A Night to Believe

It was nearly 5:30, and Shannon was still rummaging through her closet for something to wear to the party. Derek had invited her, Brianna, and Holly to his friend’s Halloween party on the other side of town. Oddly enough, none of them except for Derek had even met the guy who was throwing the party, but it didn’t matter. Shannon was just glad that something was actually going on in a town as boring as Marblehead.
As she threw the contents of her closet onto the floor, she heard her parents getting ready to leave with her younger sister and brother, Alyssa and Evan. Shannon didn’t know how many more years Alyssa and Evan would be trick-or-treating since they were 13 and 11, respectively, but she appreciated whatever time she got to herself.
The phone rang suddenly, interrupting Shannon’s wandering thoughts. She heard someone running up the stairs. Seconds later, Alyssa knocked on the door and reached out to hand Shannon the phone.
“It’s Derek,” she said. “He needs to talk to you about the party.”
“This better be good,” Shannon muttered as she took the phone.
“Hey, Derek. What’s up with the party?”
“Well, actually, there isn’t a party anymore,” Derek answered.
“What? Why not? What happened?”
“Tyler said his grandfather is sick and he’s going out of town with his parents to help them take care of him,” he explained. “They’re leaving now. But we can still do something with Holly and Brianna.”
Shannon grumbled. “Like what?”
“Well, I was thinking that we could check out that old house that Holly lives near. I’ve heard some pretty freaky stories about that place.”
“Are you serious, Derek? What if someone sees us?”
“No one’s gonna see us. Most of the neighborhood is made up of families with little kids, so they’ll all be out, and we’ll just blend in with the crowd!”
She stayed silent, trying to think of a valid argument to counter his. Nothing was coming to her.
“Please? Come on, it’ll be exciting,” Derek coaxed. “We’ll be watching to make sure no one sees us go in.”
“Fine, I’ll do it,” she agreed reluctantly. After seven years of friendship, Shannon still hadn’t completely resigned herself to the fact that Derek could convince people to do just about anything. Her head involuntarily dropped in defeat.
“Yes! I knew you’d come around!” he exclaimed.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, you weirdo. Have you asked Holly and Bri about this yet?”
“Obviously. They take more work than you do, so I called them earlier. Meet us at Brianna’s house at six-fifteen.”
“Jeez, you have everything planned,” Shannon said sarcastically. “All right, I just need to finish getting ready and I’ll be heading out.”
“It’s a plan. Later, Shan.”
“Yup. See you in a few,” she said before ending the call. It was a bad idea to acknowledge that Derek had rhymed something with her name. If he knew she hated it, he’d never stop.
Well, there’s no party to dress up for now, Shannon thought to herself. She slowly walked over to the pile of clothes on the floor and began picking them up. When she finished, she shut her closet door and let out a sigh of relief. Her family had already left, so she could walk out the door without an interrogation for once.
Shannon remembered to lock the door, as always, if she was the last one out. She started up her deteriorating turquoise Corolla and backed out of the driveway. Ten minutes later, she pulled up to Brianna’s house, headed up the walkway to her front door, and rang the bell.
“Coming!” Brianna shouted from inside.
The door opened seconds later to reveal a nervous-looking Brianna with Holly standing close behind in the dimly lit living room.
“Hey, Shan! Come on in,” Brianna offered. “Derek’s not here yet, so Holly and I were just hanging out.”
Shannon stepped inside, hung her denim jacket on the coat rack near the door, and walked over to sit next to Holly on the couch. They talked and watched T.V. while they waited for Derek to show up.
When the bell rang again five minutes later, Brianna rose from her chair and opened the door to find Derek. Then she slammed it and smiled widely at the laughter that erupted from Holly and Shannon. Derek banged on the door and yelled, “You’re all chickens! That’s why she slammed the door in my face!” The girls laughed even harder as they grabbed their coats and met him outside.
They had agreed to walk to the house in an effort to blend in with the trick-or-treaters. Brianna took some candy from her house for them to share on the way. She turned to Shannon and held out a piece. Shannon refused.
“What? You love candy!”
“I know, but I had some before I went to your house, and now I’m all candied out.”
“I don’t believe you,” Brianna replied. “I think you’re nervous!”
Shannon shook her head and ignored the comment. For the rest of the walk, Shannon and Holly occasionally looked behind themselves to see if anyone was watching. They were aware that a bunch of teenagers not dressed in costumes might draw attention, but no one seemed to be looking.
Finally, they turned the corner onto the street where the old house was located. The wind was beginning to pick up, causing some of the trees to shed their last leaves. The house was coming into view on the right side of the road, but Holly noticed a few children walking by with their parents, so they slowed their pace until the group had passed. The four of them glanced around one last time before stepping onto the front lawn and approaching the stairs.
Shannon led them up the stairs and onto the porch that wrapped around the tan Victorian house. She had been here in passing while visiting Holly a few times, and remembered that the door was on the left side. One of the hinges had broken decades ago, so the door was always partly open, but most of the locals had no idea.
“Here we go,” Shannon declared as she pulled on the door. She stepped into the hallway and gasped as she walked into a row of cobwebs.
“Shan? What’s wrong? Are you okay?!” Brianna whispered loudly in the dark.
“Fine. I just walked into some stupid webs.”
“Here,” Holly said. “Take my flashlight.”
“Thanks,” Shannon replied.
They walked to the end of the narrow hallway and entered the living room. The wooden floors creaked loudly underneath them. The room was empty aside from a nightstand to their right with a dusty lamp on top. Shannon focused the light on a winding staircase about ten feet in front of them and approached it.
“Ups-s-stairs?” Brianna stuttered.
“Sure, why not?” Derek asked. “We must be able to get to the widow’s walk that way.”
“Oh, great,” Brianna mumbled. “Scene of the haunts.”
Everyone in Marblehead knew that the widow’s walk was where Evelyn Spencer had kept lookout every evening after her husband, William, had gone out to sea. He still hadn’t returned when she died years later, and rumor had it that some of the neighborhood residents saw Evelyn’s restless spirit on the walk at night.
Despite Brianna’s objections, they ascended the stairs until they found themselves staring at a painting of Mrs. Spencer on the wall. Shannon clutched at the necklace she was wearing when her eyes fell on the painting. Mrs. Spencer was depicted with the same necklace that Shannon’s grandmother had given her years earlier. Shannon stared at it for a moment longer and then turned and aimed the flashlight to reveal another hallway.
Derek walked past her and held out his hand for the flashlight. Shannon handed it over and then followed him into a bedroom off the right side of the hall. Lots of furniture had been left in this room. Holly spotted a small bookshelf next to the door and squinted to see if anything was on it.
“Derek,” Holly called. “Give me the light for a sec.”
She skimmed the top shelf with the light and found nothing, but discovered an old journal lying on the second shelf. She picked it up and flipped through the fragile pages. Most of the writing had faded over time, so Holly went to the most recent entry.
“Guys, look! I can actually read this one,” she announced. “It’s from September 16, 1894.” Shannon, Brianna, and Derek crowded around Holly as she read. “I can’t see everything, but Evelyn wrote something about losing a valuable necklace with a small diamond on it. She says it was the last thing aside from her wedding ring that was a constant reminder of William,” Holly summarized. Shannon absentmindedly touched her necklace again.
“Oh, that poor woman! She must have been so lonely without…” Brianna trailed off. She glanced toward the windows at the sound of tree branches scraping up against them.
“Yeah,” Holly agreed.
She returned the journal to its shelf and headed back out to the hallway. They passed two more empty bedrooms and a bathroom before reaching the den. Holly pointed the light around the room and found a few ragged chairs, a desk, and more bookshelves. These were much larger than the one they had seen in the bedroom and were filled with books about sailing and trade, along with photo albums of the Spencer family.
The moonlight fell onto the desk, catching Shannon’s attention. She noticed another small book with William’s name on it. She lifted it and, like Holly, turned to the last page, which was dated August 23, 1882. William had written that he would set sail for the Caribbean the next day. Shannon’s heart ached when she realized that Evelyn had waited for him for over twelve years.
Derek regained possession of the flashlight and aimed it at the right side of the den, revealing another narrow hall.
“Let’s go look,” he said.
They ended up near a window with a door to the left that led to the widow’s walk.
Derek opened the door and stepped carefully onto the walk. He assessed its sturdiness and nodded to his friends. Brianna went out and followed the walk around to the left side of the house. Shannon and Holly weren’t far from Derek when they heard a frantic scream and a crash immediately after.
“Brianna!” they yelled, racing in the direction of the noise. They turned the corner and found her grasping at the lower part of the walk railing as her left leg dangled through a gap in the planks.
“Help me!” she screamed. They cautiously lifted her away from the gap.
“What happened?!” Shannon demanded.
“Guys, I swear I saw Evelyn! Then I turned to run, but I tripped and my leg knocked a board out,” Brianna explained. “She was right there!”
Holly and Derek stared at each other as Shannon made her way back to where Brianna had been. She unclasped her necklace and called Evelyn’s name, but there was nothing.
“Evelyn, please come back,” she called again. “I know you’re here. I have something for you.”
Suddenly, the wind blew and lifted the necklace into the air from her hand. Shannon trembled.
“Thank you,” a soothing voice whispered. “William will be pleased that I have finally retrieved his last gift to me.”
“Y-You’re welcome,” Shannon stammered, still searching for the spirit. “I’m sorry that you waited so long for William and your necklace. I don’t even know how my grandmother got it!”
The voice laughed quietly. “Don’t worry, child. I have it and can go in peace because of you and your friends. I will always be thankful.”
Shannon wiped a tear from her eye. “We’re glad we could help. Are you leaving now?”
“I must, but I’ll be watching over you. This is the best Halloween treat I’ve ever gotten.”
And with those words, Evelyn finally rested.