The Haunted Garden

It was a day like all the others and I was on my way home from school, walking my usual route. I couldn’t wait to read the note my best friend gave me. I knew it was important because she asked me to read it in secret. I waited all afternoon until now because I didn’t want my teacher to catch me with it open in the class. She would have surely taken it away. “I’m alone.” I thought. “Now, is the time.” I pulled it out of my back pocket with excitement. I began to read it slowly. It read, “It appeals to some, cares for none and frightens all.” All at once, the note sparked in my hand and burnt like fire. I dropped it and the wind snatched it out my hands and whirled it high up in the sky. I ran after it, as it flew high above the trees. It was like a kite on a string. Several times I lost it in the brilliance of the sun. On and on, up and down it took a rollercoaster flight. I ran with all my might, like never before. I hadn’t even noticed where I was running because all of me was fixed on the note. No one, I mean no one, was aloud to set eyes on that piece of paper but me. “I can’t lose that note.” I said.

Suddenly, the paper dropped from the sky, like a rock and lay still on the ground. After such a random flight it seemed odd that it just lie there. Quickly, I jumped on it with triumph and joy. When I picked it up from damp floor of dead leaves, I chill came over me. I looked around and I had stepped into a strange place, an eerie place, a very eerie place. “How did I get here? Where is here?” I said out loud. Everything was dark and there were shadows everywhere. The sun was gone. “Where am I?” I whispered to myself. I never have been here before. I know everyplace in town and this place is not in our town. I felt frozen. My hand gripped my precious note, as if it were my friend holding my hand for the last time. All the trees were gray and bare; their branches seemed to be reaching out as if to grab me. Around their base, there grew black-stemmed roses with blood red pedals. The roses seemed to crowd around the tombstones too, as if trying to guard them, like soldiers in a dungeon. I looked closer. Fear over took me, as I read all the names of my classmates on the tombstones. “This can’t be.” I murmured. I cringed in disbelief. I noticed beyond the tombstones there was a beaten wrought-iron fence around the entire perimeter of this garden. This haunted garden. There didn’t look to be an entrance in or an exit out. I felt trapped. “How did I get inside any way? I never crossed any fence.” I said timidly. The wind howled, “Whooooo, whooooo.” Or was it an owl? I thought. I stared at the trees. I jerked back; I thought I saw a shadowy figure vanish behind a tree. My heart shuttered. The wind howled once more and I heard, “Whooooo, whooooo” again; yet this time, much, much closer. The Who, was breathing on my neck. “ Don’t breath.” I said to myself. I swallowed. Suddenly, something grabbed me, my skin screamed, as I turned around in horror and…

I was back in my classroom, with my teacher’s hand on my shoulder asking, “Whooo can tell me what day it is tomorrow?” I knew the answer to that question in the pit of my stomach. I exhaled, “It’s Halloween.” I glanced around the room and all my classmates were there. The bell rang and the students charged for the door exit. I took my time packing up. I was relieved; it was all a dream. I closed my book and there lying under it was a black-stemmed rose.

The END

Written By Kelly Ann Hughes on October 16, 2009

All copyrights belong to Kelly Ann Hughes.