There was a slight chill in the air, and the evening fog loomed over the ground. “October thirty-first,” I thought, “Halloween night.” I went on my normal trick-or-treating route, but tonight, something felt… different. I went from house to house, hauling in buckets of candy, but something still felt… off. I felt like I was being watched. Finally, I had to pass the ghost house, an old mansion that had been abandoned for years…

My neighbors say that the young girl who lived there was murdered about twenty years ago, but they never found the body, weapon, or murderer. I rushed as I walked past the house, and that was when my unsettling feeling became worse. I was almost past the mansion when I saw an eerie glow coming from the backyard. As terrified as I was, my curiosity possessed me, and I went in. The yard made me sick to my stomach but the eerie light was gone, the yard was littered with dead leaves and grass, and there was a gravestone that I tried to avoid.

Then I felt an ice-cold hand on my shoulder. I tried to scream but no sound came out. I ran to the gate, but it shut and locked itself before I could get out. I screamed again but still no sound. I ran and glanced at the gravestone but couldn’t make out the name on it. I decided to run inside the mansion, and there were cobwebs and spiders everywhere. I saw an old creaky staircase that looked like it was about a hundred years old, and I ran up the stairs which creaked with every step. I eventually found a bedroom to hide in. I crawled under the fancy bed. There was so much dust, almost like the room had never been cleaned.

Then the cold glowing hand reached under the bed and grabbed me. I looked up at it after it pulled me out, and that’s when it hit me. The gravestone I saw had my name on it… this glowing figure… was my soul.