A Ghost Story for Halloween by Laurie Calkhoven
There once was a ghost who lived
deep in the forest. He was utterly and completely alone. Even in his earliest
memories, there were no other ghosts to play with nor humans to spook. Occasionally groups of hunting parties came
through—fierce looking men with steely eyes and determined frowns. They brushed
him aside, laughing at his moans and groans, the rattle of his small chain.
Then one summer afternoon
he heard voices that were high and light and full of laughter. They were the
voices of children.
He peered through the leaves at a boy and a
girl gathering berries, their mouths stained with rich, purple juice. They
laughed about the delicious pie their mother would make and how good the
berries would taste covered in rich cream, if only they could stop eating long
enough to fill their buckets.
The ghost had
never seen children before and he watched them curiously. When they finally set
their full buckets down and began to play a game of tag, the ghost didn’t want
to watch anymore. He wanted to play.
He flew as softly
as a summer breeze and dropped in front of the childrenmwith an impish grin. The
children took one look and began to scream.
The ghost’s eyes
widened in shock and surprise. He wanted to tell the children that they had
nothing to fear, that he only wanted to play, but they were already gone. They
ran as fast as their legs would take them, leaving their buckets behind.
The ghost climbed
into the crook of a tree and began to plot his revenge. The next morning, he
tracked the children. A bent twig, a footprint in the soft earth, a single
strand of hair caught in a bramble—these gave the children away.
At twilight the
ghost slipped through the gathering darkness to a clearing in the forest and to
the very window of a small cabin.
He crouched under
the window and peered through his own reflection in the glass to watch a family
eat their fill under their sturdy roof. The father slipped a shiny knife out of
a sheath on his belt and used it to slice an apple while the family told each
other stories in the candlelight.
The boy and girl
told a tale about an eerie creature they had met in the forest. The father
laughed a rich deep laugh and the mother gently scolded the children for
leaving her buckets behind. The creature did not exist at all, she said, but
was a trick of the sun and shadows and too many berries.
A trick? The ghost’s
anger returned like a boiling fire in his belly. He waited for the small family
to go to sleep. Then he opened the window and slipped through the glass into
the one-room cabin. At first he was as silent as starlight. Then he let loose
with such a roar, such a moans and groans, and such a rattling of chains that
the family jumped out of bed screaming.
“A trick?” he
shouted, making himself grow tall enough to tower over the quaking humans. “Here’s your trick!
The next time a
hunting party came through the clearing, they found not a family, but four
corpses, their faces frozen masks of fear.
A little ghost
family of five watched. And waited for nightfall.
Fantastic. Happy Halloween!
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhhhhh! I loved this!
ReplyDelete