How I Became A Ghost

How I Became A Ghost

Hello. I guess you're here to listen to the story of how I became a ghost. Well, I must warn you, it's a little sad, but I hope you like it anyway.

It happened a long time ago. I wish I could tell you exactly how long ago it was, but I can't, for you see time doesn't make sense anymore when you are a ghost. So I have absolutely no idea how many years have passed since it happened, but I can tell you this; it was a very long time ago.

I was an eight year old girl then, and my name was Alison. I lived in St. James with my mom, my dad, and my cat, Isabella. I don't know if you have ever heard of St. James, I used to think that everybody everywhere knew about it, but I have since learned that that is not true. So, for those of you who don't know anything about St. James, let me tell you that it is a town which is just a few miles north of Fairway. Some people even like to call it a suburb, but I preferred to call it a town because I used to find the word "suburb" very hard to pronounce. I can pronounce it now, suburb, suburb, suburb, suburb, suburb, but I still like to call it a town.

It is a small town which has just one of everything, one school, one Church, one mall, one park, and so on, although there are two of some things, like gas stations, there are two of those, I don't know why. We lived at 34 Oakwood Lane in a house that my Dad had helped design. I loved that house, even after I became a ghost I used to go there all the time, but then my parents sold it, and now I feel strange going there and seeing other people living in my room.

It happened on Halloween, my becoming a ghost that is. I know it might sound corny that it happened on the one night of the year that is associated with ghosts and stuff, but I can't help that, that was how it happened. It is cool though, I mean, how people can say that they became ghosts on the eve of the most scary and supernatural day of the year! Not many, I've asked.

I always liked Halloween, all kids do. It's just so much fun. There's the costumes, and the pumpkins, and the spider webs, and the scarecrows, and the bonfires, and, of course, the candy! I believe that the amount of candy you get, largely depends on the costume that you wear; the scarier the costume, the more the candy. So I always made sure to go as the scariest creature I could think off. That year I was a goblin, with green skin, pointed ears and long rubber nails. The costume was store bought, because I didn't trust myself, or my mother, to make a really scary goblin costume.

I loved that costume, and I had it on all through the day, even though it was very hard to eat things with those nails. My mom complained a little, but in the end she gave in, like she always did. Thankfully my Dad was not there, he was away on a business trip, it would have been much harder to persuade him.

We spent the morning hanging creepy decorations all over the house. We had a lot of those; witch's hats, those went in the dinning room; a black wreath, that went on the door; a life-sized skeleton, that went in the front yard; a jar of plastic eye-balls; that went.....a....hm, I don't remember where that went, but I guess it's not important.

In the afternoon we carved the pumpkins. My mom wouldn't let me carve, as she said it was too dangerous, and so I was responsible for taking out all the slimy orange stuff that lives inside the pumpkins. It was really disgusting, and I ended up spilling it all over my outfit, but, as somebody later pointed out, it made the costume look scarier; like I had blood and brains splattered all over it.

Then we went out to buy some supplies and bat-cookies. Bat-cookies are little bats that are actually chocolate cookies, and they are only available for a limited time at Halloween. I love them.

I wanted to go trick-or-treating right then, it was early, but there were a few kids who were out already, and I wanted to go. Maybe if I had gone then this would never have happened, but I had to wait until later because Annabeth was having family over at her house and couldn't come out until seven o'clock. Annabeth was my best friend, we always went trick-or-treating together, and so I waited. It was a long wait.

Finally, after seven, Mrs. Hart, Annabeth's mom, came and picked me up. I didn't really like her, she was always very formal, but, as my mom had to stay back and make dinner for us all, there was nobody else to take us.

First, we went up and down Oakwood. It was dark by now and the street lights were on. Somebody, I don't know who, had gone around and put red film on all the blubs. So, instead of being a bright yellow like the normally were, all the lights gave off a dim, reddish glow, which made the street look like a scene from a horror movie; it was awesome. It wasn't just Oakwood either, the whole block had it, and Mrs. Hart said that it went on right up to Crescent Street which was three blocks away.

Most of the houses were decorated, but there were some that weren't. There are always a few spoilsports. Always. The best was No. 51, which had two robotic zombies on the front porch who pretended to attack people each time the doorbell was rung. Mrs. Hart did not like that.

There were a lot of people on the streets by then. That's another problem with going out late, there are so many kids trick-or-treating that there is always a risk that the candy might run out. Luckily, all the houses that we went too still had some candy left, though a few were down to their last bag. I saw four people who had better costumes than I did, which was not that bad, the year before, I had counted twenty-seven. It made me glad that I had picked the outfit that I did; I knew it was a winner. Annabeth was dressed as Medusa, I don't know if I've mentioned that already. Anyway, it wasn't that scary, she claimed it was, but it wasn't. The snakes in her hair were made from plastic and they just stood there and didn't do anything. Rubber snakes would have been much better.

After about an hour, we sat down on a street bench to rest and sort through our loot. Mrs. Hart allowed us to eat one thing from our bags, but only one. I had a Twix bar and Annabeth had a KitKat. I guess that was my last meal, had I known that at the time I would have picked something better, like bat-cookies, but I suppose a Twix bar isn't that bad.

Then it all happened. We were sitting there and I saw Michelle on the other side of the road, she was dressed as a vampire. I called out to her, but she didn't hear me. I was really excited then for some reason, maybe it was the sugar; or the excitement of the evening; or seeing Michelle, whom I hadn't spoken with in a long while. I don't know what it was, but I got up and ran across the street.

We had been taught at school never to cross the street without looking both ways, and a bunch of other people had also told me that over the years. So I knew I shouldn't do that, but in that moment, I didn't remember that I shouldn't do that, and so I did it.

It's a bit of a blur after that. I was running, and then I heard this loud screeching sound, like the kind my aunt's cockatoo makes when it's annoyed. Then suddenly I was flying, everything was upside down and it all looked weird; it made me feel dizzy. Then I fell, that felt weird too. Then I remember lying on the ground in a pile of orange leaves. I couldn't move or hear anything. I felt like I sometimes did in the mornings, when I was half awake and half asleep, and I didn't know which was which. There was this big leaf that was right next to my face and I just kept staring at it. I stared at it for what seemed like a very long time, and then I fell asleep. That was when I became a ghost.

It didn't hurt. Everybody always asks me about that, and then they don't believe me when I say that it didn't hurt, but it didn't! They also ask me other questions, like if I saw a white light, and if my life flashed before my eyes, and that kind of stuff. Well, I did see a white light, but I think it was just the headlights from a car. As for my life flashing before my eyes, I don't think it did. While I was on the ground I remember thinking "I wish somebody would move this leaf away". And then I thought about Isabella, that it was almost dinner time for her, and my mom always forgot to feed her. I don't think that qualifies as my whole life, and it didn't even pass before my eyes like a movie or something. It was just regular, boring thinking. So maybe the life flashing thing doesn't really happen. I don't know.

Well that's my story. That is how I became a ghost. A lot of people don't like it because they think it's too sad, but I don't think so. It could be because I'm a ghost now and I don't have any feelings but, to me it's just something that happened a long time ago. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Bye for now.