Chapter 28: Urban Legend (Halloween)

Ghost tours are a popular tourist activity, especially in the month of October. I have weaved down the backstreets of old cities, wandered battlefields, and crept through cemeteries while following a storyteller who was spinning a spooky tale or two. My favorite ghost tour guide is a brilliant showman named Lord Chaz. He gives a delightfully scary and fun tour of New Orleans. Zootopia also has some scary places, such as the old cemetery in this chapter.

This chapter's song is Iron Maiden's haunting "Fear of the Dark".

Stone, Cooper, Reggie, Red, and Sandfly were chilling out while drinking a few brews around a fire pit at the county campground after a busy day of surfing. Their conversation shifted from the surf and surfboards to girls before it oddly turned to local legends. Stone shared, "Karen and I took one of those ghost tours, and the guide told us that there was once a sailor who went into the Sea Ridge Cemetery on a full moon to rob the grave of Madam Dupree..."

"Wasn't she a witch?" Red interrupted before the big bull took another gulp from the can of beer he had in his hoof.

"Yeah, she lived a long time ago, before the city was founded. She owned a local bordello, a house of ill repute, that was very popular with the sailors. But she was also known for being very stingy with the ladies who worked for her and also she was very greedy. They said that she once cursed a ship's captain for stiffing her a few coins during a deal, and the next night his ship sank offshore when a sudden storm swept in from the sea. Afterward, when the locals accused her of witchcraft, she just laughed and threatened to hex them too," Reggie answered. The meerkat was poking at the dwindling flames in the fire pit with a stick.

"The tale goes that she was buried with her ill-gotten fortune, for she refused to let anyone else have it even after she died. On her death bed she uttered such a terrible curse on anyone who dared take even a penny of her money that the townsfolk feared not to bury it with her," the fennec fox continued the story before he tossed another log onto the fire."Many years later a sailor went into the cemetery to rob her grave but just as he drove his shovel into the soil, the church bell rang the stroke of midnight. Before the last bell's stroke, a bony paw reached up out of the ground and grabbed his leg!"

"Yeah, whatever," Sandfly scoffed as the wolf rolled his eyes.

"So, mate, what happened then?" Cooper stuttered. The small wallaby stared at the fox with wide and fearful eyes.

"Well, the guide said that the poor sailor was yanked down into the dirt and, trapped there, where he died of suffocation," Stone replied, glancing back and forth at his friends. "Now his ghost is cursed to wander the cemetery."

"Wow!" Red exclaimed.

"Get real! That's one of the oldest stories about Sea Ridge Cemetery and everyone knows it's a bunch of nonsense. It's just told to scare the tourist!" Sandfly sneered.

"You don't believe the legend?" the fox asked the wolf.

"Not at all," the wolf answered.

"Okay, tomorrow night is a full moon. I challenge you to stick a knife into the ground of Madam Dupree's grave at midnight and leave it there. We'll check in the morning to see if you really did it," said Stoney, giving the wolf a very foxy sly smirk.

"Fine!" Sandfly replied. There was no way that a wolf was going to back down from a challenge made by a fellow canid, especially a fox.

"I don't think that is a bloody good idea!" the wallaby cautioned.

Red nodded his horned head in agreement. "You won't find me up there in that scary place at night," the bull added.

"It's your funeral," Reggie scoffed.

The next night, Sandfly cautiously entered the dark and eerie cemetery by slipping through the partly opened rusty wrought iron gate. The wolf nervously paused to sniff the air while he looked around. A silvery-gray mist was beginning to rise, and the full moon's light cast eerie shadows among the ancient tombstones. He jumped when he heard something moving...a slight fluttering sound from among the graves...but he relaxed when he saw it was only a small bird he had disturbed. He could swear that the sparrow was now glaring at him in anger from its newly found perch in an old water oak.

"Damn bird, you almost scared the pee out of me!" he softly cursed.

A sudden sea breeze caused the ghostly gray Spanish moss hanging from the tree's branches to wave and wiggle as if alive, chilling him despite the light cotton jacket he wore. Shaking his head, he glanced back toward the sparrow and threw it an obscene gesture with his paws before he began to creep further into the spooky graveyard. The bird just ruffled its feathers while it continued to stare at the intruder.

Where is that stupid grave? All I have to do is stab it and then I can get the [censored] out of here! He thought to himself as he stared around with wide eyes.

After a few moments, he finally found Madam Dupree's gravestone. The worn stone was festooned with woven charms made from sea oats, talismans left by believers which supposedly would keep her unholy soul bound in the grave. He removed a work knife from his jacket pocket, but when he saw the moon's reflection dance over the silver blade, he realized that his paw was shaking.

Whatever...it's only a story, just do it.

Suddenly the bell in a nearby church began tolling the midnight hour causing the wolf to give a startled yip.

Get a hold of yourself, you're a big bad wolf and not some frightened little sheep!

He squatted down, closed his eyes, gulped, and raised the knife to strike, but found himself hesitating.

Just do it...prove to that fox that you are not scared!

The wolf slammed the blade into the earth. He waited a few moments.

Nothing happened.

Phew...

The wolf started to stand, but at that very moment, something tugged on his jacket. He tried harder to stand up and realized that whatever it was that had a firm grip on his jacket and seemed to be pulling him down toward the ground. His heart froze, he howled in fear at the top of his lungs, and then he crumpled upon the grave in a dead faint.

...

An eerie stillness filled the night air while the silvery light of the full moon shone down upon the desolate cemetery. Whitish-gray mists swirled and danced around the stark gray tombstones, as if some unholy creatures were stirring from among the shadows of the ancient graves. There was a flapping of wings and a sparrow landed on the edge of a worn old gravestone and looked down at the prone body of the wolf laying below, it cocked its head before it shuffled around and pooped.

...

Early the next morning, just after the sun began to rise over the restless sea, Sandfly's friends found him there upon the grave. To their relief, they realized that he was only asleep and when they woke the wolf, he hysterically began to babble about what had happened. When they looked down at his jacket, where he claimed to have been grabbed and pulled to the ground, they burst into laughter. Sandfly just sat there looking dumbfounded while staring at his jacket in disbelief, for the corner of his jacket was pinned to the ground by the blade that he himself had accidentally thrust through it.

In the shadows of the gnarled ancient oak, a bird's joyful song greeted the morning light. However, to the wolf, the sparrow's chirping sounded more like mockery when he felt something sticky on the back of his neck.

This is tale was inspired by Maria Leach's short story called "The Dare".

For another Halloween misadventure about our favorite little surfer, please read Chapter 8: "Unwrapped!"

I also have several fun chapters about Halloween featuring Nick Wilde's best friend, Jake Runnel, in "Zootopia: A Raccoon Returns." Chapter 10: "Nick Hates Ghosts." Nick tells Jake a story about a spooky police call that he and Judy answered. Chapter 11: "The Baobhan Sith (A Halloween Story)", is a traditional horror story told to Jake by his friend Meredith. Chapter 108: "Night of the Monstrous Puns." Nick uses his unique sense of humor to tease his best friend. Chapter 109: "All Hallows' Eve Sleepover". Find out how Jake's two sons spend Halloween night with their friends in their tree house and why they get in trouble with Nick.