Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2007
High School Winners

Third Place

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Our third place High School winner is Richie Leng, a student attending the Revere High School in Revere, MA.

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The Silver Amulet

by
Richie Leng

Frank was a quiet, old man that lived on the banks of the Chucktaw River in his hometown of Salem. He lived all alone; people rarely visited or passed by his house because it was so remote from everyone else. However, those who have come across his house out of curiosity know the horror of Frank's tormented life. His house, it has been seen, as been haunted for four generations of his family, each bearing the curse of the Silver Amulet. This amulet has been known to attract ghosts of the highest being, ones that do not know man from woman, good from bad, children from adults. Their stories are told as a reminder of their pain, and about those who are bearers of the Silver Amulet.

Frank's great-great grandfather Abrahem was the first to come across the Amulet two centuries ago. At the time, he was a humble farmer in the Southern France working off the land to feed his family. After marrying his wife, Marletta, he was eager to get her a wedding present. However, Abrahem was poor and could not get around to selling enough of his possessions or finding the work to get one, until he came across the house at Lectur's Manor, located a mile from his farm. He was offered a job there, working to buy Marletta the gift she wanted. One day, upon arriving at work, he was met by a bone-chilling wind carrying the cacophony of screams from within the mansion.  Abrahem rushed toward the screams, which were getting louder and more strung out, and found that they were the not the voices of any human. Inside of the Manor's front door was the body of the oldest, only living descendant of the Lectur family, Alabaster Lectur. Realizing what had happened, he fled from the house as quickly as he could.

Abrahem returned to the manor a couple of weeks later, during the winter months of the year to find out that he was included in Mr. Lectur's will. Among the people there, he realized that he was the only one that wasn't of high class, the prestige of his society. They were lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats fighting to get the property that was Lectur's. Ironically, he had been given the house and a silver amulet in the will; it was a blessing for his family and his future. He realized that he could finally give the amulet to his wife as a present. Lectur's lawyer had explained that because he was the only one that really worked around him, he left his two most important properties to him. He was also told that Alabaster would be coming back to get his possessions back… Why would he need it if he died? He went back home and told his family; they were ecstatic.

Three months after moving into the house, Abrahem's wife Marletta was pregnant. It was their first child, and they were hoping for it to be a boy. In the meantime of her pregnancy, he was working to make sure his child had everything he needed to be successful; he worked multiple jobs, owned a business in his spare time, and he eventually became rich. Abrahem had very high hopes about the rest of his life; he and the rest of his family will never have to work again. It seemed as if Alabaster's good fortune, along with his house, had been passed over to him.

In that eighth month of Marletta's pregnancy, she fell ill. They visited a doctor that night when they discovered that she had to have her baby immediately or else it would die. For the next two days, she was in agonizing pain to the point that the doctor thought they both were going to die. Lightning and torrential rain stormed the town. Marletta writhed in pain as she delivered the baby. The doctor pulled the baby out of her womb, but the baby wasn't crying, it was laughing. Something wasn't right. This baby was speaking; it spoke in a very familiar voice but couldn't put a name on it. Abrahem realized who it was, but couldn't believe it. He knew why the Amulet and house was given to him. Alabaster Lectur was coming back after all.

Continue to the 2^nd place story

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