THE HOLIDAY SERIES
OCTOBER a month of BLOODCURDLING SCREAMS and THE BIZARRE
A GHOST STORY by KM Wilsher
One summer night I watched a spine-chilling, horror film with a friend, and then drove home.
On the drive home, I laughed. Okay, I squealed like a baby. Zombie hitchhikers turned out to be trees, and glowing goblins reached out. Oh no, just road signs.
Then as I arrived in the driveway, my headlights twinkled through dark windows. I ground my teeth together and moaned, NO KEY! My roomate should have been home, but the absence of her car said she wasn’t.
The house my friend and I rented that summer sat in the middle of an eerie neighborhood. No neighbors. I mean, the 1930’s-style homes showed signs of inhabitants -- lawn chairs, live plants, garden hoses -- but no humans. Not once that summer did we see humans.
The spooky movie night was no different. From the driver’s seat of my muscle car, it's engine vibrating with a low rumble, I looked around -- Nothing stirred, except the light flickering in the one streetlight in a four block radius.
I was young and brave, a warrior princess chewing on my fingernails. I formulated a plan to “break and enter” my own home, then got out of the car and crept through the cool, ink-colored air searching the four sides of the house for an open window. The soundtrack of the scary movie earlier tickled the back of my mind causing my heart to beat faster and faster.
Then I couldn’t take it any longer. With a sudden snap, the warrior in me turned into white liver pansy. Panic mode turned on and I flexed my muscles to run. But before I hit full speed, something caught my eye. I noticed that the glass of the dining room window stood open just a little.
After composing my shaking innards, I took a deep breath and strolled through the flower bed. I had a hard time, but eventually the screen came off. Then with raw fingers, I lifted the pane. Proud of myself, I brushed my hands off and looked around. Shadows moved.
I took a quick step near the house, threw my hands on the ledge, and pulled my body into the window sill. While climbing through, balancing became tricky. I fell head over heels into the dining room table, and hit the floor with a thud. The impact caused the dishes on the side of the old metal sink to fall into the basin. Not knowing what had happened, images of séances and pentangles from the creepy movie filled my mind and I screamed.
My heart spasmed into a hypersonic rhythm, and I tried to throw my body back out the window. Again the shriek of the spooky movie orchestra filled my mind, and I froze, stupified, as a sudden brightness blinded me. The kitchen light flickered then blazed down into my eyes.
I blinked hard and pressed my fingers to my eyes. Once I focused, I discovered my roommate standing at the dining room door with a baseball bat in hand. Her eyes were as wide as Frisbees, her jaw hung open and her chest heaved.
Needless to say, within seconds we burst into sobbing laughter at our frightnight, impromptu, haunted house. I warned her not to loan her car to her boyfriend. At least not on the same nights as horror flicks. She warned me to give up breaking and entering, even if it was a place I paid rent.
I will say, that is one of the scariest things that ever happened to me!
How about you? Got any ghost stories?
