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Stephen King has written in so many times about that thing that lives inside the closet or under the bed. One of King’s many interesting stories is, precisely, the Boogeyman, taken from his first stories compilation “Night Shift”. In this story, a father lying on a divan tells Dr. Harper how his kids cried endlessly before disappearing because of the Boogeyman. At the end of the story, Dr. Harper isn’t who he says he is. This story marked my when I was thirteen years old. Since the beginning of times, our parents have wanted to scare us one way or the other with the existence of the Boogeyman, especially when we miss-behaved. And you just simply bought it. Just in case, I still hide my feet under the sheets because, if I let them out, something cold might grab me. Stephen King also has said this several times. He still believes in the Boogeyman, and I do too.
Danny is terrified. The Boogeyman is no longer inside his closet or under the bed. It isn’t in the dark when you turn off the lights either. The Boogeyman is sleeping next to him under the sheet every night. It doesn’t have eyes and one can see two deep, dark holes. Its smile is a set of teeth that seem to be sharp. Its skin is thin and wrinkled. It has long white hair that fells on top of its skull. It is tall and skinny. It smells like mold and all of its nails are extremely long and curved. The Boogeyman sleeps with Danny and no one seems to buy that story. Until one night, Danny sleeps in one of his brother’s bed who dies under the sheet with the body all scratched out and torn apart. This happens to all of his brothers until he goes back to his own bed.
1
And Danny saw him under the sheets. He went mute and his eyes dilated up to show two white balls in the dark. The Boogeyman was at his feet. It had long, white hair as snow, but it looked dirty. Its skin was thin and wrinkled. Its body was flaccid and tilting. It was pretty skinny. And its smile was the most derogative smile in the world, showing a set of sharp teeth and a black tongue. A very thin black tongue. But what really caught your attention were its eyes. It didn’t have eyes and its eye sockets were deep and terrified. Its long, thin fingers were like sharp spatulas. And Danny simply clenched a fist in a corner of the sheet and pulled it to one side of the bed. And then, the Boogeyman disappeared.
His three brothers were still sleeping deeply on their bunks, placed on the other side of the room, while Danny lay down on one side of his bed and tried really hard not to close his eyes for the rest of the night. But very late at night, he couldn’t stand it anymore, and surrender to sleep.
2
Breakfast was ready. Wendy, his mother, was very busy with some eggs, moving the frying pan energetically. Charlie, his eight year old brother was playing with his cereal, showing them his big tongue and eyes. Meanwhile, his seven year old brother Tim and six year old Robert were cracking from laughter. They were all boys and they were four. Wendy only brought boys to the world and Peter was proud of that, but Wendy wanted a girl. A little Sarah or Samantha. But she hadn’t come. Maybe later on, suggested Peter one day while he made love to her, without protection. “Maybe one day I’ll give you a girl”.
Danny had well marked dark spots under his eyes and he docked his head so his mom and dad wouldn’t look at him in that state. In other times, he had to put up with a thunderstorm of questions that Danny (nine years old) didn’t know how to answer, or better yet, didn’t know how to avoid. Sometimes, he told the truth and his father would laugh out loud. His mother, on the other hand, crossed her arms and presented herself a little worried. And he didn’t want to experience that again, not his morning, but things don’t always go as you want and his dad said hello to his three sons: Charlie, Tim and Robert. And he stopped with Danny, who continued to hide his face.
‘Danny? Would you put your chin up? It’s a great day.’
‘I don’t want to,’ said Danny defying his father. And he remembered how easy was to make him angry to the point he would break your arm. Danny remembered the crack on his bone when that happened. Wendy was going to ask for the divorce when that happened. And he threw down to cry, asking himself how he could do that. Danny got out of the hospital with a cast on his arm and no one said who or how it happened. Only when the cast was removed and his white arm was in its place, his mother started talking with his father. But that episode remained in everyone’s memory. Robert wasn’t even born when that happened.
‘Danny?’
‘The same thing as always,’ he said finally Danny and he lifted his face from his plate. His mother was about to scream but remembered that had happened several times before and with tiredness, she said:
‘But you are so pale! And those eyes...’
‘It was it, dad,’ said Danny cutting his mom.
‘Well. Don’t start again, Danny. That doesn’t exist.’
‘I saw it. It is sleeping every night on my bed, next to me and sometimes next to my feet...’
‘Just what I needed to hear this morning,’ complained Peter and Wendy made a gesture with her eyes. Not now. The three brothers stopped laughing and started to pay attention to the conversation. They were fascinated because it wasn’t the first time Danny said that. And he did it again.
‘It is it, the monster in the sheets without eyes, the Boogeyman...’
And everything stopped there, on that spring day.
But the situation would be late to repeat itself, or maybe get worse.
3
That same night, it was waiting for Danny on his bed. Danny asked his father for a lamp for his night stand, to keep it on all night. Peter, remembering about his past with Danny, agreed kindly to put the lamp. Lately, he was changed, especially after he stopped drinking some beer after dinner.
He turned the lamp on and kissed Danny goodnight before leaving the room. “Father hasn’t seen the Boogeyman”, thought Danny. And he also thought the Boogeyman was next to him, under the sheets, showing its empty eye sockets.
His brothers were sleeping on their respective bunks and the moonlight came through the window, making strange shapes on the ceiling and on the walls. Like messy ropes. It was much better than looking next to him and see those empty eye sockets.
During the night, the Boogeyman was clutching the sheets without looking away from Danny. But it didn’t do anything to Danny and he turned around not to look at it.
This time, the Boogeyman looked for the first time at one of Danny’s brothers.
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4
He was purple with his eyes wide open and a series of blue spots were visible around his neck and mouth, which was open with half his tongue out, dry and immobile. Sheriff Bannerman was talking to his assistant through the radio, scolding him for not showing up. The medical examiner was there too, curved over Robert’s body. His blonde hair had lost all of its shine. He was dead. And finally, the examiner determined he had died of a heart attack.
‘What about the spot on his neck?’ asked Bannerman.
‘It is possible that he was asphyxiating at the moment of the heart attack and he grabbed his own neck in an attempt of breathe.
Sheriff Bannerman looked at the three boys.
‘You didn’t hear anything?’
‘No, sir,’ said Tim.
Danny remained quiet the whole time and mom and dad looked at each other and answered Sheriff Bannerman’s questions.
But Danny knew. He knew it was The Boogeyman.
But he didn’t say anything.
5
That same night, the Boogeyman, that being without eyes, was under the sheets in Danny’s bed, next to him. And it was watching him, while it showed Danny a set of sharp teeth. His two brothers were sleeping together in the same bunk and the mattress was sinking by the middle. Wendy was crying in her room. The sobbing was heard by Danny very easily. Peter tried to hug her but she pushed him away. The night was long and the still had to bury Robert.
Danny turned his back to the monster because he didn’t want to see it. He was there, by his side. It was always there and his explanations were no good, because no one took him seriously.
And the night ended for everyone and the day started very early. Danny hadn’t slept. It spent all night lying next to Danny. Its body was cold.
6
It was impossible to be colder than Robert’s body, but Danny remembered how cold the Boogeyman was and now, he was in front of his brother’s grave, crying and clutching a fist full of dirt. His fingers had turned white from the pressure and he felt his nails digging in his skin.
The ceremony lasted only half an hour and Wendy made the drama of her life. She had thrown herself on Roberts’s grave, with her legs on both sides of the coffin. She had hurt her hands on the fall. She was covered in dirt and her stockings were ripped in several places. A string of blood ran from one of her broken finger nails. Peter extended an arm to help her out of the hole. Their relatives drowned an “ohh” and when Wendy popped her head out of the pit, they all breathed so deeply that it sounded like the noise of a broken air valve.
But that wouldn’t be the only time something strange happened.
And Danny knew it.
7
And spring ended and soon the end of the school year would be on top of Danny. Summer was around the corner, with its heat and sweat. The blue, clear skies as the sea reflected it. In Boad Hill had several lakes to go for a swim and a big lake, which even had little fishing boats going from one side to the other. Mother was a little more peaceful because it had passed three months since Robert’s death. Finally, the autopsy revealed that he died of asphyxiation from a heart attack. But Danny knew that both things weren’t mere coincidence. Danny knew too much and every night he saw him next to him and even touched him. But his mother and father didn’t want to listen to Danny’s nonsense. The Boogeyman (“ahh hahaha”) and his father would crack a laugh. “That doesn’t exit”, he kept telling him at the same time his father hit him near his throat, hurting him. Just like when he broke his arm. Danny knew it. Anyway, things didn’t take long to get worst again. And Danny knew it.
8
The Boogeyman looked at him with his dark, eye sockets, deep as the dark infinite of a well and then, it looked at the two brothers who continued sleeping in the same bunk, squeezed like sardines inside a can. Danny’s heart started to race inside his chest and he felt an extreme heat in his stomach that went up to his neck. He knew what it was about to do. The skinny and hunched Boogeyman removed the only sheet Danny had on his bed and put both its feet on the floor. Its long and grey feet that ended in big sharp nails of a horrible color. It stood up and walked towards them. Danny, with his eyes wide open, and his eternal and unbearable terror night after night, covered his mouth with the sheet to prevent him from screaming. ¿Why bother? Father would enter the room so angry, he would show him the Boogeyman and his father wouldn’t see anything but the furniture and the wall. And then, he would earn a good beating.
But Danny knew that one of his brothers would die that night.
He squeezed the sheets harder and closed his eyes.
He didn’t feel anything, except for a strong odor of mold. For the first time.
A moment later, everything was done and finally, he screamed as hard as he could. And his mother and father came into the room a minute later, turning the lights on. Danny was terrified sitting near the headboard of his bed, screaming and crying and then, he pointed his brother’s bed.
9
It turned out that his father found his son Tim with a puffy face and purple. And his eyes were whiter than ever. His mouth formed a large O, and his tongue was purple. Father tried to resuscitate him before Wendy and Danny’s screams. Charlie was hidden under the sheet in the corner of the bed, crying.
And Danny mentioned the Boogeyman but father wasn’t in the mood for jokes and fulminated his son with a gaze full of hate and pain. He was so angry and he could lose his temper. And maybe, he could break his son’s arm again, but he didn’t. Instead, he leaned his head against Tim’s chest and started to cry.
10
‘For his looks, he seems to have suffered the same heart attack as his brother,’ explained the examiner. ‘Tell me, Mister Peter; are there records of heart attacks in your family?
Peter shook his head.
Wendy was medicated like a ragdoll lying on the couch. She was in the living room. Sheriff Bannerman put on his hat and shook his head. He was in the room too.
‘The Boogeyman,’ suddenly, said Danny.
And all eyes were on him.
‘Danny!’ screamed Peter at the same time Sheriff Bannerman interrupted.
‘Leave him. He’s just a boy and he’s in shock. Don’t scold him...’
‘The Boogeyman,’ continued insisting Danny with his eyes as big as baseballs.
But no one listened to him anymore and they turned their backs to him.
11
The burial was at ten in the morning and the sun was already set. Danny threw a fistful of dirt on his brother’s coffin which descended slowly down the hole, held by ropes in both extremes. This time, Wendy didn’t make a scene. She was fully sedated and her eyes closed against her will behind her black veil. She had lost two of her sons in less than three months. And she was thinking about taking Danny and Charlie to see a heart specialist, in case there was something wrong with them.
And then, fall arrived.
12
It was always there, next to him and at this point, it didn’t seem weird but usual. He turned his back to him and he couldn’t see him anymore. That was enough. Now, there were two empty bunks and Charlie decided he would sleep alone. That was ok, but Danny knew that wasn’t quite all right because the Boogeyman would come for him. The wind howled outside and scratched the windows like invisible fingers without leaving marks. The tree leaves flew and danced in the air until crashing against the windows. Cracking noises were heard like little branches breaking. The ceiling of the room was a jungle of shadows. Danny still had the idea of leaving the lamp in the night stand on. One time, he took the lamp and flashed the Boogeyman just to see if it had a shadow. It didn’t. And that made him think a little, but didn’t reach any conclusion. It was there, next to him, under the sheets, smelling like mold and looking at him, and he could feel its cold skin. No question about it, the Boogeyman was real. And his two brothers...
Father, who didn’t smile anymore, had taken him and Charlie to see a doctor. The results were the expected. There was nothing wrong with them. No heart issues, which left the door open wide.
Eyes wide open and a purple tongue.
And it happened again.
13
They found Charlie with his mouth open and his tongue purple. His eyes were wide open. And he was as cold as marble. His mother and father couldn’t stand so much pain anymore. Too many deaths started to graze the point of insanity. But Danny knew and couldn’t do anything. Another burial with the same tragic end: a natural death. But Danny knew it wasn’t that simple. And when he mentioned the Boogeyman again, his father took him to a psychiatrist.
‘Danny has mental disorders that make him see and hear things that doesn’t exist,’ said the psychiatrist calmly. Father nodded and looked at Danny with the corner of his eye.
He was crazy.
14
But that cold winter night, everything changed.
15
The Boogeyman looked at him like so many times before. Danny turned around but a cold boney hand touched his shoulder. Danny understood right away. This night wouldn’t be the same as the others. It wanted something. It wanted Danny.
Danny turned around and looked directly at the empty eye sockets. The Boogeyman showed its set of sharp teeth and raised a hand with extremely long nails. Danny’s heart pounded inside his chest. The Boogeyman grabbed one of the sheets and tore it apart with one nail. Danny stepped away from it, cuddling in one corner of the bed, with his eyes open and then, he started to scream.
The Boogeyman lifted its arms and showed some black claws and a grey skin. And the deepness of its empty eye sockets. It was smiling and Danny screamed more and more until he lost his voice.
The room door opened making it squeak. It was his father with a very angry face and his fists closed. But his expressions changed in a second, going from red to absolute white. He had seen it. This time, he saw it.
‘FUCK!’
The Boogeyman looked at him and ran away from the bed. Danny continued to scream and his mother entered the room. She was left horrified and mute. The Boogeyman was finally in front of them, showing itself as it was. A monster of claws like spatulas, grey skin and extremely skinny. And its eyes. They weren’t there. Panic took possession of them and Danny kept screaming on the bed, covered in sweat.
Then, the Boogeyman threw itself towards Peter. Its long nails ripped his pajama in the right arm quite easily. Peter screamed and closed tightly his fist. He raised his fist and let it fall on the Boogeyman’s head, just like he did last time in Danny’s arm, for which he regretted deeply. The punch sounded loud as if something broke under his fist. Something hollow and dry. The Boogeyman stumbled and fell to the floor on its knees. Peter’s fist dropped again violently, with him screaming. Wendy was now crying in the hallway. With her face scratched by her own nails. The second hit sounded even hollower and something broke around knew length. The Boogeyman fell to the floor with its arms open and the nails extended like black wings. Peter, with his heart racing for the nerves, caught it by one of the arms and lifted it. It weighted so little. He looked at it for an instant and threw it with all his strength against the window. Pieces of crystal fell to the floor and the carpet. The crash went away with the Boogeyman. And suddenly, a cold breeze entered the room. Danny stopped screaming. Wendy got more scared but her eyes stopped crying and she knew it was all over. Peter breathed heavily. He lloked out the window for a while and then looked at Danny who had went silent. But not everything is what it seems to be.
‘Hi dad,’ said Danny smiling at him and raised a hand that looked like a claw with extremely long, black nails, like spatulas.