Here's the first chapter of another Hey Arnold fic, appropriate since it is the Halloween season! Anyway, inspired by 'Are You Afraid of the Dark', along with the matters of the Simpsons 'Treehouse of Horror' episodes and Regular Show's 'Terror Tales' episodes, here I'm going to introduce a series of three stories told by three Hey Arnold people... this is just the prologue for now! Anyway, enjoy!

Around seven PM, near the evening hours, Helga G. Pataki was muttering to herself as she looked up at the setting sun.

"Stupid football head... why does he always have to invite us in the evening hours just to see what he has going?" Helga groaned as she went up to the boarding house doors... she then noticed a sign. "What's this? "Please go to the backyard on other side". Hmmm..."

Helga just shrugged as she walked around the corner of the house as she opened it to see the other students gathered around the circle. She sat next to her best friend Phoebe as she looked around. "Okay, what does Football Head have in store that he dragged almost all us classmates out in the middle of the night!"

"Technically, Helga, it's seven o' two PM." Phoebe said, pointing towards her watch.

"Who cares what time it is! I just want to know what is so important that Arnold just dragged us out from our comfortable homes!" Helga grumbled under her breath.

"Whatever it is, I hope it involves food!" Harold complained.

"You always think everything is about food." Rhonda rolled her eyes as she was focusing on her nails.

All of a sudden, the lights around the boarding house went off as everybody was looking around in confusion.

"Hey, who killed off all the lights?" Nadine asked.

All of a sudden, a fire then came on as the campfire was lit. The kids just stared in amazement... when all of a sudden, in between Helga and Harold, a flashlight came on, revealing Arnold's head. "Greetings..."

"YIKE! Criminy, where did you come from?" Helga yelped.

"...and welcome, everybody." Arnold said as everyone's eyes diverted to him as Gerald came by and joined in, a bowl of names in his hands. "No doubt, you're all wondering why I called you all here?"

"Well, actually, yes." Sid said as he held up the note. "The notes you just gave us were all vague."

"Yeah, writing 'To Stinky, Come to Boarding House at seven tonight for a big surprise, signed Arnold', isn't exactly specific." Stinky said.

Arnold sighed as he and Gerald nodded. "Okay, the reason I called you all here is because as a group of friends..."

"I'm not your friend, we're just... acquaintances..." Helga coughed.

"ANYWAY..." Arnold said. "I figured we could spend our Friday night of every week to tell some stories together..."

"Stories?" Rhonda asked as she raised an eyebrow. "Like, what type of stories, specifically?"

"Well... I figured, as an experiment for our first week, we can tell some scary ghost stories..." Arnold explained as Gerald sat the bowl of names aside. "Just three stories a week, that's all..."

"Hmmmm..." Phoebe paused. "That could be an interesting thing to do..."

"Yeah, scary stories?" Harold said as he, Stinky and Sid nodded. "Heck, count me in!"

"I'm interested." Nadine smiled as she, Lila and Sheena nodded in agreement.

"Oh, what the heck? I suppose I don't have anything better to do." Rhonda smiled as she got comfortable.

Helga paused as she gave a smirk. "What the heck?"

Pretty soon, the other kids nodded their agreement as Arnold smiled. "Great, I'm sure you guys won't regret it... now, every week, Gerald here has a bowl of names... I'll draw from the names, and whoever's name gets drawn will get to tell the story. However, since this is the first week, I'll only do me and Gerald, and I'll just draw one name for the final story, just so we get an idea. Is that fair?"

Everyone nodded, curious to see what will be going on.

"Great!" Arnold smiled as he nodded. "I'm glad that everything's settled then."

"So, do you have a story in mind that's so scary?" Helga smirked as she crossed her legs. "Because I expect to be scared here."

"I'm glad you asked, Helga..." Arnold smirked as he turned on the flashlight over his head. "Because tonight's first story is about... death..."

Everybody looked at Arnold as Helga rolled her eyes. "I'm quivering already..."

And that's the prologue to this story! How'd you like it? The first of three stories will be up soon, so don't miss out! It'll probably go until the first or second week of November, depending, just so you know! Anyway, read, review, criticize and suggest!