Who's Afraid of Ghosts?

Although I am not considered a skittish person, I enjoy a good fright. So when Halloween comes rolling around, I tend to spook myself out a bit. For example, the other day a friend of mine told me this horrible story about a man who hung himself from his balcony, and no one realized that he wasn't a Halloween decoration until a few days later. Even though I would be terrified to experience something that awful, every Halloween I dream of finding something eerie. This year I happened to get lucky.

It was a rainy day at school and my friends and I were sitting at the end of the hall waiting to go home. One by one they left. Under unusual circumstances I was forced to stay at school until 6 o'clock at least. Although no one had noticed by 6:30 I was still waiting inside, all the faculty and custodians had gone home. The rain was still pouring and I was beginning to get a little freaked out. By 7 I realized that not only had everyone gone, but they had also locked me inside. I called my dad frantically to ask where he was but his phone went straight to voicemail, as did my mom's and brother's.

So there I was, alone in a huge empty building, terrified of setting off alarms and going out into the pouring rain without an umbrella or warm clothes. At around 7:30 I thought I heard scuffling upstairs. I ignored it and thought "Zoe, you're just trying to wig yourself out," but within five minutes I began to hear pounding on the walls around me. Terrified, I shot up from my seat and started running towards the door, to my horror I wasn't the only one running.

I burst out the door, and looked across the street for a place to hide. Panicked, I saw a girl in the doorway of the church, wearing a bloody smock with a menacing look on her face. Her transparency was luminous, and I could not stop looking at her. It was as though she had some huge magnetic energy that held me still. We stared at each other for a moment, and then she started mouthing something. I squinted but could not figure out what she was trying to say. As I tried to read her lips, her body started contorting and convulsing. My eyes dilated and I held my hand over my mouth in shock. I continued to watch the girl spin out of control when suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was my dad, he had finally arrived. He shook me and asked if I was alright. I looked across the street but the girl had vanished. My dad began to stroke my hair and walk me to his car. I was silent the whole way home, and to this day I have never found out who the girl was and what she was trying to tell me.