Writing Prompt Contest Winners!

I'm so excited to show you guys the winning entries. They were all so much fun to read, and ridiculously difficult to judge...

In third place...

Jameis O’Shaunessey

So it turned out that reading my sister's diary was a mistake. Here I am, now sprawling, now curled-up upon her bed. My thoughts are like a shipwreck from an old cinema; my only constants are muffled sobs, streaming tears.
Although, when Dad died and she had had to quit school to cover the bills for Mums, she began to guard her diary with intense jealousy, all I expected to find was the usual rot one finds in a single girl's diary when I saw it left open on her quilt. I was so unhappily wrong! She had supposedly gotten a job in Dublin, but it turns out that was all a lie. H--how could she have stooped to a level that low for money? I would've rather starved then for her to----
Oh, what, what am I to do? To reveal would mean utter ruin; to conceal, endless guilt…

Judge's comments: I really like the emotion with this one. I can feel the narrator's pain as s/he realizes what his/her sister has been doing.

Second place:

$wag money

 So it turned out that reading my sister’s diary was a mistake. Her face, streaked with tears, burning with shame as she snatched the book from my limp hands--I barely heard her shout. I had never known those things had happened to her, and I hadn't been meant to know.
I didn't know what to do now.
A scene from autumn flickered like a dusty light bulb. Fallen leaves, vivid as flame, cascading through the sky like rain. Laughing faces. Her, sitting with her friends around her on the bench, hair blowing in a gusty wind. Reading my diary aloud to my hollering classmates. To Brian, who was redder than a cherry candy drop. I had screamed, I had tried to snatch it from her, and oh how they'd laughed with a cruelty unique to children.
I'd only wanted revenge. It wasn't as sweet as I thought it'd be.

Judge's comments: The description is beautiful. I can picture everything, and I especially like the "dust light bulb" phrase.

And our first place winner is... [insert drumroll here]

Josephine Paige

 So it turned out that reading my sister’s diary was a mistake. If I’d never seen that well-worn journal lying at the foot of her bed, maybe it would have been different. If I’d never leafed through the pages, maybe I wouldn’t have found it. The secret. The one I wish I never learned.
The secret about what really happened that day, the day of the car crash. When the car mysteriously swerved, winding up wrong side up in the riverbed, no survivors. Maybe if I hadn’t read her diary, I wouldn’t have read every miserable detail. How the brakes had been tampered with. Some well spilled water--Ice on black pavement. If I hadn’t read the diary I wouldn’t have known what happened.
I wouldn’t have known how my sister had murdered them all.

Judge's comments: Pulled me in on the first line, and never let go. There's no way I would be able to put the book down now.

There's one more entry I'd like to share with you guys. I had finally figured out the winners, when it crossed my mind that it would probably be a good idea to check the word count of all of them. This one was one word over the limit. After much heartache, I decided I needed to be fair and disqualify it. However, nobody said I couldn't post disqualified entries...

Carmer

So it turned out that reading my sister’s diary was a mistake. Being the curious person I am, I hadn’t even thought mom would care. She did. I had seen all the words, and the sorrow had returned. Kaylah had beautiful sketches in there.
The last page had been the one that had made me cry. I was only the little brother in the backseat, but I still remembered the crash as if it had been branded upon my hand. Just thinking about it brought back all those memories of the glass; the blood; the screams.
The picture had been of a perfect, pink rose. Surrounding it were thorns and black dirt. The picture was only smeared chalk, but it had brought such emotion that I was unable to stop crying for days. On top were the words: ‘I am a rose amongst thorns. Please bring me into Your garden.’

Judge's comments: The emotion is spectacular here. I was almost in tears while reading it.



Great job to everyone who entered, whether you placed or not. I had so much fun doing this. I'll be sure to have another contest soon. :)

(On another note, you all might want to keep your diaries away from your siblings, especially if they contain information about a car accident.)