A Special Halloween

Just like annual Halloween, Emily was hurried to go home after school. She ran down the stairs as the bell rang signalling the end of a school day, then she got on the bus as quickly as possible. She felt ill at ease as other students came on the bus in such a calm manner. To Emily, Halloween was the day that her family would have a great feast and a lot of activities. There would also be friends coming to her house to play games. Every Halloween was full of joy and Emily cannot wait to come home early on that day. 

Her school was quite far away from her house so it took the bus 1 hour to take Emily home. The moment she arrived home her face was brightened up by the sheer happiness of her expectation of a full of joy Halloween party. Luckily, she wasn't let down. As she opened the door, her brother, sister, mother and father, each dressed in their own costumes, suddenly came out from two corners of the door. Her father put on the costume of a white ghost while mother dressed as a maleficent. Both her brother and sister put on the mask of a Japanese monster which had a red face and a long nose. All at once, Emily ran upstairs, opened her wardrobe and stood there hesitating. She didn’t know what to wear as she had too many costumes. Finally, she decided to put on the ghost pumpkin head and wore a long, brown and orange gown that looked like a witch dress. “I’m a pumpkin witch”. she shouted as she ran downstairs.

All of the family got to the kitchen; everything was well-prepared and the party was only a few minutes to begin. The bell ringing outdoors signalled that her relatives and friends had arrived. Not even waiting for a moment, Emily quickly ran to open the door and invite all into the house. They turned off all the lights, lit up the candle and the party began. Emily enjoyed the thrilling feeling that she didn’t know what she was eating as everything was in the dark. As they were eating, her parents and other adults told them ghost stories that trembled them as they enjoyed the feast. Right after they finished dinner, the kids grabbed their small bags and went straight out the street for “trick and treat”. Just like in her house, everything on the street was turned off. After an hour of gathering candies and biscuits, the kid returned home. The party had to come to an end. Emily sadly said goodbye to her friends and went to bed. Emily had a strange habit that when she went to bed she had to turn all the lights in the house on. Emily was scared of the dark when she went to bed.

As all the lights were on, Emily turned in peaceful until midnight, when a nightmare stroked her. Emily was scared when she woke up late at night and there was no light at all. Emily was frightened. She picked up her flashlight which was put next to the pillow and went to her parents' room. As she felt something was creeping and following behind her in darkness, she ran as quick as she could with sweat all over her body. Her footsteps were so loud that she woke the family up. Emily was out of her wits as she got to the middle of the hall and rays of flashlight pointed to her from the corner. It was her parents, brother and sister.

Emily's mother noticed the panic showed up on her face.

"Let's come downstairs to the kitchen and eat something. You'll be better", her mother said. 

"Why don't we just grab the food and camp outside in the backyard. There's lights out there. People turn them on when the Halloween party is over.", her brother suddenly blurted out.

"Right, I wanna have some fun, let's go out", shouted Emily in an exciting voice.

She looked outside the windows and was pleased to see the streetlights. Then she and her brother, sister went to the kitchen to prepare some bread, sandwiches and biscuits while her parents went to the backyard to set up the tent. Then they all lay on the mat under the tent, looked up in the sky where the little, sparkling stars rule everything. She pointed her finger up to the sky, counted all those shining, tiny creatures in the vast universe. Emily suddenly missed her grandmother and grandfather who both had passed away several years ago. She missed playing puzzles with them on Halloween and New Year's Eve. She missed them telling her stories when they fought in the Second World War, She missed the time when every time she got home from school she would hug them immediately and tell them all the stories at school.

As she was lost in the old memories between her and grandparents, a shooting star suddenly flew across the sky. She stood up immediately, closed her eyes and shouted to the sky:

- Grandmother, grandfather, do you see me? Do you miss me? Are you having a good time over there? I'll always miss you. Please always stay by my side and visit me in the dreams. Never leave your eyes off me, even if you’re so far away.

Her eyes shed tears as she shouted as loud as she could, hoping that her voice would reach them. She quickly swept away her tears as the star disappeared in the far away horizon, bringing all her hopes and dreams to the ones she loved.

This is the first time that Emily had cried on Halloween night. Having finished the bread, she went into the tent, put on the blanket and closed her eyes. She tried not to cry again and kept reminding that everything would soon become normal. Her tears wore off as she fell into deep sleep. In her dreams, she saw her grandparents again.