Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2013
Middle School Winners

Second Place

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Our second place Middle School category winner was written by Stone Hill Middle School seventh grader Sapna Seth of Ashburn, Virginia.

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Hi, I'm Barbie

by
Sapna Seth

It was a dark, chilly night and although the weather was dreary, little seven- year- old Samantha Watts was very excited. She was going to have a sleepover with the new girl in town, Missy McSchmitt.

“Ding, Dong!” Samantha waited patiently outside Missy's house.

“Creak,” the door slowly opened.

In front of Samantha stood a tall, pale man. All he had were two, little, white tuffs of hair on the sides of his head.

“Aw you must be little Samantha Watts,” the man looked down at her. “Please do come in.”

Samantha walked in and took in the area that surrounded her. There was a long, winding, staircase, the walls were painted with a red so deep it looked like blood, and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling.

“Bang,” the door shut behind her.

As Samantha wandered into the house she noticed the old fashioned wall paper on the kitchen walls, in every room there was dark black furniture, and in the little crevasses in the ceiling there were abandoned spider webs.

“So where is Missy anyway?” Samantha inquired.

The man paused for a moment as if trying to remember who Missy was.

“Missy, aw yes Missy, she is in her room, you may go up and see her.”

So Samantha went up the winding staircase and into Missy's room. She couldn't believe her eyes.

“Oh my gosh Missy!” Samantha shrieked. “You like Barbie too!”

Missy looked up from where she was playing with her dolls.

“Of course I do, all seven year old girls like dolls, right?”

“Yup, especially this girl,” Samantha said and plopped down next to Missy.

A couple hours later the girls were having a blast in each other's company. They were giggling and having a great time.

“Time for dinner,” Mrs. McSchmitt called up to the girls.

The girls ran down as fast as lightning.

“Tonight we will be having... Pickled pork knuckles!” Mrs. McSchmitt announced excitedly.

“Pickled pork knuckles,” both girls said with different levels of enthusiasm.

“Bon appetite,” Mrs. McSchmitt exclaimed and they all dug in except for Samantha.

“Excuse me, Samantha asked as politely as she could, would you mind giving me something else to eat?”

That one question completely changed the mood of the evening.

“Sure sweetie, I'll make you a PB & J,” Mrs. McSchmitt said with a hint of bitterness in her voice, but Samantha paid no attention to it and just smiled and said “Thank you.”

That night, the girls fell asleep very quickly. In the morning Missy woke up only to find Samantha asleep next to her. So Missy silently crept out of the bed and brushed her teeth in the bathroom. When she got out what she saw scared her so much, she cracked the mirror with her scream. There Samantha lay covered in blood running from her head to her toes. Her eyes open in shock and her mouth hung open in a scream that never seemed to escape her mouth. The odd part was everything in the room seemed to be in place, untouched. The very second her dad heard the scream he appeared in the doorway.

“Daddy, Missy cried, what happened to Samantha?!”

Mr. McSchmitt took in the bloody body on the floor and the look of horror on his daughters face.

“I don't know honey, but we'll get to the bottom of this,” Mr. McSchmitt reassured. In the back of Mr. McSchmitt' mind he was wondering who could have possibly killed such an innocent, young girl.

“What's going on?” Missy's mother mumbled sleepily.

“Open your eyes mommy, somebody killed Samantha!” She cried.

At that moment they heard sirens outside their house.

“Who called the cops?” Mr. McSchmitt asked the look on his face as if someone had just punched him in the gut.

“Open up it's the cops!”

Missy's dad bent down and dipped his hands in Samantha's blood.

“Daddy what are you doing?!” Missy asked in alarm.

“I'm taking the blame,” and before they could argue he ran down stairs and turned himself in.

One week later...

Mr. McSchmitt was half heartedly picking at his meat loaf. He stared longingly out the window in his jail cell regretting the day they decided to move from their quiet little town in Idaho. He looked around him in his jail cell and felt a pang of self pity. He once again looked outside, this time something strange caught his eye. There seemed to be a little Barbie doll, mistakably like his daughters, perched on a nearby tree swinging its little legs to and fro. Its blonde hair was all tangled, and there seemed to be a red substance, just like blood, on her hands and face. At that moment the Barbie doll cocked its head, turned it abruptly towards him, and gave him a murderous smile. That's when he knew.