline Ghost

12 & 13. Art and Poem
Witch and Leaves

14 & 15. Poem and Art
Spooky Night and The Eye

16 & 17. More Art!
My Boi and Carnage me

18 & 19. Another Comic and Art
Pet Costumes and Pumpkins

20 & 21. Art and Poem
The Gaze and Trick or Treat

22 & 23. Story
The Mystery Man

24 & 25. Art
Mirror and Monster

26 & 27. Art and Poem
Graveyard Scene and Night is Cold

28 - 31. Story
Nico's Search

32 & 33. Art and Contest Info
Moonlit Night and How to Enter Our Contests

KCMS Spooky Pride by Almira Ozdemir, Grade 8

CONTEST WINNER: The Pumpkin Queen by Eva Crispin, Grade 8

It’s time for spooky season, time for Halloween.
All the scary Spartans are ready to make a scene.
Dressed as mummies, all wrapped up
As zombies, skin of green.

But what they all don’t know may cause them to scream
For the crescent moon says
Beware the pumpkin queen.

From the ground she awakens, at night with fear she’s seen
She feeds on the darkness, watching everyone.
As all the lonely spirits
Rise to have some fun.

She emerges from her cave
And puts on her pumpkin head
Waiting till all the students
get up out of bed.

She slithers along the sidewalk
Watching sneakily.
Trying her best to maintain her secrecy.

She snatches parts of costumes
A pirate’s hook, a mermaid’s tail.
Crawling along the ground
slow as a snail.

She takes even more items
A cat’s ears, a claw of foam
Then, after a long while
She decides she should go home.

She walks through the school
coming up on dawn
She takes off her pumpkin head to reveal
The face of Mrs. Gagnon.

Thing

The

CONTEST WINNER: by Teddy Moe, Grade 7

It was one week after the incident happened…I was sitting in the waiting room staring off into the distance. My vision went dark then my ears began to ring. Then it replayed in my head. Over and over and over. It wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t move. Finally I snapped out of it. “NO!” I yelled. Everyone was looking at me. I ran to the bathroom and locked the door. I splashed water on my face and looked in the mirror.
“Don't think about it Xe. Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it!” I went back out to the waiting room and was greeted by Doctor Fields.
“There you are Xena. I'm ready to meet with you.” We walked back to his office. I hated his office. I always did. He sat me down on the old creaky chair that sat in the corner of the room, there was an officer in the other corner.
“All right Xena, just tell me as much as you can remember. This is Officer Pimbrooke, she’ll be with us during today's session.”
“Well it was the day before Halloween...me, Liam, Harlow, and Sebastian were at the Halloween festival…”
“Come on Har, it's not a big deal. It's just a corn maze”
“Shut it, Liam, I don't want to do it.”
“Stop being such a scaredy cat.”
“Don't start with me, Seb.”
“Guys, can we please stop fighting and just enjoy this? It's a festival.”
“Fine, But we are doing the corn maze at SOME point.” We did all the carnival rides, we hung out with friends, we were just having fun, like you normally do at a festival. Then around 2:00 in the morning Liam had somehow convinced us to do the corn maze.
“Fine. We’ll go, but if we get lost it's your fault.”

“Whatever you say, your majesty.” We had started out fine; we had actually been navigating through it quite well. Harlow had been a bit jumpy, but that was to be expected. She said she felt like something was following us, but we didn't believe her until we heard a deafening scream.
“Harlow??” we all turned around. And there it was, staring us in the face. I stood there in shock, unable to move. It was the definition of nightmare fuel. He, or she, or whatever this thing was stood 9 feet tall, fingers long and pointy, a light grey color, blacked out eyes, a smile as wide as it's face, with teeth sharp as razors.
“RUN!” We scattered. We all cut through different parts of the maze. I had never run faster. Thoughts raced through my mind.
“We shouldn’t have split up. We shouldn’t have left each other. We’re gonna die. I’m gonna die.” I was running for God knows how long, then I ran into someone. It was Liam.
“OH THANK GOD YO-” He put his hand over my mouth and pulled me to the ground.
“Shhh,” he whispered to me, eyes filled with tears. I could hear it coming. Step by step. Closer and closer. Then it just stopped. It was absolute silence…we slowly stood up, his hand still over my mouth. We looked around. We didn't see it anywhere. Then we heard Sebastian scream. We turned around and saw that that thing had Sebastian in it's hand. It's fingers were a foot long. Each. He couldn't move.
“SEBASTIAN!” I tried to run towards it. But before I could even get close it swallowed him. It swallowed Sebastian whole. I fell to my knees and cried. I felt Liam grab my shoulder. He stood me up and we ran to find Harlow. After about 20 minutes we found her. We ran into each other's arms. But the celebration didn't last long.
We heard it's footsteps getting closer, then it started to go faster, and faster, and faster. The sound was everywhere, it was all around us. Then we found the fence that surrounded the corn maze. We kicked it over and over until it broke. We took the pieces and held it in front of us. It was getting very, very close. So close I could see it. Running straight for me, full speed. As soon as it got close enough I stabbed it with the fence. After a few seconds it began to fade away, like dust. We watched in horror as it disappeared into nothing, taking Sebastian with it.
“Seb...no…” Liam and Harlow ran over to me and threw their arms around me. We sat there for a while, just holding each other, crying. One thing we knew for sure was whatever that thing was, it wasn’t coming back. Ever.