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The Tale of the Dark Music
Season 1 , Episode 11
Ep11logo
Air date October 31, 1992
Written by Chloe Brown
Directed by Ron Oliver
Episode guide
Previous
The Tale of Jake and the Leprechaun
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The Tale of the Prom Queen

The Tale of the Dark Music is the Eleventh episode of the First season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as the Eleventh episode in total.

Cast[]

Midnight Society Cast[]

Story Cast[]

Intro[]

That evening Gary is blowing on the fire and adding some sticks to help get it going. Then the group all arrives at the meeting clearing. Frank runs up to Eric out of breath and angry at him because they were supposed to show up together, Eric claims that he forgot. Frank has a temper and takes Eric's dad's flashlight and throws it on the ground. Eric teases Frank because he lost his flashlight and he's afraid of the dark. David and Kiki responds in shock with Kiki saying what! Kristen responds by saying in a teasing tone "Not Mr. Tough Guy!" Betty Ann is nice about the whole thing and tells him reassuringly that it's okay to be afraid of the dark because she sometimes gets scared too. Frank denies he is afraid and just says he just wasn't sure he could find the clearing without a flashlight, he threatens Eric and tells him "you're gonna pay for this man!" Gary persuades him not to hurt him just yet because he is telling the story tonight. Once again Eric teases Frank by telling him it's about a little boy who is afraid of the dark. Eric tells them "that everyone knows that there is nothing in the dark that can hurt you...most of the time" he submits the approval for his story to The Midnight Society, calling his story "The Tale of the Dark Music" and begins.

Story[]

Eric tells the story. Andy Carr, a young teenager, never had a very fun time with his life. His parents had recently gotten divorced. He lived with his mother and little bratty sister Christina and his mother wasn't working a very high paying job and to help out he would work a paper route in his spare time to be able to buy lunch from school; things were really tough. Then one day things got much better when his mom inherited an old big house from a rich uncle. She didn't know the uncle too well. Just the very day his family moved in he went out to work a paper route by bike. Then just by accident from not paying attention, Andy nearly ran into a long haired punk teen named Koda, who happened to be the neighborhood bully.

Koda's unfriendly nature is revealed when he let Andy fall down on the ground, pinned him by stepping on his chest and threatened him not to mess with him, because he along with the rest of the neighborhood apparently were happy when his great uncle had passed away. Apparently Andy's great uncle was said to be a nut bag and a very creepy hermit and though Andy claimed he didn't even know him, Koda was still going to give him a hard time and not accept him because Andy's related to him.

His mother couldn't even remember what Great Uncle Niles was like. She apparently had not seen him since she was a very little girl. Then as she was having difficulty fixing or adjusting curtain blinds she needed a ladder and asked Andy to go find one in the basement. Apparently a lot of stuff was still left behind in the house. Andy was kind of nervous to go down to the basement and his little sister Christina taunted him asking if he was afraid of the dark he said no.

Andy went down to the basement, he walked down very slowly, he turned on the light making it easier. Also he found a pull cord light switch which turned on a very old fashioned light bulb. All around the room was all sort of junk and clutter. A strange crude wooden cellar door kept sealed shut by a twist door knob. Then Andy found an old antique vintage wooden radio. Andy out of curiosity plugged it in but it wouldn't work until someone from upstairs would turn on the wall switch, because if not, nothing in the basement would work.

His sister wouldn't bother so his mother turned it on for him and the radio began playing. As it did the nearby wooden cellar's twist door knob began to slightly shake and turn as the music was playing, but it stopped moving when the music was turned off. Then when the music was turned back on and played a little longer the door began to open. Andy, now noticing the shaking and rattling off the door knob, he thought someone else was there too.

Then the door opened wide and a pair of gleaming red eyes came forward and demonic voice said "Hello Andy come on in!". Andy was terrified and pounced back in fear and bumped into the radio. The radio fell to the floor and smashed apart as it did the music ended and the cellar door instantly closed and whatever it was vanished.

Back at the Clearing[]

Eric's friends are really beginning to enjoy story. Betty Ann is excited, stating that with a boogeyman (what she thinks it is) in the basement she just loves it. Kiki excitingly says that Uncle Niles may be dead, but he's isn't forgotten. Then Gary and Kristen both ooh in excitement. Then Betty Ann turns over to ask Frank if he's okay, but it would seem that he's left. Then she asks if anyone knows where Frank is. Eric respond saying that he couldn't take it and he's a chicken. Gary tells Eric to keep going on with the story and maybe Frank will come back, Eric continues on with the story.

Back to the Story[]

Eric continues the story by saying that Andy went to get his mom and he showed her the cellar door. When she opened the door there was nothing in there but a brick wall claiming it was just a root cellar and he should get more sleep.

The next day, Koda scrubs his porch steps while his strict and abusive father intimidates him into working hard for his allowance, which he would not give until he gives satisfactory results. The abusive attitude of his father may have been the reason for his mean and nasty nature. Then Andy was just minding his own business riding his bike around delivering newspapers. Then Andy threw one to Koda's porch and by slim chance it bounced off the front door and knocked over the bucket of soapy water Koda was cleaning with spilling it all over Koda. Koda, thinking he did it on purpose, was furious and ran after him and chased him all the way home. Andy sneaks into the basement from the backyard cellar and got away from Koda for that day.

Andy realized he was in the basement again, and he was trying to not freak out and just carefully make it back upstairs. He looked around to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Then suddenly he heard BOO! Christina was hiding down there waiting for him and she scared him. He warned her not to come into the basement anymore and she told him oh right the boogie man will get me.

That evening he was drawing a picture of the cellar door trying to figure out what it could be, and he asked his mom more about Great Uncle Niles. Apparently he was a strange man who never left the house but somehow got filthy rich and all the neighbors though he was crazy. Apparently he had lived a long life and died of natural causes found in the basement near the cellar.

Then after Christina stubbornly refused to go downstairs to put the clothes in the dryer Andy, annoyingly and reluctantly, went instead. While down there he listened to his own stereo playing while loading the clothes dryer. During this time the door knob on the cellar door began to shake and rattle open again.

This time, a very tall life size blonde curly haired creepy doll approached Andy. She seemed nice and friendly and wanted to play with him. Andy was almost in a trance and almost reached for the doll's hand. Until his mom who had been calling for him turned off the basement's power from upstairs when he wasn't answering her. The doll instantly went right back into the cellar and the door sealed shut.

Andy didn't remember anything that happened it was like he was in a trance. Therefore he still wasn't scared enough to boycott the basement. The next door he did more laundry and played more music. This time as the door opened a friendly circus barker greeted him. The circus barker showed him what appeared to be a wonderful amusement pair with great rides.

Andy was in a trance again and he began to walk all the way to the cellar door. When he got there the friendly circus barker changed into a creepy skeleton and formed a tornado of some sort to try to pull him and suck him inside. After he grabbed onto his stereo, it unplugged and everything stopped and he finally realizes that the monster behind the cellar door is controlled by music.

Then in a hurry to go find his mom, he totally forgets about Koda the bully. However, Koda ambushed him again and began to punch him in the face. Then he took Andy's bike and threw it onto the road and the bike was totaled by oncoming traffic. Koda then threatened him again claiming since he now had to deliver papers on foot he'll never escape his actions.

Feeling broken-spirited and hurt, Andy cries and gives into feeling defeated. Remembering the basement monster, he smiles and puts his revenge plan to action. Andy brings down to the basement a bunch of loud speakers along with various other music playing instruments. After wiring them all to play together at once, he rigs them to a switch in the house. Once, he locks all the basement doors and then a ties a block of wood into a newspaper and smiles and saying in revenge like tone "howdy neighbor"

Then Andy runs over to Koda's home to see him scrubbing the porch again and he threw the weighted newspaper right at Koda's head and taunted him saying "Come clean my steps next, you make a good maid!". Koda chased Andy all the way home into his backyard. Thinking he went inside, Koda climbed into the open outdoor cellar door, which Andy locks with a broomstick.

After taunting Koda from behind the other side of the basement door and told him that his butt kicking days were over, Andy turns the basement's power switch on. The basement was filled full of full blast ear splitting music which drove Koda crazy like he was going to pop. The cellar door, embracing the full blast music, gave a red glow aura coming through the cracks in the planks and it opened faster than before. Then Koda gave a terrified look as a loud growling sound followed along with Koda screaming.

Then Andy turned off the music thinking Koda learned his lesson and went to get him out. He didn't hear from him or see him. Worried Koda might have been hiding, he warned him he would do it again if he hurt him. No one was in the basement. All Andy could find was a beautiful new bicycle.

Andy turned on his stereo again and the music quietly opened the door this time giving off a slight blue glowing aura. This time the monster was very nice and humble possibly now because he trusted Andy or he had just been joking and teasing Andy before, and informed him that just like his great uncle before him who made a pact with the monster, anything he ever wanted again he could get from this monster as long as he would keep feeding him more humans.

When Christina bossily told him she was home and that if he didn't make a her a good dinner mom would punish him, the creature diabolically laughed as Andy gave a sinister and diabolic look.

Ending[]

As the story ends Kristen was worried that Andy fed his own little sister to the monster. But Eric confirmed that he didn't. He just made sure she never bothered him again. Kiki said that she would've done it, and the little brat deserved it.

Then as the meeting ends Gary douses out the fire with water leaving the clearing spot pitch black and it turns out Frank already took off with Eric's dad's flashlight. Now he has to wait until he comes back to get him and asks Kristen to wait with him. She says to him, "What's the matter, Eric? Afraid of the Dark?" and takes off with the others leaving Eric alone. Eric begins to nervously say "I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm not afraid of the dark", and suddenly Frank pops out and scares him off.  He shines the light on his face and says, "Paybacks are sweet!"

  • Eric's last story.
  • One of eight episodes to use the regular introduction but excluding background music and showing the hand with the match slide into view before it disappeared replaced by lightning and the title, rather than showing the hand with the match that lights itself.
  • Jennie Lévesque who portrayed Christina in this episode, previously appeared in "The Tale of the Lonely Ghost" portraying the Lonely Ghost.
  • A.J. Henderson who portrayed The Carnival Barker, two episodes later also portrayed the shopkeeper Mr. Olson in "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard",
  • Although Frank denied it this time, he later admitted in the episode "The Tale of the Dangerous Soup" that he was afraid of the dark.
  • The sound effects from Donkey Kong (1981) are heard coming from the TV, yet the sister is clearly not playing any game.
  • This marked this first time where one of Midnight Society "breaks the fourth wall" at the end, Frank shines the light on his face and says, "Paybacks are sweet!"
  • Shortly after this aired, D.J. MacHale did some moonlighting. He temporarily worked on the PBS children's show Ghostwriter. In which he was the writer of the "Who Burned Mr. Brinker's Store" 4 part story arc.

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