Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2013
Middle School Winners

Third Place

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Our third place middle school entry was written by Joy Zhou, a seventh grader attending Liberty Middle School in Centreville, Virginia.

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Owl

by
Joy Zhou

I woke up, noticing everything seemed blurry. With a moan, I stood up. Looking down on myself, I noticed a peculiar red sheen to me. Assuming it was some kind of Halloween glitter, I ignored it.

The candy was scattered on the ground, a hand holding it tightly.

“Hey!” I yelled at the person holding my candy, “that's mine!” She didn't move. With a sick feeling, I realized that an ax was protruding from her heart. I looked closer and fell to the ground, subconsciously noticing that I felt nothing when I collapsed.

The girl was dead... and she was me. My body was splayed across the leaf-covered ground; my eyes rolled back, mouth open in a silent scream. A strangled scream rose from my throat.

Then I realized, if I was dead, how could I see? How could I feel and smell? Feel emotion?

I looked at my body closer, realizing that I was slightly transparent, I could see the trees through my hand, the scavengers coming to feast on my living flesh.

I ran at the scavengers, trying to chase them away. I ran through them, the little horrors merely shook their feathers, and ripped at my body.

In frozen horror I watched as they tore out my eyes, ripped open my chest and stomach, and eating them.

I tore myself away from the disgusting scene, finally noticing the main detail clearly. There was an ax in my chest. I did not own an ax. Two and two came together.

I was murdered, I thought with a sickening jolt. And I was a ghost.

I glided aimlessly around the forest, empty. Then I saw it. More dead bodies, all brutally torn apart, all with axes in the hearts.

I looked around for more like me, more of the dead who lived on the same and yet a different plane. There were none.

I tried to remember what happened. Who I was. Who killed me. I knew the answer to none of those questions, but none came.

Then I became it. Proud and majestic, a ruler of the sky, the owl. I spread my wings and flew. Then I fell, back to the ground.

I had been the owl, I realized. The owl had been I. Melded together we had flown, each understanding the other.

I was infused with a purpose. I avenge myself, to tear apart the person who killed me, like the owl tore apart its prey. I would find a larger predator and we would meld together.

Another thought came to me, not mine, but another, sending me a message, you are not a ghost, it said, you are daemon, and you will join us when your purpose it complete, it laughed.

Daemon. Demon. Devils. That's what I was; suddenly I wanted to be a ghost.

I doubled over, the urge to avenge myself overtaking me. Eyes glowing I seek a predator. One who will easily rip out hearts, tear the face, and feast on the stomach. I seek the wolf.

I melded with her, her soul infused with bloodlust, the need for kill. My soul with the need to rip apart the one who killed me. We were companions, our souls melded, inseparable until death.

We ran, knowing within us the way for vengeance. We arrived at the hut.

The door fell, unable to stop us. A man, hunched over an ax saw us. He tried to defend himself but it was impossible. We leapt at him, tearing his throat, his lungs hanging out. We tore him until he was unrecognizable.

His blood, his organs, his flesh, they all littered the ground. We smelled the blood, a hunger overtaking us, we tore into the feast before us, sating ourselves of our hunger.

Now we are in hell, welcomed warmly as a daemon, a full-fledged devil.

Our souls soar every-time we rip a heart, feed on the stomach, drink the blood.

I never found out what happened, who I was, but my soul and hers do not care. We care only for the thrill of the hunt. The warmth of being sated.