It was under the bed.

Parents always tell their children there’s nothing scary down there, or lurking in the deep depths of a closet, or hiding low in dark shadows. That’s what parents always say, and they’re right.

Most of the time.

Alec Swenor had something under his bed that night, and it wasn’t dust bunnies.

“Again?” his mother, Lillian, asked with frustration. “I’ve checked under there every night for a week, and I always find the same nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” Alec complained. “It’s not my fault I keep hearing things.”

Alec’s bedroom was a typical nine-year-old’s room. The walls were covered with Avengers posters, a small desk had a computer that was mostly used to play Minecraft, and a long shelf held a vast collection of his favorite books.

He watched nervously from a safe distance as his mother knelt down next to the bed to examine the dark below. Mrs. Swenor got down low so that her face was barely inches from the floor. She lifted the Jedi bedspread, peered underneath, and…

“Ahhh!”

Alec jumped back with surprise. “I told you!”

“I don’t believe it!” his mother exclaimed as she reached under the bed and pulled out a plate of day-old scrambled eggs.

She held out the congealed mess as if it were diseased. “You told me you finished your breakfast,” she said, annoyed.

Alec let out a relieved breath. “I ran out of time. It was either eat breakfast or tie my shoes.”

“Or you could have gotten out of bed ten minutes earlier.”

“I’m sorry. I was tired. I haven’t been sleeping so hot.”

Mrs. Swenor softened. “I know, sweetheart. But please believe me, there’s no boogeyman down there.”

She kissed Alec on top of his head and walked toward the bedroom door. “I love you, even if you are a nutjob.”

She left with the plate of stinky eggs, passing her husband, Michael, who was watching the scene from the door, looking more worried about the situation than his wife was.

“You okay, bud?” he asked his son with genuine concern.

“Yeah,” Alec replied, embarrassed.

“Want to sleep with us tonight?”

“Nah, I’m being dumb.”

“No, you’re not. You know you can always shout, and we’ll come running. No matter what. Okay?”

“Okay, Dad.”

“Good night. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Michael Swenor gave a last, concerned look to his son, then left, gently closing the door behind him.

Alec gazed across the room to his bed. It was as normal as any bed on the face of the planet. He had absolutely no problem with it.

Until a few days ago.

It began with subtle scratching, as if rats were scurrying below. The Swenors’ apartment was on the top floor of an old four-story brownstone in New York City. It wouldn’t be weird for rats to be scampering under the floorboards.

Then came the knocking.

Rats didn’t knock.

Alec would run out of the room and drag his parents back in to listen, but each time, the sounds had stopped before his mom and dad arrived. During the day, Alec felt silly for being so scared. But at night, when all was quiet, things were different.

Alec sprinted across the floor and flung himself the last few feet into the bed in case blood-soaked claws were waiting to reach out and grab his ankles. He dug under the covers, lifted them up to his chin, and listened.

Nothing.

All he heard was the far-off wail of a police siren and the white noise of the city beyond his closed window. He believed his mom. There was no boogeyman under his bed. It was silly to act like a jumpy two-year-old instead of a mature nine-year-old. He scrunched his eyes shut, and after a long twenty minutes, he fell asleep without having heard any more weird sounds.

All was well.

Until just after midnight.

There’s no logical reason why strange doings begin when the day changes, but that’s often how it goes.

The scratching returned.

Alec’s eyes snapped open as though he had heard the crash of a cymbal. He lay very still. Whatever was under his bed was back. His panic grew and his mouth went dry. He wanted to yell for his parents, but his throat was closed so tight, he couldn’t utter a peep.

Then came the knocking. Whatever was down there was alive. Or at least alive enough to be making sounds. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to know what it was. Slowly, moving his body as if it weighed a ton, he peered over the edge of the bed, toward the floor.

His Jedi blanket was half off the bed and bunched below. Moonlight streamed in through the window, providing enough light for Alec to make out the image of Chewbacca with his head thrown back midroar. All was normal.

Until the blanket moved.

Oddly, it didn’t scare him. Instead, it confirmed that something was really there. Something normal. Something real. Nothing spooky. It was probably a rat. Alec hated rats, but they didn’t scare him. Enough! He reached down and yanked the blanket back.

What he saw was something far stranger than a common rat.

Words were scratched into the floorboards. Words that hadn’t been there before. They looked to have been crudely scraped by a knife.

Or a claw.

Alec had to lean down close to read them.

“ ‘Surrender the key,’ ” he read aloud.

He reached for the floor, wanting to touch the etched letters to figure out if they were real or a trick of light. His hand slowly dropped lower, growing closer to the mysterious message. As his fingertips were about to touch the odd markings, an ominous growl came from under the bed.

Rats didn’t growl.

Alec pulled his hand back quickly and cowered against the wall as…

…the Jedi blanket came to life. It flew across the floor to the center of the room, stopped suddenly, and fell to the floor, revealing the culprit.

It was a dog. A pit bull. Its head was nearly as large as its muscular body, with jaws that split its skull, like a leering jack-o’-lantern…with teeth. Fangs, actually. The beast turned to face Alec and tensed, staring him straight in the eye.

This was not a friendly dog.

“Dad!” Alec called out weakly, fearing his words might trigger the beast.

The animal stood between him and the door, its body as tense and tight as a banjo string, staring at Alec.

Alec glanced toward the window above his bed. It was his only option. He lunged for it, threw it open, and rolled out onto the metal landing of the fire escape.

Behind him, the dog sprang.

“Dad!” Alec finally shouted out.

He slammed the window shut as the powerful animal launched. It drilled the glass with its head, creating a spiderweb of cracks. The window didn’t shatter, but that didn’t stop the beast. It hammered away at the glass, butting with its head again and again, determined to break through.

Alec had to move. His family’s apartment was on the top floor. Climbing up to the roof would be fast and easy. He grabbed the metal rungs of the ladder and made the short climb. He was only a few feet from the top when the window below him shattered and the dog blasted through in an explosion of broken glass.

Alec froze and looked down to see the animal staring up at him with angry red eyes.

“Leave me alone!” he screamed at the beast.

He threw himself over the low safety wall, onto the black, tar-papered surface, and ran for his life. It was the dead of night. The only light came from the city and the moon and stars above. He dashed to the far side of the roof, hoping there would be another fire escape. When he reached the edge of the building, he looked over to see…no fire escape. He spun around, frantically looking for a doorway that might lead back down to the fourth floor. What he saw instead was the pit bull standing on the far edge of the roof, staring back at him.

How did it climb the ladder? Alec thought.

He didn’t have time to come up with an answer, because as soon as the dog locked eyes with Alec, it leapt off the safety wall and ran directly toward him.

Alec spun around, desperate to find an escape route. This time he saw something he hadn’t noticed before. A metal ladder was attached to the outside of the building. How could he have missed that? Didn’t matter. It was his only hope.

The vicious dog was halfway to Alec and charging hard. Thick slobber flew from its mouth as it bared its sharp fangs. Alec had to move. He ran the few feet to the top of the metal ladder, threw his legs over the edge, and began to climb down as…

…the ladder disappeared. Vanished. Poof. Gone.

Alec had already committed to going over, and he fell. Desperately, he grabbed for the roof and managed to catch the edge. He hung there by the fingertips of both hands, his bare feet dangling four stories above the hard pavement. So many thoughts flashed through his head: How could I have been so stupid? Why did I think there was a ladder? Will the dog bite my fingers?

The dog.

Alec heard the scraping of its claws as it arrived at the edge of the roof. He looked up, expecting to see the dog looming over him, dripping slobber.

Instead, peering down at him was an old woman.

“Help me!” Alec called to her.

She had waist-length gray hair and wore a long forest-green dress. Over it was a black shawl that she clutched to her chest with a bone-white hand. The tendrils of hair blew about her head like a pack of wild dancing spirits. Though her face was pale and wrinkled like that of someone a hundred years old, her eyes were focused and alive with fiery madness.

Alec’s brief moment of relief was shattered when he looked into those horrible eyes.

“Dad!” he screamed in desperation.

He didn’t have the strength to hang on much longer.

“Save me!” he cried to the woman. “Please!”

The woman leaned down over the edge to stare him straight in the eye.

“Oh no,” she replied in a low, dark voice that sounded like the hollow echo from an empty grave. “That wouldn’t help me at all. Now, if you don’t mind…please fall.”

“Dad!” Alec screamed again…

…and lost his grip.

His fingers slipped off the edge, and he began to fall as…

…a hand shot down and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from a death plummet. He was quickly hauled up and over the edge as if he weighed no more than one of his Transformers toys. A second later he was deposited safely on the roof.

“Dad!” Alec cried, and threw his arms around his father.

“You’re okay,” Michael Swenor said soothingly as he hugged his son to his chest. “I promise.”

“Where is she?” Alec asked, looking about with fear. “Where did she go?”

“Who?”

“The old lady. She wanted me to fall. And there was a dog under my bed. And a ladder, but it disappeared. I swear! I’m not lying!”

“I know you’re not lying,” Mr. Swenor said, his voice cracking with emotion as he fought back his own tears. “Let’s get back to your mother, and we’ll talk about it.”

Alec reluctantly released his bear hold on his father.

“Do you know what happened, Dad?” he asked.

Michael Swenor took a deep breath before replying, as if the answer pained him.

“I do, and it’s a long story,” he finally said. “It’s time you heard it. All of it. Your mom too.”

“So you believe me?” Alec asked, finally getting control of himself.

“I do.”

Michael Swenor stood up and reached his hand down to take his son’s. “Let’s go see Mommy.”

They never connected.

The pit bull was back.

It came charging across the roof like a runaway freight train.

“Look out!” Alec screamed.

Michael Swenor barely had time to look up before the dog leapt at him. He instinctively backed away, but he was too close to the edge of the roof. He stumbled, hit the low safety wall, and tumbled over.

“No!” Alec screamed.

In the bedroom below, Lillian Swenor heard the scream. Her entire body tensed as if she had been hit with an electric prod. She was momentarily frozen, unsure of what she should do.

In her heart she knew there was nothing.

She looked around at Alec’s room as if she might find an answer there. The window was open. It wasn’t shattered; it was just open. Michael had opened it when they came running in after hearing Alec’s frightened cries. There was no broken glass, no hint of the terror that had visited Alec and chased him onto the roof.

There was only one clue to the mystery that remained.

Mrs. Swenor looked down at the floor through tear-filled eyes, as if in a dream. She ran her fingers across the words that had been carved into the wood.

Surrender the key.

The words were still there.

“Oh, Michael,” she whispered to no one. “What have you done?”