Stake ID : sjabi
The Lantern at Hollow Creek
Every Halloween, the town of Hollow Creek held a tradition no one dared skip: lighting a lantern and placing it outside before midnight. The rule wasn’t written anywhere—there was no law, no warning sign—but everyone knew it. Houses that forgot?
No one liked to talk about them.
This year, 14-year-old Mira felt brave, or maybe just stubborn. Her older brother teased her for believing in “old-town ghost stories,” and she refused to be scared by superstition. So she stood at her window watching lanterns flicker to life across the neighborhood like fireflies being born.
But Mira didn’t light one.
By 11:59 PM, wind scraped across her window like fingernails. The night felt heavy, too still—like the whole town was holding its breath.
Then came the first knock.
Slow. Hollow. Like wood tapping on bone.
Mira’s heart jumped. She peeked from behind the curtain. A tall figure stood at the end of her walkway, wearing an old-fashioned cloak and holding a dim lantern. The light inside flickered unnaturally—cold, bluish, like moonlight trapped inside glass.
Another knock echoed…yet the figure did not move.
Mira’s breath turned shaky. She thought of every Halloween story the town whispered—of lost souls wandering, guided only by unlit porches, taking one in exchange for the light that wasn’t given.
She scrambled to the closet, grabbed a dusty lantern her grandmother once owned, and with trembling hands struck a match.
For a moment, it wavered, almost refusing to burn—then whoosh, warm golden light filled the lantern.
She rushed to the door, cracked it open, and set the lantern on the porch. Warm light spilled into the cold night air.
Silence.
The figure lifted its pale lantern, tipping it as though in acknowledgment.
Then it disappeared—no sound, no footsteps, no trace.
Only the wind returned, gently shaking the trees.
And with it, the distant, relieved sigh of an entire town exhaling in unison.
The next morning, Mira found a single candle where her lantern had been placed. Burnt low, but still softly glowing—and cold to the touch.
Attached was a scrap of parchment that read:
“Light for the living.
Silence for the forgotten.”
Mira never skipped the lantern tradition again.
And on Halloween nights, when she sees the pale glow drifting far beyond her yard, she whispers a quiet thank-you to the darkness…
For passing her by.