Morganton Ghost

The blinking red light flashed over the small neighborhood. The radio station was almost done for the day, and as the sun was setting the horses in the pasture nearby lied down. Everyone on Mull Lane was heading inside to get ready for bed. By the horse pastor was an old graveyard, dating back to the late 1800’s, with a beautiful detailed wrought iron fence. Even though the graves were crumbling and some lying in rubble, it still seemed to look nice. The cornfield was empty, the neighborhood was empty, the street nearby even seemed done for the day, but the graveyard, well, not so much.
Young Wendy Pruett hummed as her and her older sister, Holly, said bye to the horses. “Bye Chester, be back tomorrow!” Wendy was a 9 year old red head, with freckles across her nose and an inhaler in pocket. Holly, older than Wendy, had blond hair and braces. As they turned around to leave, the autumn sun was almost behind the tall trees. They passed the cornfield, and came upon the graveyard. The neighborhood kids would often play in the graveyard, due to it’s secluded grassy fields, so they were not afraid to pass through it. As they entered the graveyard as they often did for a shortcut back to their house, Wendy shivered. The fall chill was slowly becoming more and more noticeable. Holly started to hum too, as she walked past headstones.
“What do you think we’ll have for dinner” Wendy asked, bored.
“Don’t ask me, I don’t know.” Holly replied and went back to humming.
They came closer to the front gate, with small iron details making it look spectacular. By this time the sun was behind the trees completely, and it was dark. Since the gate was locked, a hole was dug under the fence a long time ago so the kids could sneak into it.
“You go first,” said Holly, as Wendy slowly crawled under the fence. As she was waiting, Holly looked around. She looked at the many gravestones, eroded with time, scanned over the long field toward the radio- wait, what was that? Holly studied the figure in the graveyard far away. As it got closer she saw that it was an old lady with a white complexion, wearing a white, flowing gown. A visitor perhaps? The white lady was smoothly getting closer and Holly started getting nervous. Why would she be visiting so late? She thought. As the figure got within reasonable distance, Holly saw that this was no ordinary lady, the lady’s long dress showed no sign of feet walking, and she could see right through her!
“GO WENDY!!” she screamed as the white lady got closer.
As Wendy finished climbing under the fence she turned around to see what her sister was so freaked out about. As Wendy looked, her eyes widened. Holly was already halfway out from under the fence, and Wendy screamed. The old woman was about 20 ft. away now, and she smiled as she continued to get closer fast. Holly was all the way out now, and Wendy was already running.
Both girls were screaming as they ran past their friend’s houses and under orange streetlights, and their house came into view. As they got closer Wendy tripped on a rock that was left on the road; well she was the clumsy one. “GET UP! C’MON LETS GO!” Holly said, helping Wendy up and looking back at the glowing woman approaching them.
As Wendy hustled back on her feet, they sprinted onto their front porch. Once they were inside, they slammed the door behind them and ran to the den to look out the window.
“What’s wrong with you two?” their eldest brother, Kelly, asked.
“Look! Look! Look Kelly! It’s after us! Look!” Wendy and Holly scrambled, pointing out of the window.
As Kelly tried to make sense of what they were so worried about, they looked out of the window. Kelly’s face went blank. On the road in front of their house, under the streetlight, there was a transparent woman in a dress, looking around outside. They screamed.
“What is all this noise about? Kelly, you aren’t being mean to your sisters, are you?” their mom said as she walked in the room.
“Mom! Mom! Look! Help, help! She’s after us! Help us! Look mom, look!” the three stammered, as their mom looked at the confused.
“Wait, wait, one at a time” their mom said.
“A ghost is going to get us mom!”
“Yea, it followed them home from the graveyard!”
“The graveyard? What where you two doing in the graveyard?” Granny said angrily.
“We were just walking back from the horses, promise!” Wendy explained.
“Calm down, children. There are no such things as ghosts. And even if there was a “ghost,” why would it follow you back home from the cemetery?” Granny reasoned.
Wendy blushed, and looked down at her feet. “I have no idea, we just walked through!” said Holly.
“What about you, Wendy, do you know why she would follow you two?” granny asked, noticing her blushing.
Without saying a word, Wendy pulled her hand out of her pocket, along with crumpled white flowers.
“Where’d you get those?” Holly asked, getting upset.
“While you were singing I saw a grave with pretty white flowers, and I thought I would pick some for mom.”
The next morning Kelly, Holly, and Wendy all slowly walked to the graveyard with a vase full of white flowers.
“That one!” Wendy said, pointing at a crumbling headstone with white flowers surrounding it.
They placed the vase beside the headstone and turned around to leave. As they were almost out of the gate, Wendy looked back at the gravestone, as the sun was rising over the tall trees.