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A Ghost Story for Halloween

It is on All Hallows eve, that the doorways and windows of the otherworld are thrown wide open, letting the year’s stench of decay and death flow forth, filling the air with a dark expectancy, where souls free themselves from the darkness, walking upon the earth for a night and a day. Most of these poor souls are content to look out from the gravestone windows and the earth doorways, looking in wonderment at the world the left behind, a few however are not so lucky to have their own gravestone, but they are content to feel a little light upon their “in limbo” souls, while watching in silence, since they have no voice in any of these worlds. Others skip and dance free as butterflies upon the earth, tiny orbs of light reflecting around the churchyards, fields and villages, and the darkened buildings of the cities. Some however go a little further--------
Alice blinked in the startling light of day, she had been waiting for this moment of freedom from the dark and now as the day approached, the sun seemed to tease her with its glare, but it was her day and she was going to enjoy it.
Having ended her own sweet life once with such gay abandon and traumatic departure, she was now ready to return, or at the very least wreck havoc upon those still living; she was still quite bitter about her untimely end and sought her sweet revenge against all and sundry, though mostly men, as it was a man she died for, the blood being still fresh from the self inflicted wounds upon her wrists.
On noticing a young girl standing beside a grave and of similar age to herself when alive, she drifted over to her side, a whisper of shadow settling upon her shoulder, making the girl shudder slightly as if a cold hand had just been placed upon her. She watched the girl staring with great sadness at the graveside, tears flowing freely down her reddened cheeks, listening as she spoke between tears, “How could you, how could you die like this, I mean no sorry or anything, you know sorry for how cruel you were, or how you hated me, anything, anything would have been better than this”
She began to snivel again, this time banging her hand against the rough granite stone.
Uuuuurrrgggh she thought how human!
Whispering ever so sweetly into her ear, the ghost said “Why do you cry so and why are you angry?
The girl replied to herself, for she could see no other person around and thought her mind to be playing tricks in her grief, ” I have lost my mother, why shouldn’t I cry”
To which the ghost replied “But was your mother not an evil old hag, berating and tormenting you with her words of cruelty and forbidding you the company of friends”
The young girl cried out in anguish, “That is true, but still I must mourn her death”
“Then perhaps you would like to visit her for one last time, so you can speak your mind freely, knowing that she is dead and cannot harm you anymore”
“I suppose that would make me feel better and I will be able to see if she is comfortable in her grave “
The ghost told the young girl to touch the gravestone and close her eyes.
Without knowing it her soul went right through the stone and entered the realm of the dead, leaving her mortal body standing, alone and unattended.
The ghost called down to her, “I will return before midnight”
Whooping with joy, the ghost jumped into the empty body and made for the nearest train Station, remembering, with sudden frustration that mortals need transport, no longer was she able to float between the pressed pages of time , in a mortal body she was now a pressed flower. She shrugged, it was of little consequence, a mere few hours perhaps, and she had every intention of enjoying every moment. Approaching the station she noticed a sign, Exeter Station, well Exeter, it is about time we discovered London, my home and withat she jumped aboard a train and headed towards home, knowing that she would not be returning ever again. She had escaped death.
Jubilant and carefree she began to enjoy herself, frequenting all her past haunts, spying on friends of old; oh how she laughed, for of course no one recognised her in her new found disguise. Better than shopping for dresses, bodies were so much more fun, especially now her legs were long and slender and her body that of a super model, never before had she felt so tall, it was even quite difficult to walk, but with the grace of an elephant she adopted a shashaying sway and flaunted herself with gay abandon onto the streets of London, imagining herself to be Paris Hilton. She even managed to dress herself in all the latest fashions, curtesey of a large department store which she aquired for a steal; old habits die hard for a junkie. Now dressed as a million dollar babe, thankful all that horrid frumpy cardigan shit was well and truly discarded with, she began to drink, a glass or two in every bar she passed, raising each to toast all her old sad, loser friends, and everyone she despised still in the underworld. in short, she drank herself senseless, but not before going home with an eager young lover.
A night of great passion followed, laughter and kisses, torrid and lusting, till tiredness took over the young lovers and their eyes closed tightly in sleep.
Meanwhile the poor young girl was trapped in the underworld, fearing no escape as the time neared to midnight, she began to shout out, “ Help, can anyone hear me, pleas help, I am stuck inside this grave”
There was only silence and the whispers of ghosts, a few drawn breaths as they gasped in dismay. She looked up at the tiny hole, high above her, it was no good, she could never reach up that high, she started to cry, angry at her own stupidity, angry at her mothers death and the mess she was in; the underworld is no place for the living, she will surely die here!.
After a good cry, she pulled herself together, and decided to call upon her mother for help, “Mother, Mother, I demand that you come to my rescue, for once I really do need you”
Her Mother appeared, none to pleased at being disturbed and spoke severely to her daughter “Why do you wake me, I am old and I am most certainly now dead”
To which her daughter replied “ For years I have looked after your fat, lazy body, always demanding and chastising with your cruel, poisonous words, now I need your help and for once you will help me, or I shall make sure you never rest in peace”
The old lady sighed, a very weary sigh, “very well daughter, what is it you want of me”
“Let me stand upon your shoulders so that I may get out of this crypt”
The old woman stood patiently while her daughter climbed onto her bony shoulders and pulled herself up towards the tiny speck of light, grabbing at the mud until eventually disappearing back into her own world.
She called down to the gravestone “Farewell Mother, may you now rest in peace”.
The church clock chimed the last stroke of midnight and all the doorways and windows closed for another year.
The following morning as the sunlight streamed through the dusty glass of the windows, the handsome boy woke up, with sleep fresh in his eyes; he leant over to kiss his beautiful bride of the night, only to stare in absolute terror. His face became contorted with shock, the blood draining rapidly from his bronzed skin, now pale with death’s shroud, his eyes frozen in fear, unable to blink the apparition away before him. The girl of such alluring beauty, a face of innocence and charm, had now withered into a scull of decay, dark eye’s staring with vacant beauty; a shroud of white sheeting covering her mortal remains. Gasping for air, as he tries to pull himself out of the bed, an arm entwined in his, so fell the bones, the dirt, the black dust, the creamy fat maggots and the thick, congealing blood of a freshly resurrected corpse, hanging on his body, he fell into the gore, consumed by death. No one heard his screams, saw his fear, or felt his nerves becoming shredded one by one, or the last sigh as death gathered up his soul, leaving an ugly contorted form for the rats to eat.
So beware dear reader, of who you talk to on All Hallows eve!