Mr. Moonlight

The streetlight went dark as they passed under it.

"That's the third one that's gone out on our walk home," Jessica said, her breathe frosty from the autumn air. "Mr. Moonlight is coming."

"That's just a silly story," Nathan said. "The bulbs were probably all put in at the same time."

"I know," Jessica said. "It's still spooky, though."

According to local legend, Mr. Moonlight had the ability to turn off streetlamps when he was near. Nobody saw Mr. Moonlight coming. Not until it was too late.

The story went back to the fifties, when Glen Meadows and other residential communities started popping up on the outskirts of town. As families abandoned the modest homes for the new "McMansion" developments in the nineties, the story of Mr. Moonlight died along with Glen Meadows' real estate market.

But thanks to a recent rash of unsolved disappearances, whispers of Mr. Moonlight had returned to the forgotten little neighborhood.

Jessica knew Mr. Moonlight was just a cautionary tale parents invented to keep their kids from staying out past curfew. Still, walking down the cracked sidewalk lined with tall, shadowy trees, she wished she were home already. The houses were close together, and anything could be lurking in the dark alleys between them. Jessica

tried to take comfort in the flickering, blue television glow emitting from the occasional home.

Another streetlamp went dark, this one on the other side of the street. Jessica froze.

Then, under the scraping sound of dead leaves blowing across the pavement, she heard something else--a car engine. She slowly turned her head back. In the darkness she could make out the shape of a car idling in the middle of the road, its headlights off.

"We're being followed," she whispered in a panicked voice.

Nathan looked back, clutched Jessica's arm, and began walking faster. "Don't turn around," he instructed. "Just keep walking."

As the pair hurried down the sidewalk, Jessica could hear the car following them at a distance. They moved faster. So did the car. Another streetlight went out, enveloping them into more darkness.

Suddenly, the car raced in front of them and pulled sharply into a driveway, cutting them off. Two uniformed police officers emerged, guns drawn.

"Freeze!" one of the officers shouted.

Jessica threw her hands in the air and watched in stunned disbelief as the officers approached Nathan, cuffed him, read him his rights, and tossed him into the back of the cruiser.

"I'll take him down to the station," the one officer told the second. "You wait with her until backup arrives." Jessica turned to the officer, her eyes wide with panic. "What the hell's going on?" The officer watched his partner drive off, shaking his head. "I wonder how your boyfriend does it." Jessica watched as the cruiser disappeared into darkness, the streetlamps going out, one after the other as it passed under them. R.M. Warren