Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2022
Elementary School Winners

Second Place

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Our second place winner is third grader Levi Mills, a homeschooled student from Hillsboro, Oregon.

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The Cursed Necklace

by
Levi Mills

One day, Bo and Rori were going on a walk. “Let’s go home before mom gets angry,” suggested Bo. When they got home, their mother was putting on a wedding dress. Rori thought it was beautiful, and stopped to admire it! Ignoring the dress, Bo encouraged Rori to go outside. There, as planned, stood Jeff, who was tall, skinny, and had 103 freckles. [He had counted them three days ago.]

They gathered their stuff for the wedding. Bo, Rori, and Jeff hurried into the car. Their mom drove them five miles east, which is the way to Ghost Hollow, where the wedding should be. On the way to the wedding, they passed a dark, gloomy wood. Suddenly, the sun disappeared. Squeak, crunch, snap! The car had broken down!

Everybody jumped out of the car. Fizzle, pop, ka-boom! An explosion happened, and they were thrown away from the car. Without warning, a ghost, which looked really spooky, swooped down and grabbed Jeff. He picked him up and flew away.

“Hey…stop,” shouted Bo. Bo and Rori scurried after the ghost. Rori tripped and fell on a rock. Bo helped her up. “We’ll never catch the ghost, who took Jeff now,” worried Bo.

“We’ve got to try!” Rori replied boldly. So they kept chasing the ghost. Suddenly, the ghost flew through a tree, and Jeff hit the big tree falling down. The ghost stopped and whispered something.

“What did you say?” panted Bo.

“You have to be out of the forest before dark,” repeated the ghost, “and you may not return before it is light.”

“Or what?” questioned Bo.

“Or your friend will be cursed and turn into a ghost,” he laughed wickedly.

Shivers creeped up Bo’s spine as he considered the words of the ghost. “Come on, Jeff,” he breathed as he helped Jeff to his feet. Groaning, Jeff despairingly stood.

“The wedding should be north,” claimed Bo.

“How do we know which way is north?” asked Rori.

“You get compass,” hissed somebody from behind a tree.

“Who’s there?” called out Rori in an anxious voice.

“ME!” chortled a ghoul appearing from behind the tree.

“How do we get the compass?” moaned Jeff, thinking that a ghost was enough trouble and now they had to deal with a ghoul as well.

“You pay,” he replied.

“With what?” Rori asked with an unhappy voice, growing impatient.

“This,” the ghoul whispered, pointing to Rori’s priceless necklace which had been in her family for over three hundred years.”

“A-a-anything else?” Rori stuttered.

“No, maybe don’t want compass?” questioned the ghoul.

“Fine… yes,” signed Rori as she took off the necklace and gave it over to the ghoul.

The ghoul ominously muttered something into a shell-shaped telephone.

“What did you say?” Bo persisted in asking.

“Nothing…nothing,” he whispered.

Grabbing the compass, Bo exclaims and points, “That’s north,” as he attempts to set off in that direction.

“What?” shouted Rori. “That way is farther into the forest, and we don’t want to go that way.”

“But it’s also the only way to the wedding,” retorts Bo.

“No, we should go to our parents first, and then to the wedding” Rori pleads.

“Fine! First, we return to the car to find our parents, and then we head to the wedding,” Bo agrees.

Pointing, Rori states, “South is that way. Let’s head that way towards the car.”

“Wait, what if the car is east…or west?” Jeff moans.

“We have to go to the wedding,” declared Bo. “Aunt Ruth or Uncle Joe can drive us to the car and pick up mom and dad, hopefully. Then, they will drive us all back home.”

In twenty minutes time, they reached the wedding. Bo asked Uncle Joe to drive them back to the wrecked car to pick up mom and dad. Jeff waits with Aunt Ruth because he fears the ghost’s curse and won’t go near the woods. Upon reaching the car, Bo and Rori discover their mom and dad dazed and unharmed from the explosion, holding a priceless, red necklace…

Continue to the 1^st place story

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