A Spontaneous Bedtime Story

Posted on 01 August 2010

Tonight, my four year old demanded that I tell him a skeleton story. I couldn’t think of anything pre-packaged, so I tried to demure and read a normal book, but he insisted, so I came up with this. Yes, this version is not exactly what I told him, but it is pretty close, at least in the story and the level of detail I put into it.

Once upon a time, two little boys were out in the woods looking for a spooky house. They had heard it was there, but they didn’t know exactly where. The day wore on, and as it started to get dark, they heard a sound.

Klaka-klaka-klaka.

The sound was far away and faint, and they had no clue what it was. Dice rolling? Teeth clacking together? They didn’t know, but they didn’t want to find out, so they started to go the other way, away from the sound. But it followed them.

Klaka-klaka-klaka.

The boys started to run, but the sound continued to get closer. Klaka-klaka-klaka. The boys ran as fast as they could until at last, they reached a clearing. And there, to their surprise, was the spooky house they had been looking for in the first place. They weren’t in the mood to go exploring the house in the twilight, but the sound kept coming closer.

Klaka-klaka-klaka.

With nowhere to run, the boys ran into the house, desperate for a place to hide. Inside, there were spider-webs everywhere, and tall windows and mirrors loomed around and made the shadows seem ever deeper. The noise was just outside, in the clearing.

Klaka-klaka-klaka.

In a near panic, the boys ran up the stairs just as the door slowly creaked open. Klaka-klaka-klaka. They did not even dare to look back, and they ran up to the third floor, where the attic was. Below, they heard door after door open, as if someone was searching every room for them. Creak, Klaka-klaka-klaka. Creak, Klaka-klaka-klaka.

The attic was darker than the rest of the house, with barely any moonlight able to flitter in. The boys ran to the darkest corner they could find and cowered, staring at the door that led down stairs. Eventually, it too creaked open. Klaka-klaka-klaka. A hand reached in through the door, but it was too thin to be a normal hand. Then a person appeared, but he was too thin to be a person. The boys could see right through him. He was a skeleton!

The skeleton walked towards the boy. Klaka. Klaka. Kalka. It looked right at them and smiled a skeletal smile.

“Are you lost?”

The boys, to scared to talk, only nodded.

“Follow me. I’ll take you home.”

The boys, still scared of the skeleton, only nodded again and slowly followed the skeleton outside. It was now very dark, and the moon was not able to reach past the thick trees. The skeleton did not glance back at the boys the entire time, and its long legs let it move much faster than them. Before long, the boys had only the sound to follow.

Klaka-klaka-klaka.

The night only got darker, and soon the boys heard wolves howling in the night. Aroooo. Klaka-klaka-klaka. The boys tried to move faster, but they were tired and scared. All they had was the sound of the skeleton to follow, but they dared not get too close. Then, after they had walked a long way, the sound suddenly was gone.

Klaka-klaka-kla—

The boys froze in their footsteps, worried that the skeleton had abandoned them, and they ran as fast as they could toward the place they last heard the sound. Right as they reached it, they burst out of the woods and saw their house, the lights on and the door open. They ran to it, where their mom and dad gave them tight hugs and worried over them.

“Where have you been?” Their mom asked.

“We were out looking for the spooky house, but we got lost.” The boys said. They did not mention the skeleton.

Their parents worried over them a bit more and then put them to bed. The next morning, the boys went back out to the edge of the woods and looked around. There, in a spot of tried mud, a single footprint was visible: a skeleton’s footprint.