GRAVEYARD TALES - SERIES ONE - EPISODE SEVEN - FULL MOON

It was the in the dead of winter when they moved in. By 'they' I mean the weird German couple who moved into the flat two doors down from where I live with my twin brother Dean Whiter and our friend Charlotte Mason.
The flat two doors down from us was number 616, and it was home to a nice family; consisting of Dr. and Mrs Erd, and a pair of cute twins name Luke and Cathy. Then they had to move, because Dr. Erd got another job in another doctors’ surgery somewhere else.
The flat had been stood unoccupied for months, until last winter when the German couple moved in. For a while, they stayed inside the flat, but after a while, if Dean or I were going to work, or if Charlotte was going to the shops, we would see them in the hallway. They hadn’t learnt proper English yet, so we would nod to them and they would nod back to us. But even though they were friendly, we started to notice there was something strange with our new neighbours.
“Have you noticed they don’t have their blinds down, ever?” Charlotte asked, plonking down on the sofa next to me.
“Who, Ray and Debra?” Dean asked.
My brother and I were watching reruns of “Everybody Loves Raymond” on E4; Charlotte had done some popcorn in the microwave and had now settled down to join us.
“No, that German couple who live across from us,” she answered.
“Don’t they, I’ve never noticed,” my brother said, his eyes glued to the screen.
“They do have their blinds down sometimes,” I said.
“That’s something else that’s weird,” said Charlotte. “I’ve noticed they only have their blinds down, like, once a month.”
“Do they? That’s fascinating,” muttered Dean. “Oh my God! Did you hear that? Ray pronounced stomach ache wrong? Oh, that was hilarious!”
“Fascinating,” said Charlotte sarcastically.
I decided to keep an eye on the German couple to see if Charlotte was right. Every night, I would just ‘casually’ walk by our window and look out across to where the German couple live, to see whether they have their blinds. I waited until it was the 1st of January.
For the first couple of weeks, they had their blinds up every night, then one night they had them down, and then it was back to being up after that.
“you’re right, Chaz,” I said, at the end of January, when I checked on them for the last night. “They’ve only had their blinds drawn just the once throughout the whole of January.”
“And there was something else as well,” answered Charlotte. “When they had their blinds down, it was a full moon.”
“Charlotte. you’re joking, aren’t you? You’re just trying to make it creepier than it actually is, aren’t you?”
“No, no kidding, it was full moon when they had their blinds drawn. Didn’t you take any notice?”
“No. And anyway, full moon doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Werewolves aren’t real, you know.”
“What, like the ghost of Frankie’s dad haunting his house isn’t real?” Charlotte retorted. “Anyway, who said anything about werewolves? There could be something else going on with them?”
“What are you two doing by the window?” Dean had joined us. “You know, Sean, I’m getting worried about you, I’ve noticed that you’re spending a lot of time over by this window, spying on the German couple. You haven’t got the hots for the woman have you?”
“What? No, of course not! It’s just that Charlotte thinks that there’s something up with them because they only have their blinds drawn once a month. And now she’s saying that it was a full moon.”
Dean’s eyes went wide.
“Wow! A couple of German werewolves are living across from us!” He exclaimed.
“It doesn’t mean they are werewolves,” said Charlotte. “There could be another explanation.”
“Like what? They’re allergic to moonlight?” I scoffed.
“No,” answered Charlotte, while Dean guffawed. “But I’m going over there to find out!”
Dean stopped laughing. We both looked at her, flabbergasted.
“Chaz! What do you mean? You can’t go over there! What are you going to do? Just knock on their door and say ‘I’m Charlotte from across the street. Tell me, why do you only have your blinds drawn on a full moon?’”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Hey, look at this,” Dean stopped us mid-fight. Charlotte and I turned to the window.
The blinds in the German couple’s flat were now down, but they were up before. All three of us looked up to the sky, and saw it was a full moon.
“See?” Charlotte said. “See? It’s a full moon, and their blind is down.”
“So?” I said.” It doesn’t mean anything?”
We all stood there for about ten minutes, then Charlotte ran to the door
“Chaz!” Both Dean and I hissed. We ran to the door as well, and followed her down the hallway, to flat 616.
Charlotte knocked on the door. We heard frantic whispering going on inside. Then: “Who is it?”
“It’s Charlotte. From 614. Please open the door.”
We waited for a couple of minutes. Then they came to the door.
“What do you want?” Asked the woman in a strong German accent.
“You speak clear English now?” Asked my brother.
“Yes,” the husband said, also in a strong German accent. “We went to an English speaking class at night college. What do you want?”
“Well, this is going to sound silly, but we’ve noticed that you only ever have your blinds down on a full moon,” said Charlotte, not exactly wanting to beat around the bush.
“We brought it at Full Moon Blinds,” said the woman.
“We think that means we can only pull the blinds down on a full moon,” the husband carried on.
“Oh no,” said Charlotte. “That’s just the name of the store. You can pull your blind down every night. Whether it’s a full moon or not.”
“Oh,” both of them looked relieved. “You see, we haven’t quite grasped the English language yet. We take things literal. Yesterday, we went to a café, and we ordered a bowl of ice cream each. We thought it meant cubes of ice wrapped in cream.”
We all laughed, nervously.
“Well, so sorry to have bothered you,” said Charlotte. “We ought to go now.”
“Wait, we would like to know your names,” said the husband.
“Well, I’m Charlotte Mason. And these are the twins, Sean and Dean Whiter.”
My brother and I waved, stupidly.
“What are your names?” Asked Charlotte.
“You don’t want to know our names,” said the husband, in a FBI-like way. Then they smiled at us in a mysterious way, before saying goodnight, and closing their door.
“I wonder why they said that and smiled at us like that?”
“You know what, Chaz?” I asked. “I really don’t want to go. Come on, “Ugly Betty” is about to start...”

Watch out for Episode Eight - “Midnight Magic” - in the near future...