Spooky | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Spooky | Previous Challenge Entry
By Julene Celander
10/25/14
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Spooky

It was a cold dreary day. The kind of day that made me want to snuggle up under a blanket and enjoy a good book. The fog was rolling in and there had been a mist in the air all day that made everything wet to the touch.

I was dreading the evening. My best friend would be here at 6:30 to accompany me to the haunted house. I hated being frightened but didn’t want to be “the wimp” at school the next day. Peer pressure could make me do lots of things I knew I shouldn’t.

The trip to the house was uneventful. The house itself was bearable. The trip home became the downfall of the evening. Maybe it WAS the house that left eerie suggestions in my mind.

As we walked down Main Street an ungodly screech befell upon us and we both took off like we had been shot out of a cannon. We ran until we could run no more. The screech sounded as if it were the combination of a huge bird and someone’s dying words. We moved on.

As we turned the corner onto Elm a gigantic shadow engulfed us and we froze in place. Should we run or wait to see if the shadow disappeared. We couldn’t move and the shadow suddenly dissipated and slowly rose into the sky like a black cloud.

We were only six blocks from home and we weren’t sure we should go any further. Should we wait until we felt safe, call our parents to come get us, or continue? We decided to continue and we would cut across the backyards of people we knew to make the distance shorter.

Safely through the Harris’ back yard, we headed for the gate leading to the Thompson’s patio. The gate creaked and gave an awful moan as we opened it. We walked into the yard at a hefty pace and heard a growl. The Thompson’s did not have a dog!

We turned on a dime and headed back to the gate at a run. As we ran we heard footsteps behind us. Suddenly we tripped over something big and hairy! We crawled to the gate as fast as we could on our hands and knees and slipped through it before anything could touch us.

Circumventing the Thompson’s we tiptoed toward the Nelson’s. The night had become pitch black and we couldn’t see twenty feet in front of us. As we looked across at the Nelson’s yard their seemed to be a legion of “ghosts” flapping in the breeze.

“RUN!” I screamed.
“Right behind you!” he screamed back.

We didn’t stop running until we were safely on my front porch under the porch light. We entered the house and slammed the door behind us.

“What in the world is going on with you two? You look as if you have seen a ghost and are nearly the color of one!”
“We decided to go to the haunted house even though we knew it wouldn’t be a great idea. We didn’t want to be the laughing stock at school tomorrow.

“First of all,” proclaimed my mother, “you shouldn’t let other people override your decisions or lead you to do what you know is wrong for you! Remember what Pastor Dan said? We are all unique individuals with our own individual makeup. God created us to be ourselves and not try to be anyone else.”

I explained all the happenings to my mom. She looked at us and smiled. She actually smiled…did she think this was funny?

“You let fear get the best of you. God also reminds us that he is continually with us in all situations. Had you taken the time to say a quick prayer, the night wouldn’t have been so frightening.”

“Something else I forgot!”

“I am sure tomorrow will reveal exactly what all the things you saw and heard really are. Nothing seems to be what it really is when we are frightened. The mind does play tricks in panic. Just always remember God is rooting for YOU!”

“Happy Halloween, Mom. And thank you for being so calm in everything! I love you.”

Mom was right again. The eagle had screeched protecting her eaglettes. The shadow was just fog that looked black in the night. The Thompson’s were babysitting their son’s dog…the footsteps were Mr Thompson’s and we tripped over the Lapso Apso. The “ghosts” were Junior Nelson’s diapers hung on the clothesline flapping in the breeze.

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