The Ballad Of The Pumpkin King

It was a cold October afternoon. James a 10 year old boy is in the back of his Father's car surrounded by cardboard boxes, his Father is driving and his Mother is sitting in the passenger seat.
"You excited yet hun" his Mother said.
"I'm always excited Mom" James replied peaking into one of the cardboard boxes.
"It's right around this corner" James Father says gleaming with joy.
The car turns the corner and James sees a wonderful white wooden house that sits on the corner of the street.
"Wow!" James says softly in disbelief.
"I know son, that's what I thought too when I first saw her" says the Father.
The Father then drives the car up onto the driveway.

 James is sitting at the kitchen table watching his Mother putting the dinner plates from the cardboard boxes into cupboards.
"James why don't you go see if your Father needs a hand."
James comes down from his chair and goes from the kitchen shouting "Dad!.... Dad!" He runs up to the top of the staircase and sees ladders leading into the open attic hatch. His eyes follow the ladders to the top where he can see a seldom light bulb swinging on a pull chord.
"Dad are you up there?"
"Yeah. Why don't you get yourself up here and check it out!"
James slowly climbs up the ladders and makes his way into the attic. When he gets up there he sees his dad standing in the right hand side of the attic going through some cardboard boxes. In the left hand corner of the attic there is what looks like a bunch of old paintings leaning against the wall, each one holding the other one up. In the other corner just beyond The Father is about forty so books piled on top of each other.
"Is this all our stuff Dad?"
"Well it is now James. The previous owners have left behind paintings, books n a pile of other crap here but if we rake through this together we will be done in no time"
"Aw man!" James says in disappointment moving closer to his Father.
"I know son" the Father chuckles to himself.
"We will get started in a minute, I'm gonna go use the bathroom real quick. You okay to stay up here?"
"Sure Dad" James replies.
"Don't go near the hatch" the Father says as he climbs down the ladder.

  James moves over to the books piled up in the corner. He starts to look through them picking one up then moving it aside and so forth. As he gets down into the pile he starts to smell an un describable stench. James puts his jumper over the bottom half of his face covering his nose.
"What is that smell!"
James picks up a black leather book that has no title nor has anything written on it at all. He pulls his jumper down from his face and brings the book close to his nose. James then sniffs the book and goes into a coughing fit. Once he's stopped coughing he opens the book at roughly the middle and sees the words The Ballad Of The Pumpkin King. James begins to read what is written out loud.

     The Ballad Of The Pumpkin King

He waits until the moon is high,
You won't believe how fast he can fly.

In dark corridors he lurks and scares, He is the king of your worst       nightmares.

He will make you bleed and steal your last breath,
Your soul will burn in your painful death.

This ballad you must not sing,
For it will bring the pumpkin king.

 James slams the book shut fast in fright when all of a sudden the chord for the attic light clicks and the light goes out. James turns round and sees a shadow at the attic hatch. He let's out a scream then suddenly the chord  clicks and the light comes back on and there is James's Father still holding onto the light chord laughing in hysterics.
"You should have seen your face" The Father says pointing and laughing.
"Don't do that!" James says angrily and throws the book down.

  It is night and James is lying in his bed. Next to the bed is a small bedside table with a childrens night light that moves different shapes and shines different colors around the room. James looks at the different shapes attentively.
"I didn't sing. I didn't sing." He whispers to himself. The room is now silent apart from the mechanics of the childrens night light. After a few silent moments a loud squeaking noise appears to be coming from outside. James gets out of bed and goes to the other side of the bedside table to the bedroom window. James slowly opens the curtains and peers out the window into the back yard. What James sees frightens him deeply. He sees this hideous man like creature except this is no man. It's too dark to make out detailed features of its face but it has piercing orange and yellow eyes. Around the eyes is a darkness, a darkness that make the eyes seem brighter than they should. The skin on the creatures face is a darker orange than the eyes and it has an almost perfectly round head. Its hands are long and thin also with dark orange skin. It is hard to make out his clothing as they seem blacker than black. The creatures is sitting on a childrens swing with his hands wrapped round each side of the metal chains. He swings back and forth ever so slowly just looking up at James.

  James runs back to his bed and hides under the covers. The loud squeaking noise stops and then there is a sharp fud which sounds like it's came from the roof above James's bedroom. Followed by a few more distorted fuds. James is still under his covers breathing heavily  when he hears as if the attic hatch has opened then footsteps coming down the ladders. James starts to cry softly as his bedroom door slowly creeps open then shuts. He peaks his head out the top of the covers n sees the shapes of his childrens night light is in the shape of pumpkins and brightly colored orange. He hears a creak in the corner of his bedroom and quickly turns his head slightly to see that in the corner is the outline of the creature from the swing standing there. James stares at the figure for a moment then it opens its eyes showing those piercing orange and yellow eyes again. James pulls the bed covers over his head and hears his bedroom door open then close again. He waits a moment then slowly peaks above the covers to see that the shapes of the childrens night light have went back to pleasant things and colors. In the corner there isn't a thing there.

The boy now gets up from his bed and out into the hallway. He never checked behind him but the creature is a few feet behind James gliding slowly above the wooden floorboards surrounded by a darkness that seems to be coming with him. James tiptoes down the corridor past two wooden doors one on each side of the hallway. He reaches the third wooden door and opens it.
"Mom. Dad!" James says softly as he now runs over to his parents bed and sees that they both are underneath the covers.
He shakes the first body he comes to vigorously.
"Mom! Dad!" James saying with a little more gust.
He pulls back the bed covers with all his strength to find his Mother and Father dead. His beloved Father is lying dead in front of him with ligature marks around his neck and blood streaming down his face coming from the eyes. James gasps in horror and backs away from the bed. He stops suddenly as he has backed into something that should not be there. Long thin fingers now grip round the young boys neck and he quickly spins round. The creature lifts James from the ground up to his face. As the boys face turns red he looks up to see those piercing orange and yellow eyes.