“One, two, three” the whistle blew and the soldiers started to march.

Everyone in the people square gathered around the parade ceremony and they started to walk straightly towards the street. Cherry blossoms were fluttering all over the place. The pink leaves were falling on the ground one by one. I stepped on the pink fallen leaves and I smelled the spring scent all over the place. Since the place was so crowded with people, I was scared of getting lost. So, I held onto my mom’s hand tightly. My hands got all sweaty while holding her hands.

“Ding dong, ding dong,” the bell rang out loud. People in the parade danced along to the music from the stereo. The beat of the music was so loud that my ears got hurt. I plugged my ears and watched the parade. But, I felt like someone was calling me, so I abruptly turned around and looked back. There was a little girl standing behind my pants with crying face. I was so anxious, so I asked her.

“Are you okay? Did you lose your mommy?”

But she didn’t answer. Then, she pulled my pants real hard that I got literally got pulled by her force. I told my mom that I’ll take a little child to her mommy. Then my mom and I got separated. I chased after a little child to make sure that she goes to her mommy safely. But, I shouldn’t have chased her. Since I was in a rush, I didn’t get a chance to bring my cellphone. So I had no tools to call my mom. I got so frustrated. Though I had this frustrated mind, I just followed her. But something was very weird. She was keep going into the alleyway. And the street was quite dark. I was getting so nervous. So I asked her again,

“Honey, are you sure where you are going?”

As soon as I asked her a question, she suddenly stopped crying. I looked at her eyes then, she started to glare at me with a vicious look. I was afraid. So I just told her that I’ll go back to where my mom was. All of a sudden, she just grabbed my hand and pulled me into the black van. I squirmed my feet like a tornado. I yelled out loud.

“BAM” then I heard the sound of the car door closed.

I, then, realized that I got in the black van with eyes covered with a red handkerchief. They arbitrarily covered my eyes and drew me into their van. After thirty minutes of ride, the random people pulled me out from the van. And they uncovered my eyes then they dressed me up as a solider. I had no idea what was going on, but I just got dressed up compulsively and participated in spring parade. I was in the middle of the parade crew. I was the only girl who dressed up in a solider uniform. Everyone didn’t really recognize me well, so I just marched along the street with the soldiers.

“Sally! Sally!” my mom called me from the sidewalk.

“Mom! I’m here, I’m here!” I yelled right back to my mom with loud voice.

Luckily, she recognized my moves and she yelled at me with relieved voice. After when parade was finished, I found my mom right away and hugged her. I cried and cried for a while. She also cried. Then, I blamed that little girl for this situation. On the other hand, I also got an indelible memory due to that little girl. On an impulse moment, I get to be in part of the parade crew. I mean how can I participate in that cool parade ceremony by chance? So after the parade, I tried to find that little girl, but she was gone. Then I put my phone number and my letter on top of that black van, and left that place.

I wish I could meet that little girl one day in the future. Thank you for giving me the best memory of my life, little girl. (687)

“Boo!”

“What the heck? Just pour some candies in my basket. I’m 11 years old. I don’t get scared with that childish mask anymore!” said to Mr. Bob with little bit of a quivering voice.

Mr. Bob is my best buddy who lives next door. He used to hand out some candies for kids ever since I was six. Unlike the other houses, he hands out infinite amount of candies to children.

Oh! By the way, my name is Linda, Linda Lawerence. I live on 25^th street where it is well known for the horror festival. So whenever it’s Halloween season, our neighbors will decorate the whole street to make everything eerie. And also, my mom will cook a Halloween pumpkin pie for the Halloween treats! This is why I love Halloween. Eating those crunchy and juicy pies are the reason why I desperately wait for Halloween season to come.

But there is an unforgettable story that I want to share from last year’s Halloween. It is about me going alone into the haunted house. Since, my friends were cowards I went to the haunted house by myself. But, that was my wrong decision to celebrate Halloween on last year. Going into the haunted house by myself literally made me to pee on my pants. It’s still frightening to recall that memory. Everything was so quiet when I entered the house. I was only able to hear my heartbeat. After I inhaled my breath, I looked around the house with a flash. There was nothing but some spider webs on the ceiling and a mini candy box underneath the rocking chair. As I walked down the hall, I was able to hear a creaking sound from the wooden floor. However, on the end of the hallways, I found some kind of creature moving rapidly across the kitchen table. I first thought it was a person, because it was pretty big and heavy looking. I immediately shout at that creature. But, there was no answer. So I just walked down to the rocking chair to get the candy box. As I reached my hands underneath the candy box, I saw a pale looking face rolling underneath the rocking chair. I just freaked out at that moment. I screamed and cried. I ran down to the door, but it was locked. And, it said “you must get the candy box to get out of this house.” So, I closed my eyes and ran over to the rocking chair again and grabbed a candy box. But, on the way back to the door, my costume got stuck inside the wooden floor. There was a crack on the floor so my dress got caught. As I tried to pull out the dress, a bloody chopped hand abruptly grabbed my dress. It was pulling me into the downstairs. So, I kicked and stabbed a hand with my hair pins. But, it didn’t go away. So, I just took off my costume in that place and escaped. As soon as I got out, I fainted in front of my friends.

Then, few hours later, I got my souls back in. I cried like a little baby. Mr. Bob came to me and gently whispered.

“Was it that scary? I’m so sorry. I should’ve just let you go honey.”

Then, I fainted again after hearing that the ghost was Mr. Bob. I still feel betrayed toward Mr. Bob, but it’s better now. Anyways, I am really excited about tonight. No matter what, this time I’ll just compulsively put my friends into Mr. Bob’s haunted house. Anyhow, Happy Halloween everyone! (600)

The baby woke up and started to cry. The entire apartment was shaking like it encountered a strong earthquake.

I am a merchant. And my wife is a well-famed professor. So, just to brag about myself, both of us make a huge profit. And that’s why we are living in this luxurious apartment in Manhattan. But, there is a one problem that makes me and my wife go insane; a noise pollution. Since our apartment has powerful soundproof walls, everything is so peaceful and quite except for the baby crying noise. Whenever I come back from my tiring work, I can hear baby crying exactly at 11:45pm. It was like a routine for baby to cry exactly at 11:45pm. Thus, we had to suffer through sleep deprivation. Besides, my wife is a sterile, so it was just a torture for her to endure all that baby noises.

One day, we figured out a solution to not listen to that noise. We decided to come home late after work. So, after our works, we often went out for date and then came home at about 12:00am. In that case, we thought we won’t get to listen to baby crying while sleeping. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Since, the baby was a newborn baby, the baby just cries randomly everyday. Eventually, we couldn’t suppress that noise. So, I went to downstairs and screamed in front of the door.

“I am really sorry to say this to you guys, but since we can’t hold on to that noise anymore…Well, I know that your child is a newborn baby and I know that they cry a lot. But, we are the working people and we sometimes want to sleep quietly. But, whenever 11:45pm, your baby cries like a flock of crows and we can’t go to sleep peacefully. Could you please make your baby go to sleep early? I mean it’s really irritating for us to hear that every night.” I spoke with high pitched voice.

Then I knocked on the door and went back to my home. And, I told my wife that everything is solved. And, we went to bed at 11:00pm as usual. But suddenly, we heard that baby crying again. We thought we were just hearing things. It was a real baby crying sound. So, as soon as I heard that baby crying noise, I opened the window wide open and yelled outside.

“Not again! Would you please make your baby shut up?”

Few weeks later, since we couldn’t handle the baby crying anymore, we bought the detachable soundproof walls to stick it to our bedroom walls.

Luckily, this method worked out very well. My wife and I were so happy to sleep peacefully again. No more of crying sound at 11:45pm.

“So, those of you who can’t fall asleep peacefully, buy some detachable soundproof walls to stick it around your house walls. It will work right away. I promise. And it’s only 145 dollars. Make a good choice!” I advertised loudly. (500)