Halloween – The Ghost Called Bob

This is my Halloween story, my children challenged me to write this and to include the words:

Punpkin

Scary

Front Door

Apple Bobbing

Orange

Ghost

Skeleton

Decoration

Trick or Treat

Blood

It’s at this time of year when the nights draw in, the swirling mist leaks around the village and when the children go to the front door of anyone with decorations or a pumpkin that the story of Bob is remembered. No one will speak his name in a voice louder than a whisper for fear of awaking him. The children who go around trick or treating in their skeleton and ghost costumes watch in the dark corners, not daring to mention his name and hoping not to find him. It’s said Bob wears a pointed hat with a rope around his neck. Some have said he leaves a trail of blood where he walks and that he preys on the stray or lonely children.

Bob looked on as he did every year, watching the comings and goings on the one night of the year that he came out to see the festivities. He wears a pointed hat and he was always frustrated with the rope around his neck, he never put it there and neither could he get rid of it. He didn’t think he left any blood in his wake, instead Bob would look on at the fun, yearning to join in. Sometimes he would make himself known or try and look after a lonely child. He was always greeted with the same response, the screams would scare him and he would flee, sad and upset that he couldn’t join in.

Sometimes Bob would get close and watch as the happy children collected their big bags full of cakes and sweets, he wondered what they tasted like as they always looked so colourful and yet he couldn’t even pick them up and tasting them was impossible. He found his existence lonely and he wished for a friend on his one night of the year.

This year was different, it started when he heard a shriek from a group of children. He floated over as ghosts often do to see what had happened and to his surprise there was a mess of sweets all kinds of good things, spread over the floor where they had been dropped. He looked around and there she was. Dressed in a messy pink dress and wild brown hair. Now, ghosts don’t talk, they talk in ways us humans don’t understand. He found out her name was Mary and she also had felt lonely and wandered to the village when she saw the lights of the village in the distance.

They decided that this year they would have some ghostly fun. They hid down alleys and scared the little children, they popped up from out of the drains and from under cars. This was fun for a while but soon become boring so they decided to find a quiet place and some other ghosty games.

Soon thought the first dim lights of dawn could be seen in the distance and the time had come for both the ghosts to sleep for yet another year. Mary floated off and they both decided to meet up next year. With happy ghosty heart Bob found his home and settled down the long slumber. Happy that next year he would have a friend to scare all those little children and watch them as once again they skip around collecting sweets in their scary costumes.

Next year was going to be fun!

Copyright 2015 Simon Farnell

No ownership claimed to image – Image courtesy of google.