“You came,” whispered a voice like wind through bones.
This Halloween felt different. Heavier.
She turned. The figure wore no costume. It wore Cara’s own face—paler, older, with hollows where joy used to live. Cara in Creekmaw -Halloween 2024- By Ariaspoaa
The fog rolled into Creekmaw just after sunset, thick as old linen and twice as cold. Cara pulled her cloak tighter, boots squelching on the rain-softened path. Lanterns flickered from crooked porch posts—carved pumpkins grinning with secrets rather than light. “You came,” whispered a voice like wind through bones
Instead, she took the mirror, shattered it against the sycamore, and whispered the town’s oldest prayer: “Let the dead walk one night, but let the living leave by dawn.” She turned
From its pocket came a small mirror, rimed with frost. In its glass, Cara saw Creekmaw as it truly was: drowned church steeples, lanterns floating on black water, children waving from beneath the soil.
Cara stopped at the crossroads where the old sycamore split toward heaven and underworld both. Someone had left a wreath of dried marigolds and black feathers at its roots. She didn’t touch it. She knew better.