By the Midnight Hour

Kate Campbell
5 min readOct 30, 2022
Photo by Skyler Sawyer on Unsplash

Claire sat in her warm and cosy pyjamas, a cup of tea in hand. Her crudely made pumpkin with its dimly lit torch sat glowing beside her. The throw she’d been wrapped in for warmth and comfort was now held in nervous anticipation just below her eyes, ready to shield her from the events of the night’s chosen Halloween film. She didn’t have high hopes as the movie was from an unknown, indie production company that she’d found from an obscure corner of one of her streaming platforms. Nevertheless, the description of the film had intrigued her and it was certainly proving to be a spooky choice.

The movie was about four teenagers who came across a tatty old book on Halloween night, filled with horrifying tales of demonic monsters and murderous beings. It is soon revealed that the book had been cursed and having read it, they had unknowingly placed the curse on themselves. That night, the clock struck midnight and at that exact moment, a dark figure appeared at the end of the four teenager’s beds. It appeared every night and each time it drew a little closer. Every day the teenagers became more and more exhausted and withdrawn, their skin became pale and dark circles appeared beneath their eyes, making their eyes look sunken and gaunt. On the sixth night, the figure appeared one more time, exactly at midnight. It now stood right above them, watching them, then silently its hands slowly lowered and reached out to touch their faces. Draining the lives from their bodies. The next morning their families found them; skin drawn back tightly against their bones, dead. Their faces were frozen in expressions of sheer terror. It was terrifying.

The film ended abruptly and without any particular resolution. Claire stared at the screen in disappointment and surprise. This was only heightened when the film ended without any credits to acknowledge the cast and crew, there was just a blank screen.

Claire hadn’t noticed that during the film, the silhouette of a figure had begun to emerge from the corner of the room, watching her from the shadows, created by the flickering lights of the pumpkin and the TV. Now the film had finished the figure was fully formed but Claire still didn’t notice it as she, turned off the TV, got up from the sofa and flicked the on lights. When she eventually did look back into the room it had disappeared along with the shadows.

Getting into bed, Claire shivered involuntarily, certain that the house was colder than normal. In the warmth of the duvet, she didn’t think much of it and fell asleep almost immediately. Then as the clock on her bedside table flicked to midnight, a figure appeared at the end of her bed, silently watching her.

Claire awoke the next day feeling groggy and drained and began to wonder if she was coming down with something. It only got worse over the next few days, she became increasingly pale and the circles around her eyes grew darker and darker. Then on the sixth day, as she prepared herself for bed, memories of the movie she’d watched on Halloween night began to creep into her mind.

“It was just a stupid film,” she muttered to herself as she crawled into bed. “I can’t let it get to me like this!” Claire forced herself to clear her mind. Determined that she was going to get a good night’s sleep, hopeful she’d feel better the next day.

The night was quiet and still; Claire slept soundly. That was until the clock struck twelve. Claire awoke with a start, then let out an exasperated cry as she realised the time. There was sudden movement in the corner of the room and she swung around in terror, sitting bolt upright. To her horror, she saw a shadowy figure slowly approaching the bed, silhouetted by the dim light of the streetlight situated just outside her window. As it drew closer, she realised it was a woman, staring at her hungrily. She was dressed in a long, shabby, black dress, with a thin black scarf wrapped around her shoulders. Her face was pale and filled with striking dark veins, making her appear skeletal. Her eyes were pools of darkness; absorbing and terrifying. She raised a wrinkled, bony hand towards Claire, the fingernails of which were long and blackened. In her other hand, Claire noticed she was gripping an old tatty book. Claire’s heart beat heavily in her chest and she wished with all her might that she could run, to escape. Her body however was frozen in place. The spectral woman’s hand made contact with her skin; its touch was cold and painful. She could feel her rough skin and the sharpness of the bones beneath her thin skin. With her free hand, the woman flicked open the book and as she did, Claire felt the terrible sensation of her life being drained from within her.

Eventually, Claire’s lifeless body collapsed back into her bed, her skin stretched tightly across her now skeletal frame. A smile appeared on the shadowy woman’s face as she closed the book and vanished back into the darkness.

On All Hallows Eve, hundreds of years ago, a cruel old witch sat in her lair, all too aware she was dying. She had tried all she could, every spell she knew, to try and live a little longer. She’d even slaughtered the children from the nearby village, in the hope their sacrifice would sustain her just a little longer, but nothing had worked. Determined that her life and her legacy would live on, she came to a decision. She used the little that remained of her powers to curse a book full of frightening folklore stories. So when she died, her spirit would live on within the book. It meant that whilst the book was being read, the reader would quickly become absorbed in the horror of the stories, unknowingly leaving themselves vulnerable. Her cursed spirit would enter their minds and this would release the witch’s shadow. She would begin to draw strength from them as they slept. Then on the sixth night, she would be strong enough to absorb her victim’s life and soul, allowing her and the curse to live on. As times changed, fewer people read books and so the witch’s undying existence began to wane. That was until the book was used as a prop in a film. The witch took the lives of everyone involved and so the curse became stronger than ever. She was now able to use the film as a means to continue her existence, allowing her to find even more unsuspecting victims, determined that in one way or another she would live forever.

So, beware this Halloween. Who knows what hidden horrors might lurk in the scary films we watch, and the ghost-filled books that we read? Deep within its depths, you might discover more than just a frightening tale.

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Kate Campbell
Kate Campbell

Written by Kate Campbell

Kate Campbell is an author with a particular passion for writing fantasy and horror stories.

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