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     Jasmine walked up to the cemetery gate and peered through the old rusty bars. She saw various cement tombstones sticking up out of the grass. The thought of stepping over dead people made her cringe, even if they were buried six feet underground.   Gripping the rough metal, Jasmine pushed on the bars, but they wouldn’t budge. Something was preventing the large door from opening. She glanced upward and noticed a latch near the top of the gate around 10 feet from the ground. She reached up and unhooked it.
     Being only in the 4^th grade, one might wonder how such a girl can reach up 10 feet in the air and unhook a latch. The answer is simple. Jasmine was almost seven feet tall.
     After muscling the large squeaky gate open, she swung her backpack over her shoulder and slowly walked past each tombstone very carefully. She appeared to be looking for something quite specific.
     After walking for around five minutes, she finally stopped at a tombstone that made her smile. Normally, the inscription on a tombstone is not a funny thing, and it wasn’t that funny for Jasmine either. What was making Jasmine smile is the same thing that made her start laughing. She was imagining what was going to happen later that Halloween night when she brought her second grade sister, Karina, to the graveyard.
     Jasmine knelt down, slid her backpack off of her shoulder and unzipped it. She pulled out a small paintbrush and two miniature bottles of paint, one red and one gray. With one of her long fingers, she traced over the white letters etched on the tombstone, the letters that spelled Karina Johnson. Shaking the bottle of gray paint, the same color as the tombstone, she fell into a fit of hideous laughter.
     This was going to be the best scare of her little sister ever, even better than last year at Halloween when she dressed up as a vampire and chased Karina for more than three blocks.
     Jasmine carefully painted over the white letters with the gray paint so that the letters seemed to disappear in the background of the gray cement. The paint dried almost instantly in the hot California sun.
     After covering up the white letters, she opened up the bottle of red paint and traced back over the word Karina. Then she wrote the phrase “Rest in Peace” below it. Afterwards, she placed the open end of her backpack over the top of the tombstone and then peeked inside. Just as she had hoped, the red letters were glowing in the dark, and they had streaks running down them like dripping blood. She smiled, packed her backpack, and left.
    She walked along the sidewalk, which was filled with crooked cracks creeping in all directions. She admired all of the Halloween decorations hanging on peoples’ houses: black cats, witches, bats, and ghosts. The many sounds of cars in traffic could be heard in the background as she was traveling along the busy street. People were on their way home from work. Halloween night was almost here.
          Because of the big strides she took with her super long legs, Jasmine was able to walk home in no time at all, even though the cemetery was over a mile away from her house. She opened the door and found her little sister, Karina, playing with dolls on the living room floor with one of her friends. She stepped toward Karina’s friend, a girl she hadn’t seen before, and said, “Out of my way, squirt, before I step on you.”
     The little girl made a yelping sound like a puppy whose foot had just been stepped on. She quickly moved to the side to avoid Jasmine’s gigantic shoes. She was wearing what looked to be black fuzzy pajamas that had a long black tail in the back, and her face had black whiskers painted on it.
     Karina was already wearing her costume too. She was wearing a pretty white and blue dress with a gold crown.
     Jasmine walked into the kitchen and poured a glass of milk. “Mom!” she yelled out.
     Their mom came down the stairs with a laundry basket. “Yes, what do you want?” She wasn’t dressed for Halloween. She was wearing sweats and an old t-shirt.
     “You didn’t tell me I had to take one of her silly little friends with me.”
     “I told Sarah’s mom that it would be okay. Like me, she has too much to do to take her daughter trick-or-treating.”
     “That’s just great,” said Jasmine with a tone of disappointment. “Well, I’m not responsible if something happens to her.”
     “You most certainly are, young lady. Now hurry and finish your homework before you take them out.”
     Jasmine didn’t say anything. She walked into her bedroom, grabbed her math book, and then walked into the living room where Karina and Sarah were playing. She opened up her book and started writing her name on a sheet of paper.
    After staring blankly at the first problem for a couple of minutes, Jasmine turned to toward her sister and said, “What’s four plus six?”
     Sarah sighed. “Why do I always have to help you with your homework? You should be helping me with mine. The answer is ten.”
     “Oh yeah,” said Jasmine as she wrote the answer on her paper. “I just can’t concentrate today because it’s Halloween.” She stood from the couch and said, “I know. Why don’t you just come over here and do my assignment for me.”
     “Not again,” said Karina. “You always make me do it.”
     “I’m not going to take you and your pesky little friend trick-or-treating if you don’t do it.”
     “Oh, alright, but we have to leave soon.”
     “Great, said Jasmine. “I’ll go get dressed while you do it.”
     Twenty minutes later, Jasmine came downstairs wearing a black cape and a tall black hat. She grabbed the broom out of the closet and said, “Are you ready?”
     Sarah and Karina put their dolls down and grabbed their plastic pumpkins to carry their candy with.
     Jasmine handed Sarah her pumpkin and said, “Here. Carry mine for a while. I have this broom to lug around.”
     Karina grabbed it reluctantly.
     The three girls walked out into the night, visiting only the houses along the busy street like their mom had told them. House after house, they moved ever so slowly toward the cemetery.
     Once their pumpkins were full of candy, Karina said, “Let’s go home now.”
     Jasmine could see the gate to the cemetery from where they were standing. She said, “Wait. I have to get something from over there.”
     The girls walked over to the cemetery gate. Jasmine reached up and unhooked the latch. She shoved the gate open, and it made a hideous screeching sound.
     Sarah looked over at Karina. Karina looked at Sarah. They shook their heads as if they knew this was going to happen.
     The cemetery was dark and quiet. They couldn’t see anything in front of them, not even their hands.
     Jasmine pulled a flashlight out of her cape and turned it on. She pointed it in front of them and said, Let’s go this way.”
     Sarah and Karina huddled together. Karina said, “I want to go home.”
     “Shhhhh, I think I heard something,” said Jasmine. “It came from over here.”
     Jasmine pointed the flashlight at each of the tombstones as they walked past until finally she noticed the red paint on one of the tombstones in front of them. It was glowing in the dark.
     “What’s that over there?” asked Jasmine. She pointed the flashlight toward the tombstone.
     “Let’s go home,” cried Karina. “I’m scared.”
     They walked up to the tombstone. The red letters were glowing and dripping with a bright red color.
     “What does it say?” asked Sarah squinting to try and read it.
     “It says,” replied Jasmine, “ahhhhhhhhhhh!” She dropped the flashlight and ran. Sarah and Karina looked at the tombstone and admired their work. Instead of reading Karina’s name, they read JASMINE, REST IN PEACE.
     The girls picked up the flashlight and walked back toward the gate. They assumed Jasmine was already home by now with her long running legs. But they were wrong.
     Jasmine stumbled through the graveyard breathing heavily. It was dark, and she couldn’t see where she was going.
     I shouldn’t have dropped that flashlight she thought.
     She found a tree and sat down leaning up against it. A twig broke from high above her. When she looked up to see what it was, she found out very quickly. A bat swooped down upon her and got tangled in her hair. She screamed her head off swatting at her hair. She stood and ran with her arms flailing through the air. Jasmine ran so fast that she knocked her sister down after colliding with her, at least she thought it was her sister.
     “Quick, hand me my flashlight,” said Jasmine with a frantic voice.
     “Excuse me,” said a man’s voice.
     “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” Jasmine screamed again.
     A light shined in her face. She saw a man sitting on the ground. He reached by her side.
     “No! Don’t hurt me!” cried Jasmine.
     He picked up his hat and placed it on his head. When she looked closer, she realized he was a security guard.
     “Am I glad to see you,” said Jasmine in relief.
     “What are you doing in here?” the man asked.
     “Um…”
     “Never mind. You need to leave. Walk this way.”
     As they walked toward the gate with the security guard’s flashlight leading the way, the guard said, “You’re lucky I found you when I did because I’m leaving. The cemetery will be empty as it should be when it’s closed.”
     “Thank you, thank you,” said Jasmine. “I’m sorry I ever came here, and I won’t do it again. I’ve learned my lesson.”
     The security guard escorted Jasmine out of the gate. Instead of going back inside, he closed the gate. Jasmine watched the latch click at the top when it closed. The guard walked toward his car and said, “You’d better get home. It’s getting late.”
     “But my sister is in there. I can’t leave her here. I’m responsible for her.”
     “Do you mean a girl named Karina and her friend, Sarah?”
     “You saw her?” asked Jasmine.
     “I escorted them out of the gate just like I did you.”
     “Oh, thank you,” responded Jasmine.
     Jasmine turned toward home and then remembered her pumpkin that was overflowing with candy. She had left it near the tombstone that somehow had her name on it instead of her sister’s name.   She watched the security guard drive away. Overwhelmed by a vision of a mouthful of candy, she walked back to the gate and unhooked the latch. She wasn’t going to leave all that candy there, even if the cemetery was spooky.
     Just as she entered, a large gust of wind blew past. It was so strong it almost knocked her off her feet. Suddenly a loud screeching sound pierced her ears. The wind was blowing the gate shut, the gate that could only be opened from the outside because there was no way she’d be able to reach the latch from the other side of the gate, not without a ladder. She tried to lunge forward to prevent the gate from closing, but the wind was holding onto her. Finally the gate slammed shut. She used all the strength she had in her legs to power forward through the wind until she reached the cold metal bars. She clung onto them and cried, “No!!!!!”
     The wind died down. Everything grew quiet until a faint squeaking sound could be heard. It was getting louder and louder. Jasmine turned around gasping for air, exhausted from her struggle against the wind. Swarming toward her, attracted by the loud slamming of the gate, was a flock of charging bats.
     “No!” cried Jasmine in agony. “No!” The tears came streaming down. She covered her face with her hands and, while leaning against the gate, she slid to the ground.