Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Season 1 Episode 3 The Tale of the Lonely Ghost
David tells a story about a girl who finds a lonely ghost.
Series Index
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990-2000)
Characters/Groups
The Midnight Society
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
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Detailed Synopsis
As Kristen is walking through the woods to the meeting, David stops her and gives her a birthday present. She thanks him and tells him that she will open it after the meeting. As Eric is doing a trick for Kiki, Frank almost makes him choke and Gary has to separate them from fighting. Betty Ann hands David the sack of powdery material and he introduces his tale by saying that it has to do with two very different kids and a love so strong it can survive death.
It was the beginning of summer vacation and Amanda is staying with her Aunt Dottie and cousin Beth while Amanda's parents did their summer research studying Inuit stone carvings. Aunt Dottie and Amanda arrive at Aunt Dottie's home and Aunt Dottie calls to Beth to let her know Amanda has arrived, but Beth ignores her. Amanda hears a noise coming from the house next door and Aunt Dottie tells her that no one has lived there in years and says that as its real estate agent, she thinks sometimes the house doesn't want to be sold. Aunt Dottie takes Amanda up to Beth's room and after Aunt Dottie leave, Beth tells Amanda that she doesn't plan on hanging out with her and that in order for Beth to let Amanda hang out with her and her friends, she has to prove she isn't a total dork. Amanda asks what she has to do to prove she isn't a dork and Beth says Amanda has to clean Beth's room every day, she can't snitch and she has to go through an initiation. She continues that the initiation consists of staying the night in the house next door, which is haunted.
During the night as Amanda is writing a letter to her parents, she hears a noise and meets Beth's Nanny. Nanny holds out her hand to Amanda, but Beth opens her door and tells her if she touches Nanny's contaminated wrinkly old hand, she won't let her touch anything of hers again. Nanny leaves and Amanda asks Beth about her and Beth tells her that Nanny is crazy and has a connection to the haunted house next door. Beth tells Amanda that Sally is having a pool party, but Amanda can't come unless she goes through the initiation. In the morning, as Amanda is walking down the stairs with Beth's clothes to wash, Nanny is walking up the stairs and trips and Nanny drops a locket. Amanda picks it up and hands it to her and Nanny takes Beth's laundry from Amanda and offers to clean it. Nanny and Amanda hear Beth and Aunt Dottie arguing about Nanny and before leaving, Beth tells Amanda not to touch her stuff. Before Amanda's initiation, Beth tells her a long time ago a little girl lived next door who was picked on by the other kids, because she couldn't talk and Sally thinks maybe the girl was deaf. She continues that the little girl's mother sent her to go stay with her grandmother while she left to take care of the little girl's father, but the little girl ran back to her house after she was teased by the other kids and the kids locked her in her bedroom and the little girl starved to death. Beth tells Amanda that she has to go to the little girl's bedroom and to use a flashlight to prove she is in it. Amanda goes into the house and hears laughing. She goes upstairs and enters a bedroom and hears a knocking sound coming from the closet. She looks around and sees Help Me written on the wall but written backwards. She looks at the mirror on the closet wall and Help Me correctly looks left to right. The mirror image changes to an image of a Ghost in a black void. Amanda runs out of the house and back to Aunt Dottie's house and runs into Beth's room.
Kristen asks David where Beth was, and he tells her that Beth was at Sally's house the entire night and Aunt Dottie was working late. Frank comments that now Amanda was alone with Nanny who he thinks is a lunatic, but Eric thinks Beth just told Amanada that to scare her. David says that when Aunt Dottie came home, Amanda told her everything that happened. The next morning, Aunt Dottie tells Amanda and Beth that they have to scrub the writing from the wall of the neighbor house. Beth blames Amanda and Amanda tells her that she doesn't want to be in her friends group anymore. Beth tells Amanda that she is never inviting her to do anything ever again and drags her into the bedroom with the writing on the wall. When they enter the room, the words Help Me are now written all over it. The door closes on its own and the image in the closet mirror changes to the bedroom of a little girl's room filled with dolls. Beth starts admiring all the dolls and walking closer to the closet and walks into the mirror. As Beth disappears into the mirror, the Ghost appears and walks into the room. The Ghost hands Amanda a locket with Nanny's photograph in it and Amanda figures out that the Ghost is the daughter of Nanny and the little girl who starved to death. Amanda agrees to bring Nanny into the room and Amanda runs to Aunt Dottie's house and catches Nanny right before she is about to leave. Amanda shows Nanny the locket the Ghost gave her and brings her to the neighbor house. They go into the bedroom and the Ghost walks to Nanny and invites her to join her in the afterlife. Nanny and the Ghost walk into the mirror. Amanda walks towards the closet door and Beth asks her for help. Sally and Beth's other friends enter the room and Beth promises not to boss Amanda or Beth's friends around and Amanda opens the closet door, freeing Beth.
David ends his tale and the meeting ends. Frank offers to buy Eric a soda to make amends. Before they leave, Kristen opens the present David gave to her and inside is a locket. Kristen puts it on and kisses David on the cheek and they catch up with the others.