A Ghostly Halloween

“To multiply a two-digit number by itself, you carry this, and blah blah, blah..” I was in math class, and Mrs.Ingrid was talking about multiplication. I dozed off, because firstly I was in Grade 11 math, so I don’t need to listen to Grade 5 stuff. Secondly, I’m thinking of what I should be for Halloween. Tomorrow was the candy-filled holiday, and I still didn’t really know what to be. My friends had known what they were gonna be since last March; Lilly is going to be Cinderella, Brody is gonna be a clown, and Grace is going to be a zombie bride. And as far as I know it, I’m going to be plain old Darcy for Halloween. Like, everyone knows that if you pretend to be yourself for Halloween, you forgot and they will think you’re lame for the rest of your life. I don’t want to be sulking about how I forgot about a Halloween costume when I’m 80, so I need to think of a costume. 

“Darcy, what is 12x12?” Mrs. Ingrid asked me, pulling me out of my thoughts. “144,” I said, putting emphasis on my bored voice. Mrs. Ingrid nodded at me, then went back to blabbering about times tables. Ok, I just had a lightbulb moment. What if I be a ghost? No one else is doing it, it’s easy to make, I can add whatever I want, perfect! I looked up at everyone else, checking to see if they were paying attention. Serina, the teacher's pet, looked like she just drank 5 jumbo milkshakes from McDonalds. Grady, the class clown, was sleeping like a baby, with the drool pooling on the desk. About 8 other people were like me, half there, half not. Fiona looked like she ate a bag full of gummy bears, and then ran a half marathon, and the marathon is trying to stay alert in this last class of the day. Mrs. Ingrid droned on, and on, and on, until the bell rang. Normally Mrs. Ingrid is one of those teachers that say, ’The bell doesn't dismiss you, I do!’, but today no one cared, and we all flooded out of the room in about 7 seconds. I raced to the buses, and grabbed a seat at the back with Lilly and Grace. Brody was a pick up, so he got home earlier than us. 

We babbled for the whole 38 minutes of the bus ride, about what we would be, how we would make it, all that stuff. When the bus stopped, we almost flew to Lilly’s house to make our costumes. Make our costumes? Our parents don’t buy costumes for us, because they’re so expensive, so we make our own. Last year, Grace took 5 hours to make her pumpkin princess costume, and that’s good time management for Grace. Today Lilly’s mom said to try and keep our creating time under 4 hours, since she had to fix something in the basement where we were making our costumes. After grabbing some apples and Goldfish, we went to the basement and started working. 

Grace got started on her zombie bride dress, Lilly started with her Cinderella crown, and I started looking for a sheet to use for my ghost costume. A ghost costume is like the most simple costume to make; you find a white sheet, cut hole in it for your eyes, and you’re done. Simple. So why was it so hard to find a sheet? “Lilly, do you have an old white bedsheet, or something like that I can use?” Lilly looked up from her cardstock crown. “I think Mom knows where we would have that.” She put her crown down, and ran up the stairs, me on her trail. We ran up to her room, and she opened her closet. “Hmm, I think there’s a clean washed white sheet in here.” She rummaged through the very inside of the closet, and started to pull out a white sheet. Struggling, she asked,” A little help here?” I said,” Oopsie,” and tugged the sheet on the other side. It looked like the corner of the sheet was stuck under one of Lilly’s many, many backpacks. We pulled and pulled and pulled, when Grace came out of nowhere, and said,” Why don’t you take off the backpack?” 

She walked over to the closet, bent down and picked the backpack up like it was a smelly sock, then dropped it on top of the other backpacks. She looked at us like, Where did your brains go?, and then strutted out of the door. I looked at Lilly, and then took the sheet and walked out of her room.

 I was cutting out the eye holes in the sheet for my costume, when Lilly’s mom called,” It’s been 2 hours, so I'm going to come down soon!” Grace started panicking, because she only finished her dress, and she still had to make the rose, and crown, plus she has to decide what makeup she’s going to wear tomorrow. I was a bit irritated that the eye circles in the sheet were choppy, but other than that the costume looked good. Well, as good as a sheet of cloth with two holes in it can look. “I’m going to go home and do some homework.” I said to Grace and Lilly. I would stay, but watching Lilly obsess over everything, and Grace panic at one tiny mistake is a little tiring, so I’m gonna use my energy for homework instead. Lilly looked up and waved, while Grace nodded her head slowly, trying not to glue her dress fabric together in the wrong way. I rolled my eyes, waved back to Lilly, and walked over to my house. 

Lilly, Grace, and I sprinted to our houses to get our costumes on. Every year we tried to get out and trick or treating at 6pm, so we could collect candy for 3 hours, get home and sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. 

We ate dinner first, so after I rushed in the house, a waft of spaghetti sauce hit my nose. I almost threw my backpack onto the floor, and slammed into my chair. “Whoa, kiddo, I’m almost done cooking.” Dad said as he was scooping noodles into bowls. I licked my lips with anticipation, saying, ”I’m really hungry, Lilly and Grace are still making their costumes, and I NEED FOOD.” Dad placed down a bowl of spaghetti in front of me, and I started snarfing it down like a hungry wolf. 

My sister, Madison, came in from another room, chatting with one of her friends. “I know right? Jaeden’s gonna be a guy from One Direction, and Devan’s gonna be a clown. Me? Oh I’m gonna be a snowman, so I’m gonna glue this and…” I rolled my eyes. Madison talked too much. Especially on Halloween. I finished my spaghetti, still thinking about how much Madison talks when I was putting on my costume. 

I put on some white leggings and a white shirt. I didn’t have a completely white shirt, so I had to wear a one that had a little heart in the corner, but the costume was going to cover that. After I pulled on the sheet, I had to adjust the holes a bit so I could see better, and I strutted downstairs with my pink pillowcase. Madison was pacing around the room, and when she saw me, she paused and gave me a weird look, like I had some spider on my face, and then went back to chattering about her favourite person from 5 Seconds of Summer.

 I skipped to the door, and called, “Dad! I’m going trick or treating now!” I heard Dad’s voice reply, “Ok, be back by 9!” I stuck my thumbs up in the doorway, and ran over to Lilly’s house, being careful not to get dust on my white clothing. I called down the entrance to the basement, “Are you guys done?” Lilly’s voice floated up the stairs. “I am, and Grace is almost done her rose.” 

After some clacking of plastic, Lily stepped out at the bottom of the stairs. Her dress was a sky blue, with little sparkles throughout the fabric. Her top looked like smooth silk, even though it probably wasn’t that, because silk is EXPENSIVE. She had a blonde wig on, styled to look like the classic Cinderella. She did a little curtsey, and asked, “Do I look good?” I clapped, and said, “Yeah, you look really good! Can I see Grace’s?” Lilly awkwardly walked up the stairs, stopping to stand beside me so we could see the bottom of the stairs, which was now empty.

 We heard some ruffling, then Grace stepped out, looking straight out of the Walking Dead. Her dress had semi-transparent white fabric, with some red paint smudged here and there for blood. Her wig was the colour of a thunderstorm, dark and frightening. Her veil was made of the same material as the dress, covering the back of her head. Her makeup was gray, with splotches of green and brown, to make it look like the skin was decaying. The rose she was holding was made out of tissue paper, it looked like a dull maroon colour, showing how wilted the flower was. Grace’s face asked, “Well?” I gave her a thumbs up, and Lilly started on all the stuff that she liked about Grace’s costume.

 “I really like the material you used for the dress it’s really nice your makeup looks really good could you teach me how to do makeup…” She kept going until we were out of the house and in front of the first house. “... and I really like all the stuff in your costume!” She smiled, and slumped over, tired from all the energy she used while talking. 

I leaned over, rang the doorbell, and we all shouted at the top of our lungs. “TRICK OR TREAT!” An old lady stepped into the doorway, smiled, and while she started handing out candy, she asked us, ”How are you children today?” We all stuck out our thumbs up, and continued watching the candy fall into our basket. She smiled wider and said, Well, have a nice day. ”Then she slammed the door on our faces and that was that.

 When we walked down the steps to go to another house, I asked, ”Why did she say ‘Have a nice day?’ It’s night!” Sometimes I get bothered by little comments like those. I looked at Lilly and Grace, irritated. They took a deep breath, and yelled, ”TRICK OR TREAT!” “TRICK Or treat..” I half yelled, half spoke, totally late. The man smiled at me, handing out candy, speaking no weird prophecies like the old woman. After that, we went around, yelling, “TRICK OR TREAT!” until we almost lost our voices. And, I thought. It’s NIGHT.

After we were done trick or treating, and after our voices had almost gone for a vacation, we sat down in the giant field in front of the church, and went through all our candy. Lilly was listing all the different candy she got this year. “Mars, Snickers, skittles,..” I wasn’t really paying attention to her, since I was counting my own candy. Everything was fine and dandy, until I heard a moan. Like a bear cub calling for its mother. It surrounded me, making me forget things. Who are these people I’m sitting with? What’s my name? What school do I go to?. Then it was gone. My memories floated back. I twirled around searching for it, but I couldn’t find it. “Are you okay?” Lilly asked. I kept looking, being very wary. “Did you guys hear that?” I asked them. “Hear what?” asked Grace, Lilly and Grace looked at each other, confused. “Hmm,” I said, sitting down cautiously. We went back to counting our candy, Lilly and Grace occasionally casting me a worried look. After 10 minutes of no disturbances(other than chattering kids on the sidewalk), I was sure that I imagined the sound I heard earlier. 

But all predators strike when their prey thinks they’re safe. 

I was on my 13th type of candy, when I heard the moaning again. This time it didn’t face. It just got louder and louder, and louder, and engulfed me like a tsunami would. I forgot everything, my parents, my favourite colour, my whole life. Then I shuddered, and I remembered everything, just like before. Except one thing wasn’t like before. There were pale, transparent people all across the field, staring at me like I just got shot by a skunk. I looked down at myself. Normal. Not transparent. I took the sheet off my head, so I could see better. Yep, those are ghosts. I stood up and walked toward one of them. I looked at the ground, and I saw transparent feet. I screamed. I looked at my hands. I screamed some more. I looked at my whole body. My hair. My arms. Everything was transparent. 

I screamed with all the voice I had in me that hadn’t gone to vacation yet. I ran over to Lilly and grabbed her shoulders. I shook them, screaming in her ear that I turned into a ghost. She looked up to where I was standing, and asked, ”Did anyone hear that?” Grace replied, “No.” Lilly shrugged. “Must have been the wind," she muttered. “Darcy, how many pieces of candy have you found?” Grace asked. “14,” I replied. Except I didn’t say that. I was in 2 places at once; behind Lilly, and sitting counting candy. Me, the actual one, was behind Lilly, the one who is transparent. The other me, who is sitting beside Grace, is the one that is NOT transparent. I had no idea what was happening. 

“Would you like me to explain?” a voice in my ear, raspy and low asked. I jumped and twirled around. A boy was standing right behind me, by my ear whispering stuff (which is quite creepy by my standards). He walked over and sat beside the other me. “This is you, still in life.” he said. He was sitting beside the other me, but his voice was still in my ear. He pointed at the ghost me. “You are the dead part, where most of your soul is resided.” I cocked my head, confused. “SO, basically, most of you is here, as a ghost, but the leftover is still in life, counting candy.” he repeated. “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said walking over to him. He came up to my face, and said, “All the people that dress up as ghosts for Halloween are here. If you pretend to be a ghost, you become one.” I looked at him, still confuzzled. “That still does not make sense.” I said, trying to make him say it in a way that IS sensible. “Well,” he said. “Neither does life.” His voice swirled up to my ear. “Or death.”