The night is thought of as buckets of candy and kids in costumes, where small ghosts and vampires get to explore the neighborhoods and cause mischief. For me it's a completely different meaning. It's a night where I get to walk among the living. From the full moon to the lit jack-o-lanterns, this is a day I pride myself on getting the one thing I look forward to each year, revenge. It was sunrise, my time to shine. I start walking down the street to my old house to see who resides in it this year. I feel so human, it's such a nostalgic feeling. You really don't understand how much you miss the little things you used to see everyday when you're dead. The first thing I smell was always my favorite, the fall leaves. Oh, the sweet sense to hear them crunch under my 140 lb body again. I was 18 when I was killed on Halloween. By a girl I thought I loved, turns out it wasn't the treat I thought it was. Now here I am. That's a completely different story for another time, right now I get to be human again and feel what they feel. As i'm walking I look over and see kids running down the street excited for the events that are leading up to tonight, and I look over and see a cart of what used to be my favorite thing, candy apples. I grab one and take a bite and an instant sweet flavor fills my mouth. Oh how I've missed this. The first few hours of all hallows eve I get to walk around and do everything that a normal 18 year old would do, then when the sun sets I unleash the rage that's been built up for 20 years. Most people think ghosts are nice, not me. I would've been 38 this year, probably with a family and a good job, nice car. The things that most teens think of. But that was taken from me, a long, long time ago. Reminiscing on the past just fuels my rage so I take off and start the night early. I start looking for the people that wronged me. While running I remember where I had been this time last year and made a sharp turn left to the graveyard. When I get there I get the smell of roses. I look around and all the graves have fresh flowers, it's not like anyone cares. They just do it for that old folktale that the dead rise out of their graves on Halloween night. Which I guess isn't a complete lie but still. I walk over to a patch of blue lilies and drop to my knees to start digging. I made sure this year I would have the things I needed to finish this once and for all. So they were forced to feel the way I felt. A few minutes of digging I come across an old shoebox, I carefully open it and find my old wallet, a bottle of whiskey, and a machete. First thing I do is open my wallet, and look at it again. Joshua Williams, age 18, born November 4th 1982. The thing I pulled out from behind my old license was the thing that always tore me up, my obituary. I look at it for a few minutes reading it over and over again before finally burning it. I won't need it anymore after tonight. I'll finally be at peace. I turn and sit with my back against the cold, hard gravestone and break the seal on the whiskey. I take the first sip, bittersweet. In a previous life I'd get yelled at for this by my parents but now there's nobody to tell me what to do, not anymore. I take another big gulp and wipe my mouth with the end of my sleeve and start to get up when I realize that she's standing in front of me. The girl who killed me even before I was dead, Jessica. She was older now, but she was still gorgeous. I would have given anything to love her for the rest of what would've been my life. I still looked the same age that I was when I died, so I'm sure she'd never recognize me. I get up with my things and tuck the machete in the pack of my pants while I make my way over to the exit. I waited for what felt like forever and whenever I looked in she was still at the same gravestone. Part of me wondered who It was, maybe her parents? Oh, well It didn't matter to me anymore, she deserved this. As she turned to leave I ducked back onto the outside wall and waited for her to walk out. I hear the clacking of her heels on the pavement and as she turns the corner she looks directly at me. Did she recognize me? I looked into her eyes and she was crying. Who was she seeing? She continued looking at me for another few seconds and sniffled, " Sorry sir, excuse me". She turned around and just kept walking. For a second everything around me went black and for just a second, I could hear my heart beating again. I snapped out of it and I turned to follow her and stay behind so she wouldn't notice me. I followed her back to her house and waited outside, it was still the same house she lived in when she was little. It was a beautiful light blue two story house, kind of older looking now that it's older but it's still the most beautiful house on the block. It doesn't matter though, I sat there waiting for the sun to set and begin the night. As I watched the sunset, it reminded me of all the things I could've missed over the years. My parents, my friends, my school. It started to make me think of all the things that I even could've missed as I grew up. When the sun sank I knew it was time to finish what was started. I went around back to her backdoor and jiggled the knob lightly, to my surprise it was unlocked. Why would it be unlocked on such a dangerous night? I pushed open the door and went in quietly, I found my way into the living room, where she was sitting on the couch. I stood and slanted myself up against the archway and crossed my arms. She knew I was there, she knew I was coming. She stood up and looked directly at me, "Hey" I looked at her in disbelief that that's all she had to say. "You recognized me," I said with a straight face. Her eyes started to fill with tears, "How could I not?". I walked over to the chair in the corner and took the machete out of my pants and sat down with it on my lap. "What did you expect was going to happen tonight?" She sat down on the couch and looked down at her hands, "What was supposed to". That's good that she knows, that makes it simpler on me. I take my fingers and run it across the blade of the machete and look at her. "It wasn't meant to hurt you it was a harmless prank, well it was supposed to be" she looks up at me with tears running down her face and I just look at her in disbelief. "A prank?!! He SHOT me in my neck!! Tell me how is that supposed to be a prank???!!!" She stands up and pours herself a glass of vodka, sits back down and takes it all in one drink. "The gun wasn't supposed to be loaded, it was just going to be blanks and it was just meant to scare you, trust me I've regretted it ever since it happened". I knock over the lamp sitting next to me and I hear it shatter but I don't take my eyes off of her. "Right, it doesn't even matter anymore because after I'm finished here I'm going to get your "buddy" or whatever you guys called each other". She chuckles a little bit and sighs, "You don't have to worry about him, he already is gone, he died two years ago, in a car crash". I sat there stunned. He got away. It's not fair. "I visit you everyday, earlier when you seen me. I was visiting your grave. I put fresh flowers there every week." I look up and see her staring down at the single rose in her hand. "You had that chance a long time ago and now is when you chose to make it right, after everything I did for you and here I am, dead. I would've given anything to marry you and make you happy but you chose him over me and now look at me, forced to walk the earth once a year and see all that I missed, All my loved ones gone." That was her final straw, she broke down into tears, " You'll never understand how sorry I am and how long I wished I could right this, to take it all back," Rage flew threw me, I hurled the machete at her and it just barely grazed her head and stuck into her wall. She stared at it with her mouth wide open, I jumped up and grabbed her by the throat and shoved her into the couch, "Liar". She looked at me and reached up and kissed my cold dead lips. I tried to pull back but it's like I was glued there and wasn't able to move. After another few seconds it turned into a minute or two and I was able to move again, I threw myself back and hit the mantle behind me. As I sank to the ground, she came up to me and crouched down and whispered in my ear, "I've always loved you and I wait on this day every year doing the same thing hoping that you come back so I could make it right". I was still stunned she kissed me and it did something that was now unfamiliar to me, My heart felt like it was warm like I was home again with her. Like I still loved her. Of course I did. "Take me with you" I looked up and she was looking directly in my eyes as she said it. "What?' I knew what she was asking but I couldn't do it. "No." She knew what I was going to say. "This could've been a happy life if I was still here and I'm not taking you to the other side with me". She looked at me and by now she was sitting on the floor with me, she had the most beautiful green eyes I'd ever seen and yet I forgot them. "I loved you then and I love you now, I want to be with you wherever you are, for the rest of eternity" I got up and walked to the liquor cabinet she had, I can't make her live a life like that. I poured myself a drink and chugged it. I set the glass back down on the table and turned around to find her laying on the floor foaming at the mouth. I jumped over the couch and instantly hit the ground with my knees beside her. I scooped up her head into my lap as I realized I had been screaming her name. She looked up at me, " I loved you then, I love you now and you wouldn't do it so I did" A small smile appeared on her face and she looked at me and cupped her hand around my cheek. I couldn't cry because there was no emotion for people like me, not her, she was too good for this life. I looked at her and kissed her one more time, as I looked back at her face, a single tear rolled down her cheek and fell into my hand. She was gone. Again I was alone. Forever now. I sat there and held her for what time I had left of this night. I held her close to where my heart should be for what seemed like forever. As I sat there with her, I heard a faint whisper behind me and I looked up to see her. She came back to me. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She was 18 again and looked even more beautiful than she did before. "Hey" She looked at me and smiled. I ran and picked her up and twirled with her in my arms. "Why would you do something like that, this isn't a life you want to live, roaming around as a spirit for the rest of eterni-" She put a finger over my lips and kissed my cheek. " I came back to you to live the rest of eternity with you, no matter where, wherever you are, it's where I wanna be" As she said that the clock struck 12. It was time to go home. By now I would have disappeared but for some reason we were still there. I looked at her and as she looked at me a bright light hit us right in the eyes. I knew what this was. I- we were going home, with everyone else. She was the other part of me I had to wait for. I wasn't lost anymore. We looked at each other and smiled, I looked down and grabbed her hand and together we walked into the light. Home at last. 119Please respect copyright.PENANADyg28oFti3