Darkness and monsters could be a boy’s worst fears. But they are told not to be scared, that they are men and they must face what they hate. I was afraid, very much so. My childhood had been a normal, uneventful and safe.  But, the normality did not change the fact that I still had fears. I was scared I would be swallowed by the darkening shadows that cast along my wall. Scared that monsters lived under my bed and would take me into the darkness. If only they would listen.
“DAD!” he desperately called from his room. Loud footsteps reverberated on the walls of the familiar childhood home. The handle was grasped quickly and turned, the door was pushed open to reveal a panic-stricken father. The boy was wrapped and imprisoned in the covers, he sat in the middle of the bed eyes wide and scanning the room over and over. “Ethan! Are you alright?” His eyes swept the room looking for anything that might have caused the commotion within the peaceful household. “Daddy, there was a monster! I saw it!” he cried. His father stepped into the room. “This is silliness Ethan! There is no such thing as monsters, never have been never will be!” The boy cringed at the patronizing tone his dad used. “No you have to believe me, I saw it with my own two eyes!” The father gave a disapproving look toward the small boy. “Then your mind must be playing tricks on you, and I have told you time and time again that nothing is in this room! Now go to sleep!” He closed the door and took steps back down the hallway. “Damn it! I can’t any sleep in this house!” The boy wept, he had made his father upset. Yes, he did seem harsh but Ethan had been claiming there were monsters under his bed and scary shadows along the wall for weeks. This had frustrated his father to no end because he had never had to deal with this, a small insignificant problem in his seemingly normal life that was disrupting his peace. Ethan shivered with uneasiness eyes darting back and forth. He had to be brave. Had to stop calling on his dad for help. Shuffling in the closet scared him to the point where he lay still on the bed, not turning to face the closet door but looking ahead at the wall. He believed if he focused on the old chipped paint and cracks along the walls he would no longer hear the rustling through the thin closet doors. But in a moment of courage he lept from the bed and ran to the doors throwing them open. Once he had opened the doors he wished he never had. A giant mass of matted fur led to curled horns as he scanned the creature that stood towering over him. His body went into shock, he tooks several backwards steps before running into the nightstand, knocking off the lamp. The sound of the crashing light bulb brought him back to reality, but also alerted the monster. He could feel the shadows moving around him on the walls, in a frenzy they rushed along the walls at his discovery. He let out a terrified scream that rang through the house as clear as a bell. The monster turned toward him and he finally saw the face of what had haunted him for so many nights. A face so grotesque and beastly that he had never found the right way to describe it. Footsteps, faster this time sounded on the creaky floors and then the door to the bedroom was flung open “Ethan!” his father’s face turned from agitated to a ghost white with no emotion as he finally saw what his son had seen every night when he denied his accusations. Time seemed to stop as the monster turned his head with agility to look at Ethan’s father. Out of nowhere the beast lunged at his father and he let out a yell. The monster dragged him into the darkness of the closet. Dead silence and stiff air surrounded him as he replayed what just happened. After what seemed like hours of trying to process what had just went on, actually passed in seconds. This time more footsteps, but lighter less thunderous ones came rushing to his room.
That night he realized something, every child had a right to be scared of the dark and monsters lurking. He had been told his whole life that it was all in his head but it wasn’t. He had truly seen it and how powerful it could be. This is why he hunted monsters, so no kid would ever feel that they were wrong or delusional. To seek revenge for his father and himself as a young boy. These wretched monsters that he hunted came in all different forms, but he swore that night that he would kill as many of them as he could. I was a hunter.