THE STONE HILL
An Original Listener Terror
Written by Harrison Van Middelem, Age 10

This story, like many, starts with “Once Upon a Time.”
So, let’s start with 1528, in a kingdom called “Montoplikus”, with a small village known as Fort Trenton. Now this place was known for its vast majority of delectable foods and large feasts of steak, turkey or sometimes even mutton. However, the place was also known for the spirits roaming the streets on cold foggy nights, unbound by time and mortality. The most famous of the housing areas for the apparitions was The Stone Hill, built way back in the 1100’s as a tribute to an ancient god of war and destruction, only to be used as a shooting range for archers. The ruining of such a divine building with several holy figures, forever frozen as statues built on top of the hill led the god’s wrath upon the small mountain of basalt to eternally be inhabited by ghosts and phantoms of all kinds.
Now we begin with a tiny, and rather plump, man fashioning an old tunic that squeezed him due to his large belly. However, it still comforted him through cold glum nights such as this one. He was riding on horseback accompanied by only the ride named “Daydreamer” for its ability to fall asleep during the day and stay wide awake at night. And the man’s name was first of his family, Philip Douglas. In spite of the depressed midnight sky, he was filled with much joy as he had just left his parchment requesting a job at the church. Tomorrow, the chance would be over as they would stop collecting the applications. On his way home, Philip decided to stop atThe Stone Hill, forgetting about the mystical stories of specters roaming on cold, foggy nights that so often spooked him. Reaching into his pocket to draw a cross, he saw light. Strange light it was, for it wasn’t even moonlight — it was red. He thought nothing of it because he most likely passed it on as a sign from the god to whom he was praying, which just happened to be the god of merciful spirits, who was a foe of the war god who owned this hill.
After praying, he got back on his steed to ride home, however, just as he took the reins, he heard a thunderous boom that sounded as if a hundred stones of obsidian suddenly collided with the speed of lightning, and again the monstrous sound repeated in the same manner. Philip looked behind himself to see a giant humanoid figure that dwarfed even the largest of the already large stone houses. Then the absurd giant locked eyes with the man now shivering with the sudden cold of the spirit’s presence and fear. The behemoth let out an ear-piercing screech, breaking the ground and almost shattering Philip’s eardrums. Then it started a chase upon Philip, who in return, kicked his horse once in the side which sent it dashing through the cold night of mist, leaving tracks of mud behind it. Philip took a better look at the specter and realized that it was transparent and had a strange symbol on its torso. It was the symbol of the war god. He looked up at the beast’s head and saw two glowing white eyes that seemed to speak to him in threats he had not yet heard. Then, he started to slow down. He looked at Daydreamer who seemed like he was being forced to stop instead of slowing as the result of becoming tired or hurting themselves. Then the ginormous shadow reached down and picked up the terribly afraid Philip, who was hoping it was just a dream. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t. The creature stared at him with its eyes tearing into his soul, seemingly ripping it straight out of his body. The giant’s eyes turned as red as the blood that ran through Philip’s body at that very moment.
The next day, Philip was given the job. However, when it was time to show up, he didn’t and the priest assumed he was sick. The third time Philip didn’t show up for the job he so desperately wanted, the priest grew worried and decided to check on Philip. However, he could not find him anywhere. That was, until he found Daydreamer, feeding on some grass near the cursed hill of stone where the kingdom’s Bishop had said they had last seen the man. The priest then searched the hill and found something…
A rounded body of stone, wearing a stone tunic to match. Further inspection of the hill found the head of none other than Philip Douglas, frozen in stone. Now it is said that the god of war had taken his life for trespassing on his sacred mountain of rock. Others say it’s because he didn’t give an offering before entering. However, one idea everyone shared was to never go near the ancient hill of stone. The consensus was that you could upset a god that you definitely wouldn’t want to upset.