“A Spooky Night”

One full moon night, we were sitting in the yard. The sky was full of twinkling stars. My dad was talking about his life as a young boy. He said that his cousin died and he went to the wake. At nights, the area they lived gets pitch black, but after a while, your eyes adapts to the dark. Before he left home, his mother told him after he paid his respect, he must not tell anyone that he was leaving the wake.
“Why?” he asked.
“Your cousin’s spirit is still around his home, so it will follow anyone who says that they are leaving. Don’t come home tonight if you did. Spend the night at the dead house.”
He left home at five thirty that evening. The area was dark, but he rode his bicycle at nights so it was not a difficult journey. Many of his relatives and friends were at the wake and he conversed with them. He stayed for a while, then he told his aunt and uncle that he was going home. About twenty minutes after he left, he suddenly heard something moving through the trees. It sounded like an animal clawing through the bushes. He rode as fast as he could. When he got near to his home he shouted, “Mom! Open the door! Open the door!” As he got closer, he saw the door was still closed, so he continued shouting for her to open the door. He got off his bicycle, dropped it in the yard and ran up the steps. As he was about to bang on the door, his mother opened it and he fell inside. She closed it. The thing was now clawing the front door.
“You told them you were leaving?”
“Yes.”
“I told you not too. Now your cousin followed you home. You have to go back.”