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For 15 year old Taylor, her Halloween started out like any other. She met up with her friends, Cassie, Sophie, and Landon, at the local pizza place to discuss their plans for that evening. It was the same as previous years except for one thing: they would go into the graveyard at midnight. Taylor was hesitant at first to go but decided that she can only do it once and that the consequences wouldn’t be too harsh, unless, of course, the police caught them.
So the group of friends left the pizza place to get ready for the upcoming events that were to be had. Taylor returned to her home to put on a witch’s costume which she had customized to fit her style. It was black with Lake Michigan blue down the middle, right where her stomach would be. Her hat was black with stars the same color as the fabric running down the middle of her dress. The personal touch that she added to her costume was a white belt with an emerald green thunderbolt stitched on.
Taylor returns to find her friends at the “secret” spot only known to them, the tree house in Landon’s backyard. All of them discuss their customizations to their costumes and why they put did it the way they did. They once again discussed the plans of the evening just as the sun set behind the clouds of the crisp autumn night. Taylor mentions it’s quite beautiful, almost like the sun is exploding. Then they set off for their destinations.
The first destination is the local haunted house put on by the local kids and their parents. They decide to give a tip to help give them something to offset the debt that was put into creating the house.
The girls go in and scream at every possible creature that jumps out at them. They get done going through it and talk about how scary it was and thank the kids’ parents for letting them go through. They set off for the ice cream shop, but on the way, they talk about a scary story they’ve heard that was supposedly true. Taylor doesn’t believe it and so they set out to the ice cream shop to talk about it further.
The four friends each get a different flavor of ice cream, one of which was pumpkin pie. They further discuss the details of this story to try to convince Taylor that it was true.
She doesn’t believe them and Landon says, “If you don’t believe it, we’ll show you!”
Landon pulls Taylor out of her chair and marches out of the ice cream shop to head to the nearest cemetery, the Stygian Emerald Cemetery.
It may only be a two block walk but to the group of friends, it felt like an eternity. Maybe it was the way the moon shone out from behind the clouds or else the day itself, but either way, the friends were fearful of what was lurking in the shadows.
It’s nearly midnight when they walk into the cemetery. Taylor walked in with Landon grabbing a hold of her by her costume and stepped onto the grounds of the grave plots and suddenly fear strikes her.
She screams to Landon to let her go but he replies, “You didn’t believe us before so you’re going to go through with it and believe us now!” The earth begins to tremble all around them and she’s instantly horrified, as well as her friends for they didn’t believe such a story was true.
Out of the depths of the earth came this creature so gruesome, so disgusting, it was hard to look away. It wore a black cloak, like those that monks would wear, and the way it draped over the creature, was like a billowing sheet in the wind. Underneath the cloak, it had topaz eyes that could paralyze its prey, and vampire teeth so sharp, they could bite through granite like a knife through butter. Its skin was green and had holes where it was ripped away from its many fights with its prey.
Cassie, Sophie, Landon, and Taylor had no clue as to whether they should run away or stand their ground. Cassie, Sophie, and Landon shrieked and started to run from the cemetery when they realized Taylor was nowhere near them. They decided to run back and get her, but when they saw her, they were shocked and puzzled by what Taylor was doing: she was defending herself with her belt!
Taylor had no idea what she was doing, but she believed she could somehow defend herself from the creature that was now coming towards her. She walked towards the creature with the belt at chest level and far from her body. As she walked, the creature crept closer and closer until they were a mere five feet apart. She could feel the breath coming off the rotting body and hoped the next move would save them all. Taylor turned the belt so that the emerald thunderbolt was now pointing towards the gruesome creature and wished that it would return to its home for all of eternity and suddenly it was gone!
When Taylor’s friends saw what occurred, they ran over to Taylor and thanked her for saving their lives.
When they asked her why she did that, Taylor replied, “I thought that my belt had some special power thanks to the thunderbolt I added. I just believed in my old good luck charm and wished that that awful, hideous creature would return home for all of eternity. I guess I shouldn’t have given it up because it sure did come in handy, didn’t it?”
Her friends gaped at her and nodded. They agreed not to tell anyone about what happened on that very night and headed to the warm comforts of home to believe that monsters don’t exist.
