Silently, Alyssa crept up the stairs and back into bed. She shuddered to think that he had heard her. Her parents were gone. Only that monster remained. When Alyssa slept, she still heard their silent pleas for her to run, their screams as the monster imprisoned them in the world of shadows. CREAK. Her ears pricked up as she heard the monstrosity heading to the second floor.

Forcing herself to stop her incessant shaking, she hid under the covers. He wouldn’t touch her until she was older. Eerily, she was reminded of the witch from the story of Hansel and Gretel. Fattening me up, she thought, waiting for me to get bigger so he can eat me! The thought frightened her young mind. But she stayed brave. Brave for her parents. If only her mom had listened.

She could still feel the tears stinging her cheeks. “It’s real!” She had shouted, “The monster is in the closet! I can hear him!” Her mom would feign surprise and shut the door, only to go back downstairs and forget about her for the night. The bumps in her closet were all the more real now that it was empty. The monster occupied her whole house, not just the miniscule room. The thought sent her heart racing even faster. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead as she bit her lip trying desperately not to cry again. That only made him laugh. His cruel laugh…

The door opened up wide and the shadowy man appeared at her bedside. “Now, now, Deary. We mustn’t lose sleep,” his raspy voice cut through her, angering her from her core while frightening her at the same time. He took off the covers. She looked at him and gasped, as she always did. His dark figure seemed to be sewn from the shadows themselves. The only thing of color on his whole body were his beady orange eyes which seemed to stare right through her. Alyssa tensed in preparation for his hand. She expected him to strike her as he always did when she had disobeyed.

Instead, she heard his razor laugh; the giggle that sounded so evil and malicious. “This was your third strike, Alyssa. Three strikes and you’re out.” His shadowy form morphed to engulf her. She felt the life being slowly squeezed out of her as the desperate need for air became more apparent. She screamed and fought, trying to get herself free, trying to save herself. His grip only tightened. She thought first of her own life, and then of her parents, waiting for her to rescue them. Tears trickled down her cheek as she realized that fighting was useless. She had lost.

As she lay there, dying, her last breath escaping from her cherry lips, she heard a voice. “Alyssa…” Light filled the room while her eyes opened, slowly, as if for the very first time. “Alyssa, calm down, it was just a nightmare.” Alyssa came to, noticing that she was still shaking from her dream. She looked to her window to find that it was still dark outside. Her mother pushed back her hair and kissed her on the forehead as if to say good night. Her mother’s light brown hair flitted behind her as she walked away. Leaving the room, she turned down the lights. All was dark, and Alyssa had finally calmed down enough to feel secure in her own bedroom. Clutching at her bed sheets, she looked around the room one final time, exhausted. Quickly, she drifted off into unconsciousness. As everything else in the house was still, the closet door opened to reveal pair of gleaming orange eyes.