The enormous creature that had successfully towered over her only minutes earlier, was now a sad, hunched puddle at her foot end, but somehow that didn't make Selina more comfortable. What did he mean, he couldn't leave?

"Sure you can." Her voice was still pathetically meek. "I'll open the door for you."

The monster snorted.

That hollow, bitter laugh again.

Selina suppressed a shudder as an icy chill took possession of her. In response, the monster inhaled deeply. "Your fear. Delicious."

"Don't flatter yourself," she managed barely, "I'm not afraid of you."

The hunched figure sat up straighter, a wicked glint returning to his eyes. "Sure? In that case, I'm going to have to find the kid. The kid's scared shitless."

Terror squeezed her lungs at the thought of him going after Lowie. "Leave my son alone!"

"Well see, lady, the thing is this, I'm hungry."

Her temples throbbed. What was he implying? "Are you planning to eat my son?"

"His fear."

"This is not real. You're not ... you can't be. You better get out or I'll call the police."

"Hm." He picked up a snow globe from Lowie's nightstand and shook it. The snow dwindling on Bruges' bell tower seemed to intrigue him. "Maybe you should. While you go out to get your phone, I'll go find your son."

"No!"

He put the globe back, his interest in Selina piqued again. "No? Are you going to stop me? How exciting."

"You can't have my son."

"I don't need to have him. All I'll do is scare him. He'll live. I'm a bogeyman, not a monster."

"Isn't that one and the same thing?" she asked, "Anyway, I won't allow you to scare him." How she would prevent him, she wasn't sure yet, but she would do anything in her power. That was a fact.

"The thought alone makes you nauseous, doesn't it? I like that. The air around you is thick with adrenaline. It's a lovely appetizer. It makes me curious. It makes me wanna play. I haven't played in a long time." The bogeyman moved closer to her, too close.

His claw―or was it a paw?―drew near. The hand was furry and soft, the talons sharp and menacing. The softest part brushed along her bare arm, causing an eruption of goosebumps and an instant desire to have been sensible enough to wear something less revealing than these flimsy summer PJs. But it was her house, her house. She could wear whatever the hell she wanted in her house. He had no business making her feel vulnerable in her own house. Anger weaved with her fear and she jerked her arm away from his paw.

She didn't succeed in jerking away from his overall presence though.

Black rags floated around her. It was not fabric as she had thought earlier, neither limbs, the black ribbons snaking her way were whirlwinds of every dark thought imaginable. Zombies and wolves, serpents, monsters, ghosts, ...

"The stuff of nightmares," he hissed, following her gaze, "Let's go see how Lowie is doing, shall we?" The ribbons now enveloped her completely. A whirlwind of nightmares lifted her and transported her through the door and down the staircase.

"No!" she screamed, "No. Leave him alone. We can't go there."

But the whirlwind carried her into the master bedroom. Terror seized her heart as the whirlwind left her and moved toward the sleeping boy. "Run, Lowie, run!" she screamed, but Lowie didn't wake up. She ran after the bogeyman, clawing at the floating mass before her, desperate to stop him, but he was always one step ahead.

He swarmed in on the boy.

Her heart drummed in her throat.

She lept after the monster but fell to the floor.

Not able to grab him, she watched him close in on the boy, his claws inches from Lowie's blushing cheeks. What was he going to do?

"No, please, no," she murmured, "no ... I'll do anything, anything."

He scooped up the boy in one fluent motion, glared over his shoulder at Selina, and then bowed over the boy, hiding him from her. She crawled upright, as fast as she could. There had to be something she could do. A deep gurgle sounded from the bogeyman. He was going to eat Lowie. He was going to slurp her son dry like a bowl of soup.

"Mom?" Lowie had woken up, the fear in his squeaky voice clawing at her heart. In vain, the boy struggled against the bogeyman's grip, his little legs squirming from behind the black mass. She had to think fast.

She'd been unpacking books from cardboard boxes earlier. A pair of scissors was still on top of one. Without hesitation, she snagged it and stormed forward, plunging it into the bogeyman's neck. It didn't feel like stabbing a human, which was a wild thought; She had never stabbed a human, but this ... like planting a spoon in a pot of flour, so easy.

Yet, a deafening roar emerged from the creature and Lowie dropped to the floor with a thump. Before Selina could check on him, the bogeyman swirled around and grabbed her by the throat. "Not nice, lady."

Her feet left the ground once again and she was flung to the side, landing painfully ... on the hardboard floor of the attic room. How did she get here? How was she in the master bedroom one moment and in the attic room the next?

"Lowie? Where's Lowie?" She tried to scramble upright, but his claw latched into her hair and pulled her down.

"Lowie's fine," he hissed, "but you're not getting back up. I don't want any more trouble from you. That boggin hurts. Pull out the fork!"

Fork? She gaped at the scissors sticking from his neck which weren't scissors at all? He was right. It was a fork, the fork Lowie had used to eat his sandwich. How could she have taken the fork while being in the master bedroom? How did they go from there to here? Her head swam, disorientation making her nauseous.

He yanked her close by her hair. "Take it out!"

She reached out with trembling fingers, questions tumbling through her head. His fist in her hair didn't make movement any easier. "Please," she begged, "please, you're hurting me."

His claw fell from her hair at once. "I'm not. I didn't. I'm a bogeyman. I don't hurt people. I only scare them." With a pained growl, he whizzed backward and slumped against the door to the hallway, blocking her way out.

He put one palm on his shoulder and fisted the other around the fork. When he pulled, he roared, and black smoke floated from his punctured neck. Selina ducked as the bogeyman's blood floated by, seeking an escape through the gaps in the floor and baseboards.

His blood was no blood at all. It was an endless parade of miniature creatures, vile and aggressive. The stuff of nightmares, same as his rags. The bogeyman existed of nightmares inside and out. She didn't know whether to be scared or sad, studying the huddled figure against the door. He kept his claw pressed to his neck and the nightmares had stopped gushing out. The scarf that had covered most of his face had slid down, revealing hollow cheeks and a chiseled jawline. Underneath the scarf, he looked like a tired, human man. His icy blue eyes stared back at her, cutting her in uncomfortable places. "What the bogs just happened?"

"I was wondering the same thing."

"You stabbed me."

"You tried to eat Lowie. You were hurting Lowie."

"I was doing no such thing."

"You were. I saw it."

He bristled like an angry horse, black puffs escaping his nostrils. At that moment, she wished she had obeyed his orders and pulled the fork out herself. It was only a fork but it would've been something. A weapon. Right now, she was entirely defenseless.

"What you saw was your own imagination, your fears, and they were delicious until you planted cutlery in my flesh."

"Flesh? Are you made of flesh? I doubt it."

He scowled at her. "No lady, you're right. I'm made of nightmares, your worst nightmares. No need to rub it in."

She shivered.

"And I feed off of fear."

"So Lowie is still asleep? This all happened in my mind?"

He pulled the claw from his wound and inspected it. The last bit of black smoke tumbled elegantly from his neck and then it was done. Satisfied he shook his claw and refocused.

He crawled her way. "Because of your shenanigans, lady, I'm still hungry. Very hungry."

WC: 1433 words
TWC: 4682 words