BoogeyMan

Boogeyman1

For a child of 4 years of age, Colton was doing pretty well with the dark, but he is a child. Secure in his beliefs, in his faith in magic, and thus afraid of the dark. He was lying on his back in his room. His toys were splayed out in unorganized organization. There was something that he was afraid of facing though. It was something that, unknown to him at the time, haunted many children in the hours between dusk and dawn.2

It was something that was held inside his closet. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he the thought that it was slowly clawing its way through his closet door. Waiting for the time when it can get free, and consume his… Well he didn’t know what the creature consumed, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be good for his health.3

All the people came Colton came into contact with said he was bright for his age. This knowledge did nothing to make his social upbringing any better, but it was nice to know. Unknown to him was that this brightness was going to cast a shadow over his life, but all that would come with adolescence.4

The air conditioner came on, and the creature in the closet began its nightly clawing. It was active whenever that air conditioner was on. He assumed this was because that was when it was least likely to be heard.5

I pulled the blanket fully over my body when a new sound found its way to my ears. It sounded like rapid breathing, and it went with the clawing of the door. Each intake of breathe was accompanied with a scratching of the door. He thought about running to his parents’ room, but the last time he did that they didn’t understand. They comforted him, but even at such a young age he could see the disbelief behind the comfort. So he tried not to run to them with this particular problem anymore.6

A thought occurred to him. It was such a simple thought that he was surprised it hadn’t occurred to him before. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed logical. He slowly lifted the blanket from his body. He pulled his feet out from under the blanket, and planted them on the floor beside his short bed. When he got up his bed creaked, he froze, half expecting the creature to quit for the night, but it continued with its escape from my closet.7

He slowly made his way to the closet door. He dodged all of the toys that were laying pell-mell across the floor. He got to the door and froze. The breathing and the scratching were louder than ever, but he was determined to at least try. His hand slowly rose to the handle of the door, and he slowly turned it.8

The door came open easy enough. He had closed his eyes expecting to be grabbed as soon as the door was opened. He opened them and looked into the closet.9

He almost laughed at what he saw. The breathing sound was a shirt caught on the vent. Every time the shirt rose and let the air escape the breathing and scratching noise came. He looked up and saw what was making the scratching noise. It was a hanger on the steel rod that went across the closet.10

He picked the shirt off of the vent, and climbed on a trash bag that was in there to get the hanger off of the rod. He set them beside the door and closed it. He slowly closed the door, and made his way back to the bed.11

He laughed and though to himself that he would have a story to tell the other kids at the daycare he went to when his parents were at work. He climbed into bed and pulled the blanket up to his chin. A smile touched brightened his face up while he drifted into his sweet dreams.12