National Novel Writing Month (NaNoMo) is a non-profit organisation that “believes in the power of creativity”. Each year throughout the month of November, interested young writer’s are asked to write an extended piece of creative writing across the 30 days of the month.  It’s a significant challenge to undertake but thousands of young writer’s sign up each year.

This news story is about celebrating one young writer from FIS who completed an extended piece of writing that can be found below. Taye Britt is a fan of video games and enjoys writing creatively.

The Fight for Life

The Clown

One day a local clown died on his birthday. His name was Momo.

Every 100 years on his birthday, after he died,   he could be summoned: and that day 10000 years ago is when this story started.

I did not believe in superstitions.  I believe that it is my calling to prove that every superstition is fake. When I heard about Momo I knew I wanted to prove it was fake.

Luckily for me tomorrow is Momo’s 10000th birthday, so I got prepared to prove it was fake.

The Disappearance

I bought all the necessary ritual summoning items: candles and something that belonged to who you are trying to summon. I went to Momo’s grave and I did the ritual and incantation to summon Momo.

Nothing happened.

I went to school the next day and I noticed one of my friends Blorg was not in school that day. It surprised me because Blorg was on the school bus with me so I assumed that he ditched school even though he always follows the rules. After school I went to Blorg’s house to see if he was okay; when I asked his mom if I could see him she said that she hadn’t seen him since breakfast. That’s when I got worried.

I went to my friend who told me about Momo so I could see if it was Momo that caused Blorg to disappear, my friend Niosh said that, “if someone summoned Momo but didn’t believe in him then their worst nightmare would come true.”

I asked what to do if you did summon him but did not believe he responded that “ if you summon him but don’t believe then you have to go to hi-” Niosh then disappeared without finishing the instructions.

I believed I knew what he was going to say. I then went to Momo’s grave and pleaded for my friends to come back. I did it over and over and over again all the way into the night. I gave up and went back home knowing that all of my friends were going to disappear. I ended up crying myself to sleep that night. When it was morning I did not want to go to school for fear that all of my friends would be gone… but my parents forced me to.

The Insanity

While I was at school I was exasperated. When I finished school I knew that everything that happened had been real. I was scared of what would happen when I got home since I know what my greatest fear was.

When I got home the horror had already come. I knew then that life wasn’t worth living in this world, and that I would have to create a new world where all my friends and family could live happily together. I knew that I have to make this new world but how was I supposed to do that? I thought long and hard about this and then realized that I would have to rely on superstitions that I used to not believe.

Momo, here I come.

The Beginning of the End

I went up the hill to the grave where Momo’s skeleton laid. I did the chant that I had read in the books about Momo. This incantation should make my body a vessel so Momo could pass over from the underworld back to the mortal realm with my body as his passing point between realms. The book had said that when Momo passed through the vessel he would grant the vessels deepest desire other bringing back the dead. What I wanted was a little far out, but I hoped that Momo would be able to make it come true.

Momo’s spirit appeared to be truthful I was scared looking down the enemy that made my life oh so horrible. I knew that once Momo made by desires fulfilled that a curse would be set on me the more desires I had the worse the curse would be. Momo’s spirit then went into my body. That is why I can no longer move my body, and that is all I remember up until now.

The Time in Between

During the time that I was possessed by Momo I caused the apocalypse. Almost everyone in the world has been killed by Momo. There is one family who has become survival experts through their contacts with Momo they have seen him or should I say me multiple times yet I just can’t kill them. I don’t want to kill people but because I am the vessel for Momo I don’t have a choice. If only when I was younger I wasn’t stupid then none of this would have happened I should have just gotten over it instead of doing a rash decision without truly thinking about it. I just have to hope that this family can survive and kill me then rebuild the human race from scratch.

People in our realm don’t believe in God anymore because if he was real then he would have stopped me and Momo, unless he planned all of this to make the human race go extinct and then to make new humans better then the old ones and he probably is using Momo and me as the off-switch for the world. He must want to destroy the world and then rebuild after all that is what I wanted when I was younger. I don’t have power so the only way that I would be able to remake a new world was to put everyone in this world into the new world called hell and heaven.

The Family that Survived

The family I was talking about earlier that had seen me on different occasions, well they are who I am going to be talking about for a little while. For starters their last name is Park. In one of my trials to kill the Park family was putting a poisoned sandwich in their kitchen, since this is the apocalypse it is hard to get food – so I thought that if I gave them poisoned food they would eat it out of hunger. I was wrong, apparently the Park family had been good at finding berries and they also heard that multiple people have died during the apocalypse so those are the reasons they didn’t eat the food.

Another way that I tried to kill them was to dress up as their idle actor they didn’t buy it they knew that their idle was probably dead seeing how this is the apocalypse. While the Park family was scavenging for food one day they found a little boy whose name was Lopus they let this boy join their family to try to survive, they knew that they would have to find more food for him and a bigger living space – seeing how they were always moving never getting comfortable with one place. This meant that they would have to eat later and everyone would eat less food per day, but if it meant that another person might survive the apocalypse then it was worth it. Lopus was a weird boy the way that he would walk and how he talked, he ate as though he might not ever eat again which might happen seeing how everyone is dying. He must be trying to enjoy every meal as though it was his last seeing how he would never know what day he was going to die until that day came.

On one of their scavenges Lopus hurt his leg, so the next day the Park family left him home when they went on their scavenge. Lopus was scared out of his mind do you want to know why…

The Sadness

When Lopus looked outside the window he saw mail lying on the floor outside of the house. He walks outside and opens up the envelope inside is a letter written in blood red.

The letter said “Lets play a game of hide and seek and if I find you you’re dead hahaha!!”

Lopus was seriously scared he knew he would have to flee or hide even though he was too scared to admit it he knew Momo was going to find him. He made up his mind instead of hiding he was going to flee knowing Momo would follow him but because of that Momo would not be near the Park family so the family would survive even though he wouldn’t. He was not going to get far so he left the Park family a note saying ” I am sorry I have to leave because Momo is chasing me, I will try to get him as far away from you so that you will be safe. I will head north you should head south because Momo will be following me north. I doubt that you will ever see me again thanks to my injured leg I won’t get very far but I hope it will buy you guys enough time to flee,

Sincerely Lopus.”

Lopus left on a sprint to get as far away from the house as quickly as he could his injured leg wasn’t helping him though. Lopus wasn’t as smart as he thought though he told me exactly where the other family was going I had learned there schedule so I knew that they weren’t coming home till sunset, which gave me just enough time to feed on Lopus. From being controlled by Momo for long enough I realized how to kill him, if Momo doesn’t feed off any creature for five days he will die, of course you could also just kill him like anybody else can die out of injury but either way the same outcome would happen. I would die as well if Momo died because his soul is inside of my body.

The Skeleton

When the Park family arrived home they saw the letter Lopus wrote. Instead of obeying Lopus’ wishes they decided to go North to find Lopus before it was too late little did they know that I was currently eating him. The Park family kept running up North knowing Lopus had an injured leg that would slow him down and praying that he was still alive.

While they were running north they saw a tiny plump skeleton on the road they hoped it wasn’t what they thought even though they knew that what they thought was true. The Park family decided to obey Lopus’ wishes now that they knew that the worst had come to be so they started heading south. While they were on their travels to the south they encountered a lot of skeletons they knew that the apocalypse was getting worse and was nearly on its final step. It was very hard for the Park family to get around because they didn’t have a car and their were no planes.

The Park family started trying to search for other survivors instead of just trying to survive by themselves. They were hoping that any other survivors might have any items that were useful that could help them survive the apocalypse.

The House

While the Park family was searching for other survivors they came upon a house that was near a graveyard. They believed it could make for a perfect base. When they went inside the house they couldn’t believe what they saw, inside were a lot of booby traps the family immediately recognized the type of work it was. It was other humans!

Sadly the booby traps were not set in a good way, they were easily sighted and easily avoidable. This was shoddy craftsmanship but they didn’t care it was other humans clearly they had never had an encounter with Momo or else they wouldn’t have set such sucky booby traps but it was humans nonetheless. The Park family knew that humans were there but they didn’t know for sure if they were still there. Once the Park family had climbed up the steps they were very happy at what they saw. It was other humans and they were actually alive which was surprising to the family seeing as how their booby traps were literal trash more like booby trash. The people inside the house were super scared when they saw that the door was opening little did they know after all Momo never comes in through a door that would be kinda dumb. The Park family got along with the new people that they had met Harry, Sammy, and Candy. They all learned a schedule which helped them know who was where and what they were supposed to be doing at that current time.

After a couple of months the Park family started to get used to their new friends and they got used to their new schedule. During one of the days that they were searching and gathering food something horrible happened. That day it was the three new people that the family had met that were gathering food and supplies, sadly while they were gathering they decided to split up thinking that it would be faster to gather if they all did different tasks so then they would get different things faster. They were to meet up after an hour at the garden where they get most of their supplies. After an hour they went back to the garden but only two were there, Harry and Sammy. They wondered where Candy was so they decided to get the Park family before going on a search to find Candy in case it was going to be a perilous trail so that they would have backup. Once they got the Park family they headed to where Candy was supposed to be.

After about ten to twenty minutes they arrived at the place that Candy was gathering. Everyone in their group always had a weapon with them just in case. The Park family and their friends saw blood on the floor, they feared the worse. They followed the trail of blood and it stopped at a tree they looked around the tree to find a clue, Harry told everyone to come over to where he was. They all went there when they got there they saw Candy lying against a tree.

Candy had blood spilling from her stomach she was badly injured the Park family got out their homemade first aid kit it was not as good as a normal post apocalyptic one. After applying it to the wound they asked what had happened to her. Candy said “I was gathering and noticed that it was almost time to head back to our main gathering area so I started to head back and I heard a sound. I took out my weapon in case it was an animal of some kind so we could have a luxurious meal. When the enemy came out from the bush it was Momo. We fought a hard battle and Momo stabbed me with his claws but then i chopped off his hand with my axe. Momo fled after giving me a message where he told me that he was going to follow the family with the name of Park…

…and he was going to kill all their loved ones and then kill them one by one.”

The Travel

After the Park family heard Momo’s message they knew that they would have to face Momo once and for all so then their friends would be safe and wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore. They asked Candy if she knew anything about Momo’s whereabouts.  Candy said “I don’t know where he is but I do know where he was going.”

The Park family asked “Where is he headed?”

Candy responded “Wherever you shall be but the way he was headed was south of this forest. Do you see that pink stuff on the ground? Well it is the blood of that beast Momo. If the stories you told about him are true then it would suggest that Momo is perceptive and smart. If you journey into the forest and travel south the trail will probably stop and you will be lost, but if you remember the way that the path was going you might be able to see patterns in the way that he moves to find which direction to head in.”

The Park family decided to head off south to where they thought that Momo was. Their new friends begged to come along on their journey but the Park family said that it would be far to dangerous and that they didn’t want their friends to be endangered which is the entire reason that they had to go on this journey. Five or six days after they left on their journey to slay Momo they encountered a large river without a bridge. It was too long to swim through and too deep to walk they Park family had to figure out a way to get past. The Park family sent their best swimmer into the river to see how deep it was but first they tied a rope to him so then in case it was too deep they would be able to bring him back up.

Hickory, who is the swimmer of their family, dived into the river swimming down as deep as he could, he tugged on the rope twice which signalled to his family that he needed to be pulled up. His family started to pull him up but he dived so far down that it took them 30 seconds to pull him up which was too long.

The Vision

All that Hickory remembered was vanishing into the deep depths of the river. He was unconscious and he couldn’t tell anything from the outside world but he started to see things. He saw Momo and a wildfire in the woods, everything was burning.

He saw people running away and while they were some were being struck down blood soaking the floor and coming out through their heads. Then he saw his family they were at the center of all the chaos he saw. He tried to hone his sight on to them but he couldn’t. He was only able to watch from afar as his family was frantically running and dodging Momo’s attacks. He watched as two of his family members were struck down, Blien and Horgus. His remaining family members did not back down even though Blien and Horgus died.

Hickory really wanted them to just give up and retreat but they stayed fighting. He watched as one by one they died until only Gorge was left standing. Momo came in to finish Gorge but he did not know that Gorge had a hidden dagger. When Momo tried to kill him Gorge stabbed him but unfortunately Momo’s hit still landed and they both died. He started to fall down and when he got back up all he saw was his family in a circle around him. The wildfire was gone and so was everyone else including Momo. Hickory was so scared after seeing that nightmare. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go on this mission seeing how in his vision they all died except for him.

The Raft

The Park family was so happy when Hickory woke up. They knew that it was too deep to be able to walk across they doubted that it was short enough to swim across. They needed to find another way.

They decided to look around for a bridge or a structure that could let them get across the river. After they walked as far as they could they didn’t find anything that would help them cross. They decided that they would make a raft by cutting down as many trees as they could to use for wood with the axes that they had available to them.

After an hour, they only managed to cut down one tree but they would have to then cut it into wood. Finally after a week of hard work chopping down trees they had enough wood to make a raft. It took them an hour to tie all the wood together into the raft. They were low on supplies they needed a city to be across the river or else they might not survive. They pushed their raft into the river and they all jumped on it. They waited while the raft drifted through the river. They had to make some paddles with the excess wood so that they would be able to steer the raft.

After countless hours of steering and waiting they finally hit shore but what would they find once they got off.

The Abandoned City

They got off their raft and walked into the city. In the far distance they could see some buildings and smoke. They decided to be careful and not make a lot of noise at the fear that the smoke was caused by an attack from Momo. While they were walking they saw some trees and bushes with food.

They first used their knowledge of the environment that had helped them on their journey so far. They did this so that they could tell whether or not the berries and fruits were poisonous. This was a tedious process because they had to do it with every fruit and berry. They didn’t know if the town they were going into had food and supplies so they had to get as much from the wild as possible because they didn’t know when they were going to be able to eat food again.

After hours of picking supplies in the wild they finally arrived at the city that they saw hours before. They treaded carefully in case Momo was still in the premises when they would see stores or houses they would go inside and take whatever would be helpful to them like weapons and food. They saw multiple cars that they could take because the keys that go with them were in easy to take locations. They knew that using a car wouldn’t be smart for multiple reasons.

First reason the engine is loud and that will attract unwanted guests including Momo.

Second reason they couldn’t get gas because there are no gas stations. Those are the main reasons there are also other reasons but those are not relevant because it is about the Park families beliefs. They walked past all the cars and tried as hard as possible to not hop in the cars and take them because they were so exhausted from walking so much. They went to go get more supplies for the journey ahead of them. It was getting late so they family needed to set up camp somewhere.

They decided that hiding in a vacant house was probably best. They knew that tomorrow was going to be tough because they were so close on Momo’s trail. They wished each other a good night and then went to sleep.

The Path

After they woke up they departed from the vacant house that they were sleeping in. They gathered up the supplies that they got the day before. They departed from the house and decided which direction they should go in. They looked and judged how far they thought that they could walk for today. They started walking in that direction. They kept a lookout for wild animals so then maybe they could have a nice meal during these trying times. They walked for hours and hours without finding anything. They started to wonder if they were going in the wrong direction. After several more hours of walking and gathering extra supplies the Park family decided to make sure that they were still heading south or for any signs that Momo had changed directions.

After searching for signs for the remainder of the day they decided to make up camp. They had to find a cave or a safe place in the environment to rest so then they would not be killed by Momo or wild animals  while they were fast asleep resting so then they would be ready for yet another long day of walking. Momo never sleeps or rests, he also doesn’t need to eat and he is intellectually and physically stronger than most people on earth. The family needs to move really fast to catch up with him for multiple reasons.

The first reason being that Momo doesn’t sleep or rest which means that while the family is sleeping or taking breaks to gather up their strength, to catch their breath and to rest.  Momo is still moving farther and farther away from them while they are taking breaks or sleeping.

Their second reason is that Momo doesn’t need to eat so he doesn’t have to take time to do that either. Their third reason is that because Momo is stronger than us that also means he has more endurance and add that on to the fact that he does not need to rest he could just sprint forever without getting tired. Their final reason is that Momo is smarter than humans so he knows the fastest paths to get to where he is going.

The Scream

The Park family woke up to the sound of a shrieking scream that made them want to cut off their ears. They also saw smoke from where they think that the scream was coming from. They immediately got up and started running to the direction that the smoke was in. They kept running without stopping to eat or get more food. They kept running to get there before whoever was screaming became silenced.

They just kept running and running.

When they finally got to the area that the smoke was coming from, they heard a shout for help. They went inside the cottage that was built outside in the woods. They hoped that they were not to late. When they got to the top floor of the cottage they saw Momo and he was about to go in for the killing strike. Hickory took out his bow and shot the arm that was going to attack the woman lying on the floor unconscious. Momo’s arm was injured. he had to retreat so that he could tend to his wound. Hickory’s mom looked to see which direction Momo was going in. It was a good thing that HIckory shot the arm for two reasons. One reason is that the family had saved the woman assuming that she didn’t take any fatal wounds and that they could now follow the trail of Momo’s blood for a while instead of having to guess in which direction Momo was headed. The family checked to make sure the woman was still alive and then they left as fast as they could to catch up with Momo while he was still injured.  The Park family ran after Momo as fast as they could. They ignored all obstacles jumping through obstacles that are in their way. They had to get him now when he is right in their hands. Momo was moving especially slow because he was trying to make sure that he wouldn’t bleed to death. The family was moving faster than they had ever moved before in their entire life. They saw Momo ahead of them and they put on a burst of speed.

They broke through the forest and Hickory immediately noticed that the town in front of him was the town that he saw when he was unconscious at the point of time from when he almost drowned in the water.

The Final Battle

Momo fled into the town Hickory was the only one in his family who was actually scared for his life at that point. His family thought that it was going to be an easy fight but Hickory knew better. They followed Momo into the city. Momo had set up traps inside the city. They assumed that this city was Momo’s base or maybe the place that he came from. Mysteriously the family didn’t see any skeletons around the city they started to wonder if Momo came here to eat the civilians which would heal his arm from the arrow that Hickory shot at him.

They walked farther into the city and then Momo went into the city. They jumped into the sewer after him running and running as fast as they could hoping to finish it as soon as possible before Momo takes anymore victims.

Momo jumped out the sewers and ran into an abandoned and desolate amusement park. The family followed him without thinking about the fact that Momo knows this place well and probably set up booby traps inside the amusement park.

They followed Momo deeper into the park. They did not know what they were going to find if they kept on following Momo but Hickory thought that he might have an idea of what they were going to find. They kept on running after Momo and then they stopped at a water slide. They saw that on the top of the slide there were five people who were tied up together and Momo was heading to the top of the slide. At the bottom of the slide there were pointy spikes so that if the people tried to escape they would die anyway. Momo was almost at the top so the family had to think fast. Either way the people upp on top were going to die, but it is the family’s goal to save as many people as possible. After all that is why they are on this journey.

They had to stop Momo at any cost Hickory shot the rope that was tieing the people together. The people went down the slide and then they died because they hit the blades. Momo had to either come up to the dead body’s and eat them to heal or he could flee. Momo decided to eat the dead body’s. First he ran up and smacked Hickory in the face. Then Mena Hickory’s mother came to stop Momo but Momo kicked her in the guts, she was sent flying. Leremy who is Hickory’s oldest brother tried to stop Momo but Momo punched him in his face. Blien, Horgus and Gorge all came running at Momo but Momo used magic to create a barrier around him. They were moving too fast to stop so they all got blasted by his barrier. Hickory got back up and shot an arrow at Momo. Momo used his magic to crate a flying hand that grabbed the arrow and threw it back at Hickory.

The arrow pierced Hickory’s shoulder and Hickory went unconscious. Momo got to the body’s and ate them in one single gulp. Momo then went deeper into the park he went through a tiny cavern and the family followed him. They left Hickory on the floor unconscious.

On the outside of the cavern there was a forest and a place where a bunch of survivors were all together. Since Momo ate five people at once his magical powers were stronger than ever. While Momo was running fire came from beneath his feat the forest was catching the fire and a wildfire began to brew. When the other survivors saw Momo they started to run away from him as fast as they could. From Momo eating five people at a time his magic powers were stronger than ever. He used his powers to make it so that the ground would come up turn into spears and go straight at the survivors, Momo was aiming for the head. Whenever a survivor would get hit by an earth spear the spear would go around them in a ball and they would get compacted and then they would be sent flying into Momo’s mouth. This meant that every time a survivor would die Momo would get stronger and stronger until he couldn’t be stopped. Over the family’s travels they had learned a lot about Momo and the only way to defeat him was that the five chosen ones would all have to make a coordinated attack on Momo.

The family had assumed that they were the chosen ones even though they were six. Now they realized that because Hickory was knocked out that there were only five of them. They knew that this was when they were destined to defeat Momo or die trying. They all snuck up behind Momo and Blien and Horgus attacked first with there axes. They sliced down on to Momo’s back but Momo used magic to blast them and their axes back. Mena and Leremy tried to come up from in front while Momo was taking care of Blien and Horgus.

Momo focused his attention on Mena and Leremy while Gorge snuck up from the back. Mena and Leremy charged at Momo while Gorge was about to strike him down. Momo saw Gorge and threw him at Leremy and Mena. They all fell down, Momo was coming in to finish those three but Momo was stopped because Blien and Horgus got back up and were charging at Momo. Off in the distance Hickory was waking up and he saw a familiar sight. It was the same as the dream he had when he had nearly drowned. Hickory knew what was going to happen next, Momo turned and around and stabbed Blien and Horgus just like how Hickory had sean in his dream. Blien and Horgus started to crumble to the ground and Momo bit off their heads and then ate the rest of their body’s. The others in his family couldn’t stand for it, they decided to charge in Mena and Leremy then got choked by magic and Gorge came to try to save them by attacking Momo but he had a barrier he watched helplessly as his mother and brother died.

Momo ate them as well; it was only Gorge and Momo left and Gorge was too scared to think straight he just watched as his family members all died. While he just stood there watching helplessly. Momo was about to kill Gorge when suddenly Hickory shot and arrow and it hit Momo in the hand. That was when he remembered about Hickory he couldn’t have let Hickory died as well he got back up and charged at Momo while Hickory continued to shoot arrows as fast and well aimed as he could. Momo was overwhelmed, he knew that he had to stop Hickory’s arrows. The next time Hickory shot an arrow a magic hand that Momo summoned caught the arrow and through it right back. Hickory didn’t get hit in an fatal area so he was going to be fine but Gorge was furious. He charged at Momo as though he had the power of a god. He didn’t let up until he got stabbed in the gut.

It was a fatal wound and he was going to bleed out no matter what but he kept walking towards Momo the blade piercing more and more of his skin until the entirety of the blade was through his body. Gorge took out his axe and chopped off Momo’s head.

It was all over now the apocalypse ended by one family. Gorge hoped that Hickory would live a long life and carry his family’s reputation.

Then Gorge fell down on to the floor and never got up again. Hickory’s family saved everyone left on the world now the survivors could rebuild all of humankind back up from his roots and the Park family would be known for their bravery and their sacrifice forever.