It was a dark and stormy night, the wind howling, lightening crashing. I woke up screaming, crying, thrashing. She was at my side in a flash, quicker than the lightneing. My grandmom, smoothing my hair, soothing the frightening. Back under the covers I went, but I simply couldn’t sleep. She snuggled in beside me, my company to keep. I insisted on a story, but a classic wouldn’t do. I wanted something different, something fresh, something new. She scratched her head searching for something to say. Then she smiled as she said it, one word…..grey.“Grey?” I repeated, like small children do. I listened intently, for her to follow through. I am going to tell you the story of old Ms. Grey; she lived many years ago, but her legend remains to this day.
Her’s is a tale of love and loss, and what happens when the two of them cross. She simply went crazy, some people say; but we are going back, back to her hay-day. She lived in a time when depression was great, in a shot-gun town, in a boot shaped state. There weren’t many people in her small town, it wasn’t exactly a place where you’d want to settle down. All of the children would grow up, get married and move away. This was the norm for everyone, except Ms. Grey. She wasn’t always grey, she was colorfull and fresh. She always seemed to glow, an angel in the flesh. When she entered a room, every head would turn, conversatuions would stop, and eyes would burn. Not only was she beautifull, our Ms. Grey, she was smart and funny, the total package they say.
Whith all of her charms, she was hard to resist; when it came to boys, she was on everyone’s list. She soon caught the eye of John Jacob Brown, the son of a farmer from the outskirts of town. When it came to the ladies, John was never alone; but it was Agatha Grey that melted his heart of stone. He asked her out on a date, to his surprise, she said yes; but after he brought her home, his head was mess.The date had gone swell, I guess you could say, but there was something about Ms. Agatha Grey. He didn’t want her to go home, and he didn’t want to leave. Around the town they became a fixture; her on his sleeve. They were happy and in love, engaged to be married, but someone upstairs had other plans that needed to be carried. Uncle Sam needed help in his quest for freedom, he called all able young men, to help settle a foriegn kingdom. With a tear in his eye, John Jacob brown enlisted, as he waved goodbye, his blue eyes misted. He promised to write, as did Ms. Grey, so letters were exchanged every few days. At first they came from an army camp in Georgia, then from Vietnam. He wrote about good memories and love, and all of the things he was so scared of. For seven months, the letters came and went.Then one day they stopped. No explanation, no reason or lie, but Ms. Grey knew, she knew why.
The tel-a-gram came on an ordinary day. The air was crisp, the wind light, and the sky of course was grey. Ms. Grey didn’t cry, if she did, we didn’t see. She just slumped into a rocker, right there on the porch, and we all let her be. Something must have snapped inside of her that day. From then on she didn’t she didn’t speak, and just let herself waste away. She faded from a woman, full of vibrance and bliss, to a character so wicked, she ought not to exist. Her long auburn hair dulled to the color of ash, her full lips faded into a sinister gash. Her emotions somehow caused her facade to change, in a way that was quite remarkably strange. Hersmall button nose was replaced by a hooked horn shaped beak, she was frightening, she was frigid, she was cast out as a freak.

Mrs grey then resolved to dressing a certain way; moth-eaten blouses, and floor length skirts that were of course, grey. Her appearance overall was a starling fright, like a character from a horror story, that only comes out at night. Ms. Grey would sit there in her rocker all day, bitterly staring at passersbye, as they made their way. The town seemed to shift, they worked around her existence. She was the elephant in the room, that they ignored with persistence. But children will be children, and they just cant ignore the unexplored. And it is a dangerous combination, to be curious and bored.
One night a group of children couldn’t stand it anymore; they stealthly snuck up to Ms. Grey’s door.They dared not knock, though they wanted to go in…. so through the open window their exploring was to begin. As their feet hit the floor of the living room, a cloud of dust arose, the foursome looked about, as the dust particles tickled their nose. A little boy with freckles let out a ghastly sneeze. “Please don’t have heard that”, he inwardly begged “Please.”. There was no response to the sudden outburst, so the group tip-toed around the corner, more solem than a hearse. The children converged in the kitchen, plotting their next plan, when a little girl with pigtails noticed that they were short a man. They assumed he had gotten scared and probably ran away, so fret they did not, and kept on making their way. Around another bend in the hall, the remaining children noticed there were not three of them, just two. What? How could this be? They hadn’t heard anything suspicious, so maybe their friend had fled in fear. They decided to press on, after all, they were already here.
They decided to go upstairs, who knows what they’d find. The stairs moaned in protest, as the children began to climb. But just then they heard a noise, as they were making their incline. It was in the snap of a finger, that they descended the the stairs, through the corridors they sprinted, forgetting their cares. Through the maze of halls they ran, frantic for a way out. Sadly there was none to be found, they soon would find out. In front of the door stood a hunched figure with webs of grey hair, and a wicked mole atop her beak of a nose, that had no business being there. She was a vision of evil, the ultimate scare. The children sthen topped dead in their tracks, then they felt a cold chill spread across their backs. This figure wasn’t a woman, only pain in a human shell. She couldn’t have been born on earth, she seemed to be straight from hell. The real Ms. Grey was gone, she had died a long time ago. Exactly a year after she had lost her love, she too ascended into the clouds above. She left her pain and suffering behind, not wanting to carry it anymore. It lingered in the house, haunting anyone that opened the door. We don’t know what happened to the children, their bodies were never found. There are four young souls missing, that were never put in the ground.