Young Writers' Club - Year 9 - Dec 2025

Year 9 - Stranger Sagas

Stranger Sagas invites students to unleash their imagination by writing a mini saga, a story told in up to 100 words. The short format means every word counts, helping students focus their ideas, sharpen their vocabulary and gain confidence in their writing.

Precisely 3 17am. Every clock in London had stopped and nobody noticed – except Jake. He had been awake, staring at the red glow of his alarm clock when the numbers froze; the silence turned thick, pressurised and alive. By morning, time was moving again, but the town felt … older, is if it had skipped something major. Jake found wet footprints in his hallway that led to his bedroom mirror. Smudged in the foggy glass were three words he couldn’t recall writing: ‘YOU MISSED IT’. Outside, the church bells rang thirteen times and every shadow faced the wrong direction. Yuvi Khattoare 9P

A low thud echoed from the basement, too heavy to be the house settling. I froze halfway down the hallway, breathing turned thin and harp. Another sound followed: slow dragging, like something being pulled across concrete. The light switch flicked, but the bulb stayed dead. In the darkness below, a whisper rose, cracked and wet, calling my name with a voice I hadn’t heard in years. The air turned cold enough to sting. Something shifted on the last stair, just out of sight. I backed away, but the footsteps followed, deliberate and patient, climbing towards me one by one.... Daleer Halith 9M

Soaring, flaming, it was unlike anything seen by a human before: a rotund brass cylinder with a diameter of that of a satellite’s parabolic antennae; a poignant, verdant gas trailed from the far, flat side. Pointing towards the tranquil earth was a sheer inclination into a rounded point. They didn’t know it yet, but this was to collide with what we know as Horsell Common. Midnight struck. Twelfth of August. Brass and marsh converged, a cataclysmic impact that could be heard from Erith, deafening many. Almost instantly, the gas dissipated, suffocating passers-by. Almost instantly, the lid began to unscrew... Toby Leigh 9N

Beep. Beep. Nothing. ‘Sorry ma’am, he’s dead.’ Silence pierced through the hospital dorm. The expectant mother had no child. Or so she thought… Veins bulged, hearts beat: one single baby, one single creature. Three hearts, one intrusive vein running through his brain. There was no scream as the mother’s stomach burst open; there was no blood as the creature emerged. That demented baby. Its vein wound around his leg again and again and again. Expanding to ghastly proportions, it ran for the door. Fifty-five shrieks followed - the hospital lay as a morgue. Luke Garner 9L