Getting my son down for bed is always a pain; he’s always scared of something. From goblins in the attic to spiders in his blankets, the kid is a nightmare when it comes to bedtime. Something about how he was acting tonight felt strangely different. Usually, you can tell when your kid is just acting up to stay up longer; this time, he wasn’t crying or whining, he was just putting things in front of his closet door. I walked into his room and asked him what was going on, figuring I’d get the whole “the goblins are back” or something along those lines, but he just kept putting things against the door. His play table and chairs were already stacked high, followed by his stuffed animals. Now he was grabbing his action figures and blankets off the bed. I finally had enough. Usually, I’d humor him, but he’s just making a mess I’ll have to clean up later, so I walk over and ask him again, “What is going on?” This is when I could see the terror in his stark blue eyes, like something was actually in there. I managed to choke out, “Are you ok, buddy? It’s time for bed.” before he got around me to the door leading into his room and said, “But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet.” The man with no eyes? He has never talked about this before. As if almost on queue, a small knocking sound came from behind the child-sized barrier he built against his closet door.

This not only sent chills down my spine but also sent my son running down the hall. Presumably into my room. It’s probably just a raccoon or other rodent that got in from outside, I thought to myself. That’s when I heard the whispering, it’s so subtle that I didn’t hear it before over my voice, but now it was hard to miss. As I got closer to the door, I could almost make out what it was saying. “Where did you…” couldn’t fully understand still, so I got closer, “Where did you hide them?” The thing kept whispering this over and over, like a chant. That’s when I decided I had had enough. I left my son’s room to find where he had run off to. Turning the corner, that’s when I saw it. A tall shadow loomed at the end of the hall, standing in the opening of the broom closet. Its face was stuck in a contorted smile, with black ooze seeping from its eye sockets. Through the gritted teeth of the smile, it asked in a low, almost growl-like manner, “Did you take my eyes?”. His eyes? Why would I know anything about his eyes? “Where is my son?” I yelled back. This made his face change, his painful smile grew into a frown, his teeth still showing. “I had to see if he had my eyes,” he replied in his growl. Before I could get anything else out, he slipped back into the shadows of the broom closet, followed by the faint screams of a child. I ran to the door, knowing it was already too late. I opened the doo and amongst the cleaning supplies and linens on the shelf lay my son’s eyes, still stark blue, and frozen in terror.