Poor Little Boo

Posted by Tess Egerton in Children's Stories, Short Stories      No comments

Sep
2

One cold dark evening in October, Little Boo was floating home from scare school and looking forward his tea. Mum caught his little ghost hand and turned to him excitedly. “Boo” she said, “do you know what night tonight is??”
“No?!” replied Boo curiously. He could sense something good was planned for the night ahead.
“Tonight is Halloween!” cried mum with a great big grin! And this year on Halloween, daddy and I are going to take you on your first ever spooking expedition!!”.

“What’s Halloween? What’s an expedition?” asked Boo becoming very excited all of a sudden. “Well” explained mum, “Halloween is the only night of the year when we ghosts are allowed to come out at night and make mischief! Our expedition is an adventure where we can visit other people’s houses, walk through walls and surprise people for fun!!”
“Oooh, that sounds wonderful” gasped Boo, becoming more and more excited by the minute.
With that, mum and Boo bumped into daddy ghost, who was waiting around the next corner with a goody bag of ice-burgers and spook juice to keep them happy on their night’s adventures. “Hello Boo”, smiled dad “are you ready for our trip? Now remember, follow mum and I, copy what we do and remember to stick close and don’t wander off on your own!” Boo listened excitedly and agreed.
Mr and Mrs Spook and little Boo then prepared for their evening by curling themselves into vaporous waves and gliding off down the next available dark alleyway. They floated happily along the cobbled streets until they found a nice large house with a big chimney. “Follow me Boo” giggled dad “this’ll be fun!” and with that, dad turned into a wisp of smoke and flew down the chimney at top speed! He was quickly followed by Boo, then mum. Inside the house, a little old lady sat by the fireplace knitting away happily with her black cat at her feet. All of a sudden, Mr and Mrs Spook and Boo spiralled out into the fireplace wailing and moaning eerily. The little old lady had such a fright, she threw her knitting into the air, grabbed her cat and hid behind the sofa shaking. The three ghosts collapsed in a fit of giggles and disappeared. “That was so much fun” shrieked Boo with delight “again, again, oh please mum and dad, can we do another one straight away?”
Mum and dad grinned. “Ok, they agreed” remember, stick close to us.
The three ghosts moved on lightly along the neighbourhood and next came to a small house with a jack-o-lantern in the window. When they peered inside, there was a man on a ladder painting the walls and ceiling. Immediately, Mr Spook saw the mischief to be had and tapped the window. All three ghosts pressed their faces against the glass and frightened the man so much he fell off his ladder, taking the white paint with him. On the floor the poor man was covered in white paint and still looking shocked and shaken. “” Hahaha , goodness me” cried Mrs Ghost “ that man looks more like a ghost than we do”! All three ghosts wibbled and wobbled with laughter.
All throughout the night, the Spook family continued their adventure, scouring the neighbourhood for people to surprise and scare. They popped out from behind lamp-posts, they leapt out screaming from rubbish bins, they floated eerily through walls and they squealed with delight each time they sent another sorry victim flying off into the night with sheer terror.
Near the end of the night, Boo was becoming tired, but still wanted more fun. “Am I good at this mum and dad?” he asked.
“Oh Boo- you’re a natural” they replied. This gave Boo more energy for a little more spooking. He decided as a last treat, he would show mum and dad how good he was by spooking a whole family by himself! On the next street, mum and dad floated on in anticipation of finding one last big prize for the night. Just before they reached the next house, Boo ducked back and floated through the closed door of the nearest house. Inside, the house was full of pumpkins, plastic ghosts, animated witches, furry stuffed black cats and rubber monsters. Boo could hear laughter and merriment coming from behind a wall close by. This would be his chance he thought. He’d creep up quietly then appear suddenly, shrieking his best ghost cry and make the whole party flee through the front door! Wouldn’t mum and dad be proud of him?
Boo started to puff up his chest into his best scary ghost image, he growled his best growl and charged at the wall. On the other side Boo couldn’t believe is ghostie eyes! He was greeted by the sight of the most hideous monsters, scariest witches and creepiest goblins he’d ever seen. They all took one look at Boo and growled back very loudly indeed. Boo instantly fled from the room, not looking back once and disappeared in a puff of smoke up the nearest chimney. Once outside, he hurried to find mum and dad who had realised he’d left their sides and had started to look for him.
” Boo!!” cried mum. What is wrong? Where did you get to?” Boo stood in front of his parents, shaking and shuddering like never before “I, I I only wanted to make you extra proud of me,” he stammered “ I saw the worst monsters ever!” . Dad laughed and pointed to the house Boo had fleed.
“That’s the Gargoyle’s house Boo- every ghost worth his spooking badge knows that they have huge dressing up competitions every year to see who can look the scariest! All haunting is banned from that house little one. “
“Ohhh”, said Boo sadly, hanging his head “I’m never going to make a good spook!” . Mr and Mrs Spook looked at their tired little ghost and felt so sorry for him.
“You are already a great spook Boo” said mum kindly. “You already frightened us by disappearing!”. The three ghosts laughed and boo hopped onto dad’s back for the short ride home, tired but full of memories from his first, eventful Halloween.