October 31st is Halloween. It's an old festival. In the past people believed that ghosts came back to earth on this day. Today many people around the world celebrate this old festival. People have parties, dress up, and tell spooky stories about witches, skeletons, bats and ghosts. Read a story about what happened to two boys on this day.

Double-click on any word that you don't understand in the story. Its meaning will appear in a new window.

LISTEN TO THIS PAGE OF THE STORY

Print an activity to do with this story (133KB)

It was a dark, rainy night at eight o’clock on the thirty-first of October. Andy and his friend Paul were walking home together as usual. But this night was different. It was Halloween. As they were walking along a large, black cat jumped out in front of them and ran off into the night. They looked up into the sky and saw a light shining. It glowed red, then blue then green and gold.

“What was it?” they wondered.

The air felt still and cold. It had stopped raining and everything was creepy. It felt like something was going to happen. Andy and Paul went past a very old house. It was a huge old house which was deserted. The house lay in a big, shadowy garden, surrounded by trees. As they were going past the house they heard a strange noise. It was a long, low howling noise.