The Halloween Adventure: Non-Scary Bedtime Story

Okay,

Take a moment to close your eyes and begin to get yourself comfortable and as you get yourself comfortable,

I'll just be talking in the background and I don't know whether you'll drift deeper asleep to the sound of my words or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.

And as I tell this story,

So you can drift comfortably and relax to sleep.

And it was Halloween.

And on this Halloween night,

It was windy and it was raining outside.

There was the distant sound of rumbling thunder.

Occasionally,

The clouds would light up with lightning high up somewhere in the clouds and some children were getting themselves ready to go out trick-or-treating.

And once those children were ready in their costumes,

So they went down to the kitchen and with a parent,

They carved some pumpkins.

And they placed those pumpkins with tea lights in the mouths in front of the house,

Lining the pathway to the front door.

And they then went and grabbed a trick-or-treat pot each.

And together,

They went off to knock on the other houses to go trick-or-treating.

And they walked down the path,

Out of their garden,

Down past their hedges,

Out onto the footpath.

They walked along the footpath,

Past trees on one side,

People's gardens in front of each house on the other side.

And as they got to each house,

They walked up the garden path,

Rung the doorbell for the house.

And someone would answer the door and they would say trick-or-treat.

And the person would give them some sweets in their buckets.

And then they would move on to the next house.

And they would do the same again,

Saying trick-or-treat.

And then they'd move on to the next house,

And the next house.

And as they neared the end of the road,

So they were approaching a house they were a little more unsure of.

The person who lived in that end house in the street never answered their door.

They'd never seen that person.

They didn't know who it was.

They didn't know whether they were someone who would give them some sweets.

So they were a little nervous about knocking on that door.

But as they reached that house,

They decided it's the last house in the street,

So they should knock on the door.

And as they do,

The door creaks open.

And the lights in the house are on.

The house seems so inviting.

So they decide to walk into that house.

And as they walk into that house,

They wonder whether there'll be any sweets near the door for them to have.

But there aren't.

And it's warm in this house.

Much better than the rain outside the house.

And so they walk into that house.

They walk around to the living room area.

They can see that the TV is on,

But the volume on the TV is off.

And they call out saying trick or treat,

But no one replies.

And one of the children decides to turn the TV off,

Rather than waste the electricity.

They pick up what they think is the remote control.

They press the button they think they need to press to turn the TV off.

But instead,

A hologram seems to come out of the remote control,

In front of them.

And someone in that hologram begins to talk to them.

And they give them a message.

Saying that they've got to go to the carnival.

That they need to find the secret base.

And they need to recover the stolen goods.

And these children wonder what on earth this is all about.

They press the button again,

And the hologram disappears.

And they start looking around this house.

They go near to one of the mirrors.

And one of the children says,

Imagine being the grown up who lives here.

And the image in the mirror changes from being them,

To being an image of the person who lives in the house.

And then another child says,

Imagine being Frankenstein's monster.

And then an image of Frankenstein's monster appears in the mirror.

And they notice at the bottom of the mirror,

Are buttons saying yes and no.

And they decide to press yes.

And as the child presses yes,

So suddenly something starts happening around them.

And they get a bit nervous,

Unsure what's going on.

It sounds like lots of tiny machines,

Whirring and whizzing,

Almost like a cloud of machines.

Each machine almost like a grain of dust,

Whizzing around them.

And then there's silence.

And they notice that their friends are looking on in shock.

And they look in the mirror,

And see that they look like Frankenstein's monster.

And that somehow these little machines,

Have managed to make them look like,

The image on the screen.

Just because they pressed yes.

And they decided this was really cool,

And they were going to stay like this,

Looking like Frankenstein's monster.

And they explored around the house a bit further,

And one of the kids accidentally bumped into a painting.

And thought the painting was going to fall off the wall.

But instead of falling off the wall,

The painting swung open,

To reveal a safe behind that painting.

And they thought,

They're just kids,

There's no way they could access this safe.

But they were curious what was in there.

So one of the kids decided,

To try an old trick,

That they said their dad had taught them.

They found some sellotape,

And they made a bit of dust.

They blew the dust onto the keypad of the safe.

They rested the sellotape over the keypad,

And were able to somehow create enough static,

To make it so that the dust would settle,

Revealing the fingerprints,

So they knew which buttons were pressed.

They didn't know which order the buttons were pressed,

But they now knew which buttons were pressed.

And they decided to just guess,

There was only four buttons pressed,

And there was only four spaces for a number to be entered.

They knew which four buttons were pressed,

They just didn't know the order.

And so they guessed,

And luckily for them,

Their first guess was right.

And the safe popped open.

And as it popped open,

So,

They suddenly gasped.

They saw the most cool looking sunglasses,

And they took those sunglasses from the safe.

And they saw a little electronic device,

And they took that device and pressed a button.

And it told them where the carnival was that they had to go to.

They decided that,

Although they're just children,

They can't miss an opportunity to go and see a carnival.

And so they headed out of the house,

Taking the sunglasses with them.

And as they walked around wearing those sunglasses,

They could see markings around them.

And they knew this like augmented reality,

They could see markings on the road,

They could see a path to follow.

They could see different symbols in the sky,

And they followed this path,

And headed to the carnival.

And as they got nearer to the carnival,

So they could hear singing and dancing,

They could hear drums,

Different musical instruments,

Cheering,

And so much noise.

And then when they were near the carnival,

They could see how colourful that carnival was.

Women dancing in formation in front of carnival floats,

People dancing on carnival floats,

People throwing sweets off of the floats to the onlookers.

And through the glasses they could see that the glasses were scanning the floats,

Scanning the people,

And were marking people off,

As if to say they're not important.

And they watched as this carnival passed by,

And they saw that the carnival was heading to a fair,

Where the performances would carry on at that fair.

So the kids followed that carnival down to the fair,

And this seemed to be where the glasses were guiding them.

And they started to explore the fair,

They could see a carousel,

With the flashing lights,

The horses going round.

They could see bumper cars,

They could see all the different fairground rides,

And hear the noise of the fair.

And all the older kids had come here,

Rather than trick-or-treating.

And many of the adults had seen the carnival,

Rather than being home.

And then one of the children said that there was a notification just came up on their glasses,

Saying to follow the fairy.

And they suddenly saw a turquoisey fairy,

With slightly glowing wings,

Seeming to fly over the carnival,

And fly round and fly down,

And fly round and fly down,

To a tent at the back of the carnival.

And so they all ran up to that tent,

And entered the tent.

And they could hear carnival music playing,

And they realised they were in a maze of mirrors.

And so they carefully walked through that maze,

One hand slightly stretched out,

Occasionally knocking into some glass,

Other times into a mirror,

Finding their way through that maze,

Finding dead ends,

Having to work back and take a different route,

Finding another dead end,

Working back and taking a different route,

And coming out the other side of that maze,

Into a tunnel of mirrors that was turning slowly,

And walking into that tunnel and feeling disorientated by the turning,

And at the distance on the back wall behind the tunnel,

Was what looked like a hypnotic spiral.

And so it was very difficult to focus straight ahead while walking through the tunnel,

Because as they moved,

So it looked like the spiral was turning,

And their brain would try and stabilise themselves.

And then one of the kids said that,

Maybe the glasses can stabilise things.

And their glasses then,

Blanked out the image of that spiral,

And just gave them a spot to focus on,

And they were able to walk through the tunnel.

So the other children did the same,

And they all walked through the tunnel,

Came out the other side of the tunnel,

And realised they were at a dead end.

There was just a long wall going down into a room,

And so they pressed and touched all over the wall,

Trying to find any clues,

And then a part of the wall popped open as they pressed it,

And they walked through a secret entrance,

Walked down a narrow path,

Where they found themselves in a secret underground cave.

It was a vast cavern,

That strangely looked like it was the outdoors.

There were trees,

There was meadows,

There was even a river flowing through this cave.

And somehow it was all lit up,

Almost as if there was sunlight,

But there was no sun.

And in the distance they could see that,

The cave turned up into mountains,

Which stretched up high,

Possibly reaching to the top of the cave.

They couldn't make out the top of the cave,

Because looking up just looked like blue sky,

Even though they knew they were underground.

And among those mountains they could see that river,

Flowing.

It flowed through the mountains,

Flowed down a waterfall,

And then joined the river passing by where they stood.

And so they walked along the side of the trees.

Hearing the sound of the running water of that river,

They walked up to the waterfall.

And they were going to climb up the side of the waterfall,

But one of the kids noticed that through his glasses,

There was a green square over the centre of the waterfall.

And wherever they moved,

That green square stayed in the same spot,

Almost as if to say that's where you're heading.

So the kids found their way,

Up the side of the waterfall,

Up in line with that green spot.

And then they walked through the water itself,

And were stood behind that waterfall,

And they could see a secret entrance.

And they opened that secret entrance,

And found themselves on a base on the moon,

Looking down on the earth.

And they were taken aback by this,

Surprised by what they could see,

That it seemed to be like that secret entrance teleported them up here to the moon.

They didn't know if this was real or somehow imaginary.

And so one of the kids asked the glasses,

And a voice said that this was real,

This is the location they're heading to.

And they thought all this technology is so futuristic,

There's no way that people have this kind of technology.

And they continued following the path laid out by the glasses,

And then they could hear a pinging sound,

And noticed in the glasses,

There was a red dot.

And so they carefully hid behind objects,

Hid behind desks,

Different counters,

Hid behind walls,

Avoided all the people on this moon base,

And found their way to that red dot.

And they saw that that red dot was the person who lived in that house in their street,

And that they were being held captive on this moon base.

And so the kids pressed a button on the door,

And the door slid open,

With a slight whoosh sound.

And as that door slid open,

They crept in.

They saw a device on the side,

That looked almost like an electronic key,

And they placed it near to the restraints on the person,

And the restraints popped undone.

And the person thanked the children,

And said that they had something they had to get.

And the children explained that they knew that they had to get this secret item that's been stolen.

And so they all snuck around the moon base,

Following this person,

Looking for that secret item.

And then the person entered a room,

Telling the kids to wait there,

Came back out of that room with a cage,

With a little door mouse in that cage,

The cutest little door mouse.

And the children were a bit surprised,

Thinking all of this for a door mouse.

And so they snuck behind walls,

Snuck behind counters,

Carefully sneaked their way out of this moon base,

Teleporting back down to the earth,

Closing that entrance behind them,

Being back behind that waterfall.

And they walked out from behind the waterfall,

Climbed down onto the ground,

Walked along the edge of that river,

And stopped for a minute to ask the man what's going on.

And the person explained that he's a spy,

And that something vitally important had been stolen,

And that when he went to retrieve it,

He was captured and locked up,

And that there are people with far more advanced technology than the public realizes,

And that he was up on the moon base,

And that the moon base watches and monitors the earth,

And that part of what he had to do was to uncover the moon base,

Recover a stolen item,

And then be able to expose the moon base,

And that the information contained in that stolen item is vitally important information.

And the children explained that that made very little sense,

They agree there is definitely a moon base,

And that being in this area with this waterfall,

With this underground world here,

Is all strange,

And the technology seems very futuristic.

But all they've just recovered is a door mouse in a cage,

And the spy laughed,

And then took that door mouse out of the cage,

Tapped it with a firm tap on its head,

And the door mouse suddenly became very still,

And the children thought,

Well it wasn't tapped hard enough to cause it any harm,

If anything it might have stunned it a little bit,

Made it a bit shocked,

But not cause it any harm.

And then the door mouse's head was popped off,

Almost like a canister,

And the children were about to feel a bit shocked by this,

When it just looked like a canister,

Once the head was popped off,

And they realised that the door mouse wasn't real.

A door mouse is a highly advanced piece of technology,

To be able to carry small items,

And that it can scamper around and look like a normal door mouse,

And yet with a quick tap on the head,

It can be turned off,

And then opened up,

For people to get hold of the information,

And the information is information about the moon base,

About the enemy's plans,

And the enemy's locations,

And the spy had to get hold of that information,

And without these children that wouldn't have been possible,

And they all had to get hold of the information,

And they all found their way out of the cave,

Back out into the fair,

And the spy said that they just have to turn something off,

In the tent with the mirror maze,

And they went and they turned something off,

And then they came back,

And said they've just turned off the portal to the moon base,

That those in the moon base can't return right now,

To be able to stop them from dealing with the situation,

And as they walked out of that tent,

Out into the main part of the fair,

So there was a collection of guards,

Who obviously had been monitoring this fair,

And all the public had been moved away from this area,

And there was now just the children,

The spy and the guards,

And the spy asked for a pair of the glasses,

One of the children gave him the glasses,

He put them on,

Pressed a button,

And then walked towards the guards,

And the glasses projected augmented reality,

And information about what to do and when and how,

And had advanced computing power,

To predict movements and outcomes,

And as all the guards attacked,

So as the punch came flying towards his face he blocked,

And then lowered his arm to block a kick,

Before driving the palm of his hand forward,

Into the chest of the person in front of him,

And then the glasses alerting him,

To the fact someone's coming up behind him,

He kicked back at the person behind,

Spun around and knocked down the person beside him,

Grabbed hold of the arm of someone running in,

Added a bit of extra energy to their movement,

And a bit of twisting to their movement,

Throwing them off at an angle,

Towards some other guards,

Grabbing the arm of another guard running towards them,

Holding on,

Twisting,

Grabbing an arm of another one,

Twisting both together,

Getting them both to the ground,

Ducking,

Jumping,

Twisting,

Punching,

Kicking,

Blocking,

Managing to take on all the guards,

Until seemingly effortlessly,

The spy is the only one left standing,

The spy then pressed a button on the side of the glasses,

And called in for some people to come and clean up this area,

As he ushered the children out of the fair,

And they were left the area,

And on the walk back to their street,

The spy explained how the technology worked,

How he's a fairly ordinary spy,

But the technology allows him to do extraordinary things,

He explained about the advanced nature of this technology,

And that he doesn't work for the government,

He works for a secret organisation,

And they step in when they're needed,

But there's also organisations with similar levels of technology,

Who are on the other side of the coin,

And that they're always in a battle with them,

To try and stop them from dominating,

And taking over,

And with the help of these children,

The spy explained that,

They've been able to make things safe for a little while longer,

And after they walked back to the street,

And walked with the spy all the way home,

The spy gave them,

The little door mouse in the cage,

And said look after that,

And the door mouse just looked like any ordinary,

Tiny little door mouse,

Just scurrying around in the cage,

And the children took that cage home,

Took all their treats home,

And that night,

They settled down,

After talking for some time about their experience,

And how they wanted to grow up to be spies when they're older,

And they drifted,

And comfortably floated and relaxed,

Asleep,