I figure today we’re all going to be on a sugar rush, raiding the candy bowl and making merry with co-workers and friends. Or if you celebrate the Celtic traditions or practice the Wiccan religion this is a more traditional holiday for you and we minus the candy and sugar rushes and add in the festivals that start after the sun goes down. So let’s not work too hard at this blog thing, okay?

 

Either we celebrate Halloween as the holiday we grew up loving for its ability to make us into a character for one whole day, or we celebrate All Hallow’s Eve to recognize our beloved(s) who have passed on into the afterlife, and/or rejoice you’ve made it to the New Year by Celtic traditions, we’re all celebrating. So grab some rum and settle in. 

 

Two years in a row I’ve blogged on All Hallow’s Eve. I figure the pirates think I’m spooky. Enough to put me on the spookiest day of the year. Today, October 31 is traditionally the day where the veil between our world and the spirit world is the thinnest. But as we found out on Wednesday with Aunty Cindy’s blog (Loucinda McGary’s book The Wild Sight is now on a bookshelf near you. Get thou off the ship and grab a copy before it’s sold out!) we all have a few ghostly stories to tell even when it’s not Halloween, and today is no exception.

 

So today, I bring you story time by Sin. 

 

The wind whipped against the window. The branches on the old Oak tree in my friend’s front yard tapped against the glass ever so gently. The noise didn’t bother anyone else; but here I was wake in the middle of the night in someone else’s home. After a night of some of the girls holding séances to call out to spirits wandering around nearby, they became frustrated when no one contacted them. With a conspirator’s laugh, one of the girls ran into Emily’s bedroom and came out with the Ouija board. I shuddered at the thought of the black board with its oppressive letters and FAREWELL blocked at the bottom and goosebumps shot down my arms. The shock the board gave me was enough to keep me up all night. I just wanted to forget that feeling racing over my skin. The way it made my blood run cold. It moved even as I took my fingers off the operator. The girls squealed in delight. I felt sick to my stomach. They continued to play with it even after I locked myself in the bathroom.  

 

I couldn’t go home. That was so uncool. I stood on the fringe of all cliques, not readily accepted by anyone running in a pack. I was scrawny and pale and sort of weird with pale blue eyes. Kids made fun of me because I was pale and called me a ghost. This was my last attempt to fit in with the “cool” kids and make my remaining school years a little bit easier.

 

My fringe friend, Emily, lived in an old farm house on thirty acres. Their back porch was screened in and on the hill. When you stepped outside you could see the fields in the valley and the old barn was just to your right. Her dad had a stockpile of big round hay bales lined up along the old barbed wire fence and they were the only ones around for miles. I wasn’t great friends with this girl, but I just loved her house. There was something about this house that called out to me, and also compelled me to run away. I didn’t know how to place the feeling I had when I walked inside. Almost like all the air had been sucked from my lungs- a sucker punch to the gut. I felt uneasy but I still refused to go home. I didn’t want to be labeled a weirdo. A social outcast was not on my agenda for Junior High and High School.

 

At first, I just heard footsteps- a creak in the floorboards in the kitchen. I pulled the blanket down just enough so I could see into the living room and dining room. It was pitch dark. Quiet. The only sound I could hear was my heart beating in my throat. I listened without moving until I thought whoever got up had gone back to bed. I pulled the cover back up over my eyes and rolled over. I tried to relax but now I was wide awake.

 

Then I heard it again.

 

No lights were on in the house. Strange, I thought. But I could see in the dark pretty well, maybe I wasn’t the only one. I figured I could sneak a peak at whoever was the culprit freaking me out.

 

So I got off the couch and padded quiet to the wall between the dining room and living room. I peeked around it, holding my breath to keep from giving myself away. But there was nothing.

 

My shoulders slumped. I was all freaked out over nothing. I was a big chicken.

 

I turned away from the wall and headed back over to the couch. I touched the armrest of the couch and went to fling myself on the cushions and I heard the faucet start to drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. It was annoying enough that I went back over to the wall and peeked around it again.

 

That’s when I saw her. An older teenager- in a white nightgown. One of those old style, floor length, long sleeved gowns. It was really pretty. She had long blonde hair that hung down her back and big eyes that were black. The moonlight hit her just enough to cast an eerily glow off her hair and her white gown. She wasn’t pale. Her skin was a golden sun kissed color at her neck and hands. She had her hand on the faucet and she smiled to herself like she was playing in the water, amused at a faucet. Creepy.

 

She was slimmer than Emily’s older sister Abby. Her hair was a little lighter and longer, with a curl in the ends. But it had to be her. Who else could it be? Maybe the moonlight was just playing tricks with me.

 

“Abby,” I whispered. “Abby! Shut off the water! You’re driving me crazy!”

 

She obviously didn’t hear me. She kept her eyes on the water dripping onto her fingers. It glistened like diamonds as it trickled through her fingers and splattered onto the sink.

 

I narrowed my eyes and tiptoed into the kitchen. I didn’t want to wake their parents. She didn’t look my way as I approached her and I leaned around the wall between the dining room and kitchen.

 

Maybe Abby was sleep-walking.

 

“Abby!”

 

She was a frightened deer in the headlights. Her head swung around so fast, a normal person would’ve had whiplash. We stared at each other, wide-eyed for eternity, seconds stretched into decades. And suddenly the light bulb flickered on over my head.

 

“You- Uh- Um-,” Holy crap! This wasn’t Abby!

 

She took a step closer to me and I stumbled backwards into the table. Her nightgown seemed to float in the air and it drifted closer and closer to me without her moving an inch.

 

I wanted to look away.

 

I tried to look away.

 

Looking at her was like looking at the sun. It was so beautiful in a destructive sort of way that you never realized it until you never saw her again.

 

Blankets rustled in the living room. One of the girls at the sleepover sighed and the spirit took one last look at me and turned towards the door. I wasn’t scared enough that I was compelled to run away now that I could. I watched her go to the door and shut it behind her. As soon as I thought she’d cleared the back porch and I stepped silently over to the door.

 

She was gone.

 

Weird. Weird. Weird. I must be dreaming, I thought as I turned back around and Emily was standing in the kitchen doorway.

 

“What are you doing?” She whispered. She waved me over and I pursed my lips. I couldn’t tell her the truth. She’d never believe me.

 

“Getting something to drink. Can’t sleep.”

 

She smiled and I smiled back. We got bottles of water and went back into the living room. I never stayed at her house again. I didn’t want to tempt fate. You never ever know when a spirit is going to claim your body as their own.  But I think Emily knew why I never accepted any invites over again.

 

Emily saw her too.