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 was mean she made him sleep and in the night his eyes got blacked out by the monster it will happen to me just like him then she said I don’t care your sleeping here Gregory fine he said as he slept that night he looked every which way before he hid under the covers he kept all his lights on he was fine until 3:00 that’s when he heard the thing he had been continuously hearing each night it got closer the whistle whispers were as close too his bed but the lights are on how can that be as the whispers and whistles sang closer we want you we need you we will do anything to get you the lights turned off he hid under his covers he heard creak creak creaaaak his floor boards were being stepped on hey maybe it’s my mom he checked the camera it wasn’t his mom it was the man with no eyes he watched and watched until the man stopped at his bed he had no skin no bones just and muscles he didn’t make a sound until he turned around and smashed the camera now Greg only had himself to keep him safe he hugged his teddy tight but that was a mistake it was his teddy that said I love you every time you hugged it the man pulled the covers off him then he left when his mom came back the next day saying Greg your late for base ball she found a surprise he had no eyes no skin no bones just nerves and muscles with his teddy bear ripped apart the worst part is that he was hung on the fan neck open and just swinging there soon later they got rid of his furniture and they made it another guest room that night they decided to sleep in the bed to see if it was cozy for the aunt that would be coming soon and then they heard a nice soft whisper whistle we want you we need you we will do anything to get you when the aunt came they were both hung in the fan no eyes just nerves and muscles the aunt who was rude decided she would sell the house for the highest bidder and when she moved the man came with her we want you we need you we will do anything to get you it was the family’s revenge

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 what was the thing and where is my child?..

“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. 

          “I’ll look in your closet and show you nothing is in there,” Mom told Tod. 

           “No mommy, it will eat you,” Tod exclaimed. 

            “I’ll be fine,” Mom said as she opened the closet. There was nothing but clothing and some toys. 

            “See,” Mom said. 

             “Look up,” Tod whined. 

              Mom heard scraping sound like long claws on the ceiling of the closet. 

              ‘Mice,’ Mom thought, looking up. It wasn’t mice 

              Clinging to the ceiling was a pale emaciated humanoid, with long sharp claws, a wide gaping mouth, with rows of sharp teeth, and hollowed out eyes. 

              It leaped on Mom and dug it’s claws in her eyes. She screamed while the creatcher dug her eyes out. 

              Tod screamed, and hid under the covers. 

             The creature plopped the now dead Mom’s eyes, in it’s own eye sockets. 

              It wasn’t satisfied as the eyes didn’t stay in and rolled out onto the floor. 

              “One more time,” the creatcher barely eligible voice growled out.

              At the voice, Tod let out a little wimper. 

               He heard scurrying across the room to under his bead. 

               Tod knew he hade to be quiet now. 

               He quietly peaked his head out of the covers. Even that little bit of movement shifted the old bed. 

               The monsters hand shot out, reaching on the bed. 

              It felt around looking for the source of the noise, each second getting closer to Tod. 

              Tod knew he couldn’t stay on the bed. He had to run to the phone, call the emergency hotline and then find a new hiding spot. A lot to ask of a scared three year old. 

               Tod bolted from the bed and ran out of his room and down the hall, too the kitchen where the wall phone was. He made a racket doing so. The creatcher was right behind him. 

              Tod went to grab the phone, but the scary truth set in. Tod was not tall enough to reach the phone. 

              Before he could cry the monster got to him. 

             Months passed and the smell of decay brought the cops out to the house. They found a bloated corpse of a woman missing her eyes, and a bloated corpse of a three year old boy also missing his eyes. 

            On the other side of the world, a five year old girl, cried, “but I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!”

“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 no eyes?” I ask.

“Yeah, he lives in the closet and he comes out at night!” Ben says, he’s probably just making stuff up so he doesn’t have to go to bed.

“There’s no one in your closet, honey.” I says gently but he just looks at me like I’m crazy.

“Yes there is!” He yells perking at me from over the back of the couch. “I’m not lying! And I won’t go to bed until he’s gone!”

He folds his arms and pouts. I take the remote from him and turn the TV off.

“There’s no one in the closet.” I take his hand and lead him up the stairs. “I’ll show you.”

He tries to run back down the stairs but I put my arm out in front of him.

“You need to go to bed, you have school tomorrow.” I say sternly.

We go to his room and I put my hand on the closet door. Ben looks terrified and he back up against the wall, as far from the closet as he can get.

“Mummy,” He whines, “please don’t.”

“There’s no one in here.” I insist pulling open the door.

Ben jumps back, glancing around as if looking for a way out and for a moment I actually think there’s something in the closet but when I look it’s empty.

“See?” I say, “Nothing here.”

“Are you blind, he’s right there!” Ben screams. “He’s wearing a black cloak and he has really pale skin and where his eyes should be there just Xs! How can you not se him?”

He looks so scared, I’m finding it hard to believe he’s making this up. I look into the closet to see if I can see something that he’s mistaking as a man with no eyes. Ben keeps describing the man, over and over in excruciating detail. As he describes I have to admit I start to see… something that matches what he says. I rub my eyes but the image just gets stronger.

It’s a man.

In the closet.

With no eyes.

Smiling at me.

When Harper was 7 she did not like to go to sleep in her bedroom So one night she told her mom and dad . I don’t want to sleep in my bedroom tonight. “,But you have to said Harper’s mom “me and daddy have to get sleep so do you be sides you have school in the morning. So you go up and go to sleep goodnight . But I don’t want to go to bed “ there’s a scary man with no eyes “ waiting for me in the closet he just sits there and stares at me and it just gives me the chills her mom and dad look at each other with concern your probably just imagining it ok I guess I will just go up After 20 minutes Harper’s parents here a yell and then they rushed up stairs in Harper’s room and she wasn’t there

I tried telling her. I really did. But when she sets her mind on something, she doesn’t stop until she gets it.

“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” I whined. I know I sound bratty, especially for my age. That didn’t matter though. I was paralyzed in the corner of the hallway.

My fifteen year old sister was leaning against her door frame, glaring at me. “I don’t care what’s waiting for you. You are going to bed so I can leave, Olivia.” She said.

Waking out of her room she dragged me to mine. After quickly looking through my closet, she announced, “See, there’s nothing there. Now sleep!” I pouted but went over to it anyway. She nodded and left, shutting my door behind her.

Amelia is the kind of person that would do anything to get out of responsibility. Ever since we were little, she would always find a way to give chores to me, or sneak out when she was supposed to be babysitting me.

I dove under my covers and turned my lamp off. Darkness and shadows filled the room, chasing each other up the walls, giving it a haunted effect. I grabbed one of my stuffed teddy bears and watched the closet.

Fear started to spread like a wildfire thought out my body. Just like I knew he would, the doors started to creep open. A long, pale hand crept out, making me tremble.

I curled up into a ball, watching as an arm protruded from my wooden doors. Papery skin stretched across its small bones, a head quickly followed. I bit back a scream, trying not to let it know I was here.

The leathery skin stretched across its sharp cheekbones, leading to hollow eye sockets. The sight really was a nightmare. I hadn’t seen anything like this since I had insomnia as a kid.

When I was younger, I had a constant demon that chased me through dreams. It was a particularly small creature, with a hunched back and dark eyes.

It would flash into dreams, even happy ones. There were whole days when I could go without sleep because I was terrified of seeing him. I named her Lilith. I looked up some older names for demons when I was about five and decided that I like that name.

I was put on medicine, until I ran out about two weeks ago. This new demon popped up, and my parents think I’m crazy.

I stiffened, thinking about a couple of nights before. My demons had never physically touched me. I didn’t think that it could happen. Then, last Tuesday, it scratched a crusty nail along my arm. I still have scars.

I cringed, hearing my labored breathing. I ducked in a sharp breath when the monster twisted its head to look at me. It stared at me, if that was possible.

The creature made its way completely out of the closet, unfolding its long legs from underneath itself. He crept closer to my bed, hissing softly.

Tears sprang to my eyes and I was panicking. He had never come this far before. I was about to scream, hoping Amelia was still in the house, when its hand crept over my mouth, suffocating me.

I thrashed trying to breath. Despite how thin it was, his hold was air tight. Lights danced in front of my eyes, and I knew I was dying. I would never get to see my parents. Never get to go to the mall with my sister. The though terrified me.

The demon dug it’s nails into my skin, and I felt hot liquid run down my face. I cried out, hearing the muffled sound echo in my empty room. He stayed like that, letting me take little breaths here and there.

Tears were streaming down my face, and I was starting to feel dizzy from the blood loss. The room spun, and I swear the demon was smiling a little. It was creepy. The whole monster was creepy.

The room spun, and I took one final breath before my monster closed its hand around my mouth completly. I blacked out. Good. At least I could die peacefully.

I was so wrong. Just as the demon removed his hand, he slit my throat. Blood rushed to my neck, choking me. I died knowing I would never see my family again.

I told them. I told my parents, Amelia, my friends. No one helped. In the end, it didn’t help. It never does. And now they would pay for that.

The twinkling light in her eyes went out, and Olivia would never be known to the world again.

[This is highly unedited. 😂😭. 🩵]

I told her. I told her but she didn’t listen. “But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” Was I not clear enough? I thought I was being pretty clear. Maybe she forgot about the dreams. I told her about them, but maybe she forgot. Or maybe she didn’t take them seriously. I’ve heard adults don’t tend to put much stock in things like that. But I know that it’s more than just my imagination. The noises coming from the closet now are proof enough. I know he’s real, and I know he’s coming for me. He’s been clawing his way into the waking world slowly for the last several days, and now he’s ready to come for me. Maybe if I had been braver I could have gone in there and gotten some kind of proof. Maybe then I could have gotten my parents to do something about it. I don’t know what, but surely they could have done something right? But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to search around in there, even after they opened the door to show me there was nothing in there. I was too scared. Now it’s too late. I can hear the fumbling around on the other side of the closet door. The man with no eyes can’t see, he can only feel. But he can feel me. I’m alive, and I have eyes. He can feel both of those things, and he is coming for me. I think he wants my eyes. Or maybe he just hates that I have them and he doesn’t. I’m not really sure. The dreams were never clear enough about that. He is coming for me though, I know that much. He’s found the doorknob now. I can hear it turning. I want to scream, but I can’t. I want to get up and run, but my body won’t move. I can’t do anything but watch as the door to the closet slowly opens, and I see him on the other side, the gaping holes where his eyes should be almost seeming to glare at me. He’s tall. Probably was an adult before whatever turned him into this. But I don’t think he’s human anymore. That is if he ever was. As he makes his way toward me everything about him seems wrong. The way his body is so thin and long. The way he almost seems to slide towards me rather than walk. The way the holes where his eyes should be almost seem to glow with some dark reddish light. This thing isn’t normal. It isn’t natural. It can’t be. Again I want to run, to scream, to do something, but I can’t. I’m rooted in place, able to do nothing as that thing comes for me. It’s reached my bed now. The long thin arm is reaching towards me, almost moving more like a snake than an arm. I don’t know what he plans to do to me. I don’t want to know. But it’s too late now. I can tell that much. I still can’t get my body to do anything. For a moment I wonder what will happen when I’m gone. How will my parents react? I have no answer for that. I don’t even know what they will find. The thin serpentine arm grabs my leg, and suddenly the man with no eyes is being pulled back into the closet, and I’m being pulled in with him. It is so fast, much faster than his approach, and in those brief moments my mouth finally begins to let out a cry, but it’s too late. Barely any sound has escaped my lips before I’ve been sucked into the darkness that now fills the space where my closet should have been. It’s all a void now. It’s just me and him. The man with no eyes has me. I’m within his domain now. Another serpentine arm is reaching out towards me. Reaching towards my eyes. He wants my eyes after all. Both arms are at my eyes now. Once again I’m unable to move. I’m not sure if it’s because of fear, or because I wouldn’t know how to move here. We’re just floating in a void. I don’t know how he can move here. Clearly he can though. The thin long fingers pushing onto the edges of my eyes are proof enough of that. They dig into my head. It hurts, more so than anything I’ve ever experienced. Not that that should surprise me. But something is wrong. I think it is anyway. I’ve never had my eyes ripped out before, but I don’t think it should feel like this. It feels like something is being pulled from every part of my body towards my eyes. And it feels as if I’m becoming thinner. Thinner and longer. Then it hits me. He isn’t after my eyes. He is after freedom. He was once human, but that was before the man with no eyes before him turned him into what he is now. The condition he is in now is a curse of some sort, and he can only be rid of it by passing it on to me. I can feel as my eyes are finally pulled out of my head, and so much more with them. Even without my eyes I can feel as he puts my eyes into his head, and the humanity he took with them passes into his body, before it fades away. He has been reduced to nothingness, just like he had wanted. Now the eyeless curse is mine, and I float in this void, a child sized version of the monster that took me from my room.

"Go back to sleep, honey. It's just a dream."

Lee did not respond, he only stood distantly in the dark bedroom. My head thumped from my recent lack of sleep; my vision seemingly blurry in the dark. He had an angelic glow to him from the living room lamp behind him, so I could only make out his plump little outline. I scratched my head in confusion.

"Pray to God, he will help you fall asleep. And if there are any monsters, He'll protect you."

I crawled out of bed to kneel in front of him, laying a reassuring hand on his small shoulder.

"So, God will protect us from dad again?"

“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!” The little boy wails in his Spiderman sheets, thrashing about wildly.

“Honey,” his mother says, rubbing her tired eyes, “nothing is in the closet. I’ve checked billions of times.”

“You stay! You will see him too!” “Come here,” his mother pulls him into a hug, wrapping her arms around the tiny boy. “I’ve given you water. I’ve given you four bedtime stories. I’ve given you seven kisses and nine hugs. What more is there?”

“Stay, momma. Stay and you’ll see,” the boy whispers, pointing shakily to the closet’s closed doors.

“What does this man with no eyes do?” “He comes out, he crawls on ceiling. Then he reaches to me,” the boy stammers.

“He reaches out to you? Right. Does he say anything? Like, ‘hey, Christopher, I want to be your friend.’”

“No, no, momma. He just quiet, reew-reew quiet. Then he move his head… backward. It says ‘cl-lick’ like… snapped,” the boy tries to snap his tiny fingers as the momma dozes against the headboard.

The closet doors slide open, the man with no eyes steps out. The boy watches, his eyes wide, mouth agape.

“Momma,” he squeaks. “He’s here.”

The man clicks across the floor and begins his climb up the red wall and onto the creamy ceiling. The boy’s short brown bangs fall back as he gazes upwards at the monster.

“You… you wanna be my friend?” The boy asks innocently.

The monster’s head twists, a bone protruding through its neck as it reaches out to the boy.

“I be ‘ur friend if you be nice. You be nice? You a nice friend?” The boy reaches up towards the monster’s hands. “Momma said you want a friend. Do you?”

The critter drops down on the boy and the mother, taking their eyes and ripping out their throats so they can’t scream.

The boy’s mother never gets to see the monster, for her eyes are now on his fingers. And the boy, well he never gets the friend he wanted.

It was Halloween again, my least favourite time of year. It brought back too many childhood memories. I closed my curtains catching a glimpse of the sea of costumed children walking past in the yellow pools of the street lights.

I climbed back onto the sofa and cuddled deeper into my blanket eating some popcorn and watching a comedy show, I could not abide horror. The TV flickered drawing me out of my daydream into the past and back to the fake studio laughs. This was the same show I watched every Halloween and before it had managed to keep my mind distracted, but this year it seemed different. The acts of the characters I adored somehow seemed boring and the laughter issuing after seemed distorted and fake. The scene of the well known characters getting into a dispute as one accidentally hit the other with a ladder so the hurt guy pulls out a machine gun and kills him. Wait that wasn’t right, I must have imagined it as looking again the character was still alive and the friends made up like they always do. I got distracted again by my hand connecting with the bottom of the now empty popcorn tub. I had more in the kitchen so I paused my program and left the room.

Sounds of studio laughter wafted back to me as I stood next to the microwave watching the popcorn inch round, the bag slowly expanding as each kernel burst. Hang on a minute I turned it off, my mind snapped back to listening but the only sound now was the whirring of the microwave. I must just be imagining things as I’m nervous. I jumped as the microwaved tinged and carefully retrieved my popcorn, emptying it into the empty tub. Something felt off as I tried to force myself to return to the living room, the corridor seemed too dark, it seemed to stretch on forever. I shook the thoughts out of my head and ran back to my sofa wrapping myself deep into a sea of blankets.

I switched the TV back on and it seemed to drag my mind into its depths, deep into the black screen. Instead of the lovable sitcom characters there stood me, but myself as a child. Standing in front of my dad who was yelling at me to just go to bed. ‘No’ I whispered ‘not this night.’ It was my last Halloween with my parents. ‘Please Daddy.’ I watched myself plead ‘I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the wardrobe!’ I watched my dad storm up the stairs knowing I would never see him again. My past self just huddled in a corner waiting for him to return in my naive child mind.