I remember when I was a little kid I had many fears. I was scared of the dark, of monsters and the boogeyman, but worst of all was Mr. Tickles. The thought of going to sleep to this day can still be a bit troubling.

It was a night many years ago. I couldn't have been more than 8 years old at the time. The sky was gray, clouds blocked out the sun, and a light drizzle was raining down. I just returned home from school. My mom was at work, leaving me alone in our small two-two bedroom house.

There weren't any neighbors nearby, which only made me feel more isolated. I often complained to my mom that I would get goosebumps when she wasn't there... Like a strange feeling that someone was watching me.

She had laughed and said, "Oh, that's just Mr. Tickles,"

My heart dropped at the personification of my fear. Now I know she was just teasing, but back then, it was just her confirming my suspicions. Someone was watching me.

So on that day, all alone, I got into my head thinking about Mr. Tickles. What he might look like. Where he was watching me from. I was constantly peering out the window, looking into the haze to try and spot him in a bush outside, or hiding behind a tree.

Unable to shake the feeling, I tried to relax by taking a hot shower. After I was done I wiped away the fog in the mirror and looked at myself. I felt the shivers go up my spine once again.

Then I heard a voice.

"Andrew?" It croaked. The voice was faint, maybe coming from outside, but still loud enough for me to realize how unfamiliar it sounded.

I threw on my pants and opened the bathroom door just a crack. I peeked out and felt panic fill me up inside. I caught creaking of the doorknob as it turned slowly. Someone, something was coming inside.

I ran out of the bathroom in a frenzy, running to my room to grab my bat, or any defensive weapon I could reach in time. But I was too late, the door flew open. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Andrew, what are you doing?" My mother, arms full of groceries huffed angrily.

All I could do was stare at her for a moment. Thank goodness, I thought I was dead for sure.

"I-" I stammered.

"Jeez, just help me with these," She said, placing a paper bag on the counter, "There's some more in the car. But put a shirt on, it's storming out."

I sighed and went back to the bathroom to throw on my shirt from before. Then I went out the front door to the car parked in the driveway. It was raining down hard now, thunder crackled in the distance. I grabbed out the last two bags from the car. As I had begun to head back inside a boom of lightening sounded nearby.

I whipped around to try and catching the flash of light, but saw something else instead.

My body went ridged, like ice had suddenly flooded my veins. A little ways down the street, right on the sidewalk was a man. Or something like a man. It was dressed in black with a big umbrella. From where I stood it's skin looked almost green or grey, with a bald, shrunken head and pearly white eyes. A walking corpse.

It raised one of it's boney gray hands and waived. In that same raspy voice I had heard before it said, "See you soon, Andrew."