“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 suddenly from one day to the next things took a drastic turn.

Taking a deep breath in so I don’t lose my patience I look at my son, “sweetheart, we go through this every night. There is no one in your bedroom. It is your safe space, you _know _this”.

“No mommy! Please! I see the man with no eyes every single night! I’m scared! Please don’t make me sleep in my room!

“Sam, _please_. It’s late. It’s way past your bedtime. We need to stop doing this every night.” Gently grabbing his face and dropping down to his eye level, I say “why don’t we do this, let’s go into your room together and I’ll lay in bed with you. I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep. Does that sound okay?”

“Okay Mommy.” He sniffled. “I guess…”

“Perfect!” I kiss his cheek, scoop him up into my arms, and we head towards his room.

After about twenty minutes Sam’s breathing is starting to slow and I know he has entered deep sleep. I start to slowly roll myself out of his bed when suddenly I see the closet door creak open just slightly. _I have to be seeing things_ I say to myself as I rub my eyes. I sit there on the edge of the bed, frozen. If the door did indeed open it would happen again, right? So I wait a few more minutes before I get up to walk out.

_No, you know what? I’m being ridiculous._ I get up and walk straight toward the closet. But, the movement must’ve been too much because I hear Sam rustle awake.

“Mom, what is it?” He says groggily.

“Nothing, Sammy, go back to sleep.”

I grab the doorknob and start to pull the closet door open when I felt resistance. _What in the world? _I try again to pull the door open and it won’t budge.

“Mommy! Don’t open the closet! It’s the man with no eyes! he yells out.

“Sam, stop it. There is no such thing. It’s probably just stuck” I say as I resign from continuing to try and open the door. I turn to look at Sam and sigh. “Look, I’ll just tell daddy to look at it tomorrow. It’ll be fine.”

Suddenly, Sam screams and my world goes black.