Spirited Away

October 31st. Halloween. You’re walking home. It’s dark. You hear a noise behind you and spin round, heart thumping. There’s nothing but the empty street, a crisp packet blowing along the gutter. You pick it up and stuff it in a nearby bin, laughing at your own jumpiness. Halloween is just an excuse for a party, a cultural tradition born out of Pagan superstition and modified by Christian mythology. It’s not real. It’s just another night.

But then you catch a movement out of the corner of your eye. Something dark and shadowy which disappears down a side road before you get a proper look. Your first instinct is to run, to seek the warmth and security of home. But, no! You refuse to give in to irrational fear. Humming your favourite tune under your breath for comfort you decide to follow.

You find yourself at the entrance to Martineau Gardens, a large sign announcing their Halloween Story Night. Did the creature head in here? Paying the £5 adult entry fee you slip inside, looking around for the ghostly figure. Ignoring the hot soup and other refreshments you join one of the groups of visitors heading off on a ghost walk round the gardens, listening to tales of spirits and fairy-folk in the flickering firelight. There’s no sign of the mysterious apparition.

But then you see it again, leaving the gardens. You pursue it relentlessly, turning corner after corner until you arrive at the Botanical Gardens. They too are having a Spooky Stories event, with visitors invited to dress in their spookiest costume and carry a lantern to light the way.

With all these spine-chilling apparitions, you have no chance of finding the shadowy creature you were following, so instead you decide to stay and join in the spooky fun.

Published in My Moseley and Kings Heath, October 2015.