“For a long time, people thought spirits to be fake. Yet every year, at night, the spirits awaken. Ghouls and ghosts. Witches and watchers. All come out on Halloween night. They come out to play, to scare all those who don’t believe. They’ll watch from the shadows and strike in the dark. Be warned, for those who don’t believe, might just disappear in the night of Halloween.”

  …

  “Yo” I heard my friend Zack call out. He’d been my best friend since elementary, a young boy with curly hair and freckles. Thin framed glasses hung from his nose; his brown sturdy boots tapped the sidewalk as he walked my way.

  “What’s got you so deep in thought?

  Looking up from the book I was reading, one I couldn’t remember where I got, I asked, “Do you think spirits are real?”. I didn’t think too much about what I had read, but the way the book looked gave off a different feeling all together. Almost as if the book itself was a warning from beyond.

  Zack snorted. “Of course not. If they were, don’t you think we’d have seen them by now?”

  It made sense, what he said. Of course, we’d have seen something by now if there really was anything supernatural. Yet the eerie feeling lingered, I couldn’t tell what it was, but it didn’t feel good.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Zack punched my shoulder. “Lighten up dude, Halloween is tomorrow. What are you dressing up as?”

  The feeling hadn’t left me yet, but I forced it down and answered. “I was thinking a zombie hockey player.”

  “Come on dude, don’t you think that’s a little unoriginal?” I knew what he meant. A zombie hockey player is one of those costumes people pick when they don’t know what else to wear. And I had no idea what I was gonna choose.

  “Oh yeah, what are you going as?” I asked, half expecting something original from him.

  “I’m going as a vampire knight.”

  “A vampire knight? You can’t be serious. That’s even less original than mine.” I laughed at him.

  “Come on, it’s cool. Imagine a knight walking towards your house, but when they lift their helmet. Boom. A vampire underneath. Pretty cool, right?”

  “Alright, it is pretty cool, But I saw plenty of those last year as well. Better make it stand out because I’m pretty sure I heard Tommy saying he was gonna be one as well.”

  We both were laughing at this point. The thought of Tommy trying to act as a vampire knight was both a funny and scary thought. He couldn’t dress, let alone act like a vampire if his life depended on it.

  “Let’s go.” I said, walking towards my house. Almost forgetting about the feeling from earlier. Almost.

  And as if warning me, the wind blew slightly stronger. The night air chilled through my jacket. And suddenly my body filled with goosebumps. As if a pair of eyes were staring holes in my back.

  I turned quickly. Scanning the trees, searching for that feeling. Yet all that stared back was the darkness of the night. And the howl of the wind through orange and red Autumn leaves.

  Halloween was fast approaching and bringing along something with it.