Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2020
Elementary School Winners
Third Place
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Our third place Elementary School winner is Eden-Rose Lee. She writes:
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Our third place Elementary School winner is Eden-Rose Lee. She writes:
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25th October 2020
It’s not fair.
Mummy never lets me give my teeth to the tooth fairy. She says that she wants to ‘remember my youth.’ I think that’s very silly.
I think Mummy’s up to something. Something creepy. It’s not only my teeth that she collects, but she also gathers my toenails, and she even scrapes some of my hair into a plastic bag after I’ve had a hair-cut. The hairdresser probably thinks that Mummy’s a weirdo. This ‘quest,’ reminds me of the book we’re reading in class; it’s called Frankenstein. We’ve just finished the first chapter and already, the words seem to whirl in my head like a maelstrom. I wonder whether Mummy is making her own little version of me. Like Frankenstein made his ‘creature.’
26th October 2020
I’m writing this in the dark, with only my nightlight to shine on this page. I feel all my emotions pour onto my page, my head like a brimming bucket full of thoughts and feelings. Victor Frankenstein must have felt like this while he scribbled down his notes. Mummy’s in the kitchen. I can hear her sinister muttering and her heels tapping on the tiled floor. Mummy always wears high heels. She even wears them at the parents’ egg and spoon race on Sports Day, but somehow, she always seems to come first.
Halloween. Just 5 days away. But this Halloween will certainly be different with a hostile mummy lurking round the house.
27th October 2020
Mummy’s gone even stranger now. I noticed she had bags with the words: The Body Shop – You ask for the parts, we get ‘em.
Is Mummy joining a body-building club? Maybe she’s constructing a car? All I know is that something is going on. Something ominous… Mummy’s staying far away from me, as if she can’t bear to look at me. I don’t get it. Last year, I dressed mummy up as a mummy. I remember winding the loo roll all over her, making a little hole for the mouth and the eyes. That was the last time I heard Mummy laugh. A little tinkly laugh that sounded like coins rattling in someone’s pocket. Whatever had happened was something bad….
At school we’ve gotten to the part where Elizabeth gets killed by the creature. Teacher says we’ll finish the book by Halloween. Oooooh, spooky! I’ve got to go. Mummy’s calling me for dinner!
28th October 2020
Last night was horrifying. HORRIFYING! Dinner was chicken pie. It looked decent; mummy’s pies are always so good, but how come I saw a human tooth, a real human tooth in the pie! Mummy told me that it was probably the chicken’s tooth. I didn’t believe her. How come her shoulders were so tense and her eyes so inhumane?
“But chickens don’t have teeth, mummy!” I pointedly remarked.
“Have you ever heard of the phrase: ‘as rare a hen’s teeth?’ Well, there that proves it. Eat your pie up, young lady. Chop, chop, choppity, chop, chops you idle fool!” Mummy snapped back. She had never called me an ‘idle fool,’ before and I felt deeply ashamed. After another mouthful of pie, I meekly tucked in my chair and shuffled out of the room. I swear, as I swear that chickens do not have teeth, that I saw mummy rummage through my pie and tuck the tooth I had found, in her pocket. What was wrong with her? I think she saw me because she raised one eyebrow. I feel as if the fragile thread that connects us together is weakening. At any moment, it could snap. At any moment, she wouldn’t see me as her daughter but as a stranger.
Exactly 5 minutes ago, I searched: ‘do chickens have teeth?’ on the internet. It said hens do not have teeth, contrary to the popular phrase: ‘as rare as a hen’s teeth.’ I slammed my laptop lid down and did the victory dance that I saw somewhere on television. Nighty nighty! It’s 9:29; better get some sleep for the eve of the eve of the eve of Halloween!
29th October 2020
Beware of the graveyard, darling,
Beware of the evil o’near.
Beware of the demons alarming,
And the ghosts that feed on fear.
I remember Mummy’s poem. She used to read it to me on the eve of the eve of Halloween. I loved it. But after the ‘tooth’ issue, she just leaves my food cold on the kitchen counter. She’s even out after I come home from school! Across the road from school, I can see the graveyard. Today, I saw mummy. I recognised her twine figure, and if I strained my eyes, I saw her pursed lips and new high-heels. A sack was slung over her shoulders and made her look like Santa Claus, or should I say Santa Corpse!? When I got home, mummy was in the garden with pots and a mysterious lump that was blanketed with a sack. Even daddy’s not allowed to go in the garden now to water his beloved tomato plants. I see more of him now, now that he can’t spend the whole day talking to the geraniums and chatting to the roses.
I’m in bed, writing this at this very moment. I can’t sleep. Mummy’s lullaby is droning in my head.
Beware of the graveyard, darling,
Beware of the evil o’near.
Beware of the demons alarming,
And the ghosts that feed on fear.
30th October 2020
I’ve got an assignment from school to finish Frankenstein. Right now I’m lying on the floor, one hand holding the book the other writing this very entry. School was decent. But seeing mummy in the graveyard again was not. Tomorrow is Halloween. I need to fix things before Halloween comes. I tiptoed downstairs, but I didn’t have the heart to even touch the garden latch.
31st October 2020
School was decent. One of my friends had a Halloween Festival. I wasn’t invited. Of course, the girl who has a mum who goes around collecting corpses isn’t going to come. Life is unfair. When I returned from school, properly disgusted with life, I saw mummy waiting at the door with her arms crossed, her pursed lips straightened into a sinister smile. Mummy used to make Halloween surprises for me. I knew this wasn’t the case as she ushered something from the corridor.
The first thing I saw was ‘me.’ Me, but with whiter teeth, darker hair, redder lips, taller stature, prettier countenance and wider eyes.
“Do you remember when I told you that I wanted to remember your youth? Well after much brooding, I decided to make a copy of you, my darling! Do you remember how much fun we had when you were little? Well, now I can take pride in a prettier, smarter, more adorable, more grateful little daughter that will stay young forever!”
The thread between mummy and I had been cut.
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