A/N - My entry for the August MSec fanfic challenge by lilacmermaid33 on tumblr.
The prompt: It was a dark and stormy night
This story is the first thing that came into my head when I read this prompt. Hope you enjoy - its quite different to my other MSec fan fics - no angst! Woah! Please leave a review if you want to :)
edit - fixed a small error regarding the hide and seek game pointed out to me by TeamAlison! THANK YOU :)
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
"It was a dark and stormy night.." Henry McCord began, the atmosphere was just perfect. The four of them sat around the fire in the log cabin that had become their go-to place for short vacations. It was Halloween night, the sun had already set. He couldn't help but smirk at the sight of his three children before him, gorging on candy that he and Elizabeth had bought them due to being unable to trick-or-treat in such a remote location.
Jason, his youngest and only boy sat cross legged on the carpet, staring up wide-eyed at his father waiting for the story to continue, his face smudged with the remnants of chocolate bars. Alison and Steve sat on the small sofa opposite the fire huddled in their pyjamas, their candy barely touched.
"Hold on." A voice called from the kitchen, and she appeared in the doorway. Elizabeth McCord wandered into the living room carrying three streaming mugs of cocoa and placed them on the coffee table in front of the kids and then took her seat behind Henry on the other sofa.
"Drink up." She said, staring lovingly at her children as Henry took her hand in his. The weekend cabin getaway was a much welcome distraction from their hectic lives, between Elizabeth's work at the CIA and Henry's classes, as well as bringing up three feisty young children, they felt like they had barely any time together anymore - most nights the kids had after school extra curricular activities, Elizabeth sometimes didn't get home until after Jason had been put to bed. They so badly needed this time to recharge and reconnect.
Stevie had been most put out when she found out they wouldn't be staying at home for Halloween, her friends had been planning to go trick-or-treating and she wouldn't be able to go thanks to being at the stupid cabin. Elizabeth had wondered for a short moment whether she should have allowed Stevie to stay at a friends house - she was thirteen years old after all, but after discussing it with Henry, they came to the decision that this really needed to be a family weekend.
"Daddy, tell us the story!" Jason chirped after taking a long sip from his mug.
"What story?" Elizabeth asked.
"Oh you know, just a scary story." Henry joked. "It is halloween after all."
"Well it better not be too scary, he's only seven…" Elizabeth sighed.
"Babe it'll be fine, will you do me a favour and get the lights?" Henry asked.
As Elizabeth stood up to turn the lights off, the living room fell into darkness, lit only by the flickering flames of the fireplace. Alison and Stevie huddled up to each other underneath the blanket on their sofa, and Jason moved onto the sofa and sat between his mother and father.
"I bet it's going to be lame." Stevie sighed.
"Shut up, I want to hear the story!" Alison complained.
"Girls." Elizabeth warned.
Henry cleared his throat and began the story again.
"It was a dark and stormy night, many years ago two brothers who were bored due to the power outage that blacked out their street, decided to play a game of hide and seek."
All three children were listening intently - Elizabeth grinned, it was the quietest they'd been all day, she made a mental note to get Henry to do story time more often, perhaps not with scary stories though.
"They had both agreed that the younger brother would hide, and the older brother would seek. The younger brother left in a hurry to find a great spot to hide, while the older brother turned his back, covered his eyes and began to count to ten."
Henry paused momentarily to take a sip of water and cleared his throat and then continued.
"The youngest brother decided to hide in the bottom of their wardrobe, he climbed inside and carefully closed the door - he could only see a tiny slither of the bedroom through the crack in the wardrobe doors. He sat and waited while he listened to his older brother counting down."
"Five…. Four….Three…. Two… One. Ready or not here I come, the older brother had shouted and set off in search of his little brother. He searched the hallway, checked underneath the dressers, he checked behind the shower curtains, in the laundry basket but his little brother was nowhere to be found."
"That's when he heard it - a small childlike laugh coming from the bedroom, the older brother grinned to himself, he was making this too easy. He stepped into the bedroom that he shared with his little brother and surveyed the area. There were many places he could be hiding, behind the curtains, in the wardrobe, underneath the bed, he tried to decide which to check first. Once again he heard the laugh, coming from underneath the bed."
"The younger brother watched from his hiding place in the wardrobe as his older brother approached the bed and knelt down. He wondered what he was doing, he too had heard the laugh, his breath catching in his throat with fear as he watched his older brother slowly begin to pull up the hanging sheets that revealed the space underneath the bed."
"He saw his older brother lean further down, placing his head on the floor so as to peek under the bed. Although he was terrified he willed himself to jump out of the wardrobe and shout to his brother that there was something under the bed. His shout got his brother's attention who turned to look at him in disbelief - if his younger brother had been hiding in the wardrobe, then who had he heard under the bed?"
"The younger brother screamed as a pale white hand popped out from under the bed and grabbed his big brother, pulling him under the bed in one quick swoop. He ran over to the bed and peeked underneath it - but there was nobody there, no mysterious figure nor his brother. His big brother was never seen again."
Silence filled the living room, the children were now hanging off of Henry's every word.
"The end." He finished.
"Where did the big brother go?" Jason asked, shrinking back into Elizabeth's arms, fear a little evident on his face.
"Nobody knows, no one ever found him."
"It's just a stupid story, it's not true." Stevie piped up from the other sofa.
"Oh no, it's real." Henry laughed. "It happened to my friend when we were kids."
Elizabeth cradled her son in her arms and looked sternly at Henry, obviously this was a lie.
"I think that's enough horror for one night." She said. "All three of you should go to bed." She sighed as she saw Alison stifle a yawn behind her hand.
The girls had put themselves to bed in one of the cabins twin bedrooms, Henry was clearing away the dishes in the living room and Elizabeth was currently tucking her baby boy into bed on the bottom bunk of the spare bedroom bunk beds. She tucked the blanket in at all sides, effectively cocooning him just as he liked, she guessed it made him feel safe.
"There you go sweetie." She said softly, placing a kiss on his forehead and standing up from the bed. "I'll see you in the morning, we'll have pancakes then go for a nice long walk, all of us - yeah?"
"Mommy?" Jason piped up, his voice a little high and wavering, it melted her heart.
"Yes, baby?" She asked.
"What if there's somebody under my bed?" He asked innocently. Elizabeth sighed and sat at the foot of the bunk bed.
"Jason, baby - there's nobody under your bed. That was just a silly story that daddy made up to scare everyone." She said.
"Will you look?" He asked. "Please?"
Elizabeth slid off the end of the bed onto her knees and leaned down to look under to bed just to ease his fears.
"Nope, nobody under here but Mr. Bear." Elizabeth said, picking up Jason's stuffed toy and placing it into the bed beside him. "Goodnight baby, sweet dreams." She said, stroked his hair.
"Goodnight mommy." She heard him reply as she turned off the bedroom light and closed the bedroom door over, leaving just a small crack of light to pour into the room so he wasn't completely in darkness.
She rejoined Henry in the kitchen who was just finishing off the last of the dishes from that evening. He hadn't noticed her enter the room and she snook up behind him and playfully flicked the back of his ear, he jumped and shouted, spinning around to see her.
"Ow! What was that for?!" He exclaimed.
"You!" She said, being careful to not raise her voice. "Monster under the bed? The kid was never seen again? If Jason has nightmares this is on you!"
"Babe, he'll be fine. McCord men are made of tough stuff." He laughed, drying his hands and placing the cloth on the counter after having emptied the sink and rinsing it.
"Mark my words Henry McCord, if we get a 3 AM wake up call, you're responsible for the fall out." She sighed.
"Noted." Henry laughed, placing the softest of kisses upon her lips. "Let's go to bed."
He led her out of the kitchen and through to the master bedroom, excited to finally get some sleep, it had been a long day, and he had definitely eaten too much candy.
The two sleeping forms rested side by side on the double bed, Elizabeth wrapped in Henry's arms, both sleeping soundly. She only began to stir when three very light knocks on the door sounded, rousing her from sleep. At first she thought she was dreaming, she sighed, rolled over and closed her eyes - willing sleep to return to her so she could cram in a few more hours before the kids were up, but then she heard it again, three short knocks.
She slowly got herself up off the bed and walked to the bedroom door, opening it quietly so as to not wake Henry. She looked down and saw tiny Jason hovering in the doorway, his arms wrapped around Mr. Bear and tears streaming down his face.
"Baby, what's wrong?" She asked, her voice filled with concern.
"There's a monster under my bed!" He cried.
Elizabeth placed her hand on the door frame and shook her head in disbelief.
"Baby, I think you had a nightmare, I promise you there is nothing under your bed." She said, she turned quickly to look at Henry's sleeping form on the bed, clearly the conversation was nowhere near close to waking him.
Jackass she thought.
She turned back around and observed Jason who was looking up at her with his beautiful puppy dog eyes, she knew instantly what he wanted.
"Do you want to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jason's face lit up, the fear evaporating instantly as he nodded, still clutching Mr. Bear tightly in his arms, he followed his mother to the bed and she lifted him onto it and helped him to roll into the middle and got in beside him. She placed the blanket over both of them and wrapped her arm around her son.
"Goodnight mommy." Jason said, already starting to fall asleep.
"Goodnight baby." She said as she too, closed her eyes. There would be hell to pay in the morning.