Who doesn’t like to read ghost stories? Isn’t that a staple in childhood? Loren Eaton hosts Advent Ghosts, a yearly call for micro ghost stories to be shared during the dark days of winter. Writers write a ghost story in exactly 100 words and then post it to their blog on Friday, December 19th.

Here’s what I came up with this year, “The Dark is Silent.” Want to read a few more? Visit Loren’s blog, I Saw Lightning Fall, and find links to over a dozen more.

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Dark is Silent
By Erin Cole

It happens after the kids fall asleep. When she comes. Always a whisper, always cold. She wants me to understand why she ended it all. I’m told the voices are only fabrications, but I’ve never invented such darkness, not like she does.

Tonight, I stand in the kids’ bedroom, hoping, praying she will leave. They whimper and toss. Is she whispering her darkness into their little ears?

The nightlight dims, flickers. I wait. The icy wind blows outside, still not as cold as her thoughts.

I don’t hear her. She’s gone.

No—

Now, I can see her.

She screams silence.