Halloween Ghost Story by E.O'G

Halloween Ghost Story

The wail of a vampire was heard. Everyone in the town shuddered behind their boarded up front doors and windows. Mothers clenched their children tight and fathers paced the floor listening to the noises outside. Just a typical Halloween evening.

Every Halloween in Riverview was the same. As night fell over the town the dead would rise from the graveyard and walk among the living looking for human flesh. The locals knew the drill. They would board up all the doors and windows, hang up cloves of garlic in every room and line the outskirts of every room with salt. It seemed to work. And every year they heard the same story of some poor soul who hadn’t been thorough enough with their precautions and had ended up a victim.

It was my 8^th Halloween. I was terrified. All the children in school had been telling stories of how the zombies liked to eat you alive whereas the vampire tended to prefer you dead before they sucked your blood. “They prefer blondes!” one boy had cried. I’m blonde, “would they go for me first?”  I thought to myself. I was average looking with straight blonde hair and dark blue eyes, I was small for my age so maybe I could hide... My mother assured me that Halloween would be fine, we would take all the nessecary precautions and I t would be ok. But I still wasn’t convinced; I  had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Around 11pm the noises began as the dead rose. My mom tried to distract me and my brother Johnjoe with cards games. It wasn’t working. The howls and screams got louder as the creatures neared my house I was shaking with fear. The screeches of the creature’s nails against our doors made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight. I was shaking, Johnjoe was sobbing quietly to himself trying to be brave, he was only 6. My mother could be heard muttering prayers. Then a crash coming from the upstairs landing made us all jump. Surely they couldn’t have broken in that window? My family and I froze. “Quick hide!” my mother hissed urgently. Johnjoe and I charged for the kitchen and hid under the table. He was hysterical as my mother tried to console him begging him to be quiet. My father grabbed a golf club and held it in front of him like a sword blocking the door into the kitchen. My mother hid behind the door. We made eye contact and she put her finger to her lips motioning for me to stay quiet. I felt Johnjoe shivering beside me under the table. The house was still, the silence was eerie. Maybe we were wrong, maybe the creatures hadn’t found a weak spot in our house defence? Then suddenly as quick as a flash there was a swooshing noises and my dad fell the ground yelling. Two black shapes swarmed over him and as he struggled and kicked held him down. Then he went limp. And all we could hear was the wet sound of tearing flesh as the zombies devoured my father. I peeked over at my mother, her eyes were closed and she was silently mouthing prayers as the tears streamed down her face. Time seemed to slow down.

When the growls and grunts of the zombies had faded the silence was painful. I don’t know how long we lay there for desperately wishing the zombies would leave us but at then same time not wanting to be forced to have to face whatever remained of my father. It was quieter than before and a small part of me thought thye might be gone. Then Johnjoe hiccupped.

A withered grey hand clasped around his ankle and dragged him viciously out from under the table. Johnjoe let out a piercing scream and wailed as the zombie sunk his rotting teeth into his little thigh. Simultaneously my mother flung herself at the zombie, onto its back and tightened her hands around its neck. “AAAARGH  NO NOT MY SON.” she cried desperately and the zombie roared and bucked like a donkey. Johnjoe lay limp on the floor. I was frozen with fear still hidden under the table, I was powerless to stop what was happening in front of me. As the zombie and my mother continued to wrestle her cries of pain became louder and the zombie shrieks also. When two more creatures came charging to the room I knew it was over. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the noises of her petrified screams as she succumbed to the zombies vicious attack. Their squeals of pleasure told me they had come across Johnjoes limp body. I waited for my inevitable end.

As I lay there with my eyes tightly shut I could here my family being devoured. The sickly smell of blood hung in the air and a draft was coming in the back door blowing a cool breeze into the kitchen. The sounds of the zombie chewing was a wet, slurping sound and the sound of tearing flesh and cracking bones stung my ears. The zombies hissed at each other and groaned . And then silence. They were gone.

I could not believe it. I carefully crawling out from under the table, wary of any noise or movement. Then I saw it, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The orange glow of the sunrise peeked through the cracks in the windows. The creatures of Halloween were banished to their graves once more. I sank to my knees with relief and despair. Around me lay the bones and whatever the zombies had left of the mangled corpses of my family. Happy Halloween.