“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” Sally whined.

“There is no man in your closet,” her mother replied, rolling her eyes. She walked over and opened the closet door. Inside was only stacks of clothing and bins of colorful toys. “See honey? There’s no one here.”

Reluctantly, Sally crept over and peeked inside. No one was there. “I guess I’ll go to bed, but can you wait in here until I fall asleep?”

“Fine.” Her mother sat down on the edge of her bed as Sally climbed under the pink quilt. “Now go to sleep.”

Sally tried to stay awake, but her eyes slowly began to shut. Her breathing slowed, and she started to snore softly. Her mother rose up from the bed and walked to her own room.

If she had still been in there, she would have seen the closet door creak open a crack and a dark figure peer out. A figure that appeared to have no eyes.

The thing heard the girl’s snores and slipped out into the room. It felt it’s way to the edge of her bed and leaned over her. It’s mouth opened into a smile revealing sharp teeth. It took a deep breath, seeming to be preparing for something, and then took one more step towards the girl.

It didn’t make it that far. It’s foot caught on the edge of her rug and toppled forward. It’s hand shot out reaching for anything to stop the fall. The only thing within reach was the pink quilt, which did nothing. The thing crashed to the ground taking the blanket with it.

Sally heard the sound and sprang awake. She looked around confused, then saw her quilt on the floor. It started to move. The thing rose up from the ground and the quilt fell away. Sally screamed.

It screamed.

“Mom!” She cried.

“Wait no, don’t call your mother!”

Sally stopped surprised. She reached over and turned on her lamp. Before her was not a man at all. As she had previously thought. It didn’t seem human. It was all pitch black with long arms and short legs. It had rather large ears and nose. Sally thought it looked fairly similar to a chimpanzee. It did actually have eyes. They were the same color as the rest of it and were so squinted they were almost closed. She assumed that it couldn’t see very well.

Now that she saw it in the light she realized it wasn’t really that scary at all. The only scary thing was why it was in her bedroom. “What are you? What do you want with me?”

“Well I was supposed to scare you, but that didn’t work out, did it?” the chimpanzee thing pouted, “As for what I am, I’m not quite sure. I’m supposed to be something you’re afraid of.”

Sally was confused, but the thing didn’t seem too threatening. “You did scare me before, but not anymore. When you were in my closet, I was afraid.”

“Well, I guess that counts. As long as you were scared. They didn’t say you had to stay scared, but they did say not to talk, so I should probably go.” The chimpanzee thing started to turn around.

“Wait where are you going? Don’t leave! I still have question. Why did you want to scare me? Do you mean that you can change what you look like?”

“I can’t answer the first question, but the second one is a yes. I’m in training though. I’m still working on the shape shifting. You were my first kid. I’ve got to go now.”

The creature slipped back into the closet and disappeared into the shadows. Sally stared waiting for it to come back, but it never did. Not that night or any other.