The Midnight Channel by Isaac Cordero

It's Halloween 2020 in Liam's basement, Liam and his two friends Rob and Margot are sitting in a circle telling ghost stories. “Listen up everyone!” Liam yells to try to get everyone to attend. “Now I've got a story that is sure to keep everyone up tonight, Rob dims the lights,” Liam said cheerfully. “But aren't you closer to the dim switch?” Robert said confusingly. “Hey, I didn’t ask for your sass. I asked you if you can turn down the lights” Liam said mockingly to Rob. Rob sighed and walked over to the light dim switch and dimmed the lights. Liam takes a deep breath and he tells everyone the story that he calls “A Haunting Fortnite”. “It was a normal day in the month of October 2018. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing. My hair was flying in the misty air and the stench of Fortnite costumes filled the air. That was the moment I knew just how scary that night was going to get. The floss and orange juice were in the streets but the next thing I know I was surrounded by fort niters; it was the most terrifying experience of my entire life. But something even more strange and scary than Fortnite children was about to come. The rumbling of it rose from the sewers. I suddenly became frozen with terror, standing in front of me was more horrifying than my worst nightmare The Haunted shopping list! I screamed and tried to run, but to no effect. I was destined to die that night. Rob turns the lights back on. “So, what do you guys think, did it leave you guys shaking in your boots” Liam said cockily. “That was the absolute worst story I ever heard. There are so many plot holes and it is not even funny in the slightest” Margot replies with disgust. “Well I don’t see anyone else here telling any better stories!” Liam argued. “Well it seems it’s my time to shine” and out of the shadows of the stairway was Liam's grandmother Marie. “Grandma what are you talking about?'' Liam said in confusion. “I’m saying that I have a real horror story to tell you all.” Marie said with confidence. “Grandma I doubt your story is an-'' Liam said before being cut off by Rob. “Yes please, anything would be better than listening to stories like the haunting Fortnite” Rob begs while also making fun of Liam’s dumb story. “Okay Liam mijo can you please dim the lights?” Marie asked politely. Liam sighed and dim the lights ``How do you like it when someone makes you di- ow” Rob said before getting hit in the back of the head by Liam. “Okay, but I warn you all this is a true story,” Marie said before she started the story. The year was 1977 Marie was a senior who attended Lowell high school in San Francisco, California. “High school was a terrible place to be at the time I wasn’t very popular and the teachers didn’t like me but there were four people who made my high school life a little bit better,” Marie said reminiscing her past. “Back then I used to have short black hair. I used to wear rock album t-shirts, bell bottom jeans, a pair of blue two toe shoes, a brown coat, and to top off my outfit I wore a big blue cap in high school. I was a rebel I did what I wanted and whenever I wanted even though many people looked down at me for doing the things that made me feel free from all the rules society put on me to be a woman”. Marie said sadly but then her tone suddenly changed as she started to talk about her friends. “I never felt alone. I always had my best friends. there was my best since junior high Amy, a quiet and polite girl who had long black hair who always would come to school every day with the crazy and latest fashions like her platform shoes, her blue bell bottom jeans, a red peasant blouse, and a red headband to tie her whole outfit all together the thing that we always knew what she was going to wear red with every single one of her outfits. Then there was Isaac. He is also my bestie but not as close to me and Amy. Isaac was loud but he was honestly the nicest person I knew Isaac had short slick back hair and always wore a button-up long-sleeve shirt he always cuffed the sleeves thinking he looked cool he also wore blue tight jeans with a pair of black Go- go boots. Isaac always tried too hard to be cool but he’s a sweet guy so we always cut him some slick also I think he gay or something I don’t know it’s just a hunch”. Marie said while laughing as all the nostalgia rushed back to her. “Then lastly there was Jason, my boyfriend. He was amazing, he was funny, cool, very compassionate, he treated me with more respect and dignity than any other man I knew at the time. He used to wear black skinny jeans, a white shirt, a jean jacket, a pair of black vans, and he also had slick black long hair” As Marie reminisced about her past, the kids saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. “My story begins on October 29th at Marie's parents house and we were all hanging out on the couch watching Amy’s favorite game show “The “Dating Game” hosted by Jim Lange ''. “I wish I was on this game show. don’t you guys think it would be so romantic if I met my soulmate on a game show?” Amy said. “You’re really just one big hopeless romantic aren’t you?” Jason replied with a condescending attitude. “And you’re just one rude jerk aren’t you” Amy said except she didn’t say jerk. Isaac yelled saying,“Wait! Can’t you argue later? This is my favorite commercial!” Isaac's favorite commercial was a Kool-Aid ad. He always liked it when the Kool-Aid man breaks down the walls. “Your friends are cool but my friend is Kool-aid” Isaac quoted from the commercial. None of us really complained about Isaac's weird love for that commercial because that commercial always made him the happiest. “Anyway,” I tried to continue the previous conversation. “why don’t we watch my favorite tv show Charlie’s Angels?” I loved Charlie’s Angels. It was everything that a show about women should be. My favorite angel was Kelly Garrett. She was the leader of the group and she always kicked butt. “Nah how about we play a little game called the Midnight channel?” Jason said eagerly. “What don’t tell me you’re all scared of the midnight channel” Jason said mockingly. “No, that game is just for babies after all” Isaac said with a scared look in his eyes. “Whatever Jason, how do we play?” Amy replied. First we turned up the TVs volume to 24, then we changed the channel to 12, one of the channels that go off air after 10:00, and right after that we unplugged the TV at 11:59. “Well it’s midnight are you sure we did everything correctly?” I asked Jason. Then all of the the lights shut off and the TV turned on to the game show we where watching before we started playing Jason’s dumb game. Jim Lange appears saying “Tomorrow night on “The Dating Game” we will have a very special guest” along with white noise then it went off air and the TV turned off again just to turn on to show a silhouette that looked like Amy. The lights came back on Isaac and Amy were petrified “What the heck just happened JASON! What just happened” I asked, scared out of my mind. “I don't know I never actually did this before” Jason replied I could tell that Jason was as scared as the rest of us. “Hey how about we just go home and pretend this never happened? Right, great!” Amy said while leaving the house in a flash. Everyone else went home and I was just going crazy about what just happened but I eventually fell asleep on the couch. I woke up to the sound of the TV “Hello and welcome to “The Dating Game” with your host Jim Lange!” The TV narrator said. “Ladies and gentlemen our guest tonight is none other than the wonderful Amy Adair!” Jim said as loud and cheerful as his other episodes. Jim asks Amy “So Mrs. Adair do you have any to say? You’re on national TV!” Amy yelled as loud as she could, “Please help me, I've been kidnapped!” Then Jim taped her mouth shut saying “wow what a live wire she is let’s begin our show” that’s all I remembered I thought it was just a really weird nightmare until I was walking home from school the next morning just to find the police and Isaac at Amy’s house. I asked Isaac “What happened!” He was standing there with tears running down his face. Isaac at a loss for words pointed up on the roof of her house just to find her hanging off the TV antenna. Amy looked like she had the life sucked out of her. Many cops questioned me and Isaac asking what happened but we weren’t sure what actually happened to Amy so we told the cops we didn’t know anything about what happened to her after she left my house. I had a theory on what actually happened. I called Jason from the phone booth in front of the police station to tell him to meet us back at my house. We were all devastated about what happened to Amy. “So last night I saw her on the dating game but it looked like she was kidnapped,” I said in distress. “Me too I saw Jim Lange kill Amy but I didn’t see what happened afterward. It felt like such a surreal moment so I just ignored it thinking it was just a dream because I didn’t think anything like that would've happened” Jason said. “Isaac did you also watch last night” I wasn’t going to ask him because out of all of us he was the most upset. Isaac replied “Yeah I saw the whole thing. I thought it was just some nightmare but when I saw her body. I knew that it wasn’t a nightmare and that I was going to be next.” It felt like my heart stopped knowing that we were all going to be axed off one by one. “What do you mean you’re next!” Jason yelled. “After Amy died, I appeared on the TV just like Amy did before she died” Isaac started to cry but I couldn’t comfort him. I just didn’t know what to tell him. He was going to be killed and there was nothing we could do. “I got an idea, Isaac why don't you come over to my place? We can protect you and we can find out what is really going on” Jason said trying to cheer up Isaac. “Are you sure that's a good idea Jason?” I asked him. “Yeah it sounds like a great idea. then we can take our revenge on that thing!” Isaac said while wiping the tears from his face. Later that night we met up at Jason's house so we could protect Isaac. I brought one of the knives from my kitchen.”So basically the plan is that I'm going to be bait” Isaac said, sounding concerned . “Well yeah, but me and Marie will be hiding so when that thing appears me and Marie will knock that thing out before it can kill you” Jason said very confidently. “Okay I believe you” Isaac replied. All of a sudden the TV turned on and the TV started to change channels until it got to the dead channel. Then the TV started to produce only white noise. “What now?” Isaac said shaking. Then Isaac's favorite commercial came on but this time Isaac wasn't happy. “This can't be happening. This has to be a sick joke! what's going to happen to me? Oh No!” Isaac said, pleading for his life. Then the wall burst open like a watermelon and someone yelled “oh yeah!”. “What the” Jason didn't know what to say. “It's the freakin Kool-Aid man!” I said confusingly except I didn't say freakin. Jason attacked it. When he hit it, it shattered like glass like we were hitting the TV itself. Then the broken pieces started to put themselves back together. The monster then grabbed me and threw me at Jason knocking me out. When I awoke, Isaac was gone and Jason was crying. I looked at the TV and all I saw was an image of myself. It's Halloween night and Jason and I came up with a plan to destroy that thing once and for all.So the plan is that if we destroyed the TV where we summoned it from it would destroy that thing at least we hoped. Jason grabs his metal bat and I stole my dad's shotgun. We weren't ready to face the monster head-on. We were prepared mentally because we knew that if we were going to go out we were going to fight.” Hey, before we do this I just wanted to say I love you?” Jason told me knowing this might be the last time we're together, he leans over and kisses.” I've been waiting for this moment ” I said while I was hugging him. The TV turned on and we let go of each other “Alright let’s do this!” Jason yelled to hype himself up. As the Theme for Charlie's Angels played I loaded my shot. The monster appeared again and I yelled “Take this!” blasting the monster shattering into a million pieces. “Jason now” Jason took his bat and destroyed the TV. “yeah we did it!” Jason yelled hugging me. “Yes it's finally over” as we were celebrating the monster began putting itself back together and got up but this time instead of taking the form as one of Charlie's Angels it was towering over us revealing its true form. The monster looked like a man made out of shards of glass and on each shard, they showed only yellow and black static.The monster struck me throwing me and cutting my face. My shotgun flew to the other side of the room and the monster started to charge at me and Jason yelled “Get away from her!” then hit the monster with the bat but this time instead of the broken pieces going back to the body it stayed on the floor losing its static image. I got up and ran over to grab the shotgun as Jason fought the monster. I grabbed the shotgun only to learn that it's out of ammo. The monster grabs Jason and stabs him in the chest and throws him to the ground and then it looks over at me and starts to charge at me as I struggle to load the gun. At the last minute when it was about to stab Jason rams it’s hurting himself even more. The monster gets up and grabs Jason again and kills him by cutting his throat. But I finally was able to load the gun and I yelled “This is for everyone you hurt” and I shot it in the head shattering into dust. The shards that made up the body of that thing all fell onto the floor losing its image. This time I was sure that the monster was dead. I ran over to Jason's body holding his dead body crying because I wasn't able to save Jason. I killed the monster that night, avenging all my friends. The end. “That's so sad everyone died,” Margot said crying. “That can't be real grandma TV monsters aren't real but that was the better story than mine,” Liam said wiping a tear from his eyes.” Well it's time for me to go to bed. you kids have a good Halloween” Marie said getting up. The kids told her good night and she went to bed. Later that night in Marie's bedroom the TV turned on changing channels until it got to the dead channel showing Liam’s silhouette.