| |
The Icy Phantom of New Orleans
NewYorkKids.net presents
an original Halloween story
Please help others by
forwarding this page to a friend.
A stream of eager tourists fills the
city. The scenic old French quarter has been coated in filmy white
webbings and wisps of straw. Either the city is preparing for a
party, or the spiders have been hard at work. A one eyed pumpkin
winks at Sasha as she hurries through the crowd and bumps into a
large and toothless man. He leers down at her and groans, the green
skin on his neck bulging out strangely, as he offers a hand to help
her up. Sasha takes his hand gingerly, feeling the human warmth of
his touch.
|
|
The streets are full of costumed tourists who have
started to celebrate a little early. Sasha adjusts her long, flowing
black dress. Later tonight she will be dancing her heart out at the
vampire’s ball, but for now, she is content to tour the city, and
considering the occasion, she decides to start at the old cemetery.
A stream of eager tourists fills the city. The scenic old French
quarter has been coated in filmy white webbings and wisps of
straw. Either the city is preparing for a party, or the spiders
have been hard at work. |
A one eyed pumpkin
winks at Sasha as she hurries through the crowd and bumps into a
large and toothless man. He leers down at her and groans, the green
skin on his neck bulging out strangely, as he offers a hand to help
her up. Sasha takes his hand gingerly, feeling the human warmth of
his touch. The streets are full of costumed tourists who have
started to celebrate a little early. Sasha adjusts her long, flowing
black dress. Later tonight she will be dancing her heart out at the
vampire’s ball, but for now, she is content to tour the city, and
considering the occasion, she decides to start at the old cemetery.
|
|
In the heart of New Orleans lies the crypt filled
graveyards called, ‘the City of the Dead.’ Stone pillars rear up menacingly
against the dusky sky. In bright daylight it was an eerie and impressive place,
but now, as night falls it begins to seem like the stuff of horror tales.
The guide turns to Sasha and with deadly
seriousness he tells her that they have to leave. The specters will grow
restless in their graves and rise out of their stony tombs to haunt the living.
The man pauses at a chalky tomb, the epitaph
reads, “Here lays a woman who froze to death to prove her love.” Legend claims
that a poor young woman had fallen in love with a rich and well bred man.
They soon became involved but the noble man
thought she was beneath him so he refused to marry her. The poor girl vowed to
prove that she was not beneath him and that she was worthy of his love.
|
She
climbed up the steep stairs to the roof, all alone, and held her
arms open to the wind. A fierce wind whipped up but she ignored it.
A terrible storm rolled in and she was pelted with shards of icy and
heavy rain but still she would not move. If she survived the storm,
she thought, her noble love would be so impressed that he would
propose at last.
Meanwhile in the warmth of his home, the noble
dismissed her threat as empty silliness. In the morning he regretted
their argument and tried to find her. His heart pounded when he
remembered her silly vow, and he raced up her stairs. She lay on the
roof, soaking wet and deathly pale with her hand outstretched as if
to take his hand. The man fell to his knees and wept, knowing that
his vanity had killed her.
|
 |
And now the legend claims that as soon as the weather begins to
turn, she rises from her grave and stalks through the empty streets,
forever trying to prove her love. Sasha doesn’t believe in ghost in
the reassuring light of day, but standing in the shadows of the
crypts listening to her guide’s cracked, dry voice a little shiver
runs down her arms.
The guide hurries away to the bright lights and
roaring music of Bourbon Street. Sasha turns eagerly towards the
exit, but just as she does she |
catches a flash of white skin against
the falling darkness. She whirls around, but all she sees is the
reflection of the bright moon on the tomb stones.
Dusk has fallen on Halloween night. And the French quarter fills
with laughter, jazz, colorful costumes, and candy which rains down
from garlanded balconies. A sea of costumes and roaring music
mingles together, creating an atmosphere of lively joy. And yet, the
faces are ghoulish and strange. More than a few devil horns and
skeletal faces meet Sasha’s gaze but after the fright she’s had, she
welcomes the trick-or-treaters, the glow sticks and the fake
Halloween soundtracks.
In the bright lights and the safety of the crowd Sasha shakes her
head at her foolishness. For a few moments she actually believed
that the wraiths were wriggling free to celebrate with the living on
the streets of New Orleans. And then, the crowd shifts and Sasha
sees a whispy girl, with long white hair and icy skin. The pale
woman turns to her with glassy eyes and asks, “Does he love me yet?”
|
|
|
