Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2015
Middle School Winners

Second Place

The Key

by
Diya Dasgupta

Don't you find it quite comical when a line of events as long as a trip around the entire world is formed from a single object? Take for example a key. Why a key? Well, because it just cannot get any more basic than a key - or can it? Just read on...

A key can open millions of things - like a door. Like a door, to a brand new house for a family. A family that has a child going to school who learns the trumpet. A child who pays for trumpet lessons at his new school. A school that uses these extra funds to send children on a school trip. A school trip to a witch training site located right next to an eerie forest.

An eerie forest with trees that have melted, screaming faces engraved in the bark, along with blood stained leaves that constantly rustle and whisper queer chants. An eerie forest that an innocent as well as an unsuspecting boy gets drawn (or dragged) into and... disappears.

A disappearance that draws out a scream that makes the boldest shiver; a scream that alerts the ravens that dinner is ready. The ravens that inform the people as they glide by, that another will be going up. A going up that leads to mourning and numerous black outfits.

Numerous black outfits that makes shops rich. So rich, they decide to get some new employees. One employee, in particular, is a mother with a caring husband and child. A mother with a child who plays the trumpet and has just moved into her new house. A child who takes much enjoyment in boasting about his mother's new, high paying job. A child who is currently having constant, mind- numbing, bone-trembling drop-ins by a blood-streaked boy.

A blood-streaked boy who tells the tale of how one day, he will take great pleasure in dragging this child, who plays the trumpet, into the eerie forest. For this child, who learns the trumpet, is the reason why an innocent, unsuspecting and now a blood-streaked boy had to go up.