CHATEAUGAY LAKE STEAMBOAT GAZETTE CO.

The full moon hung low over Chateaugay Lake, its cold light reflecting off the still black waters. Eddie shivered and pulled his threadbare coat tighter as he walked along the deserted dirt road. Dry leaves crunched under his worn boots, the only sound breaking the eerie silence that hung over these woods tonight.

Up ahead, he could see the lantern-lit porches of the village houses, already decorated for Halloween. Jack-o-lanterns bearing twisted grimaces lined the steps, their flickering candles sending spidery shadows dancing across the weathered clapboard walls. From across the lake came the distant sounds of raucous laughter and jaunty fiddle music – the village Halloween party well underway.

But Eddie wouldn’t be joining the festivities this year. His ma needed him at home. She’d caught a nasty cough that kept her bedridden, and his pa was away working downstate. So it fell on him to play the man of the house tonight. At just twelve years old, Eddie felt the heavy weight of responsibility on his thin shoulders.

As Eddie scuffed down the road, he caught a flash of something from the corner of his eye. He paused, squinting into the shadowy forest that pressed close on either side. The wind picked up, setting the bare branches scratching against each other like skeletal fingers. Some small nocturnal animal darted through the underbrush – probably just a raccoon, Eddie told himself. But he couldn’t shake the prickle of unease as he hurried on.

Finally Eddie reached the peeling white gate in front of his house. As he slipped through, a floorboard creaked on the porch. Eddie’s head snapped up. The jack-o-lanterns leered back at him, their flickering light playing tricks on his eyes. Heart pounding, he bolted for the front door.

Inside, the house was dark and cold. His ma lay sleeping fitfully on the rag rug by the woodstove, wrapped in a moth-eaten quilt. Eddie quietly loaded a few logs into the stove, stoking a small fire, before stealing into the kitchen. He sliced some bread and scrambled the last two eggs, frying up a meager supper.

As Eddie sat eating by the woodstove’s wavering light, the wind howled outside, driving skeletal branches against the windows. He suddenly felt very small and alone. What was that? Eddie froze, fork halfway to his mouth. Over the wind, he thought he heard a faint rustling sound from the back porch. Probably just stray leaves blowing against the door, he told himself. But the unease lingered.

Hurrying to clean his dish, Eddie paused at the sink. Through the window above, the full moon illuminated the small backyard in cold blue light. The rusty swing set sat motionless. And yet…Eddie peered into the shadows gathering beneath the nearby oak. Was that just tree branches swaying in the wind? Or a figure standing there, half-hidden in darkness?

Eddie’s heart seized. He stumbled back from the window just as a frenzied scratching erupted on the back door. Eddie yelped, chest heaving. The scratching grew louder, more insistent, like razor-sharp claws gouging the wood.

His ma stirred fretfully on the floor. Eddie ran and threw himself over her. “It’s just the wind, Ma,” he whispered, fighting to keep the terror from his voice. The scratching slowly faded away.

Eddie spent a sleepless night huddled on the sofa, watching the back door by the dying fire’s light. But nothing tried to get in again.

Over the next few days, Eddie tried to convince himself it was all in his head. But he couldn’t shake the lurking unease that seemed to hang over the house.

His ma’s cough worsened, her breathing growing labored. Eddie now had to care for her alone all day before his pa got home from work.

One dusk, as Eddie sat working on figures at the kitchen table, the back door suddenly blew open with a bang. Dry leaves swirled over the threshold, whispering across the worn floorboards. As Eddie rushed to shut it, he thought he glimpsed a dark shape dart across the backyard. Or was it just a trick of the gloom?

That night, he lay awake listening to the autumn wind moaning through the eaves. Sometime deep in the night, another noise joined the wind’s lament. A faint raspy whisper seemed to emanate from the very walls of his room: “Eddieee…”

He shuddered and pulled the thin blanket over his head, singing nursery rhymes to himself until finally drifting to sleep as the fire died down.

Over the next week, Eddie tried to dismiss the strange events as products of his overtired mind. But he couldn’t ignore the feeling of being watched that prickled the back of his neck.

Then one night, his ma took a turn for the worse. As she thrashed in delirium, Eddie ran for the doctor through the dark woods. Sprinting down that twisting dirt road, he thought he glimpsed shapes darting between the trees, keeping pace with him.

The doctor gave his ma some medicine, but advised Eddie gravely. His ma was weak – she may not last the week. As Eddie showed the doctor out, the old man paused on the porch. “You take care now, son. This time of year – when the veil grows thin – the dead sometimes don’t rest too easy.” A chill ran down Eddie’s spine as the doctor tipped his hat and disappeared into the night.

Over the next few days, Eddie rarely left his ma’s side. Her rattling breaths grew fainter as All Hallow’s Eve approached.

Late one night, Eddie jerked awake to an unearthly sound – a thin, unnerving melody echoing through the house. The discordant notes seemed to creep along the floorboards and coil up the walls. Heart hammering, Eddie grabbed the lantern with a trembling hand.

As he crept into the hall, the ghostly melody grew louder. He followed it towards the back door. Lunging forward, Eddie flung it open.

The music stopped abruptly. The wind came howling in, scattering dead leaves across the weathered floorboards. The full moon leered down from behind scudding clouds.

But nothing living stirred in that cold blue light. After bolting the door, Eddie returned to his mother’s side, praying for dawn.

At last, All Hallow’s Eve descended upon Chateaugay Lake. Eddie sat grimly carving jack-o-lanterns on the back steps, trying to shrug off his lingering unease. His ma had slipped into delirium that morning. Her final moments were approaching.

As darkness fell, Eddie lit the jack-o-lanterns, lining them along the porch and steps. He hoped their cheery glow would keep any restless spirits at bay tonight.

Just after nightfall, a mournful howl erupted from the shadowy forest. Others slowly joined the ghostly chorus. Eddie shivered, pulling his father’s old hunting jacket tight around his wiry frame. Were those stray dogs? Or something more sinister? He quickly doused the lanterns and hid inside.

Eddie kept vigil at his ma’s bedside with the moon as their only light. Sometime around midnight, her rasping breaths slowed…then stopped. Eddie choked back a sob and grasped her lifeless hand. “Goodbye, Ma,” he whispered.

At that moment, the back door creaked slowly open. Icy fingers seemed to creep down Eddie’s spine. He turned to see a dark figure silhouetted in the open doorway, its face obscured by shadows.

Eddie’s blood ran cold. He opened his mouth to scream, but only a ragged gasp came out.

The figure took a shambling step forward. As it passed through a moonbeam, Eddie saw it wore his ma’s face – her sunken eyes, her hollow cheeks. But her kind features were twisted into a grotesque mask of malice. Rotted leaves tumbled from the corpse-thing’s gaping maw as it rasped: “Eddieee…”

Eddie’s mind went blank with terror. He squeezed his eyes shut, praying desperately to wake up from this nightmare.

A bone-chilling cackle filled the room. “Look at me, boy,” the thing impersonating his ma wheezed.

Eddie forced his eyes open. The creature loomed over the bed, exuding the stench of decay. It stretched its withered lips back from crooked brown teeth in a gruesome mockery of his ma’s gentle smile.

“Join me, my son,” it rasped, reaching toward Eddie with a gnarled hand.

Eddie recoiled in horror. “You’re not my ma!” he choked out through panicked sobs.

The creature’s sunken eyes flashed with rage. It released an unearthly wail that shook the whole house to its foundations. The wind roared outside, rattling the walls.

“She’s mine now!” The ma-thing grasped Eddie’s wrist in its icy vice-like grip. He screamed as its claw-like nails sank into his flesh. He thrashed and fought, but its preternatural strength held him fast.

As the ma-thing reared back its head, preparing to take a bite of Eddie’s throat, a piercing white light flooded the room. Eddie shielded his eyes.

A gentle voice spoke: “Let him go.”

Eddie opened his eyes to see a pale, glowing figure standing over him – a young woman in a faded gingham dress. Though her feet didn’t quite touch the floor, he recognized her kind face.

“Aunt Beth?” Eddie gasped through joyful tears. His dear aunt who had died of scarlet fever two years prior gazed down at him tenderly.

She turned to the ma-thing, which cowered and cringed from her light. “You have no power here, demon. Begone!”

The ma-thing released an unearthly howl of rage as Aunt Beth’s light surrounded it. The creature dissolved into a shadowy wisp before vanishing in a puff of ashes.

Eddie looked up at his aunt’s ghostly form. “Th-thank you,” he stammered.

She smiled and brushed a glowing hand over his hair. “All will be well now, Eddie. Your ma walks in the light.” With those final words, her spirit faded away.

As the first hints of dawn glowed through the window, Eddie sat alone on his ma’s bed, stunned but comforted. Her peaceful body lay beside him. The house was silent and still once more.

Whatever dark spirit had tormented them, Aunt Beth had banished it back to the shadows. As morning light spilled over Chateaugay Lake, the night’s terrors seemed to melt away.

But each All Hallow’s Eve, as night falls over those quiet woods, they say you can still hear phantom melody on the wind and glimpse shadows stirring beyond the lantern’s glow. While most dismiss them as tricks of an overtired mind, those who dwell near Chateaugay Lake’s haunted shores know evil lurks there, waiting for its chance to creep back into our world when the veil grows thin once more.