"Thank you for coming over on such short notice Jessica. I didn't expect to be called into work tonight.", I say apologetically. Jessica is our babysitter. She's the best in the neighborhood, my son adores her. She is 18 years old, and about to graduate high school. With her light brown hair and dark brown eyes, she says with a smile, "Oh, Mrs. Sheffield, no worries. I am always up to look after Cody. He's an angel."

I smile and say, "Well thank you, I appreciate it. Now, I probably won't be gone too long, but if you need anything, as always, do not hesitate to call me. Cody is sleeping, so this shouldn't be too hard", I laugh, "But help yourself to anything in the fridge and my number is on the table." I close the front door, locking it behind me, making sure to tug on it to check if it's locked.

After an hour at work, my phone started to buzz. "JESSICA", the screen read. My heartbeat grew faster and faster as I stared at the screen.

"Hello? Hello? What's wrong Jessica? Is everything okay?", I say half panicked. I don't hear anything on the other end of the line.

"Jessica? What's wrong honey, you okay?", I say a little more panicked. I listen closer and start to hear muffled breathing. And then the phone hung up.

I call her again, and again, but still no answer. I take a deep breath.

"Maybe she butt-dialed me...or something.", I said to myself, trying to be reassuring. Instead of calling again, I leave her a text saying that she needs to answer me as soon as she can.

Another hour passes at work and my phone buzzes again, this time from a text. When I see the name of the person who texted me, I unlock my phone and open the text as fast as I can.

"Hi Mrs. Sheffield, I am sorry that I didn't answer, I fell asleep on the couch. I checked on Cody and he is still sleeping soundly. I see that I had a couple of missed calls from you, is there something that you needed?", Jessica texts.

"Hello Jessica, I didn't need anything. I had gotten a call from you earlier but you must have called me by accident. Thank you for checking in on Cody, I should be home within the next hour or so.", I text back. My nerves ease and I can pay more attention to my work.

A man presented at the ER with chest pains and difficulty breathing, so he was sent to us for an X-ray. I go into the exam room to position the man correctly and make sure he is comfortable before I take the X-ray of his chest.

"Hello Mr. Fredricks, how are we feeling?", I asked cheerfully. He seemed to be asleep already, so I checked his pulse to make sure. "lub...dub...lub...dub...", I felt with my fingers. Well, I thought to myself, it's weak but it's there.

"Okay, Mr. Fredricks I am going to have to take your sunglasses off for the X-ray. I'm sorry I just have to follow protocol.", I advise him, not knowing if he could even hear me. After slipping his glasses off, I quietly drop my jaw and widen my eyes.

Two deep caves reside where this man's eyes used to be. Scars line the outside of the sunken tissue of his orbits. There were more fresh wounds deeper within the depressions.

Suddenly, a cold and clammy hand latches to my wrist with a tight grip. I gasp.

"Oh! Mr. Fredricks, you scared me. Are you okay, how are you feeling?", I say, startled.

The sides of Mr. Fredricks's mouth slowly creep upward revealing a mangled smile of rotted teeth. I look down at his hand which refuses to let go of my wrist and notice how sharp his fingernails are. How the veins on his hand bulge away from his wrinkled, dry skin. The incredibly cold touch of his skin against mine, as though it were a corpse's lifeless hand.

Still smiling he says in a raspy voice, "You shouldn't touch things that don't belong to you...", he laughs. Watching his jagged teeth as he speaks, "You're bound to make someone very angry that way...You don't wanna make me angry, do you?", he asks as he laughs a little louder.

Ignoring what he said, I went back to the reading room and started the machine. After I sit down, the door leading to the X-ray machine slowly creaks ajar; and for a second I see a pale, veiny hand with sharp fingernails wrapped around the frame of the door. My heart jumps, but after blinking the hand vanishes. I think to myself, "C'mon Beth don't start losing your mind now."

My head snaps to Mr. Fredricks who is sitting up outside of the machine. I watch as he looks in my direction, still smiling. He raises both of his thumbs. His fingernails are so long on his thumbs that I can see them from here. They're like knives.

Suddenly he plunges his razor-sharp thumbs into his eye sockets, immediately drawing blood. Before I could even get to the door, he stabs his nails deeper. When removing his fingers from his eyes, blood sprays from his face and all over the room like a Jackson Pollock painting. As I get to him, he flings his arms around, trying to stop me from helping him. Covered in blood, I try to hold Mr. Fredrick's arms down to stop him from scratching or stabbing his eyes.

Help finally arrived and wheeled him out of the room on a gurney. Before exiting he yells, "This is what happens when you touch someone's things, Beth!"

"How does he know my name?", I thought aloud. Looking down to where my name tag usually is. I forgot it in my dresser at home.

About 45 minutes pass until I'm finally able to leave work. After cleaning all of the blood off of myself and changing, I get into my car and buckle my seat belt when I get another call. "JESSICA", the screen read. I quickly answered.

"Jessica, hi, what's wrong, is everything okay?", I say, a little irritated. But, again, nothing on the other end.

"Hello? Jessica, I am on my way home... can you hear me?", I say. And just as the last time, although faint, I hear someone breathing on the other line. They hang up again.

I get home and run to unlock the door. When I get inside Cody is sitting on the couch with tears in his eyes and Jessica is trying to calm him down. As soon as he realizes I'm home, he sprints over to me and hugs my legs tight. Cody is very sensitive for only being 5 years old. He's always making sure everyone is okay and he gets upset very easily.

"What's wrong buddy? What's-a-matter?", I say in a relieved tone.

"He woke up right before you got in the driveway, I'm not sure what is wrong, he won't tell me.", Jessica says, worried.

"Oh, it's okay Jess. He gets nightmares sometimes. I can take care of this. Here...", I hand her a 50 dollar bill, "you can head home now, it's getting late.", I say as I glance at the clock. 2:55 a.m.

Jessica leaves and I take Cody's hands and say, "you okay little man?"

"I'm scared, can I watch TV mommy?", he says looking around.

"No baby, we gotta get you back to bed. You have school in the morning and mommy just got off of work. I'm sleepy.", I say to him.

He follows me to my room and watches me get ready for bed. I'm assuming that he wants to sleep in my room tonight. It happens a lot. After crawling into bed together he switches the TV on.

"Honey, I said no TV tonight. You need to get some sleep.", I warned him.

"But, I don't want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!", he says in a panicked state.

My heart drops and I manage to ask, "w....what are you talking about Cody?"

The closet door slowly starts to creak open. A pale, veiny hand with sharp fingernails covered in blood wraps around the side of the door.