Ghost Of Halloween

Joe needed a break but only Eva the witch could give him one.

Contest Prompt

write a story or poem that has the title:"Ghost of Halloween".

“I got the graveyard shift again.” Joe was tired of it. “Nothing happens except greeting spirits of the newly dead. Not one wants to stick around in the cemetery, either.” He shredded the cursed note from his boss, Eva the witch, that would keep him here another year.

The other thing Joe didn’t like was having to talk to himself because there was nobody else to talk to. He was a pretty good ghost at scaring people away.

It had been dead quiet lately. The old creepy cemetery was about filled up. Caretakers came around less often. Sanders, the one watchman, took advantage and slept most nights. Trying to rouse and scare him had been impossible. Sanders was the scary one. His snores kept Joe up and jittery with nothing to do.

“And just try leaving this place.” Ever since Eva the Witch had put a curse on him for scaring her witches hat off of her head during a windstorm, he’d just bounce off the rusty iron fence surrounding the cemetery. He was stuck. Eva was still hunting for her hat. Until she found it Joe knew he’d stay stuck.

The one glimmer of hope came around once a year when Halloween happened. The occasional supernatural being might get confused thinking Joe’s cemetery was the right one for them and their pals to be meeting at.

He’d had the devil of a good time scaring a little red demon right out of his pants last year. Still had the pants as a souvenir. “Ho Hum.” It was time to make the rounds again. A ghost had to keep in shape or he might lose his form and start a disappearing act he couldn’t come back from.

“Hi Joe.”

“Eva?”

“Hey. How you doin’? Sorry if I scared you. You look white as a sheet.”

“What are you doing here? Going to curse me again?”

“Up until tonight’s Halloween coven gathering, I would have been happy to.”

“Tonight’s Halloween?” Joe was finding it difficult keeping up with the conversation.

“You’ve been in jail too long, Joe. The coven gals convinced me of that. It wasn’t doing you or me any good. I used to be able to call on you when I needed a ghostly errand done.”

“Sorry about the hat. Looks like you stopped looking and got a new one.”

“It’s a beauty.” When Eva tapped the black cone on top of her head, it shimmered with magic. “More powerful than the old one you blew away. The gals made it for me.”

Joe couldn’t help himself. Not being able to scare anyone for such a long time made this his only opportunity. Eva wasn’t going to release him, he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was only teasing him. Either that or use the power of her new hat to turn him into something useful like make him her slave.

“Eva? Guess what?”

“What?”

“BOO!”

Off went Eva’s new hat tumbling end over end in the gust of wind blown out with Joe’s Boo. Eva, trying to catch herself, went tumbling in the opposite direction. “Darn it, I was hoping I could catch that hat and use its magic to leave this place,” Joe said grumpily. It had winked out of sight past the cemetery boundaries.

Not so with Eva. “You. You. You,” she sang dancing madly back onto her feet and flying back into his face. “And to think the coven made me promise to let you go.”

A Witch's promise with her coven would have dire consequences if broken. All but the most basic curses would be sealed away from her lips. “Hold still. I’m going to release you from captivity.”

Joe couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You are? I’ll be free to haunt anywhere I want?”

Eva’s evil cackle made Joe back up and think about doing his disappearing act. “Anywhere, on Halloween. I pronounce you the Ghost Of Halloween. You’ll be free as a bird, except when one of my coven beckons you for a little help.”

“Halloween? What about the rest of the year?” Joe shuddered at the glare Eva shot his way.

“You can rest up here in your old haunt until the next Halloween. My coven didn't say how I had to free you.”

With those haunting words, Eva flew off to hunt for her new hat.