Writing Prompt

Scott Farley was a Boston man. He might not have been born there, but he was accustomed to the culture and had fit in like a glove. He loved Boston, almost as much as he loved his dog, but the last few months, he felt as though something was off. It wasn’t a sudden change, more like a slow creeping sensation, as if something was approaching.

He woke up the morning of March 5th in a cold sweat. He...

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

It was those very words that made Sammy and I pause what we were doing, frozen at the dining table as if we had been turned into stone. Slowly, I turned to our younger sister Rose, who was clutching her worn teddy bear in her chubby hands.

“Rose, what…” Sammy started, but quickly trailed off. I chose to contin...

“Mommy”I whisper into the heavy darkness of the bedroom. My voice is small, barely more than a breath. I hesitate, my bare feet frozen on the cold wooden floor as I glance back down the hallway. My room is too far. Too dark. Too open. I don’t want her to be mad at me again for waking her, but….

A soft creak echoes from behind me.

My bedroom door is opening. Slowly. Too slowly.

My stomach twists...

“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” cried my seven year old son. For days he’s been stalling at bedtime and trying his absolute hardest to avoid his room at all costs. An extra sip of water here, a trip to the bathroom there, and suddenly our bedtime routine is 30 minutes longer.

It wasn’t always this way. Sam was always a wonderful sleeper but s...

“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” cried Scarlett, tugging onto her mother’s arm.

“Now don’t be silly, there isn’t any man!” her mother laughed, sighing at her daughter. Scarlett swallowed, peeking around the corner of her bedroom. It seemed normal but there was something definitely off, an unsettling feeling. Yesterday, after Scarlett’s mother t...

“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” she argued. The fear in her eyes looked real, but kids always have overactive imaginations. I open her bedroom closet to show that it’s empty.

Later, I hear her soft footsteps in the hall, heading to the bathroom. The toilet flushes and the water begins to run. Then it keeps running. I get up to see what’s tak...

It’s time for bed Gregory’s mom said no I don’t want to go said Greg

Now why is that honey it’s it’s because of him he knows why as he pointed at the closet he wants to hurt me now isn’t that silly your getting to old for that your 6 now lying to get out of bed is bad but I don’t want to go to bed the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet he told me he had a mother just like you and she...

My 5 year old said that,I looked at him and said”your just imagining things” he stomps into his room that night I heard a scream I got up out of bed and ran to his room he was gone but not the monster he was a black scribble long legs and arms no eyes like my kids said I backed up I stared at me my life flashed before my eyes I was in hospital before I knew it in cuts.Tears running down my face wh...

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

“Where did you get an idea like that?” Mom said gently. “Monsters aren’t real.”

“It’s a monster!” Tod cried harder.

Mom realized her mistake by calling it a monster instead of a man. Now three year old Tod was crying louder.

...

“Alright, Ben. That’s enough TV for tonight, it’s time for bed.” I say to my eight year old son.

“No!” He replies stubbornly.

“If you go up now I’ll read to you for a bit.”

“But I don’t want to go to bed!” He yells, I’m about to tell him off for speaking like that but what he says next makes the words catch in my throat. “The man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!”

“The man with n...