The Boy at the End of the Block

Saturday. 12:37 a.m. Charlie couldn't sleep. He'd had trouble with sleeping recently. As soon as he would fall asleep, he would dream of a boy at the end of the block, near the street-sign. He was too far away to see the boy's face, but based on the height and the fact that the boy was appearing in his dreams, Charlie came to the conclusion that the boy was around his age. He couldn't really tell though, because the boy looked nothing more than a shadow. Now, in his dream, the boy wouldn't do or say anything; he would just stare at Charlie with his piercing grey eyes. Often, Charlie would try to move towards the boy, but to no avail-- he wouldn't get anywhere.

Meanwhile, Charlie rubbed the sleep off his eyes and decided to grab a drink of water. He made his way downstairs, careful not to wake his parents, to the kitchen. They only unfortunate thing about his kitchen, something Charlie had forgotten about until being in the room, was that the window saw straight to the street-sign his dreams took place at. When he got his cup and made his way to the sink, he directed his gaze to the faucet and held it there... or tried to anyway. His eyes flickered up to the window for just a split second, but Charlie could've sworn he saw the boy's slate-grey eyes looking straight at him. Immediately, Charlie shut off the faucet and quickly made his way up the stairs, mumbling, "it was just a dream," the whole way to his room.

Day after day, Charlie would have the same dream, wake up at the same time, walk downstairs to get a glass of water, and see the same pair of grey eyes for a split second. Honestly, it was beginning to exhaust Charlie, but there didn’t seem to be any solution to his problem. Then he had a thought:

“Maybe if I keep seeing him in the window, maybe, it’s not just a trick of the eye. Maybe he really is there, and maybe-- maybe, I should go find him.”

So, that night, instead of getting water, Charlie made a plan. He decided that the next time he had that dream, which would presumably be the next night, he would go out to the street-sign.

And that’s exactly what he did. The next night, right at 12:37, he woke up from the dream of the boy at the end of the black. After taking a minute to realize he had woken up, he slid his shoes on, and made his way downstairs. He knew he couldn’t walk through the front door, as it was too loud and would surely disturb his parents, so he went out a window in his dining room. Once he was out, he walked towards the dimly lit street in hopes to see the boy.

Just like in his dream, the boy was little more than a shadow standing beside the sign, but his eyes-- his eyes were shining more than ever. It startled the boy to see that the creature from his dreams wasn’t from his dreams at all-- it was a vision-- it was real. 

Walking towards the boy felt much like his dream, the feeling of not getting anywhere was daunting to the boy, but he could see his progress. He could see the houses moving past him as he stepped closer. Closer. Close. 

He was face to face with the boy now. His face still wasn’t visible and it turned out he actually was a shadow. But this shadow was alive. It breathed, it blinked, it smiled. It was a creepy smile, teeth shining against the black of the street. For a minute, Charlie just stood there, shocked to see that the boy-- the shadow-- didn’t back away from him. In fact, it felt like the shadow welcomed him-- expected him. Charlie thought for a moment about what to do or what to say-- he hadn’t gotten this far in his plans, he just wanted to see the boy.

“Who are you?” Charlie asked, finally, “Who are you?” 

The shadow boy just smiled wider in response. 

“Please. Tell me who you are? What do you want?” 

Charlie wasn’t scared of the shadow boy necessarily, though he did have an odd look to him, he was just exceedingly confused as to why the boy appeared in his dreams.

The shadow, feeling a slight guilt at the discomfort of the boy, sighed and said, “Jasper. My name is Jasper.”

Charlie startled back a few inches at the sound of Jasper’s voice. It was a low, gravely voice that Charlie found unearthly.

“Ok,” Charlie said, dragging out the ‘o,’ “What do you want with me? You’ve been in my dreams for weeks now, and I’ve been waking up at the same time every night!”

“I wanted someone to see me,” Jasper breathed sadly. Charlie almost didn’t hear him… almost.

“You mean I’m the only one that can see you?” Charlie questioned

“Yeah, get’s real lonely if I’m being honest,” Jasper said

Charlie was conflicted. He had been haunted by this shadow, who was now known as Jasper, for such a long time, he just wanted it to end. At the same time though, he knew what it was like to feel alone and he didn’t want anyone, even if it was a shadow from the end of the street, to feel that way. 

“What do you want me to do? Like, why me?” Charlie asked after a minute of thinking

“I just wanted to talk to someone,” Jasper said, “As for why I chose you, specifically, you were the only boy my age in this neighborhood,” he finished

“Oh. Can’t you come in the daylight, though? I mean sneaking out in the middle of the

night isn’t a very easy thing to do,” Charlie complained

“No. I’m a shadow, that’s, like, the whole point,” Jasper said while laughing. Charlie let

out a laugh as well. He didn’t know how or why but he felt like this shadow wasn’t harmful in anyway, just extremely lonely, and-- maybe-- lost.

“Where are you from?” Charlie asked

“I don’t know,” Jasper sighed. So, Charlie’s suspicions were correct.

“Do you know if you can ever leave?” Charlie asked. He didn’t want Jasper to think he didn’t want him there, he just wanted to know how long he would be there.

“No, I don’t,” Jasper said, offended, “I don’t even know where I’d go if I did leave,”

“Well, as long as you’re here I’ll keep you company! I’m really tired though, so maybe every other night? And don’t come in my dreams anymore… please,” Charlie said with a bright smile to show that he really didn’t mind Jasper being there, he just wanted some sleep.

“Really? Oh, that’s great, yeah let’s do that!” Jasper screeched. He never had a friend before, he was really excited about it. Things were changing for him.

From then on, Charlie and Jasper would meet up every other day. Sometimes Charlie would bring cards and teach Jasper to play different games, sometimes they would go for walks around the block, and sometimes they would just lay on the grass for hours talking about anything and everything. They made a friend in each other and neither of them wanted it to change. So it never did.