Short Story : The Night of the Ghosts
( Horror Story)
By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri . All Copyright Reserved 2009
Finally the weekend. Neele had been looking forward to this evening for a week. And now her friends were standing at the door armed with backpacks and sleeping mats, all grinning from ear to ear. It was the very first pajama party of their lives.
Maja, Maria and Ayla stormed in and immediately made themselves comfortable in the children's room. The mats were rolled out and sleeping bags unpacked, while outside the sun was just disappearing behind the horizon and it was slowly getting dark.
The girls were now sitting on the floor in their pajamas and nightgowns, eating mountains of snacks and watching an exciting ghost film.
"Should we try that too?" Neele looked around and saw lots of question marks in her friends' eyes. "We'll do it like the children in the film. We'll summon ghosts."
The girls were unsure. Watching scary films was one thing, but getting to know real ghosts was something completely different.
"Come on. We just have to think of a summoning formula. Then it will work out."
It took a few minutes, but finally Neele was able to convince her friends. She thought for a moment and took a young adult novel about sorcerer's apprentices from the shelf. She leafed through the page a little and at some point tapped it with her finger.
"Here's something." She read a few sentences with words in a foreign language that none of them understood and then started again from the beginning. Maja, Maria and Ayla joined in. The girls held each other's hands and formed a circle.
Suddenly the ceiling light began to flicker and went out after a few seconds. The four friends were startled and flinched. Silence filled the children's room. The girls all held their breath.
In a corner under the ceiling a small light became visible, floated into the middle of the room and then slowly settled between the girls, who immediately began to scream.
The door was thrown open. Neele's brother came in with a flashlight. "Are you all OK? Why are you screaming like that? The power just went out."
Neele pointed to the light and said it was a ghost. Her brother came closer and looked at it. "You didn't seriously think a firefly was a ghost. You're very easily spooked."
He carefully picked up the little beetle and brought it outside.