“Ms. Stallworth, when is our scary story essay due?”

“Susie, I already told the class five minuets ago. It’s due Friday,” replied the teacher.

‘Ms. Stallworth, you told us that you would write a scary essay with us. What is yours about?” Asked a timid looking boy the back of the class.

“Well, Timmy, I’m really not in the best mood to share my story, due to the fact that it is based on a true event that occurred to me.”

‘C’mon Ms. Stallworth pretty, pretty please,” piped in the whole class in unison.

“Well, alright, I will tell you, but you have to promise me that you will tell no one of the story I am about to tell you, or else the same thing may just occur to one of you on Hallows eve.” stated Ms. Stallworth.

“The story starts off like this.”

It was the middle of October, and everywhere in the little town of Arley, Alabama was covered in Halloween decorations. Witches and monsters of all types scattered the town’s shops and restaurants. The only school in the town lay amidst orange and tan leaves from the many trees that grew there. Students were released for the start of their fall break an hour earlier while teachers were just getting out of a faculty meeting before they to could enjoy the “extended weekend”. A young blonde woman, fresh out of Alabama University, walked through the only entrance to the tiny school and down the road awhile to her Volkswagen Passat. She was grateful for the break since it was her first year of teaching can be a headache sometimes. She arrived at her car and pushed the automatic unlock button on her key chain. Just as she lifted the handle to the car, something struck her finger which in turn made it bleed little drops onto her black sweater. Sucking her finger in pain, she bent down to take a look under the handle when she found a tiny spider engraved in the corner of her handle. She took one of her pens from her purse and frantically swiped the spider from its hiding place.

“What a great start to the break,” she told herself out loud. She then hurriedly got inside her car and drove for about twenty minutes until she reached her destination. She reached an old, torn down looking house in the middle of nowhere that sat snuggly in the middle of tall evergreen trees. She turned the car off and took the keys out of the ignition and trotted towards the front of the house. The front door was open and many objects were thrown all over the house. She crept in silence for fear of what was about to expose itself to her. She knew that this house was haunted due to the fact that a young family was murdered there 25 years ago. Not knowing what to expect, she yelled in a loud, screeching voice.

“Paul! Paul! Where are you!’ she screamed
A laugh suddenly flowed through her eardrums and sent a cold chill down the back of her spine. She quickly turned from right to left, hoping that the thing that was laughing maliciously was somewhere to be seen. The laugh started again, louder than the first time. She quickly turned on the spot to where the door was. As soon as she turned around, she bumped into a scruffy looking figure, about 6’5’’ and very muscular. It was wearing some sort of scary looking mask and was carry what seemed to be a butcher’s knife. She shrieked in fright and ran towards the area of the kitchen where the knives were located. As soon as she grabbed a hold of the tallest looking knife, the man had moved to hover over her. He slowly pulled off the mask to reveal the true figure.

“I hate you Paul!” she shrieked, pushing the figure in the chest as hard as she could. “You scared the s*** out of me.”
“Honey, settle down, it was just a little prank, oh honey come back it was just a harmless joke,” said Paul chuckling to himself.
Paul was a very tall man, very muscular and had very long red hair that was down to his ankles. He hadn’t gotten a haircut in nearly twenty years.

“Well, it wasn’t very funny for me, alright?”

Paul then moved over and tickled her side. As tough as she tried, she couldn’t hold back the eventual smile the crept from her lips. “Ok, Congratulations, you succeeded in scaring the living crap out of your girlfriend.”

“It was just a little thing to you know, spice it up a bit.” laughs Paul.
“Ok, well no more pranks for the rest of the break ok?” I just want to relax with you, maybe drink some hot cocoa, and watch some movies. Is that too hard to ask for?

“Beautiful, come on now, would I really ruin an opportunity to sit and watch countless number of chic flicks with you? Never.” states Paul as he goes over to the place where the keys are hung up.

I’m going to go to the barber. It’s finally time that I do this once and for all and just get it over with. As much as I love my hair, I love you more. I’m doing this for you by the way. So maybe you could forgive the little incident that just occurred when I come home cleanly shaved?

“We will see mister, that wasn’t very nice of you,” smirking in his direction.

“Alrightey, I’ll be back in twenty minutes, I’m just going to the one down the street.”

“Then why do you need your cars keys, you know how expensive gas is these days. And besides, a little exercise couldn’t kill you.”

“Settle down. Ok fine, I’ll walk, but if I get hit from some random passerby, I’m blaming you.” Paul states as her leans over and pecks Stacey on the cheek.

“Maybe you could save some of your hair for remembrance; it might be pretty famous some day.”

“Ya, Ya I’ll see what I can do. I’ll see you soon. I love you.”

“Love you to. Good Luck.”
The next thirty minutes are very blurry, as no one really has any true recollection of what happened. This is as much as we know. Paul walked down the road about seven minutes to a local barbershop that had been there since before his grandparents were born. His parents were good friends with the owner, so he got in for a discounted price. Once he reached the little old barber shop, he opened the door and looked around. Not many people were in this afternoon, so he got a seat right away and waited for a barber to come by and rid him of what was so precious. The owner was not in today, due to the fact that it was fall break and he had taken his kids up to West Virginia for sight-seeing. He sat down in a comfortable chair, and craned his neck upward to watch the 6 o’clock news station. Just as the channel was getting into some quirky murder case involving a bush full of angry hornets and a little old lady, an older woman came over to him and graciously said hello and asked what she could do for him today.

“Well, mam, as you can see, it’s been awhile since I last got one of these things called a haircut. My girlfriend doesn’t like my long hair so I wanted it buzzed.”

“Sir, you have come to the right place for that.” She chuckled to herself, grabbing the nearest water bottle and scissors.
Paul sat patiently, watching in grief as lock after lock of sun-bright hair fell to the ground. Five minutes had passed before something weird started happening to his head. He kept feeling some sharp pain that felt like the scissors ramming into the back of his skull. He quickly turned around and asked politely if the cutter would stop jamming him in the back of the head with the scissors.

“Sir, I do not know what you are talking about, I’m just using a comb, and I can barely get through the top of your head.”
Just then, Paul jumped out of his seat and screamed so loudly in pain that the mirrors on the walls around the barbershop shattered. He ran to the front door and slammed through it. He ran up the road as quickly as he possibly could until he reached the old battered house. Just as he was about to open the front door, he collapsed and hit the door with a huge thud.
Inside, Stacey was relaxing on the couch watching some Oprah episode when she heard the noise. She quickly jumped out of the couch and opened the front door only to find her boyfriend, dead on the doormat. She screamed and ran for the phone, called 911, and went back to the side of her fallen boyfriend. Tears started swelling up in her eyes as she could hold it in no longer. Long drops of salty tears fell from her beautiful brown eyes. The police came ten minutes later with an ambulance. Paul’s body was taken away to have tests done to show what possible event could have so suddenly killed him.
Stacey moved from that house, into a quiet neighborhood about fifteen minutes away. No one has ever been back to that house or that barbershop ever again.
“That class is my scary story essay. It’s just a rough draft; I still need to come up with an ending.
“Umm, Ms. Stallworth, what killed Paul?” asked Susie, stunned.
“Well, the police took away Paul’s body, and the doctors performed an autopsy on his body. They found out that he had immense levels of toxins in his body.” She starts crying hysterically. Susie runs up to comfort her and rubs her back gently.

“What’s wrong Ms. Stallworth,” asked Susie
“Paul was my fiancé; we were going to get married one month after the date the story was told. The Stacey in the story is me. It’s too hard for me to look back on it.”
“Ms. Stallworth, if you don’t mind me asking, what killed your fiancé?” asked Timmy.

“After performing the autopsy, the doctors cut the rest of Paul’s hair, which was just above his shoulders now. Once they got to the top of his head, they realized little insects crawling out of the pieces of hair that they had placed in bins to the side of the body. Using gloves, they spread out his hair and what they saw next appalled them. There, burrowed on top of his head, was a nest of highly venomous and lethal red widow spiders. They were upset when the clippers started rustling the hair and bit the back of Paul’s head until enough toxins reached his blood flow and killed him.”
The whole class gasped as the story finally unfolded. The legend is, if you have hair that reaches anywhere below your ankles and you live in the Southern states of America, you will likely find some insects that aren’t very pleasant to humans, and cause many deaths in various countries and continents around the world.