The Bad Man

You told me not to be scared of the man in my closet because he didn’t
really exist. I would wake up in the middle of the night and start
crying because of the bad man in my closet. You’d hear me crying
and come to my room. You’d flip on the lights and fling open my
closet door, showing nothing but clothes and shoes and toys and
games. Then you’d scold me, telling me there was no reason to be
scared, that there was no man in my closet, that I just had an
“overactive imagination” or that I’d had a bad dream. You’d say that
I couldn’t read comic books or watch any TV before going to bed anymore
cause they gave me the bad dreams. You wouldn’t let me use my night-light
anymore cause you said I was too old and night-lights were only for
babies. You took away my blanket cause I was too old for that too.
The bad man wouldn’t have got me if my night-light were on and
I’d had my blanket.

I remember I told you about the sounds the bad man made. They were
like scratching and creaking sounds. But you said that was just the house
settling. I told you that I’d seen the bad man too. I saw him by the
dim light that came in through the window. He looked kinda like a black
blob. But you said that was just shadows. Those sounds were not the house
settling and it wasn’t shadows I saw. It was the bad man. He was there
every time. Somehow he just manage to hide from you.
I don’t know how, he just did.

You shouldn’t have left my window open at night. I told you I didn’t like
it open but you said the fresh air would be good for me. I think that’s
how the bad man got in, through the window. I told you that’s what I
thought, that he was getting in through the window, you said he couldn’t
cause I was on the second floor.

So at night I slept in my room all alone. It was very dark cause my
night-light wasn’t on. I didn’t have my blanket and the window was open.
And then the bad man started coming. I knew he was there and I would cry.
And then you would come. Night after night you’d come and say the same
thing. Don’t be scared of the bad man cause he doesn’t exist. But he
does, and he got me.

I don’t remember how long the bad man had been coming into my room.
It seemed like a very long time though. He would come late every night.
I don’t know what time he came, but it was very late. You weren’t happy
when you had to come into my room. Your hair was all messed up and you
were in your pj’s. You looked sleepy and mad. Some nights it took you a
long time to get to my room. Those night were the worst. I would be
crying and the bad man would get closer and closer and then you’d come in
the knick of time and the bad man would go and hide in the closet.
When you started taking longer and longer is when the bad man started to
get braver. That was when I could hear and see him. He got really close a
couple times.
The night he got me you didn’t make it in time.

I don’t know how long ago he got me, it must be long time though. He got
me on a Tuesday, I don’t know what day it is now. I remember going to
school that day and having a substitute teacher because Mrs. Walden was
sick. I remember taking the bus home. I used my key to get in the house.
Then I got a snack and did my spelling homework. After I finished I went
outside and played with Tommy from across the street. Then I remember you
coming home. We ate dinner and you sent me to get my bath. Then it was
bed time. I didn’t want to go to bed. I didn’t like my room anymore.
I couldn’t sleep good there, the bad man kept coming. You made me go to my
room though. You made me turn off the lights and get into bed. I tried
turning on the night-light but when you came to tuck me in you turned it
back off. You opened the window too before you left my room.
You shouldn’t have opened my window.

After a long time I managed to fall asleep. I remember waking up cause
of a noise. It was a loud noise. A sort of crash, but not really. I
hadn’t heard a sound like it before. And the noise was right outside my
window. The bad man had never made a noise this loud. He must have gotten
really brave. I remember being real scared. I couldn’t move. I didn’t
start crying till the bad man was in my room. He did come in the window.
I saw him real clear this time. I could see the outline of his head and
shoulders and arms. He was never this clear. The bad man came to my bed
and put his hand over my mouth and nose. I’ve never been so scared. I
couldn’t breath.
And then everything went black.

I woke up in a bad place. It was dark there, darker than my room without
the night-light. It smelled bad too. I think I was in a basement or
cellar. The room was very big. It was really empty though I think.
I felt my way all around the edges and I didn’t feel anything but the
stairs. They go up. I didn’t go across the middle of the room. I was too
scared to. I don’t think there was anything there though. When the bad man
opened the door at the top of the stairs I didn’t see anything. But that
might be cause the light blinded me. He only opened the door for a little
bit too. Enough time for him to walk down and put food on the ground.
The food was the same every time, cold Spaghetti O’s in a bowl and some
water in a tall glass. I don’t even really like Spaghetti O’s but I got
real hungry. The water tasted funny too. I think the bad man put
something in it and that’s why I slept so much. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that
the only thing in that room was me and a really big blanket that I slept
on, the kind of blanket like Grama has thrown on her couch. It was bad
cause I had to go the bathroom in one of the corners and that made the
smell even worse.

I tried to figure out how long the bad man had me by keeping count of how
many times he fed me. I lost count though. I just slept too much to keep
track of everything. I’m sure he put stuff in my water to make me sleep
and not yell. I yelled a bunch when I was awake. So much it made my
throat hurt. The first time I actually heard the bad man’s voice is when
he told me to shut up. He told me that like the second time he brought me
food. He opened the door and I was blinded by the light. It was so
bright. So I covered my eyes and just started screaming. And then he told
me to shut up. He didn’t really shout, he just said it like the principle
at my school does, kinda mean like. The bad man had an ugly voice. It was
real low and crackly. It scared me. He only told me to shut up once
though. I didn’t listen. I kept yelling. The next time he brought me food
it must’ve had the stuff in it cause I went to sleep after eating it. I
would sleep for so long. It got to where I would wake up and the food would
already be there, the bad man must’ve had brought it down while I was
asleep. I would have to feel around for it and find it. When I was asleep
the bad man did other stuff too. Cause he cleaned up where I had gone to
the bathroom and took all the dirty dishes away. I wish he would have
brought me different clothes, I was still in my pajamas.

There’s no telling how many days I slept all the way through. And then
one day I figured it out. I figured that he put stuff in my water to make
me sleep. So I stopped drinking it. The Spaghetti O’s were runny so I
just kinda slurped the juice. I was thirsty but I didn’t sleep all the
time anymore. I didn’t want the bad man to know I stopped drinking the
water so I went and dumped it in the corner. When the bad man would come
to bring food and stuff I just pretended to be asleep. I could tell he was
about to come cause I could hear him unlocking all the locks on the door.
So I just pretended to be asleep and I let him clean up and take the dishes
away.

You know what was weird though. When I would sleep a whole lot cause of
the stuff in the food, I wouldn’t have any dreams. But when I quit
drinking the water and I slept just a little, I would dream. At first they
were bad dreams, like bad, bad nightmares. Some were about the bad man.
But I had a lot about other scary things like ghosts and witches and
monsters. Those bad dreams really scared me. I would wake up and almost
scream. But I caught myself and didn’t. I couldn’t let the bad man know I
wasn’t drinking the water. After a while though, those bad dreams stopped.
Then I started having worse dreams. They were about you. In those dreams I
was gone but you didn’t care. You liked being alone. You were happy that I
was gone. Those dreams made me sad but I also kinda liked them cause I got
to see you again. I cried a little after having them cause I missed you so
much. I made sure I cried real quiet though, so the bad man wouldn’t hear
me. The really bad dreams where you didn’t miss me stopped and I just started
dreaming about weird stuff. The weird dreams helped me, they gave me the
idea.

It was a really weird dream that gave me the idea. In that dream the bad
man hadn’t got me. It was about Grama and me in the park. We were just
sitting on the ledge by the big fountain, the one with lots of quarters
in the water, and she was telling me all sorts of important thing that I
should know to be safe. It was stuff she had told me lots of times before.
The stuff my teachers had said lots of times before too. To look both ways
before crossing the street. To never talk to strangers and never ever take
anything from them. To not play with matches cause I might start a fire and
burn the house down. To make sure I wait an hour after eating before going
to swim cause I might get a cramp and drown. Grama said lots more and then
the last thing she said before I woke up was the thing that gave me the
idea. She told me to not leave any of my toys on the stairs cause someone
might trip on them and fall down and break their necks. And then I woke
up. And I remembered the dream.
And I got the idea.

It took me a little bit to think how to do everything. I thought about
where I had to be and where I had to put stuff and what I had to do and
when I should do it and stuff. After I figured it all out I went back to
sleep.
I didn’t dream that time.
I woke up later and waited. I waited for a real long time. I remember I
got really nervous and stuff. But I waited and listened. Then I heard the
bad man start to unlock the locks. So I laid down and pretended to sleep.
The bad man came in and brought the food and took away the dishes. He
didn’t clean anything this time. Then he left and locked everything back
up. I got up real quick and felt for the food. I found it and ate it all
and slurped the juice and dumped the water. I knew it was time I had to do
something. I was starting to get skinny, I could kinda feel my ribs. And I
was thirsty all the time, the spaghetti juice just wasn’t enough. So after
I ate I went to the blanket and I found the one side with a little rip. I
tugged real hard and made the rip longer. I ripped and pulled for a long
time till I had a couple of long shreds of the blanket.

Then I went to the stairs. I hadn’t been on the stairs before then so I
was really scared. I didn’t know if the bad man would hear me or not. I
stuffed the blanket shreds into my underwear and then I really slowly
crawled up, feeling my way along and using the railing under the banister
as a guide. I was really careful cause I didn’t want to fall down. I made
it all the way to the top of the stairs, where the little ledge thing is.
It was kinda lighted there. I could see a little cause of the light that
managed to squeeze through the cracks of the door. I sat on the ledge for
a little bit and thought about how I wanted to do it. Then I crawled down
a little and sat on the second step. I felt along the wall that the stairs
were on for a nail. It took me a long time to find one. I got scared for a
little bit cause I thought that I wasn’t gonna find one. I did find one
though and it was bent up too, that was really good. I took one of the
shreds out of my underwear and tied it as best I could to the nail. It was
not easy to tie a knot in the dark. It took me a couple tries cause I would
yank on the shred to make sure it held. I finally managed to get a good
knot. I yanked and it didn’t come off. I took the shred and pulled it tight
and tied the other side to the railing. This took a couple of tries too.
I finally got it right though. After I tied the first shred I did the same
thing with the rest of the shreds. I tied them all to the same nail and
same banister. I wanted to make sure it was strong.
I had made my trip wire.

I crawled my way back down the stairs and went to the blanket. I had to
wait again. This was a really bad for me. I was really really scared. I
kept thinking about what would happen if the bad man wouldn’t fall. If he
saw it and stepped over it what would he do to me? This almost made me
sick to my stomach. Then I started to feel a different kind of bad. What if
I killed the bad man? What if when he fell he did break his neck and die?
I really didn’t want to kill him, even though he was bad. You always told
me that I should never kill anything, that all life is precious. This made
me feel really bad too. I got so scared that I started to shake. I
couldn’t stop for the longest time. I did finally stop though. I started
to think about seeing you again. About getting away from the bad man and
seeing you. I told myself that this is what I had to do, even if I did
kill the bad man I had to get away. And so I waited. I waited and waited
and thought about you. Thought about what it would be like to get away.

It seemed like forever and then I heard the locks. My heart started to
beat super fast. I got even thirstier. I was all jittery. And then the
door opened. I was lying down pretending to be asleep again cause I didn’t
know if the bad man could see me from the top of the stairs or not. But I
was facing the bad man, just lying down on the blanket. When the door
opened I kept my eyes wide. It hurt them real bad but I had to do it so I
could see. The bad man walked onto the little ledge thing with the bowl
of Spaghetti O’s in one hand and the glass of water in the other. I kept
staring at the bright light. I heard the bad man step to the first step.
I held my breath. My heart beat even faster. I think it was about to
explode. I heard him step down to the second step. It seemed to take
forever. My eyes were wide open, as wide as they could get. The light
still hurt my eyes, but they had adjusted and I could see everything, just
a little blurry. I swallowed hard. Then it happened.
His foot caught on my little trip wire.
He started to fall. Before he hit I was already on my feet. The man
yelled. His low voice was so loud. It made an echo in the room. The man
dropped the bowl and glass. I heard them break. Then I saw the man’s arms
waving back and forth. He was trying to catch his balance. He tried to grab
onto the banister but missed. Then he fell. It was like he fell for a long
time. He was kinda flying. Then he hit the stairs. He hit em hard. It was
a loud hit and I knew it must’ve hurt.

Then everything happened fast.
He kinda flipped over and over and then he was at the bottom on the floor.
I was frozen. I couldn’t move. It felt just like what happened the night
the bad man got me in my room. After a second I ran toward the stairs. I
didn’t think the bad man was moving but I didn’t really look at him
either.

I jumped over him. All I could think was that I made it. I was gonna get
away. I was gonna see you. I was gonna see my friends. I was gonna see
everybody. I was over the man. I started up the stairs. Then I felt it.

He had my foot.
He wasn’t dead.
He wasn’t knocked out.
And he had my foot.

He pulled on it and I fell. I put my hands out in front of me so it didn’t
hurt too bad. But I did bust my lip and bite my tongue. I could taste the
blood in my mouth. The bad man yanked hard on my foot. That hurt too.

I was pulling as hard as I could but he had ahold of me. I grabbed for
something to hold on to. I managed to get the railing. I pulled and pulled
and pulled. But he still had me. I was screaming so loud. It made my head
hurt.

The bad man was laughing. He was laughing at me. This made me so mad.

I kicked at him with my other foot but that didn’t do any good. He just
wouldn’t let go. I looked back and saw he was still on the ground. He
must’ve gotten hurt in the fall. I looked back up and saw the open door.
It wasn’t very far away, like only 12 steps or so. I kept my eyes on the
light at the top of the stairs, thinking that I was so close and only had
to get away. Then I saw it. The light was bouncing off a big chunk of the
broken water glass a couple steps above me. I reached for it. It was just
a bit too far away. I kicked hard with my other foot again but the man
just wouldn’t let go.

I reached again and stretched as far as I could.
I got it.
I had the piece of glass.
It was pretty big.
It was sharp too.

I held onto it as hard as I could and I kinda flipped around. I stabbed
at the bad man. I stabbed and stabbed at his hand.
But I had let go of the banister and he had pulled me down some. I couldn’t
get his hand. He still had my foot. He pulled me down more. I kept
stabbing with the glass. Then the bad man stopped laughing and he yelled.
I had got him. I kept stabbing and then I felt it go in. I think the glass
went into his neck. I’m not sure cause I couldn't see good but I know it
went in deep. Then he let go. My hands were wet and I knew it was the
bad man’s blood. I had cut myself too with the glass. My hand hurt pretty
bad. The bad man fell back down onto the ground. I heard a gurgling sound.
Then it was quiet.
He was dead.
I had killed the bad man.
I didn’t want to but he made me.
I started to cry. I cried real hard. I turned around and went up the
stairs, still crying.

I really don’t remember what all happened next. I know I somehow got
outside the bad man’s house. It was almost dark. I was walking down the
street. It was a really nice neighborhood, a lot like the one we live in.
The houses were all very nice looking. I don’t remember which one I had
come out of, which one was the bad man’s. I kept walking down the street
and crying. Then a lady who was watering her flowers saw me. I think I
scared her.

I must’ve looked really bad. I was still in the pajamas I was in when the
bad man took me and I was bleeding. The lady yelled for someone and
dropped the hose and ran to me. She put her hands on my shoulder and
asked me my name. I couldn’t tell her. I just remember that I looked at
her.
I looked at her and cried
. I knew I was safe and I knew I was going to see you again.
And I knew that I should be scared of the bad man in my closet
cause he does exist.