On Halloween night, a girl named Lucia walked alone into the misty forest outside her village.
While others laughed and traded sweets, she searched for something far older — the Moonshadow Pumpkin, said to grant one true wish beneath the full moon.
The forest whispered to her.
“Turn back… turn back…”
But she kept walking, holding tightly to the memory of her mother’s smile.
Her wish was simple — to bring her mother back to life.
In a clearing, she found it: a giant pumpkin glowing faintly under the moonlight.
A voice rose from within.
“To return a soul, another must be given. Do you accept?”
Lucia closed her eyes. “Take mine,” she whispered. “Let my mother live.”
The moon vanished behind clouds.
When light returned, Lucia’s mother awoke in the village cemetery — alive once more.
But at home, she found her daughter lying still, a small lantern in her hands.
Inside, the flame shimmered softly, like a heartbeat.
Since then, villagers say that every Halloween night, a gentle light flickers deep in the forest —
the eternal lantern, where a mother and daughter meet again beneath the moon’s quiet glow.
4580
