The following story is my participation in:
Hosted by Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist
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Here is the story..............
There were four sisters.
They were very, very close from the time they were small. Their Mother was a widow and they were her world.
Emaline Baxter, a great Aunt, had come for a visit intending to stay for a week but circumstances dictated she make her stay permanent. It was October 31,1865.
She cooked, cleaned, played piano and read many books. It was a large 2 story home with a lovely garden. It was a lot to take care of but she didn't mind.
Josephine, the girls mother, spent many hours standing in the garden. But every year at a certain time she would wander off in the night. Emaline knew where she would go so she would leave a lamp lit for her return.
But the girls spent most of their time in their own little world. Their mother loved them more than life itself and they loved her.
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One night Helena, Amelia and Rose asked Ruth to tell them one of her ghost stories. They lit some candles for the perfect ambiance.
Ruth was very dramatic and could be quite expressive. Changing her voice to a whispery, drawn out cadence befittting a ghost story, she began.
"There is a graveyard that it is not marked with filigried iron fences or a grand entrance. There are very few headstones. It is said in the days leading up to Halloween they glow in the night hidden among the trees that are silhouetted against a dark, foreboding sky. The branches move with the night wind as if they are reaching for something.....or someone. On those days the moon glows nearly full."
"Every year a woman appears in the graveyard so fraught with sadness that her weeping can be heard echoing in the cold, night air."
"It is said she can be seen near one particular headstone and the nearer she gets to it the more mournful her cries become."
"On one such night a little girl was wandering around in the graveyard wearing long, white night clothes. She seemed almost gleeful and would skip about even though there were old branches and bramble scattered about the ground. It has been said there was an eyewitness who heard rhyming......but once the eyewitness recounted what they had seen and heard......the eyewitness was never seen again.
candle, candle burning bright
Raise your flame and burn the night
Let the sky be orange with flame
And relieve her of her constant pain
and with that the girl touched a lit candle to a branch setting it on fire. She moved about using her candle to light more fires and on she went until a full blaze had begun.
A great scream could be heard........the mournful woman was trying to fight against the flames now engulfing the area. She was using her body to protect the gravestone as if she were a shield."
"Soon she was swallowed up by the intensity there on the spot"
Rose interrupted "I hate this part". The others nodded in agreement.
Ruth continued anyway.......
"The people in the nearby village saw a great orange glow in the sky and soon everyone was running to investigate. As they got closer to the old graveyard they could see a fire was raging yet it didn't seem to go beyond the area. With flames that intense it wasn't traveling in either direction. Someone thought they heard a woman scream but could not get close enough to be sure.
"Look," a man said, look over there, I think I see someone", the townspeople followed where he was pointing and sure enough in the heavy smoke there appeared a figure."
"They could hear the sound of a child rhyming and in no time the smoke began to dissipate, the raging flames were all but out and when it cleared the figure became visible. It was a little girl carrying a candle, she was not burned and in her hand was a candle. As quick as they saw her she was gone."
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Ruth stopped the story.....she was sniffing the air as if she were a bloodhound.
"What are you doing? Why did you stop?", Helena asked.
"Why are you sniffing around like that?" Asked Rose.
"Don't you smell that? It smells like something is on fire". The sisters thought this was all part of Ruth trying to frighten them but soon it became quite apparent there was a smell of smoke. It was getting more and more intense until it began to make them cough and choke. Suddenly everything around them was filled with smoke and they could feel the heat of fire coming from outside.
Suddenly the girls looked at one another and asked almost at the same time, "what day is it?"
It was Helena who answered...
"it's October 31, 1875".
*****
On Halloween, after they were sure the fire was completely out a few of the townspeople ventured back to the scene. A lone woman walked over to a headstone, semi hidden by the trees, it was not touched at all by the fire save for a bit of soot. She took out her hankie and wiped it down as best she could. Attached to the stone was a statue of a little girl, a little girl wearing a nightgown.
Aunt Emaline bent down and picked up some ashes and sprinkled them over the headstone and then folded some inside her hankie. She then reached on top of the stone and picked up the burnt remains of a photo and gently tucked it in her coat and walked away.
I think it's time to close up the house now she thought to herself as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
*****
~THE END~
or is it.........
Rise up now from the burning flames
Earthen tremors and winds that gust
Give rise to her ashes, reunite their dust
Written by me, Lisa Swifka
