A Dark Climb

A Dark Climb, A Halloween Short Story | © 2014 Dan Absalonson

 *Note - This is the first draft. I'd love critiques & feedback to help me make the story better before I record the audio version and publish it at online retailers. Thanks for reading! Happy Halloween!

There is a legend in my town about the old water tower that sits behind the Chesterton Mansion on the West Hill. The house is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is home to weddings and social events. It is also home to a dark story about an adventurous little boy who snuck out of the mansion Halloween night and climbed to the top of the tower to eat all of his candy. The story goes that he sat on the top of the tower and ate and ate until all of his candy was gone. Then he fell asleep. In the night he rolled over and fell off the tower to his death. It is said that if you climb the tower on Halloween night you can see his mother on the back balcony of the mansion looking for him. What they don't tell you is that he may be around too, and he doesn't want to share his candy.

We just moved here in early October. If you're a military brat like me you probably already guessed why. Yep, my dad's a serviceman. It's a small town but they have an air force base that needed an aircraft mechanic so that's where the military moved us. My mom was in the air force too, that's where they met, but she was killed while deployed in Afghanistan on her second tour of duty. So it's just Dad and me. We get along alright. I get good grades, don't get into too much trouble, and he trusts me enough to let me stay out with friends. I think it's because he feels guilty about always moving me and making me find new friends. I make friends easily though. I'm in school all day so I'm always surrounded by a bunch of other guys my age having to deal with the same stuff. It doesn't take long to find people to hang out with. I would love to stay in one town but after this Halloween night I want to move away as soon as possible. This time I wish I would have been a loner.

Some guys I met through my English class invited me out Halloween night. We were all too old for trick or treating so they had something else in mind. You guessed it, make the new guy climb the creepy tower. So there I was staring up at a cold metal ladder that reached way farther up than I wanted to climb.

"Come on man."

"Yeah let's go new guy."

"He has a name."

"Yeah yeah I'm just joking man, but seriously Paul when you get up there tell us if she looks like Miss Havisham in that book we're reading for class."

"Yeah dude. We've all got great expectations for you so get up there."

Everyone started getting into it so I started to climb. The black rungs on the ladder were cold and slick. I'm not afraid of heights but the idea of falling to my death didn't exactly thrill me either. As I got ascended the wind started to pick up and I felt it pushing me sideways. It scared me. I stopped climbing.

"Dude what gives?"

"You're not to the top yet man. Keep going!"

I almost looked down but thought better of it. I didn't know these guys well but I didn't want to chicken out in front of them. I had to make it to the top. I lifted my hand and grabbed the next rung. I closed my eyes and blocked out the jeering below me. Then I started to climb again. My hands started to go numb. I kept climbing. The wind was getting stronger. My left foot slipped. I kept climbing.

I focused on going up and tried to make the rest of the world disappear. Then my hand reached to top. I slowed down and looked over the top then climbed all the way on. There was a ton of graffiti. I was surprised to see some of it was paintings of candy. So the legend was known by more than the kids I was with. It was a good story but I had my doubts about it. I wouldn't have been surprised if they made it up just to scare me. Unfortunately the story was all too true.

"Dude, what are you doing up there?"

"Do you see the lady?"

"There's a bunch of graffiti up here."

"Oh all the candy and stuff?"

"Yeah. I thought maybe you guys made this stuff up."

"No man. The story of the tower has been around for years. Even my dad heard about it when he was a kid."

I looked toward the mansion at the balcony. All the lights were off inside so it was really dark. I didn't see anything.

Then I heard a rustling sound.

Somehow I thought the wind had somehow blown a bag or something up onto the tower and it had been caught on something. I turned to see what was making the rustling bag sound. On the top of the tower with me, not three feet away, sat a pudgy pasty little boy rustling through a bag of candy and I could see right through him. I could see all of his features too. The chocolate smeared down his chin and the half eaten gum drops stuck to his shirt. He found a lollipop and began to unwrap it. I was frozen in fear. I stopped breathing. Then when my body forced me to take a breath I coughed. The boy looked up startled. He held his candy bag close and his fuzzy diaphanous little eyebrows slumped down.

"I'm not sharing my candy with you!"

Everything I knew shifted. My insides felt twisted and I started to shake. What my eyes were showing me I knew could not be true.

"Get away from me. This is my candy."

The boy put his bag down and stood up. I stretched out my hands toward him trying to keep him away. I tried to speak. Maybe I could convince him that I didn't want his candy. I didn't want anything to do with him. I didn't want him to exist because he me made my brain hurt and everything I believe melt away in a sea of fear.

"You’re not getting my candy!" he said taking a step toward me.

It was more than I could handle. I finally broke my eyes away from him and looked around for a way to escape. Now that I've had time to think on it I wonder why I didn't just run through him to get to the ladder but in the moment I was way too scared. I saw a thick long tree branch jutting out toward me like a mighty arm calling for me to jump to it and accept its helping hand to safety. I looked back at the boy and my fright was renewed. I bolted. I ran to the edge of the tower and launched myself to the tree branch. I grabbed on and it bent under my weight. It dipped way down and I fell with it until it reached its limit. Then it bounced back up pulling me away from the earth. When my weigh brought it back down a second time I heard a snap. I was falling.

My stomach felt like it did on the drop of a roller coaster, and that's the last thing I remember from that night. I wish I could have hit my head hard enough on the way down to forget everything from that night, but I can't. The image of that boy is something I fear I will never be able to get rid of. I still have dreams of him coming toward me telling me I can't have his candy, and then the fall. I always wake up when I hit the ground.

I got to skip school for a few days while I recovered in the hospital and I was glad for that. I was mad at my new friends for making me go up that tower. A couple of them visited me, but I don't think it was out of kindness. I’m pretty sure they just wanted to know why I randomly jumped off the tower.

They never saw a thing.

They said the saw me stop and stare at something and they all yelled and screamed and called to me, but I never heard them. I hope my dad gets moved again soon. I hope I never see that tower again. I hope I can stop dreaming of the fat kid whose bulging belly I can see right through.

THE END

Thanks for reading my short story A Dark Climb. If you found any mistakes please let me know and I’ll upload a new version with the fixes. Here is some bonus content for you:

A FREE AUDIO VERSION of the story:

http://www.dandantheartman.com/2014/10/short-stories-of-dandantheartman-14.html