The Night Owls

So, my name is Tom Walsh. Thomas, actually, except nobody ever calls me that but Grandpa, when he can remember who I am at all. Mostly, he just lies in the hammock in the backyard remembering when he was sixteen. That’s what I am—sixteen. Short for my age, though. Not like a midget or anything, and I’m no chicken, but on the other hand, you’re not going to find me in the parking lot after a football game.

Daniel calls me a wimp. He’s my brother. I’m not, though. A wimp, I mean. I’ve just got better things to do than yell about who creamed who at the game. Adventures are more my speed, even though they’re hard to come by in a place like this. But I guess that’ll change soon. Mom says we’re leaving right after Halloween because of Dad’s new job, and it’s not like we have a choice. Another museum gig in some town I can’t even pronounce.

Daniel thinks I’ll be glad to leave this “crappy, junky town,” as he calls it, but that’s not how it feels to me. I’ve never lived anywhere else. Leaving means losing everything: my friends, the Night Owls, and… this place.

Mom says I’m “slight.” She’s talking about how I’m not on any of the teams like Daniel is, and I’ve got braces and asthma, and I get colds a lot, more than most kids, especially in the fall. And guess what? Fall’s when this story happened, right before Halloween, the best time of year, even though Mom freaks out about “flu season” and my “condition.”

Of course, it rains a lot, too, but October’s still got this magic to it. Something mysterious in the air, like the wind’s carrying secrets. And Halloween? Forget about it—it’s the one night the world feels alive with possibilities. And, as it turns out, it was the last Halloween I’d spend here. I didn’t know it then, but I felt it. That weird, electric sense of something about to happen.

What I hate is my braces. One time, Cheryl Hagedorn kissed me—actually, she kissed me—and our braces locked. I had to unhook us with her dad’s tweezers in the rearview mirror of his Chevy. Super embarrassing. After that, I didn’t want to look at her, and I’m pretty sure she felt the same.

Then there’s my asthma, which Daniel says is all in my head. Mom says it’s in my lungs—my brain is in my head. Daniel’s got this whole act where he tells me my brains are where I sit. He’s not mean, just being Daniel, y’know?

Daniel’s nineteen, and he’s nothing like me—blond, blue-eyed, and always lifting weights. He’s not just a jock, though, he knows a lot of stuff. He thinks moving is a great idea, but me? I’m stuck in this weird space where everything I know is about to disappear.

But then there’s my crew—the Night Owls. Dad calls us “an assortment,” but he works at a museum, so what does he know? Alfie “Trashmouth” Banks, Sapphire Reid, and Violet Albarn are my people. We’ve been through it all together, but none of us knew that this Halloween would change everything.

The whole “leaving town” thing felt like a ticking clock in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t real until October 24. That’s when it hit me. We had one last chance for something to happen before I was gone for good. And something did.

It all started that night, with me and Daniel sitting in the living room. Well, I was sitting. Daniel was hanging upside down from the chinning bar.

“Nothin’ exciting ever happens around here,” I muttered. Daniel didn’t respond—he was too busy swinging by his heels—but I meant it. This place was dead. Maybe leaving wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, other kids had adventures, right? Tom Sawyer, Luke Skywalker, Jim Hawkins… What did I have? Orthodontist appointments.

I sighed. “Who needs this place, anyway?”

That got Daniel’s attention. He swung down, landing on his feet. “You serious?”

“No way. I was just trying to make myself feel better. Tryin’ to, y’know, dilute myself.”

“Delude, dummy,” he corrected. “But yeah… I know what you mean. I’m gonna miss this place, too.”

Before I could say anything else, the doorbell rang. Not just any ring—this one was long and obnoxious, like someone was leaning on it. It was Alfie. Trashmouth was always good for a distraction.

Alfie barged in, his usual whirlwind of energy, trying to lighten the mood. “Wait—what’s this? A funeral? Look at you two, lying around like it’s Nuclear Saturday! C’mon, dudes, it’s our last Halloween together! We should be out cruisin’, living it up!”

He slapped Daniel in the stomach, immediately launching into his Saturday Night Live John Belushi routine: “But noooo! You had to screw it up, you had to go and flunk your driving test…”

Daniel half-heartedly swiped at Alfie, but his heart wasn’t in it. He missed, and Trashmouth danced back just as the doorbell rang again, this time at the front gate.

“Jerk alert!” Alfie grinned, hopping to the window.

We all looked outside. Standing at the gate, wearing her dumbest Madonna t-shirt, jeans, and mismatched black socks, was Violet Albarn. She waved, but something was off. Her usual carefree, musical energy was replaced by something serious, something… uneasy.

She was yelling now. “Guys! You gotta let me in! Something weird is going on.”

Alfie, always quick with the sarcasm, muttered, “Looks like Violet had a good night.”

I ignored him and opened the door. “Violet, what’s up? You okay?”

She rushed inside, slamming the door behind her, panting like she’d been running. Her usual laid-back attitude was gone. Her eyes darted around the room, wide and wild, like she’d seen a ghost.

“Violet?” I asked, stepping closer. “What’s going on?”

She looked up, her breath still shallow, and whispered, “The stars…”

“The stars?” Alfie scoffed. “You’ve lost it.”

“No, I’m serious,” Violet gasped. “The stars… they’re singing.”

We all stared at her. Violet was a lot of things—imaginative, eccentric, a dreamer—but this was something else. Even Alfie didn’t have a quick comeback.

“Wait, what?” I asked, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

“I know how it sounds!” Violet blurted, her voice shaking. “But I swear, I was walking near the old radio tower—you know, the one that’s been abandoned forever? And I heard it. This weird, eerie song. It wasn’t coming from any radio. It was in the air, like it was… coming from the sky.”

I exchanged a glance with Daniel, who raised an eyebrow. This was weird, even for Violet.

She continued, her voice trembling, “I thought I was going crazy, but then I saw something. A flash of light. Not like normal lightning—this was slower, and purple. And after that, the song got louder, like it was… inside me. And then, just as quickly, it stopped.”

“Has she officially gone nuts?” Alfie said, half-laughing, half-serious.

“Alfie, shut up,” I snapped. “Violet, what do you mean? What kind of song?”

Her face twisted in fear, her voice dropping to a shaky whisper. “It wasn’t just a song. It was like… a voice. Something… dark. Almost human, but not. Like it wasn’t supposed to be here.”

A cold chill ran down my spine. The room felt suddenly smaller, the air heavier.

Violet’s hands were trembling now. “And the worst part? I wasn’t just hearing it. I could feel it. Like it knew I was there, listening.”

The room was silent, each of us hanging on her every word. I felt my heart thudding in my chest. Something wasn’t right.

“What did it say?” I asked, barely able to get the words out.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. “It said… ‘We can hear you. You shouldn’t have been so loud.’”

And then, before any of us could react, Violet’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed, hitting the floor with a soft thud.

“Violet!” I rushed to her side, panic surging through me as I knelt down. Her face was pale, her body limp, and her breathing… shallow.

“Move!” Daniel barked, pushing me back. “Give her some air.” He crouched beside me, checking her pulse, but she wasn’t waking up.

“What the hell just happened?” Alfie’s voice shook as he stood, frozen in place.

“She just fainted…” I started, but my words trailed off as something in the air shifted. It was subtle at first—just the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Then, I felt it.

The weight in the room changed, like the air was pressing down on us from all sides. It felt heavier… or maybe I was lighter? I couldn’t tell which. The furniture creaked, and I heard something rattling in the kitchen. The floor seemed to tilt slightly, like the whole house was swaying on its foundation.

“What’s happening?” Alfie whispered, his voice tight with fear.

“I don’t know…” I muttered, trying to steady myself as I looked around. My heart pounded in my chest, every beat echoing in my ears.

Suddenly, the sky outside lit up with a brilliant flash, casting the room in an eerie, bright purple glow. It wasn’t lightning—not like anything I’d ever seen. The light pulsed, shimmering across the sky, turning the clouds into jagged, violet streaks.

“Look at the sky!” Daniel shouted, pointing out the window.

I scrambled to my feet, pulling the curtain aside. The entire horizon had been swallowed by that unnatural purple light, flickering and swirling like a living thing. The stars—the ones Violet had been talking about—were barely visible behind it, as if they were drowning in the glow.

“What is that?” Alfie’s voice was shaking now. “What the hell is that?!”

I couldn’t answer. No one could. We just stood there, frozen, staring out the window, watching as the world around us changed in ways none of us could explain.

The wind picked up outside, howling like a living creature. It rattled the windows, making the house groan under the pressure. For a second, I thought the glass was going to shatter.

The weight of the world felt off-kilter, like gravity itself had shifted and twisted just for a moment. The purple sky had faded, but its ghostly light still clung to the horizon, as if waiting for something. I couldn’t shake the sensation that we weren’t alone, that whatever Violet had heard was somehow still out there, watching us.

“Tom…” Daniel’s voice was low, hesitant. He pointed to the corner of the room where Violet had been lying just seconds ago.

My heart skipped a beat. Violet was gone.

“What—what the hell?!” I stammered, scrambling to where she’d been, my hands feeling the empty floorboards. She couldn’t have just disappeared. We had been standing over her the entire time.

“She was right here!” Daniel said, backing away from the spot where her body should have been. “I swear she was just here!”

Alfie’s face had gone pale. “No way. No way, man. This is not happening.”

And then, without warning, the room was plunged into darkness. The lights flickered out, leaving us standing in the pitch black, with only the faintest glow from outside casting eerie shadows.

A deep, low hum filled the air, vibrating through the walls and floor beneath our feet. It was the same hum Violet had described, the one from the radio tower.

I swallowed hard, my voice shaking. “Do you hear that?”

Daniel nodded, eyes wide. “Yeah. It’s coming from outside.”

Alfie backed up toward the door. “No way we’re going out there! That’s where the sound is coming from!”

But before any of us could move, the front door creaked open by itself, a cold wind rushing in from outside. The hum grew louder, and from the darkness beyond the doorway, something shimmered—a faint, purple light, the same as before.

And then, from that light, a voice. Hollow. Cold. Just like Violet had said.

“We can hear you.”

The voice wasn’t from outside. It was coming from behind us.