"The Tearing of the Sky" by Anna Simmons

For many years, no one knew exactly what happened in the little town of Silver Springs long ago on a dark and gloomy October night. No one would know, seeing as no one survived. Up until recently, the village was a ghost town, everything the same as it had been that night, when the air was torn and the people disappeared. There were no bodies, no clues, but the people were never heard of again.

The wind blew fiercely at Leah’s back as she hurried home from the Halloween party at Silver Springs Middle School. It was a dark night, even though the full moon was shining above the trees.

            A gust of wind came up, making the trees groan and the dry leaves fly from gutters. Leah pulled her thin jacket tighter around herself. It started to rain, so Leah ducked underneath the overhang of an old building to wait out the storm.

            Suddenly, she sensed that she was not alone. She spun around, but she could see no one. She heard a sinister chuckle, and cold fingers grabbed her, pressing her against the wall. The cold spread, chilling her body and numbing her mind. She tried to scream, but the cold enveloped her and dragged her into a sea of blood and evil. She was briefly aware that she was not alone in her misery, that she was surrounded by millions of screaming ghosts, before she was thrown under the waves and she fell unconscious against the cold cement sidewalk in the town of Silver Springs. 

            The goblin with the hands of ice grinned wickedly, then slipped away into the night, dragging Leah’s chilled and lifeless body behind him. From the darkest part of the forest he set out to find his next victim. All around him his brothers were at work, selecting only helpless mortal humans as their prey. No one in Silver Springs would remain alive past that fateful and horrible All Hallows Eve. Only a lonely chained dog was around to see what happened later that night. At midnight a great bolt of energy and power slashed through the sky, recalling its goblin slaves and their prey. It had been hungry, but it was now satisfied. The dog howled sadly for its master, and in the howling there was a message of grief, a message that no living creature was around to hear.

Remember always what happened back then,

It happened once, it will happen again.

Even though it has never been seen,

Evil aplenty feasts on Halloween.