Her Last Halloween

It was Halloween and party time among friends as usual. Sally and her group gathered for a masquerade party. Ben was telling that old Halloween tale, as he did every year, about the curse upon Skull Cemetery. They all lived in a small town called Oakdale, whose only claim to fame, was having a haunted cemetery. However, this tale told that on Halloween the cemetery turned into a frightening nightmare. Anyone, brave enough to walk through Skull Cemetery beneath the light of the full moon and reach a large crypt and knock three times. The door of the crypt would open, then walk down into the crypt and take a look at what was there. Walk away, and out of the cemetery and the curse would be broken. It would just continue to be a haunted place no one liked to walk in.

Only this year Sally was so tired of all this nonsense, so up from her chair, she jumped. I will show you there is nothing to this tale, and I will walk through Skull Cemetery tonight. With glad tidings, I shall return after midnight to inform you of how silly it all really is. With that she walked out, slamming the door, and in a huff, she went toward the cemetery. Now, mind you one and all, this cemetery really had some ghostly spirits roaming around. No one knew what happened on Halloween, only that strange tale did tell what could be expected. Sally was determined to find out and prove them all wrong this Halloween night. She had no idea that this was going to be her last Halloween.

The moon was big and bright, casting a silvery glow upon Skull Cemetery, and Sally could see the path very well. She entered the cemetery and the first thing she did see, was a large tombstone that simply said, Fred is Dead. Sally was convinced that her friends were having some fun with her. Then that tombstone toppled over, and a zombie was digging his way out of the grave. She stared in horror unable to run away, and suddenly there he was doing a dance. He looked so strange, and his eyes were two red pinpoints as he looked her way. Suddenly his head toppled off and rolled away. This so startled Sally that all she could think of at the moment was – oh, dear, Fred, you’ve lost your head.

Then, without further thought, she saw he was turning to and fro, looking for his head that had rolled away. Sally did what she would never otherwise do. She saw the head, picked it up, and placed it where it belonged. The zombie blinked his eyes in surprise and began dancing once more. She walked briskly away along the path, and was startled when the silvery light turned red. She looked up at the moon above and saw that the moon had been replaced by a frightening-looking Jack-o-Lantern face. Sally blinked, once, then twice, and there was that moon again, but as she turned back toward the path she bumped right into a mummy.

This mummy was not the movie kind, it looked as if it had climbed out of a tomb in Egypt. It was wrapped in a green, moldy shroud and its arms reached out for her. She ducked away and briskly walked back along the path.

Then an ear-splitting howl was heard. Sally stopped, her heart pounding, her ears ringing, and that howling began again. She saw a leering, slobbering, werewolf sitting upon a tombstone. His excitement was about something up above, so she looked toward the moon again. A horrid-looking witch was riding on her broomstick right past that moon. As she disappeared the cemetery was filled with an echoing cackling that made Sally’s blood run cold.

She thought once, thought twice, of just running back. For some reason, she still could not believe what was happening and thought it was all a Halloween joke. So, on she went, and then saw the Grim Reaper himself. He was at least six feet tall, holding the largest scythe she had ever seen. And in the moonlight, it gleamed. His bony skeletal hand pointed, and Sally looked at what he was showing. There was the crypt standing now right beneath the moon.

She remembered what she had to do, and walked on over, rapping three times. She didn't expect that crypt to open. With a screech, it opened slowly, and Sally saw the steps leading down into the dark tomb. At this point, and after all, she had gone through, she really expected to find some of her friends down below laughing hysterically at how scared she’d been. However, there was a problem with the logic here. Why would anyone be standing in pitch darkness down below to end a very good joke and show? Now she could easily walk down the first steps where they turned. But, she reasoned, trembling from head to toe. How did she get down below? So slowly she climbed down the first steps to the bend, and as she got there the door to the crypt slammed shut.

There stood Sally, with a beating heart, heavily breathing, and no longer thinking this was all a prank. Then she blinked her eyes and saw that way down below was a kind of glow. There was some kind of light down there. A light in a tomb only meant this was not all for real. So, slowly holding on to the damp, rock wall, she climbed to the bottom. There was in a large, lighted room. She quickly looked for the source of light, and saw a lantern on a hook, by the ceiling. Then she was rooted to the spot, why she could not even find her voice to scream. Beneath the lantern was the largest coffin she had ever seen.

As Sally’s eyes grew ever wide, the coffin opened, and up sat Count Dracula himself. Splendid in his formal wear, with his cloak, he sat there. His face looked sculpted. His lips were red, and his eyes gleamed, as he stepped out of the coffin. He stood there looking at her, and she, still could not move or scream. He came forward and stretched out an arm that seemed so awfully long. Mesmerized by it all, Sally took his hand, and it was as cold as ice. He pulled her toward him, and suddenly as if from nowhere, a Skeleton Band appeared, and they began to play. Sally danced and swayed. Then the Count pulled her real close, and she felt his teeth sinking into her neck. It felt, odd, it felt strange, and the last thing Sally remembered thinking was – nirvana!

Sally never returned that Halloween night, another victim of the curse of that tale. Oh, her friends and family did seek high and low, but no one would ever know. Somewhere way down below in that crypt Sally and the Count might be sleeping the sleep of the undead, to awake, to quench their thirst, and then to dance to the Skeleton Band.