They say that on Halloween night–or All Hallows’ Eve, as her older brother would always call it–the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. “And if you happen to be near one of those thin spots–watch out!,” Craig would excitedly tease. “A ghastly ghoul just might reach out and get ya!”
Her brother would snatch at her arms and legs and they would both laugh, but deep down inside, Cora would shutter. And with this remembrance in mind, on this crisp and bright Halloween afternoon, the clever little girl decided to take the long walk home from school, effectively avoiding the small graveyard on Oak Street. “Just in case,” she assured herself. “Just in case.”
As Cora walked along the tree-lined sidewalk in the brisk autumn breeze, cautiously glancing every so often in the direction where the graveyard lay yonder, her thoughts quickly turned to how she was going to complete the homemade vampire costume that she had finally finished at long last. During recess that day, another fifth-grader talked all about how much her sister’s long, black wig made her look like a real-life, blood sucking vampire. “Why didn’t I think of that?,” Cora lamented, darting her eyes toward the sidewalk and tucking a strand of her strawberry-blonde hair behind her ear. She couldn’t recall ever seeing a strawberry-blonde vampire!
Just then, something in the corner of her vision caught her eye. Through the thick, overgrown grasses and bushes that sprawled out toward the walk at 6 Brook Street, Cora saw something that stopped her right in her tracks. An old, black, tattered lace material hung still in front window that lay just beyond the tangled lawn. The house was long abandoned, and although Cora couldn’t recall ever knowing of a family that lived there, the place didn’t seem particularly creepy or terribly run-down, especially in the bright fall sunlight.
Cora, instantly recognizing the black lace as the perfect veil for her costume, was pulled eagerly toward the house without a moment’s hesitation. Consumed by the excitement of her thought and the lure of the final piece of her costume, she didn’t notice that as she came nearer to the house, the sky became gray, and all of Brook Street’s sounds shrunk down to a barely-audible, far away whisper.
By the time Cora felt the first shiver of a chill tingle down her spine, she already had one hand on the doorknob. She paused and looked up but could see the black lace clearer than before, just on the other side of the window. Cora knew that the only thing standing between herself and her veil was a 30 second dash in and out of the place. “The door won’t even have time to swing closed behind me,” she encouraged herself, as she pushed the door open and skirted on into the foyer in one swift, fluid motion.
No one ever saw little Cora again. In the weeks, months and years that passed, the whole neighborhood was scoured for any trace of poor Cora, but none was ever found. That house was searched over and over again all throughout the first year of Cora’s disappearance, but all anyone could find was an empty, old house.
Some say that on All Hallows’ Eve, they can see a faint image of a young blonde girl in a long black veil appear in the window at 6 Brook street. Others have claimed to have seen other things in the window, too–not just any old things, but needed things, like the last baseball card Tommy needed to complete his collection, or a pair of sunglasses that looked just like the ones that Julie lost the week before.
So remember, this Halloween, as you carefully step to avoid black cats and keep away from graveyards on All Hallows’ Eve–no one ever knows where the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. And if you happen to pass by a thin spot, and feel an unusual lure tempting you onward, resist its charms. Lest you should end up like poor Cora, and be trapped in the world of the dead forevermore.