Alright, the first writing contest.  Your job is to write a short story of any genre using a specified theme.  There is no minimum length, but maximum length is at 2000 words. 

Rules:

- As I said above, maximum of 2000 words.
- Short stories only.  If there's interest for other kinds of written work such as poetry or scripts, we may hold contests for those in the future.
- No plagiarism.  This one's a given.  If you're found out on this you may even be banned from the site.
- If your story contains adult material (drugs, sex, disturbing violence) provide a warning at the top of the piece.
- One story per person.
- There must be at least 4 entries for the large prize to be given out.  Sorry, but I'd feel a bit cheated if I dealt out cash and there was only one entry.
- Entries close at 11pm, 22nd July, Japan Time.

The Theme:
A mysterious stranger.

When you have written your story, please PM it to me.  When the contest is complete, I will post them all up in the Written Works forum.  You can also repost it in your own thread - but only when the contest is complete.

The Prizes

The Winners will get a special medal made by me.  As it is made by me, I wouldn't hold my breath on it being a masterpiece.  This will be displayed under your username for all to see.
The Winner will also get a copy of Monkey Island 2 from Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/32469/

(If you have a Mac or already own the game, we'll talk.)

But Claire, I can't enter/can't write
Can you read?  I also want a second judge!  PM me if you're interested.  Obviously, judges can't enter a story of their own.

Questions?  Ask them here.

No, it says there at the top.

Certainly can.  I'll PM the stories I've received so far.

Well, I may or may not be getting a job in the near future (no, seriously, I can't tell) and it's on something I get the feeling I'll love, the effort it takes to avoid getting nervous makes me dull-witted.

Pan and I spoke about it earlier today and decided to award the prize to Cookie!

Unfortunately, there were only two entries u___u.  I personally really liked both of them, and less entries actually made the choice harder for me than if I'd received more.   Prize will come shortly.