Midnight meeting

A short story written by James Record (2008)

Midnight meeting © James Record, jim90 and JrGamestorm 2008

It was another one of those nights where you wish you don’t wake up the next morning, having tried all he could think of Daniel decided to give up searching for her, and instead would fade into the background.
He went to bed as he did every night, only had no intention on waking up the next morning, he wasn’t going to do anything himself just hope that someone or something would help do that. As he lay on his pillow he thought about what he would be missing, but that only made him want to leave even more, he thought for a while before drifting, then waking and finding he was still thinking, he wanted to sleep but he kept waking back up. After a few hours of failing miserably to returned to trying to sleep normally, not even that would let him go, then he felt a rush and the urge to smash his head into a wall, of which he did before falling peacefully off the side of his bed. He had quite knocked himself about but he sure felt more comfy on the floor when he couldn’t think clearly, due to the pain surging down his spine but mostly the fact it was the middle of the night and he hadn’t slept more than a few minutes at a time. While on the floor he thought as hard as he could to try and combat the fact he couldn’t spell his own name without forgetting why, while thinking he felt a strange sensation, one that he’d never felt before and he liked it. Then picking himself up and back into bed he did the same again, before seeing a light show in his eyelids and thought he fallen off the edge of the world. Then doing it again only this time even stronger he fell through his sheets and into the garden below, his mind was free of all physical problems, he no longer had the urge to cause himself harm, but instead just wandered his garden in the middle of the night before finding that the trees and the plants were no longer solid. Or maybe it was he who was no longer solid. Walking the garden he thought he would test the theory by running into the garden fence and falling flat on his face. The ground was solid though, again he decided to run through the next fence and to his amazement, his next-door-but-one neighbour was stood in the garden, only she wasn’t physically there either. He could see a white glow around her and he knew she could see him, about to run, she called his name and decided to stay.
“Hi”
“Er…hi”
“Since when could you night walk?”
“What?”
“As in leave your body, and wander the night before returning before morning arises”
“Wait, what going on? Anyway I shouldn’t be here”
“There nothing to stop you, you won’t get caught, you can’t be seen as you are, why is this your first time?”
“I have no idea what you’re on about”
“So, why you here?”
“I guess I came to find some answers, but they aren’t in the bread bin or washing machine”
“Er…of course there not, answers are found in ourselves, oh sorry you were joking, it is late.”
“I feel weird!”
Daniel started to fall to the ground and clutch his stomach, before his head started spinning and pain started pulsing and the dizziness took hold, before passing out.
He woke in his bed, panting and out of breath, before a fit of coughing choked him, he coughed for five or ten minutes, before quietening down and falling to sleep as usual.
It was in the morning that his parents told him that he’d been coughing in the night, he tried not to hint at anything just that he’d had a really weird dream that night.
After breakfast he walked outside into the street to see the girl his own age he’d been talking to the night before in his dream standing there waving, now it wasn’t often she waved. So it usual meant something was up, “Hi”
“First time indeed”
“What?” He shouted out almost spraying her in lemonade, “Wait you mean that was real, I thought I’d just had a weird dream”
“Nope, all real, oh and the coughing thing, you stop that when you get used to it, all first timers freak out after about five minutes, but I can last all night now.”
“Ok”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to you again tonight, I can help you better when no one else is there, don’t worry it only takes a few times before you come immune to the freaking out thing, about four maybe five times.”

Later, the night that followed was the same as the previous, only this time he wanted to wake up the next morning, he didn’t know why he just felt a burden lifted, but suspended over him instead of removed completed. That night when all was quiet and everyone was asleep he leant over to the side where the wall was and smashed into against it before repeating the process from the night before. Once in his garden he wandered into the next-door garden and through into the next again, and sure enough she was stood there, after waiting for her to finish talking to another girl he walked over and she turned around.
“Oh hi again”
“Oh ok, so basically I know someone who er…well I liked before and I guess I still do.”
Daniel liked the girl he was talking to but since he’d met the other girl they had become more of just friends.
“Really?”
“Yeah but she moved and I don’t know where she moved or her knew number or anything.”
“Well I know many people around here who can night walk, I’m one of them might know, that’s if you feel confident enough asking.”
“Yeah, I think that’s what went wrong last time, I kinda got quiet and then something went wrong, I assume me.”
“Well if you walk around a bit and see what people have to say, maybe have a chat with other night walker, just remember one thing, wait until you’ve done it a few times and you’re sure you’ll last the night, and secondly, even when you are experienced, never go more than half an hour in one night. Trust me I went forty minutes once, not good.”
“Where yer goin?”
“I’ve out here a while, gotta go for tonight, I’ll be here every night though.”
“How did you first find out about night walking?”
“I just relaxed and then just found myself here.”
Daniel just realised that maybe smashing your head every night, probably wasn’t the best of ways, especially with the threat of brain damage, so he thought he’d have to try that instead. But for now he began to
feel the pain again, he wanted to go back himself but found himself on the floor again and couldn’t make use of his legs, he waited.
He awoke once again to find he could barely breath and began to cough again, though this time he stuck the pillow over his head in the hope his parents wouldn’t hear him again. He felt weak and found he couldn’t walk if he tried to right at that moment, he had a disgusting taste in his mouth, but managed to ignore it and go to sleep.

The next night he found it much easier to find the perfect peace required to leave the world and wander the night, as usual the girl was standing in her garden, she always stayed between midnight and half past. After talking for a few minutes he decided to have a walk and find some people near-by who also shared the light around them, asking if they knew the girl he wanted to find. Though he never found out, he had something that stopped him from asking, though trying to slip it into conversation.
He returned to the girl still in the garden, her name was Hannah and was the same age, they’d both gone the school together but only saw each other now because they lived near each other.
“I can’t ask, anyway, I found there is a lot of people out there, maybe you could ask.”
“I could, but then I’d be doing it for you, but seeing as you are still new to this I’ll ask a few people, just try to ask yourself as well. Ok now you’ve got about three minutes left until you freak out, maybe more maybe less, so I advise getting back now before you do.”
“How?”
“Just go back to your room and get back in bed and then wake up, if it doesn’t work then expect to be coughing and choking again.”
“Why does that happen?”
“Because your body isn’t used to being detached from you so you start to destroy, that the taste you get, now run!”
He ran up the stairs of his house and just as the pains started he awoke and started coughing, it wasn’t as bad as it normally was and lasted only a few seconds.

The next night Daniel did the same again, in the day he lived his life as normal and tried not to hint to his parents what was going on, his dad didn’t like him being around the girl Hannah, so it would be to risky to talk to her in the day. But what he didn’t know was that he’d found a way to talk to her at night.
That night he met her in her garden again and started talking, she started by saying she’d had found an address of the girl he liked, but it was too far to get there and back in one night without risking being trapped by the thirty minute window of opportunity. That was the average amount of time someone could spend out side of their body before the damage to the body would be so much that it would reject him re-entering. The freaking out was a fail safe that automatically returned them to bodies, but over time people learn to ignore it, problem is, once immune, it’s up to the people themselves to return otherwise getting stuck.
He had just found this out from the girl, he had already made up his mind, he would risk not being able to return to go over to the girl, problem was if the information was wrong then he would be risking it for nothing.
“If you’re going then I’m not coming with yer, I’m not getting stuck with yer, I’ll show you where to go, but I’m not going any further.”
“When then?”
“Not tonight, I can see you’re not ready yet, plus you’ve already spent five minutes talking to me, tomorrow, if you’re ready, otherwise you won’t get half way there.”
“Right okay, tomorrow then.” As he said that she walked back into her house and then he did the same.

On the fifth day he was ready for seeing the girl he liked once again, when he spoke of her, he only ever used the word liked, he usually hinted the rest.
He went into the state again and found himself in the his garden again, then quickly using the directions didn’t waste time going to Hannah, instead just ran and tried his best to get there. He had fifteen minutes each way, he marked the point of no return in his mind and soon found himself on the way there. Past the point of no return with ease he headed towards where he believed she lived, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen outside so he headed into the house that had been indicated to him. Walking through the wall ands up the stairs he saw her asleep, she had never found out how to night walk, instead, when she woke she saw right through him, as if he were never there. He knew he had no time to stop, now he knew where she was, he had no problem in going round in person. Just the fear of embarrassment if it were the wrong person, he knew he had time to make up, he had used twenty minutes getting there and sitting there, that he forgot he had to get back as well. Running out of the house and falling to the ground, though feeling no pain he sprinted back towards his own house, but knowing he would be short of time, knowing that if he was still outside when thirty minutes were up, he’d be trapped.
Just as the last few minutes rolled over he flew around the corner and into his house dropping into bed and waking up just in time.

The next morning he got on his bike and rode around to the house where he’d been the night before, out of all the houses in the entire town and surrounding area, he would never have found it by himself. He walked up to the front door and rang the bell, he waited and then eventually he found himself in the arms of a girl called Amy, followed by talking. He’d waited four years for this, and all it took was to ask.