by Sin | October 31st, 2008
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.
Captivating, Sin.
Happy Halloween!
I’m off to get my costume on!
Sin, what a lovely story! Another for my collection.
I have yet to meet a ghost but would dearly love to, especially an educated intelligent one with good communication skills. There are so many questions that I would like to ask. *g*
Come to think, I almost have the second best thing. I have been chatting on line with a dowser who believes that he can communicate with alien visitors to our planet. They are responsible for crop circles and live on a planet out beyond the flying fish constellation. Its 750 light years away but they are able to travel through wormholes in space time.
My dowsing skills are not yet good enough to make contact (I’m working on it!) but my friend has been asking some questions for me. For example the alien friend assures us that string theory will lead to a unification of general relativity and quantum theory (The unified field theory that Einstein searched for without success) and alternatives like quantum foam are best dropped. I’m now preparing a short list of most pressing questions to be asked.
If you have anything urgent you’d like to know just post here.
Sometimes real life is even stranger than fiction.
If you would like to see pictures of the aliens follow the link below.
http://www.britishdowsers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1194
Great story, Sin. Do you ever wonder what the girl would have done had you not been interrupted?
I’ve never laid eyes on a ghost, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in them. I’ve always been of the “I don’t bother them, they don’t bother me” camp. So far, so good.
Q – Interesting topic. If you guys can get aliens to deal with more intelligent life forms and not the nitwits we see on the news over here saying things like, “They beamed me up, poked around my butthole, then jes dropped me right back down in the middle a this here field”, I’m all for it.
Happy Halloween Tiff!
PS. Whatcha going as?
Q- Your comment is always more interesting than the blog itself.
Ter- I try not to think about it at all. I still see it happening in my dreams sometimes. And I can recall the memory as clear as day. It’s creepy and scary and I’m pretty sure that if she would’ve touched me I’d either be possessed or dead. Neither is an option I would particularly enjoy.
Although, I am willing to die to be a vampire.
I think Sin was very aware what the ghost would have done if not interrupted. *LOL* That whole “take over my body” wasn’t put in at the end for nothing.
Only if Edward was going to make you a vampire.
If someone not as attractive, like say Brad Pitt, was offering to make you a vampire, you’d probably turn them down.
Happy Halloween lovely ladies!
Sin, this was awesome!! Great job!!
I’m going to be a tavern wench for Halloween tonight. Though I am not sure how to do my makeup and hair. Thoughts wenches?
I somehow think my daily wenching outfit (sweats and glasses) won’t fit with my corset and peasant skirt.
That’s what happens when you have a body worth possessing. I’m totally safe as no ghost is going to want this roly-poly body with bad knees. LOL!
Marn – I’d say put the hair in a clip with those cute little curling tendrils all around your face. But then I don’t write historicals or have any idea what a serving wench would look like.
However, funny enough, I have a serving wench costume in my closet that I have never worn. Maybe I should pull that out. Hmmmmm……
Hm, I’m going as a vamp for Halloween. I always do. Ivy Tamwood is my Halloween alter-ego (a living vamp who is too hot for words, and I’m never going to be able to pull that off); and my BFF is going as Rachel Morgan and we’re going to try to win a ARC of the next book, White Witch, Black Curse.
Hm, there are several vamps that I would let turn me. Mostly from Kim Harrison’s series, Blood Ties (MMMM, Henry is hot), Bones from Jeanniene Frost’s series, Edward, Erik from True Blood. And the list goes on and on. I’m a vampire slut. I don’t really discriminate. It’s only too bad that Al can’t turn me demon.
Marn- I will refrain from the first thought that popped into my head when you said you were going as a serving wench tonight.
I looked up serving wench images on the google. Looks like back in the day they wore caps over their ringlets. You should leave your hair down and sweep back the front of your hair with bobby pins, but make it look sloppy. Light makeup but heavy on the eyes. Gotta look sultry.
Back in the day, Ter, I was a bean-pole. No one in their right mind would’ve wanted to possess my twelve year old body. Now, maybe Emily because by the time we were 12, she looked 18.
Sin and Ter – thanks for the info. The outfit is just a plain skirt and a white flowy blouse with a corset thing over it. I was thinking I could make it into a gypsy outfit easy if I were to wear the right jewelry and put a bunch of scarfs (scarves?) in my hair.
Sin – No one would’ve wanted to possess me at 12 either. Or 14 for that matter. I finally got breasts at 15 or so and even then they were pretty disappointing. Now I love rocking the small boobs, but then it seemed sorta anti-climactic.
LOL. I didn’t get a chest until I was 19. It was very sad and pathetic. I wore padded bras for years.
Oh, darn. I STILL wear padded bras. LOL!!
Wench costumes do double as gypsy outfits. And if anyone mistakes you, you can just talk in an unknowable accent and ask to see their palms. It’ll clear everything right up.
My boobs didn’t come in until some time in college. After all the boys knew me, so it wasn’t like I got them between senior summer and fall freshman and that helped. No. Like when I was graduating, I got some boobs. Not that I’m not grateful they finally FINALLY got here. But they didn’t do me any good. By then all the boys I knew wouldn’t sleep with me anyway because–and I got this more than once–”I like you too much.” Except for Mac who said, “No, you look like one of those chicks who could get pregnant even if we were using two types of birth control.” WTF?
I admit I’m curious as hell to know how a person can LOOK fertile. LOL! That’s just weird. I started getting boobs when I was 9 and by the time I was 12, couldn’t go without a regular bra. Training bra? Never happened. My puppies were trained out of the gate apparently.
But, I assure you, this got me no where with the boys. Throw in glasses, crooked teeth, acne and 30 extra pounds and the girls are just annoying hood ornaments. Heavy, annoying hood ornaments.
I could totally make the gypsy thing work with these scarves (don’t know which way to go with that either) I have. But I don’t know what I’d do for shoes….
As soon as I saw that SIN was blogging I asked my self “Do I really want to read this? It will probably be spooky and scary and leave my creeped out…” Well… uuh… honestly?
NO I don’t wanna read it!
And YES! Because who can resister a SINner? Okay. I’ll read it And I’m writing my post/critique as I read the story. First line…
“So today, I bring you story time by Sin.” Eww that gave me Goosebumps.
When I read the ““There was Something…” line my Common sense started yellin’ “Run Julie, RUN!”
To paraphrase you SIN,
“There was Something about this STORY that called out to me, and also compelled me to run away.”
Next I read… Air sucked out of your lungs? Footsteps? In the dark? OMGawd shes gonna take a peek? No! No! Don’t Peek! I could see getting up if you had to take a pee. But a peek? No Wayyyyyyeeee-eeEEEK.
“I was all freaked out over nothing. I was a big chicken.”
Trying to tell me Something, SIN? Ooohh and then you have to start up with the drip-drip-drip! And OMG… A Teenager? With Black Eyes? In the kitchen in the middle of the night? OK, Now that IS Scary. I have a Teenager. Last time she & her friends were in the kitchen in the middle of the night they almost burnt the house down. And no I’m not joking!
Where was I? Ooh yah… SIN’s story…dripping water… teenager… ghostly apparition. And Emily saw her to?! Great story SIN. Of course You are a Horrible Creature for telling it to me. Because now I am creeped out.
I’d Never tell you an eerie ghost story like that. You have enough spooky stuff to worry about. Because if that story is true… then you know that once you make a connection… you channel… the Dead… then that bond can never be broken. Never. And there is a good chance that tonight you will wake up in the middle of the night … and you will hear…. Drip, drip, drip…
Terri: gypsies don’t wear shoes. Good luck with that…I suggest adding a chicken to your costume…that would add some humor as well. *LOL*
Julie: Sin wrote it esp for you! *LOL* We love creeping you out! *LOL*
As we are getting into the lower 40s tonight, this gypsy will wear shoes. Then again, who am I kidding? I’m wearing my black jeans and black sweater (which I have on right now) and that’s as far as my Halloweeny stuff will go.
So, hows the slutty devil thing working for ya, Cap’n?
Jules, I totally wrote that up for you just to put the scare in Halloween.
I didn’t think it was THAT scary. I mean, c’mon. I can think of something scarier than that ghost story. Though I’m not a fan of horror movie at all.
And don’t hex me for tonight. It is my anniversary and I want to get laid, not scared to death.
Yes, do tell about the slutty devil costume. Have you been acosted yet?
I don’t hex people SIN, cuz that’s like… a sin. No spells or courses either. I have been known to pray for justice. But that is another story… I’m just saying… ghosts are like herpes… once you got ‘em You got THEM. They never seem to go away.
It isn’t scary to you cuz you don’t have people asking you to make contact with their dead relatives. Really. Do I look like I talk to Dead People?
No.
But one time
Just for fun my son asked me to see if I could, what’s the word?, Channel a friend’s dead grandparents. I’m not saying that ‘it’ worked. All I’ll say is every time my son’s friend misbehaved I could ‘feel’ his dead grandmother yelling at me. Unfortunately the grandparent’s didn’t speak English. So I’d call up my DS & say “Tell so and so to behave himself. Now!”
“Gosh mom how did you know that so-and-so was misbehaving?” my son would ask.
“Because his damn Grandmother is yelling at me again… in Laotian.”
Trust me.
There is Nothing Worse than a Dead Person cussing you out in Laotian!
Curses not courses… although courses can be pretty annoying too!
Oh
And SIN? It’s your anniversary and you want to get laid? My crystal ball says that you are sure to get your wish. Yep. It won’t be the faucet that will be drip, drip, dripping tonight! LOL
I know.
That was bad.
Dead people yell at you in other languages? You don’t hear that everyday. LOL!
Since I’m a believer in karma, I don’t curse people. It will inevitably come back to bite you on the ass. I’m sure of it.
Slutty devil costume working very well. Except I don’t remember the shoes being this awful. My wussy little uncallused feet now have a layer of blisters. OMG. I should have a picture soon. Not that I’ll probably share it with you guys since I pretty much always despise my photo ops.
And it was a pic taken on Debbie’s ditigal camera, so we’re not depending on me to develop the film. (And before you can ask, Ter, NO.)
The 2nd pair of horns I bought didn’t fit right, so I’m back to the original ones I had at BodyPump…but my hair looks better and I have on makeup, so it looks cuter this time. My tail bounces because I’m in heels and my hips sway–so apparently that had the girls laughing uproariously. We went to Addison’s for lunch (which is why my feet feel like they need to be cut off at the ankles) and I was told some guys at the bar were checking me out. (Clearly since I was trying not to fall down under my now gimp foot, I didn’t notice them.)
I have not been accosted. Would you accost the devil? Exactly. It takes a certain kind of suicidal person to hit on the devil.
I’m sure that person is out there. You just keep swinging that tail, girlfriend. LOL!
Sashay! You sashay around. I can just see you with that wicked gleam in your eyes, Hellion!
And everyone knows I’d hit on the devil. Hell, I’d make it my goal to get him to turn me into one.
Jules,
Girlfriend, that was dirty. But there won’t be any dripping. Faucet or not.
Sincerely,
Sin
*LOL* I’m sashaying as much as possible, and I do have the wicked gleam down. One of the male faculty members has already bolted from the room, blushing. I love this time of year!
That’s because you’re good at being wicked.
Crumbs!
I hope our alien friends don’t observe any of this….especially Hellion’s costume.
They could get entirely the wrong impression.
Something scarier than spookey stories… April 15th. Does it to me ever year!
Great story, Sin. Great atmostphere. Sorry I missed it yesterday. Doing to good daughter thing for Mom all day. And Mom doesn’t have internet access. Thank God for Starbucks.
Missed you all yesterday! Hope it was a wonderful holiday for all…
Evidently, my great niece was a princess and walked 10 blocks! Then told her parents she had enough candy and was ready to go home now… Amazing. A kid with enough candy…
Hi 2nd Chance.
Doesn’t it say somewhere in the bible that ‘the first shall become the last’
Now no English gentleman could let that happen! *g
Hi 2nd Chance!!!
I hope you had a great time yesterday with your Mom! We all have to give our mother’s a little mother/daughter time to keep them on the happy side. And no big deal about missing out on the story yesterday! You still got to read it today!
There was never enough candy for me on Halloween. I always wanted to stay out later and get more candy. We used to hit this house three times on Halloween night because they gave out full-sized candy bars. Nothing like a sugar high the day after. Woo.
Q, you’re such a gentleman. But I’m pretty sure even aliens could appreciate Hellion’s costume. Wowza.
Great story, Sin! Hope you all had a great Halloween. I know we did!