A Ghostly Halloween

Katelyn woke, though, as a ghost, she no longer slept the same way she did when she was alive. She looked to the moon in the darkening sky. It was almost night. The amount of time that had passed since her death, she did not know, nor did she care, though in truth it had been less than half a year. Every day since her passing had been spent in misery and grief. She missed being alive and found that existing in the same realm of the living, of whom flaunted their beating hearts for all to see, was too much for her ghostly essence to bear. She floated towards the cemetery in which she was buried in an attempt to cheer herself up. Though she tried to keep her eyes on the moon, she couldn't help but notice the small, warm bodies walking down the sidewalk below her.

Children, she surmised from their short heights and high voices, though they didn't look like children. Instead, they looked like goblins, witches, vampires, and other popular characters from television and movies that she couldn't name. They were dressed in costumes, she realized, it was Halloween. Her first since her untimely death at the young age of twenty-one. Her mood dampened further, she'd disliked the holiday when she was alive and found it was even worse now that she was dead. She hurried to the cemetery, her safe haven, to escape the excited chatter of the sugar seeking children. Within the cemetery, she spotted Charlie and Rosa, her closest ghost friends, sitting atop their prospective headstones, which lay kitty-corner to hers.

“Charlie! Rosa! Did you know today is Halloween?” She asked irritably, hovering just above the ground in front of them. Charlie was sixty-nine years young at the time of his death, and though his time in the Air Force had come to an end long before his death, his family chose to dress him in his old uniform for his burial, which he wore now. A little known fact in the ghost world, you are stuck in the clothes you were buried in. Had she known this, Katelyn would have left her family a note of instruction; skip the sweetheart dress and put me in something dignified, please. A mind-boggling combination of ruffles, chiffon, and pleats, her attire served only to add insult to injury. Rosa, on the other hand, was dressed like an old school housewife, in a beautiful vintage dress with matching heels, as you often see in really old movies. Like Charlie, Rosa had passed later in life, at the ripe age of seventy-five. Both of their attitudes shone bright with youthful cheer, in stark contrast to Katelyn's sorrowful nature. But, to be fair, Katelyn had had big plans for her future. She'd wanted to change the world but hadn't even been given the chance to start, all because an over-sized semi ran a red light and crashed into her car. As a result, her afterlife thus far had been filled with resentment and self-pity. Leading her to adopt the cynical, sarcastic attitude which inspired Rosa and Charlie to lovingly dub her as their“Grumpy Kat”. A nickname that she, of course, hated.

“Halloween, you say? Well, I guess that would explain the meaty pair of skeletons that ran past us a half-hour ago!” Charlie quipped with a grin. Rosa chuckled as Katelyn rolled her eyes.

“Ha, ha. Very funny, Charlie.” Katelyn grumbled. She settled atop her headstone, facing the street, and declared, “I hate Halloween!” The two elder ghosts shared a bemused look.

“I can't say that's a surprise, dear,” Rosa remarked before returning to her knitting, a long-held hobby that she refused to give up just because she was dead. Katelyn had learned quickly that pressing Rosa on the fruitlessness of her endeavor only resulted in added frustration, so she didn't bother anymore.

“No, I mean it. Just look out there! All those kids running wild in the dark, loud and untamed, knocking on doors and interrupting dinner, asking strangers for candy. It's everything you aren't supposed to do every other day of the year. For what? A late-night sugar rush that ends with a bad stomach ache? No thanks.” Charlie scoffed at her words.

“All right, let's go!” He said with a clap of his hands.

“What? Go where?” Katelyn asked, confused.

“I'm taking you out for a night of trick or treating- ghost style!” He beamed at her, ignoring the disapproving expression that lay across her face. “Are you in, Rosa?” He asked, but she kindly declined.

“Thanks for the invitation Charlie, but not this year, I really want to finish this sweater.” Katelyn couldn't resist giving Rosa a look but held her tongue.

“Hey Rosa, do you know what he's talking about with the trick or treating?” Katelyn questioned warily.

With a knowing smile, Rosa replied, “Go and find out Grumpy Kat! Try to relax and have a little fun, you might just like it!” She shooed Katelyn away playfully before going back to her knitting. Katelyn trailed behind Charlie as they headed out of the cemetery, feeling increasingly skeptical with each step.

“Okay,” Charlie started, “here's what we're going to do. You and I are going to play some good old fashioned pranks on the living.” He rubbed his hands together mischievously, “We materialize in front of some children at just the right time, in just the right form, to have ourselves a good laugh! It's a trick and a treat in one!!” He said excitedly.

Katelyn stared at him in shock, “scare little kids? That's the ghost version of trick or treating? Isn't that...oh, I don't know...cruel??” Charlie groaned and dropped his head.

“No, no, Grumpy Kat. I said prank, not scare. Here, I'll show you...” He scanned a group of kids, focusing on a young lad dressed as a cowboy who had fallen behind the pack to adjust his bandana. Charlie pointed him out to Katelyn. As the boy moved to catch up to his friends, Charlie appeared in front of him, looking just like the cowboy costume that the boy was wearing. He raised his cowboy hat and said, “Happy Halloween compadre!” then disappeared. He reappeared beside Katelyn and laughed. She studied the young cowboy as he looked around, confused but not scared, before running to catch up with his friends. She heard him eagerly describing what had just taken place. A small smile crept upon her lips.

“Okay, I'll do it.” She said to Charlie. “How do I materialize?” A triumphant smile appeared across Charlie's face.

“That's easy, all you have to do is tell your mind that you want to while picturing what you want to look like.” He explained. “Here, try it with those ballerinas!” He pointed to a pair of ballerinas, twins by the looks of it, whose mother and father were trailing behind. Katelyn closed her eyes and pictured herself as a ballerina, looking just like the girls' costumes, and told herself that she wanted to be seen. She looked down and saw that it worked, “Wow! I did it!” she exclaimed excitedly, only to dematerialize a short time after. “What happened?” She asked, “did I do something wrong?”

“No, you did it perfectly. It only works for a couple of seconds at first so you'll have to be ready to pounce. Try again, quick, they're almost here!” He gestured wildly. She did it once more, this time popping out in front of the girls, where she spun around gracefully and then posed, offering the girls a sweet smile before her time was up. The girls giggled and talked excitedly to each other, practicing their own ballet moves as they continued down the sidewalk. Their parents were lost in a discussion behind them and remained oblivious to the prank. Katelyn felt lighter than she had in a long time when she reappeared next to Charlie. “Who's next?” She asked with a grin.

“Now that you know how to do it, let's look around a little,” he responded and they moved towards the center of town. It didn't take long for Charlie to find another target: a boy dressed as a robot. Katelyn found a tiny princess and a big red dinosaur. She noticed that she was growing tired with each prank, a strange phenomenon for her ghostly spirit. She asked Charlie about it.

“We call it 'the drain'. It's normal. You get tired pretty fast, especially when you are just getting started. It takes a lot of energy to materialize like this. Let's do one more and call it a night, eh?” Charlie said. She nodded and they set out for one final prank. They both knew it had to be good.

They soon came across two teenagers that appeared to be bullying a small group of boys, all dressed as pirates, for their candy. Katelyn and Charlie looked at each other and smiled, perfect. “So, I can look however I want, right?” She asked and Charlie nodded. She smiled mischievously and leaned in to whisper in his ear. His eyes lit up as she described her plan.

“Give me your candy! I want all of it,” ordered the tallest of the two teen boys, both of whom were dressed in plain clothes. The small boy cowering in front of him held onto his bag of candy with all his might. He looked over at his friends, who had already been robbed of their precious sweets. It was the group's first-time trick or treating unaccompanied by their parents and their excitement had just been crushed by these two bullies. Though he knew he had no hope of keeping his candy, the little pirate wasn't willing to hand it over. He didn't know what to do.

“Avast ye scallywag! Hand over the booty!” Charlie demanded as he emerged next to the offending teenager, choosing to take the form of a pirate to match the boys.

“The...booty?” The teen asked, his face white.

“The candy, arrr!” Charlie growled. While the two teens glanced at each other with a look of disbelief and fright, Charlie winked at the young pirates.

“What? How? Who are you?!” The tall boy stammered. Charlie disappeared, then reappeared on the other side of the teen moments later.

“Arrr! I be Cap'n Noble,” He declared, fully embracing his character, before disappearing again. The two bullies gawked at the space where Charlie had just been, fear painted across their faces like a mask, before searching the dark for any signs of Charlie. They jumped when he suddenly reappeared in front of them. “Are ye going to give me yer candy or not?” Charlie grunted before turning from the teens to face the younger pirates, “Ahoy mateys! Ye want to know how to beat a bully? Ye bring in someone that's bigger, stronger, and meaner...” he turned back to address the teen boys. “I want ye landlubbers to meet me cat, but I have to warn ye, she can be a little grumpy...” He said with a crooked smile.

On cue, Katelyn came creeping out of the dark behind Charlie in the form of a black jaguar. She growled ferociously and took off in a run towards them, leaping in their faces to disappear only just before making contact. The bullies screamed in terror and ran, leaving the stolen bags of candy behind them. Katelyn and Charlie materialized once more to give the group of pirates their candy back, then headed back to the cemetery, exhausted but thoroughly satisfied.

“I'd say we turned this into a truly ghastly Halloween, what do you think?” Charlie joked as they neared the cemetery.

“A ghastly Halloween? Really, Charlie? Come on, we turned it into a ghostly Halloween!” Katelyn shook her head, “talk about a missed opportunity. I thought you were supposed to be funny,” She laughed her first genuine laugh since her death, causing Charlie to break into a little jig in the street, to which she rolled her eyes. “So, this is something we can do any time we want,” she asked him, “materialize, I mean, and help people?” He nodded. They hurried back to their headstones and to Rosa, eager to fill her in on the night's successes. Upon hearing their story, Rosa congratulated Katelyn and gave her a heartfelt gift...the knitted sweater. Katelyn took the sweater and pulled it over her head. She then shrugged her shoulders and exclaimed, “At least it will hide the ruffles!”