Nellie's New Year's Story!!!

Hey, so you know the New Year's story contest? Well we only had one entry......by Nellie! (*cough cough my new favorite*) :) So here's the winning entry!!!!!




I was staying up till the New Year at my grandpa's house. Both of us were a little sad because it was our first New Year's Eve without Gram—she had ripped her throat screaming with joy last New Year and bled to death.
The wind picked up suddenly and the lights went out.
“Oh, no,” said Grandpa, rocking back and forth. “Oh, no, no,no.”
“It's okay, Grandpa,” I said quickly. “I know where the candles are.” (My grandfather is extremely low-tech—he has no flashlights, has only bare bulbs for lighting, and has a wood stove for cooking and heating.)
I fetched the matches from the kitchen cupboard, and then got the candle and candle holders from the sideboard's drawer. I lit the candles.
Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one...
And as the clock struck twelve on New Year's Eve, my grandmother, pale, transparent, and blueish, drifted out of the front of the case, singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds under her breath.
My grandmother's ghost.
Then Gram-the-Ghost stopped singing and looked straight at Grandfather. Pointing at him, she said quietly, “I've been having a grand time in there. Ark, ark, ark.”
I stared at her. Gram, singing Beatles songs? Gram, making corny jokes? Gram, who in her life had always meant everything she said one hundred percent? Gram, who had sung only at church? Gram, a ghost?
I'm dreaming, I told myself. I'm dreaming. It got too late, and I fell asleep.
But Grandpa looked straight back and said, “Well, good, Loretta, because you're going to be stuck in there for a long time.”
“Nooooooo,” Gram moaned. “You promised. You promised!”
Grandpa stood up from his Morris chair and roared, “Go back! Go back, Loretta!”
“You promised,” Gram said. “You belong with meeeee.” Gram's voice voice got smaller and smaller. The last thing I heard was, “Come to me” before she disappeared.
Grandpa whirled on me. “Go to bed, Nellie.”
“But—”
“GO!”
I ran to the room I slept in whenever I visited Grandpa, then quickly made a list.
Things Around Here That Are Weird:
Gram is a ghost.
She thinks Grandpa belongs with her. (In the land of the dead?)
He doesn't want to talk about it.
I reread my list, the opened my door a crack. I tiptoed into Grandpa's library and ran my fingers along the spines of the books. When I got to the white leather section, I pulled out all the books on ghosts I could find, and came up only with the following:
Ghosts are the imprints of dead people left here on earth.
Whether ghosts are real is highly disputed.
Often ghosts will kill to get what they want or for revenge.
Ghosts are often treated the same way the Salem witches were.
It wasn't helpful. I knew all that already, darnit!!
I could hear Grandpa snoring. I tiptoed into his room and looked around. I spied his journal, picked it up, and went out quickly. Then, knowing it was wrong but doing it anyway, I opened it up and read the last entry.
Today Loretta's ghost came and said I belonged with her. I don't!! When she was on her deathbed, I said, “Oh, don't die, I'll kill myself if you die!” I didn't mean it of course! But she said, “Promise?” I said, “PROMISE?!” She said, “Thank you,” and died. So she thinks I have to kill myself. But I meant, “Are you crazy?” ! I didn't mean “Yes, I promise.” I wish I could burn her!
I put the journal back and went to bed to think.
Grandpa wanted to burn Gram, or Gram's ghost, I guess. I guess this was what the book had meant about the Salem witches, not that they were feared!
Then I heard anguished cries coming from Grandpa's room. “No!” he was sobbing. “No! Let me burn you! Then you'll be alive again! And I won't have to commit suicide! If I burn you you'll be alive again.”
Okay, so that was what the book had meant.
I heard what sounded like Gram's voice, only very high, very thin, and very haughty. “You promised...or must I kill you myself?”
“No! I didn't promise! Let me explain!” and Grandpa did.
“Oh." Gram's ghost said. "Oh, noooo!”
And then Gram started to wail—a wail that started deep and gradually got higher and louder and more bone-chilling, a wail that froze my blood, a wail to rival that of a banshee.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhoooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” she wailed, and then I heard a puffing noise, like a man smoking a pipe, and then I heard a rushing noise, like wind blowing through the house; and I knew my grandmother's ghost had vanished forever.

GREAT JOB! :) Now I am off to do my STUPID IDIOTIC English homework. Yeah, Mrs. Sarkar, take that! (I've had so much homework it's unbelievable-not much time to blog :( I will when I can, though!)