Day 22 – #MabsDrawlloweenClub2025 –  Lantern

The forest tonight looked like it was painted in hush and ember. Trees stood like tall, silent witnesses, their leaves glowing orange as if autumn itself was on fire. The ground shimmered with tiny drifting sparks – fireflies? Falling stars? Little souls on their evening stroll? Hard to tell in a place where the line between the living and the gone gets soft around the edges.

Then I saw them.

A little ghost, pale as moon breath, gliding down the cemetery path with the calm confidence of someone who belongs to the night. No rattling chains. No wailing. Just quiet purpose. In their hand – if you can call that soft curl of ectoplasm a hand – they carried a lantern shaped a bit like a pumpkin, glowing warm and kind.

Not scary. Guiding.

Maybe the lantern wasn’t to light the way for themselves… maybe it was to show the rest of us it’s safe to follow.

The gravestones leaned like old teeth, the crosses cast long shadows, but the ghost didn’t seem lonely. It felt like a caretaker making rounds, checking on friends, keeping the dark gentle. I got the sense that the lantern wasn’t just light – it was memory. A flame for the ones we miss. A soft reminder that even in the quiet places, someone is watching over things.

When the ghost floated deeper into the trees, the orange glow pulsed once, like a heartbeat. The forest exhaled. And I stood there in the purple dusk, grateful that even the smallest lights know how to find their way home.

Some lanterns burn with fire.
Some burn with hope.
And some… with love that refuses to fade.

#MabsDrawlloweenClub
#mdc2522
#lantern #doodle ##digitalmarkers #roanokeva