Howard had always been a loner; this was always the way it was and is. He kept to himself all through school, done whatever was expected of him. At eighteen years of age, Howard had already begun his training to become a doctor. Living at home, there is just himself and his father. Howard's mum had passed away five years earlier after losing her battle with cancer.

His mum's illness and death went a long way with playing a part as to why Howard was such a loner at school and to the desire to become a doctor. He had no siblings, and no one to turn to if he ever needed anyone for any reason at all. His father became a different man after Howard's mum passed. No matter how they both had tried, it was almost like there were two strangers living in the same house.

All through school Howard just kept his head down, got on with his schoolwork, didn't always get A's but he was never far off that. A girl named Mary was the only one who ever acknowledged Howard positively at school, but for some strange reason as far as Howard could see, Mary went out with the school trouble maker, a guy named Thomas and this Thomas was also known as 'mad dog'.

There were many times in school when 'mad dog' picked on Howard, probably partly due to the fact he knew Mary seemed to ... understand this fellow. Mary would always come to Howard's aid at times it was needed before heading off with Thomas, often apologizing for his behaviour. There were times when Howard would end up laying on the ground after having been pushed or knocked over by Thomas.

Anyway, school was finally done and finished with, and Howard was now in college. It was well into October and Howard had not kept in touch with or had seen anyone from school since the exams they had taken together the previous June, so he was well surprised to see Mary when he answered a knock to the front door. She hadn't got the time to stay, so she said. The purpose of her visit was to invite Howard to a party up on the mountains for Halloween.

Howard didn't want to go; the only reason why he agreed to go was because Mary had invited him. There must have been a reason as to why she invited him, right? Other than the fact that she had always been nice to him that is. He drove his father's car to the meeting point high up one of the mountains and as soon as he had arrived, he regretted his decision to go.

Only seconds after getting out of the car the verbal abuse began to fly Howard's way. An intoxicated Thomas was relentless in his attack, even sticking his finger to Howard's chest in disgust of his arrival. Mary was disgusted with Thomas; her invite had been given in good faith. Howard wanted to hit Thomas, but he would be the better man.

Getting back into the car Howard was ready to leave. If this is how he is greeted then he is not going to stay but the insults kept coming and they began to get a little too much for Howard, so much so that it was difficult to get away. Thomas, even in his intoxicated state could see the anger building within Howard.

'What is wrong little boy? Are you going to go home and cry to mummy?'

Mary knew that Howard had lost his mum and as to how she had passed those five years or so earlier, but Thomas did not know, if he had he probably would have said something about it earlier. Howard eventually got into his car and began to rev the engine; his face was red with anger. Fuming ... well, that much is clear.

Mary half wished that Howard would leave, and half wished he wouldn't leave. She did like him and felt that he had a right to be at this place at this particular time. She wanted so much for him to be able to enjoy himself every once in a while. She was also afraid that in his angered state that Howard might hurt himself. Yeah, that invite had come more out of nicety than anything else and she had done this without informing anyone, let alone Thomas.

'What's wrong? Does mommy's boy wanna race?' the insulting relentless.

'Why would I race scum like you?' responded Howard.

Ooooohhhh's rang out from all around within hearing distance.

'Tell you what' continued Thomas, 'why not make it a chicken race? Huh, you up for that?'

'Absolutely ...' answered Howard.

'Alright so, you go down that way' Thomas pointed down the road a little ways, 'I'll get my car and I'll see you soon' said Thomas beginning to laugh, as far as he was concerned ... this was gonna be good.

Howard revved the car some more and took off turned then waited patiently. It was or is his father's car and Thomas is most definitely intoxicated, anger most definitely got the better of Howard. Mary begged Thomas not to do this, in the states both guys were in ... anything was liable to happen, but Thomas just shrugged her off and got into his car. She felt helpless now and guilty too.

The two cars revved about eight hundred or nine hundred meters apart. Howard was first to take off and with a 'yeeeeehaaaaaa' from Thomas he too soon made his way at great speed towards Howard. Mary couldn't look. The surrounding crowd cheered, the cars got closer and closer culminating with the crowd going totally quiet.

Neither Howard nor Thomas had given in. They hit each other full on. Neither one survived. Every night since apparently the crash happens over and over again and if you so happen to look from a distance up to where the crash occurred you will see two bright yellow lights from a distance seeming to move closer and closer until the meet and then begin again at their points of origin only to move towards each other yet again.

It is said that these lights are the ghosts, the spirits of Howard and Thomas, and their vehicles, reliving the chicken race over and over again. It is also said that if you just so happen to be at that crash site after dark on any given Halloween night, you yourself just might be able to physically see the ghosts of Howard and Thomas reliving that race once again ...