The owls were ecstatic as the wind howled outside. The two kids were snuggled up in bed, as their dad walked heavily up the stairs. The door opened silently as the two kids conversed. Creak...Their father had walked in to tuck them in. This was a sight not often seen as he was almost never at home. He came and sat down on the bed making it creak.
"Dad, you are almost never home to tuck us into bed," said Carly, hugging her father close to her.
"Well tonight is very important, I am going to tell you a story," he said, as the two kids exchanged identical looks of surprise. "It is the story of The Watcher, he is a sick and twisted man who kidnapped 10 kids, once every 20 years on All Hallows Eve. He comes to kids and takes them away from their families. Then they show up 2 weeks later, DEAD." As he finished the window closed with a snap.
"Is this story true Dad," said Adam, trembling from head to fluffy socked toes.
"Maybe," he said, with a mischievous glance at them, "nobody knows for sure, but it could be true. So be on the lookout for The Watcher." He finished dramatically, as he stood up.
"Whatever happened to those kids must have been bad right?" Carly said, as Adam gave her a frightened look.
"No," he said simply, "they were unblemished, aside from a small W imprinted on their arms, and a glassy stare." With that he turned off the lights, closed the door and left.
"What if the story is true Carly? If the story is true, then we should be on the lookout as tomorrow is Halloween." he said, taking a puff of his inhaler, he looked worry stricken.
"Don't worry," said Carly, hugging him close to her as she did so, she could feel him shaking, "I'll protect you. Now I am very tired and I want to stay up all night tomorrow eating candy." He giggled meekly, and yawned.
That night Adam slept restlessly, flashes of kids with no faces, screaming, crying for their families. He woke up at 6 am sweating and panting like he had just run a mile. He felt like an iron fist was closing around his heart. He walked over to Carly and shook her awake.
She opened her eyes bleary and said, "Why are you waking me up at 6 am?"
"I had a nightmare," he said meekly.
Carly had learned from the time that they were little that Adam hated to be alone when nobody else was awake. She knew that her father was already at work, he left every morning at 5:30 and came home well past 11pm. Adam had some medical problems caused by a lack of oxygen when he was born, Carly didn't really understand all of his health problems, but she was always there when he needed her. For the first 8 years of their lives their grandmother had taken care of them because their mother was out of the picture, but she was becoming too frail and old to take care of 8 year old twins. So, from then on Carly was the one who took care of Adam, but they still visited their grandmother every Sunday at the nursing home.
"What was the nightmare about this time?" Said Carly rubbing the sleep from her eyes and breathing in deeply as the smell of trees outside swayed swish, "what made you so scared."
"I had nightmares about the story that dad told us, flashes of disembodied faces and kids screaming for help, it was like a dream, or moreover a nightmare, " he said with a little shudder, closing his eyes.
"I am sure it is not real, dad shouldn't have told you that story,"
As they dressed into their Halloween costumes it was silent like a graveyard. As they walked down the stairs they could hear it creaking underway. Adam jumped a mile in the air when they heard soft footsteps at the end of the staircase. Adam took a deep shaky breath, Carly walked past him.
