We open our a story on the night before Halloween, in a cemetery in New York City where there was once a ghost named Annabeth. Annabeth had long, dark brown hair and wore an ankle-length white sleeping gown that went down to her toes. Annabeth was planning on leaving her grave on Halloween night, because that is the only time she could leave. Her plan was to find a house where there were children trick-or-treating. And once she found her victim, she would take him to be her “forever friend.”
When midnight struck, she went to all of the different ghosts to brag about her plan. Every year, the ghosts have parties to celebrate their freedom. Ghosts were listening to a song called “We’re Free.” They were doing the monster shuffle, eating chicken, ribs, deer, and more meat, and drinking ectoplasm. But really Annabeth didn’t celebrate, mostly because she was excited, and because she wanted to get some sleep to save her energy for later. All the ghosts were bugging her about joining, so she stood to eat and then went to back sleep.
The rest of the ghosts were watching “funny movies,” but funny movies for them were horror movies. Three o’clock in the morning came, and Annabeth woke up because the ghosts were laughing so loud. In the movie, a woman went into her closet because she was woken up by a loud thud noise. When she opened the closet doors, a horrible monster snatched her into another dimension. The ghosts found that very funny. Annabeth didn’t like watching horror movies. Usually, Annabeth read some books when she was bored. When she could go out of the cemetery, she wanted to get a tablet like a Kindle Fire to read more books. Her superpower was to read five books in one day. She could also make cartoons come to life.
The ghosts finished their movie at 3:45 a.m., and they all decided to PARTY! Annabeth made The Amazing World of Darwin come to life, because the ghosts begged her so they could party with the cartoons.
At 4:30 a.m., they all crashed out: ghosts on tables, in trees, and on the floor with chicken bones coming out of their mouths, sleeping.
When they were sleeping, Annabeth left the cemetery. She was not allowed, but what did she care? She was already dead. So she went to the park. She thought about why she couldn’t make friends easily. So she decided to change herself—not her look, but her image.
When she came back to the cemetery, the ghosts were screaming and saying, “No NOOOOOO!” They were running and flying around like they’d seen a death-eating ghost.
Annabeth said, “What’s wrong?” They did see a death-eating ghost. Mael-Paexinus was his nickname. Every 50 years Mael-Paexinus would awaken and he would be super duper hungry.
His power was fire, and he was ENORMOUS! He would steal ghosts to store in a dark pit. Annabeth and the rest of the ghosts were flipping out. Mael-Paexinus was from the 1800s, and he had a brown hat, brown leather jacket, and dark black pants. He had long black hair to his shoulders and a scary, dirty face. So of course they were scared of him. But Annabeth left because she wasn’t going to let an old ghost get in the way of her big plans.
Annabeth went out of the cemetery and into the park. She met a girl named Kiana Nutty Nutty Pecan. Kiana had brown hair and wore it to the side in a ponytail.
When they saw each other, they introduced themselves and Annabeth sighed, “I have a hard time making friends.”
Kiana sniffled, “Me too. People think I’m weird because I read Captain Monsterpantseven though it’s awesome!” That made them realize they weren’t so different.
Annabeth laughed, “That seems pretty cool.”
They talked for hours (OK, an hour), and became friends. Annabeth learned that you don’t need to take children to be your friends. You have to make your own friends. Annabeth didn’t know why Kiana was in the park at 4:30 a.m., and Kiana didn’t say.
So Annabeth asked, “Why are you in the park at 4:30 in the morning?”
Kiana said, “Me and my mom had a huge fight on what to eat for dinner, so I stomped all the way to my room, locked my bedroom door, thought about it, and ran away.”
At 5:00 a.m., Annabeth told Kiana about the death-eating ghost. They headed back to the cemetery where Mael-Paexinus was destroying everything.
Kiana said fearfully, “OK, bye!” but Annabeth grabbed her arm and pulled her back. They stepped up to Mael-Paexinus and she shouted, “Stop destroying everything!”
He replied, like a smarty pants, “What is it to you?”
Annabeth said, “This is my home. Why do you have to be so angry?”
Mael-Paexinus said, “Because I’m Mael-Paexinus!”
Annabeth grabbed Kiana’s hand. She said to Kiana, “The power of friendship can break him!”
Annabeth knew that Mael-Paexinus hated friendships. Many ghosts tried to stop him, but when they did Mael-Paexinus quickly got rid of them. Annabeth and Kiana grabbed each other’s hands, so did the rest of the ghosts, and they chanted, “FRIENDS FOREVER FRIENDS FOREVER FRIENDS FOREVER!” That broke him.
Mael-Paexinus screamed, “NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!” and his eyes lit up, and so did his mouth. Mael-Paexinus quickly shattered into pieces like broken glass.
After that, the sun came up. Everyone was safe, and they cleaned up everything and stopped the fires. Annabeth told Kiana to go back home to her mom and apologize, and told her, “Next time dinner comes, you go buy Mickey Monald’s.”
When Kiana got back to her house, there were police cars everywhere. Kiana tapped on her mom’s shoulder. Kiana’s mom turned around, grabbed and hugged her, and started crying. So did Kiana. Kiana told her mom she met a ghost who had to go back to the cemetery. Of course, Kiana’s mom didn’t believe her, but she thought it was cute Kiana had imaginary friends, so she let her go back.
Annabeth never took another child again.
From the 826CHI Student Publication: The Monster Gasped, OMG!