The Midnight Hour & Other Scary Stories

A Midnight Friend

When Daniel moved into the neighborhood, his parents said that he would have plenty of friends. But the houses were filled with old people whose kids had grown up and moved away. Daniel was very lonely because of this and stayed at home most of the summer.

"Don't you want to go out and play?" His mother asked him.

"With who?" He'd ask her.

She would never have an answer for him. This made Daniel sad and he would go about playing with his toys in silence. On days when he would explore, he would wander the neighborhood and make up stories about the old houses there. Most of the houses were big and reminded him of those ghost stories he'd read when he was a kid. He was always too afraid to go up to the houses--especially the big house in the woods.

That house was older than all the others and people had forgotten about it. Even the road leading up to the house had been overgrown with weeds. The day he found it, he knew it was haunted and stayed far away. He could see the very top of it from his bedroom window. Daniel felt like that house was watching him from its dark windows.

That's why he kept the curtains on his bedroom window closed.

But one night he'd forgotten to close them. Daniel woke up and saw moonlight spilling on the floor. He got up to close the curtains but saw someone in the yard! It looked like a young boy. Who would let their kids out at this time? It was the first kid Daniel had seen since moving here. So, he decided to see if they were friendly.

Most of the time he would have been too afraid to go out at night because the dark was a place for monsters, but this was Daniel's chance to make a friend and so he swallowed his fear and went out anyway. The little boy stared at him as he approached.

"H-Hi." Daniel said. "Wh-what are y-you doing out h-here?"

The other boy wore funny old timey clothes and his skin was very white. He didn't step out into the moonlight. "Don't you go out at night?"

"No." Daniel said. "It's too late to go out."

"Says who?" The other boy asked.

Daniel gave his question some thought and said, "My parents."

"Well they're wrong." The other boy said. He smiled. It was a big smile that seemed too big for his face. He stuck out a hand. "My name's Billy." He said. "What's yours?"

"Daniel." He said.

"Do you want to be my friend?" Billy asked. "I don't have too many of those anymore."

Daniel did. He said, "Yes! Do you live around here?"

Billy's eyes glinted in the dark. They reminded Daniel of a rat.  Billy said, "Yes. Maybe I'll show you sometime."

"I would like that." Daniel said.

From that night on, Daniel would wake up close to midnight and go outside to visit with his friend. Sometimes they stayed in the yard and just talked. (Billy always talked about monsters and other strange things.) But other times they would go out exploring the neighborhood, and rarely, the woods around Daniel's house. Daniel had to bring his flashlight on these dark nights so he could see, but Billy never seemed to have trouble in the dark.

One day, near the end of summer, Daniel's mother asked him, "Have you been going out at night?"

"Yes." He said, a little scared that they would be mad. "I made a friend."

His mother and father gave each other strange looks. Then, his father asked, "What kind of friend?"

"A boy. He's my age. His name is Billy." Daniel said.