Scary Stories (Shadows of the night)

Cassandra Withersby

Thomas Cook was one of the most happiest people in the town of Palistine. Every day he would go around the town, whistling on his beloved blue bike, deliver milk bottles to each of the houses and then go back to his loving wife and dog.

Everyone loved him. He was just so friendly and optimistic that you could never not smile when you saw him. Although he was quite poor and often had to cope with money problems, he would keep his famous grin on and would never let anyone know how he was feeling.

The thing that filled his life with joy the most was children. He loved them so much. They were so eager and friendly and they loved Thomas as much as he loved them. Every day children would call out to each other over the fences 'Tom is here!' and would rush out to see what gifts or candies he had brought for them.

Every child was so happy and so loved except for one little girl. From the last house to his house, Thomas had to go through a narrow street which was only occupied by one house, her house, Willow Cottage.

He would see her in her front yard, sitting by herself on a swing with a shovel next to her or digging in the soil. She would look up, wave at him and he would wave back but other than that there was no other interaction between them.

One day Tom was going back home after a day of hard but happy work. As usual he looked up to see if his little friend was there. He was about to wave at her when he stopped, parked his bike and turned his whole body towards her. She was there, sitting on the swing but she looked so sad and lost in thought.

Tom felt a pang in his heart. He hated to see any child look so sad, especially her, since they were distant friends. He decided to go and see what was wrong and try if possible to help her. He went through the old, brown fence, passed her beautiful, victorian house, came to the old oak tree which the swing was attached to and he kneeled down on the ground and looked up at her. She was looking down and had not noticed him yet.

"Heyy" Tom said "What's wrong kiddo?"

She looked up, startled, then quickly smoothened her pretty frock and fixed her pigtails then she smiled at him.

"Hi, sorry I didn't see you. There is nothing wrong, nothing at all." she said.

Tom knew immediatley she was lying because he could see her eyes watering and she was avoiding his eyes.

"You don't have to lie, am I not your friend? If you tell me what's wrong then I could help you."

"You would?" she said doubtfully. Tom nodded and then held her tiny hands in his.

"Thank you so much! I'm upset because I've lost something." she said.

"Lost something? Lost what?" He asked.

"Something very precious to me. For many weeks, I've been digging at the soil, trying to find this thing but now I-I-I don't think I'm going to find it." She faltered and started crying again.

"Hush, hush, hush, don't cry. Tell me where did you lose this thing." he asked.

"Well I know, Its somewhere within that rectangle I've traced." She said, pointing to a rectangle with so many holes within it that it looked like there had been a mole invasion.

"So lets start over there." Tom said and he picked up one of the extra shovels next to her, took her hand and led her over to the rectangle. Pointing he said "That seems to be the only space which hasn't been dug up so lets try over there."

So they both started digging in the soil, stopping to take a rest occasianally and smiling at each other a few couple of time but never really talking to each other

"So, what is your name. I'm Thomas by the way but call me Tom" He said leaning on his shovel.

"Cassandra Withersby" she replied

"Thats a pretty name, Where are your parents, Cassandra?" He said, concerned that the girl was always here alone. "I've never seen them."

"They are out." She said with a tone clearly indicating that she didn't want to talk about the subject anymore and continued digging. She yawned, streched her back then rubbed her eys. She looked exhausted Thomas thought.

"Do you want to take a nap for a while?" he asked. "I could finish digging for."

"Thank you so much! You don't know how great a favour you are doing for me." She said and she stretched herself again, then lay down on the soft grass next to the rectangle. Only after a few minutes, Tom could hear her snoring softly.

Such a sweet girl he thought, I hope that we do find what ever she is looking for. She seems to think it very precious. I wonder what could be so good about this thing. Tom started digging furiously in the soil. He so wanted her to be happy.

After a couple of hours, Tom felt the shovel hit something soft. Excited, he looked over to Cassandra who was still sound asleep. He decided not to wake her up and show it to her as a suprise. Afraid that shovel might break the object he put it away and got down to his knees and dug with his hands.

He dug, dug and dug and then, he unveiled the object. He looked at it with astonishment and fear. Then he looked at Cassandra and he ran for his bike, mounted it and pedalled away as fast as he could.

After and hour or so, Cassandra woke up. She looked around to see if her friend was there, but he wasn't. She stood up, looked down on the ground, upset. Suddenly she spotted the thing she had been looking for so long. She whooped in delight, bent down on the soil, quickly wrote something on the ground with her finger. She then stood up, brushed the soil out of her palms, placed her hands on her hips and read what she had written, "Here lies the body of Cassandra Withersby. May you rest in peace." And with that she disappeared into thin air and was never seen again.