The Hanging Man's Ghost

Have a spooky or creepy story stuck in your head waiting to get out? How about something scary or freaky that happened to you that you can't explain and you've just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell? Well, now is the time, this is your chance!

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Entries due by October 15th

The Hanging Man's Ghost

by

Chandra Haun

The cracked sidewalk gave the young girl a crooked smile as she slowly headed up to her new house. Her shiny black dress shoes stumbled up the creaking old wooden stairs leading to the front porch. The old wooden door leading into the house caused her to shudder. Something just did not feel right.

                The parents opened the front door with excitement. They did not seem to feel the sudden rush of freezing air. The small girl hugged her pink coat tighter to her body. Now inside the house, the little girl was overwhelmed with fear; it was fear of the unknown.

                The girl dragged her feet as the mother lugged her up the stairs. With every step she took, her fear increased. When they reached the landing at the top of the stairs, the mother turned to a carved oak door to the right. As the mother opened the door, a sinister carved face stared down upon them.

The little girl looked inside and screamed at the top of her lungs.

                Inside was a man in his early thirties, hanging from the ceiling by a noose, made from a white bed sheet. Nearby, on the floor laid a little boy about the age of eleven. There was blood splattered all over the room, and in the hanging man’s hand, a blood knife. The scene was truly horrific for a young girl’s eyes. The mother turned around to find out why she screamed, because she saw nothing. When the girl looked again, the room was empty, but the image was etched in her mind.

                The first night in her new room was uneventful for the little girl. The second night, she awoke from a deep sleep with the shadow of a man standing over her, watching her. This happened more frequently on dark, stormy nights. The spirit seemed to draw extra energy from the storms.

                It was not until one particularly stormy night, the little girl overwhelmed by fear woke up to find the strange shadow as usual. This time something was off. That is when the cloud covering the moon moved. Thus, the moonlight reflected off a metal object in the shadows hand. The little girl screamed in horror.

                The parents ran into the room and turned the lights on. The little girl was completely alone. There was no trace of the mysterious shadow except the bloody knife now stuck in the floor next to the little girl’s bed. The parents left that very night with the girl, leaving the shadow to wait for a new family to find its next victim.