You would have to go back to the first year of 31 Ghosts to get this far into October without me splitting up a story! And, to be fair, I could probably hammer this one out, but I have laundry to fold and a bed calling my name. I’m not taking a day off like Allison here is, but maybe what passes for a day off in October! But let’s get this started…

The black mist flittered under the door into Allison’s bedroom. As she slept, the mist coalesced into an enormous dark form that began to move forward towards Allison’s sleeping figure. As it moved glowing red eyes developed and the form seemed to solidify into a hulking black form that leaned down towards her. The figure stooped, its eyes just inches from her face.

With a gasp, Allison opened her eyes, face to face with the being.

“Goddamnit, Carl!” she bellowed and shoved the figure away with both hands. “What did we talk about?” she demanded, sitting up in bed as Carl staggered back. “One, that’s just creepy – you can’t be getting in people’s faces like that!”

Carl opened its mouth, but Allison cut it off.

“Ah! No! No Exceptions.” Carl’s dark misty shoulders slumped. “And, Two,” she enumerated, “I told you and the rest of the spirits I’m taking the day off!”

This time Carl opened its mouth and produced a sound like rusty gears grinding.

“You thought I was kidding?” Allison drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Why,” she started carefully and deliberately, “would I kid about that?”

Carl said something in that metal grinding voice.

“It’s precisely because it is October that I’m taking a day off! With the veil getting thinner before Halloween you guys are driving me crazy! You’re inviting all your half-formed friends over to talk to your medium friend while they can!”

Carl grated out something.

“Yes, I know I said that was okay, and it usually is. But I reached a breaking point last night when that mummy crossed over and started getting dust everywhere–”

Carl cut her off with the grinding metal sound.

“Yes, ‘mummified person’ is the correct term for actual remains. Was your dust spewing friend actual remains?”

Carl squeaked.

“No. So, Mummy.” Allison looked at the clock. “It’s three in the morning! I need to get more sleep. You go tell the rest of the entities here that I’m taking a vacation day and not to be disturbed!”

Carl squeaked something.

“No, there’s no emergency. You’re all dead or summoned by who knows what. One day isn’t going to kill, err, re-kill any of you. Now go!” She pointed to the door. Carl turned and skulked begrudgingly towards the door. “Tell the others! Do not bother me for the rest of the day!”

At the foot of the bed, the glowing black cat that was curled up stretched and meowed loudly.

“No, accept you, Annie. You’re fine.” The cat let out a self-satisfied mew and curled back down. Carl squeaked something and then dissolved back into smoke and drifted back under the door. Allison let out a huff as she settled back down into her pillow, hoping she would be able to get back to sleep.

She needn’t have worried, as the next thing she knew, sunlight streamed in through the window. Allison stretched and looked at her clock, “Crap!”

The ghost cat mewed its displeasure at being awoken.

“Sorry, Annie, but I forgot to set my alarm and I have to meet Mary for brunch. We’re doing a spa day.”

A head poked in through the closed door. “Did someone say ‘spa day’?”

“Jameson, Carl was supposed to tell you all that I’m taking a day off!”

“Oh, he did. I just assumed that doesn’t apply to me!” he said in a haughty tone.

Allison sighed. “Jameson, is your head sticking through a solid door right now?”

“Well, yes…”

“And are you in fact a ghost?”

“Yes…”

“Then leave me alone today!” she yelled and he just barely pulled his head back through the door before the pillow Allison threw at him collided with the closed door.

“Sheesh!” She could hear him curse in the hallway.

“Oh, Annie, is it possible for me to take a day off without ghosts?”

The cat mewed loudly.

To be continued…

It has been brought to my attention (*cough*Akilah*cough) that I might be skewing towards more scary-style ghost stories so far this year and less quirky or funny ghost stories. I had every intention of adding a quirky or funny ghost story tonight… but I also really want to get to bed before midnight tonight. So, you’re getting a short and scary story tonight. Sorry/not sorry.

As the credits rolled for the second episode of season two of “Loki” Davis was feeling pretty proud of himself. After all, this was the first time his parents had left him alone for any period of time at night without a babysitter. To be fair, it was last-minute circumstances – Davis’s mom had to work late, and his dad had his weekly poker game with his friends. Sure, there was some hemming and hawing, but Davis felt confident that his sole point of evidence that “I’m twelve! That’s practically an adult” had won the argument for him.

There were a lot of “no’s” he had to abide by (no sugary snacks, no scary movies, no friends over, no, no, no) but overall it wasn’t bad. He made himself Easy Mac and then played Fortnite until he got bored and turned on “Loki.” Overall, it was a completely uneventful Friday night. He didn’t know what his parents were concerned about.

He was about to start Percy Jackson and the Olympians for the thirtieth time, when he heard his dad’s car pull into the driveway and pull to the back detached garage. A few moments later he heard a knock at the front door.

“That’s weird,” he thought, going to the front door.

“Do not open the front door for anyone” was the commandment that echoed through his head as he leaned in to look through the peep hole. It was his dad. He stared straight at the door, raised his hand and knocked again.

What the…?

“Dad, why did you come to the front door?” he called through the closed door.

No answer. Another series of knocks.

“Seriously, Dad, just let yourself in.”

Another series of knocks.

Davis looked through the peep hole again. His dad still stood there staring straight at the door, no emotion on his face. Davis thought it looked like his eyes were all black, but he wasn’t sure if that was just a trick of the porch light or the peep hole lens.

The knocking came again.

“That’s not funny, Dad!” Davis called through the door.

No answer.

The knocks came again.

Now Davis was concerned. Maybe his dad was hurt or something – the knocks were getting pretty insistent. Maybe he should open the door.

“Do not open the front door for anyone,” his mom had said. He focused on the “anyone” part and wondered if his dad was testing him.

The knocks came again, harder now.

“You can stop now, Dad!” he called.

More knocks.

“Dad, stop!”

More knocking.

“Dad!” Davis yelled.

“Davis?! What’s up?” his dad’s voice came from behind him.

Davis spun at the sound and his terror evaporated as he saw his dad as he knew him.

“Dad! You were out on the porch knocking and you had these dead eyes and I wouldn’t let you in and you kept knocking and I remember mom said not to open the door and I didn’t but you kept knocking and–”

“Whoa, slow down Davis. Who’s outside?”

“You are! Well, not you-you. But something that looked like you!”

Davis’s dad’s face went pale, “Oh no,” he said and fished his phone out of his pocket.

“Dad? What’s going on? Dad?”

Davis’s dad dialed a number and held the phone to his ear. “Honey?” he said into the phone. “Yeah, I’m home. Davis is fine, but… they’re back.”

“I want to go on the record saying I hate this idea,” Dave said into his headset.

“Your complaint has been noted,” Simone acknowledged, her face lit by the reflected monitor light in her little Zoom window and reflecting on her tiara. Flanking her were two flickering orange candles for extra spookiness. “Now turn off your room light.”

“Come on, Dave,” Jessica said, her pointy black witch hat extending out of her Zoom window frame. “It’s our last get together before Halloween! This will be fun!”

Dave stood up and vanished from the camera for a moment, then his square went black. A moment later his screen-lit face appeared again. “Better?”

“Much,” Andre answered.

“I just don’t like screwing with this sort of thing,” Dave explained.

“More likely than not,” Maria said from beneath the black antenna hood of her mothman onesie, “nothing is going to happen. I’ve never heard of anyone trying this, so it’s just fun.”

“I still hate this idea.”

A chorus of everyone trying to argue with Dave all at once filled the speakers.

“Hey!” Dave yelled to get everyone’s attention. “I’m still doing it, okay? Chill.”

“Before we get started,” I began, “Simone, are you okay? I saw the Manhattan was getting some serious rain.”

“Oh yeah,” she said. I’m on the fifteenth floor anyway. We lost power the other night, but otherwise it’s fine. “Maria, are you taking the kiddo trick or treating?”

Maria brightened, “Oh my god, I have the cutest bee costume for him! I know he’ll never remember his first Halloween, but I will!”

We all went to college together and after graduation we pretty much scattered to the wind geographically. Five years and one pandemic later and we’ve been trying to keep in touch Zooming together once a week as much as schedules would accommodate.

“So…” Andre asked when there was a pause in our catching up. “How do we do this? I mean for real seances you’re supposed to hold hands, right? We can’t really do that…”

“Well, I don’t think we need to hold hands,” Simone said. “If we all just focus our energies together, we should be able to see what manifests.”

“I mean no disrespect,” Maria said, “but that might have been the most hippie thing I think I’ve ever heard you say, and that’s a pretty high bar.”

Simone flashed a brilliant smile and bounced in her frame. “Thank you!”

I took a moment to appreciate that everyone – including Dave – had dimmed their lights and seemed to be in the spirit. Maybe something would happen after all?

“Okay, everyone ready?” Simone asked.

I could hear everyone taking in deep breaths and letting them out.

“Okay,” Simone closed her eyes, “Let’s all focus on being present. Close your eyes if it helps you relax.”

I’ll admit, I kept my eyes open just to see what everyone was doing. And it did look like everyone was focusing with their eyes closed. So I closed my eyes and focused just on Simone’s words.

“That’s fantastic everyone,” she said in a tone that belied her dayjob as a yoga instructor. When she spoke next, her voice sounded more serious. “Oh spirits of the night, lost souls from beyond the veil, we invite you in to join our Zoom séance and speak with us now…”

Everyone was quiet. I honestly expected some snickering or wise cracking, but the silence felt, I don’t know, intense and almost reverential.

“Spirits,” Simone intoned again, “We invite you to join us and communicate with us—”

Simone stopped talking as the telltale chime of someone joining the Zoom call echoed in the silence.

Now everyone’s eyes were open staring open-mouthed at their screens. A new person had joined our call. Their square was blank with the icon of a person in place of a picture. The name “Jennifer” appeared below the window.

“Jennifer? May we call you that?” Simone asked.

“Y…yes?” a woman’s voice responded.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to kill the vibe,” Dave started, “Jennifer, if you’re Zoom bombing this group…”

“Zoom bombing?” the voice repeated.

“Yeah, dropping in randomly into people’s Zoom calls when you may not even know them.”

“I…I was invited,” she said. “I can go, if—”

“No,” Maria physically reached towards her camera. “Please stay, Jennifer. You’re right, we invited you here…”

“Jennifer,” Simone began in a calm, patient voice, “do you know where you are?”

“Umm… on a Zoom call?”

“Yes,” Simone nodded, “But beyond the Zoom call… are you… alive?”

Silence hung heavy in the chat. Everyone stared at the screen, no one so much as moving. I swear Jessica was holding her breath.

“No,” Jenniferr said sadly. “I’m not.”

“Can you tell us about yourself?” Simone asked.

“Umm,” Jennifer began, “Well, I… oh god,” she gasped. “No! Stay away! Get away from me! Stop! You’re hurting me—” Her Zoom square disappeared.

No one spoke for a long time.

“What in the fuck just happened?” Dave asked.

We ended the call shortly after that. Even after I got off the call, the feeling of a presence was still around. I chalked it up to the weird vibes and whatever that Jennifer girl was all about. I took a hot shower and called it a night.

The next day I got a text from Andre, “Dude, you’re not going to believe this. I was in our department Zoom meeting and someone joined. IT WAS JENNIFER!!! She didn’t say anything and my boss told her to leave. She did. But WTF?!”

I texted Simone, telling her what happened to Andre. “Wow, that’s freaky!” I wrote back that I know, it was really freaky. But she wrote back saying, “That’s not the half of it! I was doing a Zoom yoga instruction with one of my clients and guess who showed up?!”

I stared agape at my phone and Simone’s message. Suddenly the chat notification sounded and I clicked back to the list of text messages and saw the new message was from “Jennifer”. I clicked on the name to see the message and it was just two words, “Help me.”