Tales Of Fear

#1. THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WARDROBE

Adam was finishing off his evening coffee when Sophie, his daughter, called down to him.
"Daddy, when's Mummy coming home?"
"Not long now. The function's been going on for sometime now so she shouldn't be too late" he managed without taking his eyes from his show on the TV.
He waited what seemed to be an eternity for the reply to come.
"Okay."
He heard Sophie take tiny steps back to her room and close her door.
After an hour or so, she came downstairs in her pyjamas. "Can you read me a story? Mummy's taking too long."
He lowered his glasses and looked over at her innocent big brown eyes. 'How could I say no?' he thought.
"Sure"
He got up and carried her up the stairs and into her bed. He sat at the end of the bed amongst Mr. Fluffy the cuddly gorilla and Daisy the cuddly sheep. Everything had a name and ended with 'the cuddly' and then the type of animal it was.
"Comfy?" she asked him then giggled
"Very, now which story do you want?"
"Make one up. I want a new story"
"Okay..."
He thought for a while and then made a funny story up involving the stuffed toys in her bed. He performed all different kinds of voices and noises for them. She laughed and giggled and had a riot but eventually she fell into the land of nod after exhausting herself out.
He tucked her in and kissed her forehead then went to her light and turned it off before leaving. 'Did the wardrobe just open?' he thought. He looked again at the wardrobe in the darkest corner of the room, studied it and shrugged it off as nothing. The door was always crooked anyway.
An hour later, after he himself had dozed off, Sophie called from her bedroom.
Startled and nearly spilling his small amount of whiskey on his lap he snapped himself together and called up to her.
"What's wrong?"
"Daddy, come here."
He walked up the stairs holding a towel in case she had to bath after wetting the bed. He got to the door and peered inside.
"What is it, honey?"
Her face was sad. He's seen almost every expression from her but this one was new.
"Daddy, I'm scared."
"Why?"
"The wardrobe monster"
His eyes shifted on to the wardrobe and it was how he last saw it. Although it looked...different somehow. Something wasn't right. It stood tall as it normally did with it's big bulky frame and white glow. On this night the wardrobe seemed to dominate the room. Surely he had a bit too much to drink to think something crazy as that. The twigs from the tree branch outside Sophie's window seemed more outstretched than usual almost making it looked like the wardrobe had veins...and it had a deep heavy breathing movement....and it laughed at him and he - he shook his head and squinted hard.

"Sophie, there's no such things as monsters. Do you remember that discussion we had when it was all in your imagination?"
She slowly nodded then tucked herself back down.
"Goodnight, sweetie"
It was around midnight when he was summoned again.
"Daddy"
Again he was startled and nearly urinated on the floor as he was taking his midnight piss session (as he called it).
He zipped up and went on to her room.
Sophie is sitting up by her pillows now and looks really pale.
"Honey, you're really going to have to try to get some sleep, it's a school night."
She looked at him, quite surprised.
"Daddy, look."
She pointed at the wardrobe and when he looked over at it, he got a strange shudder run down his back. The wardrobe door was shut.
"What is it, Sophie?"
"I caught the monster."
She smiled with happiness.
"You caught the monster...what monster?"
"The one I told you about. Go and see for yourself if you don't believe me."
Not to be outsmarted by his five year old, Adam Portlo walked to the wardrobe, over the spilled over toys on the floor and past the cloven hoof print and - he stopped and looked back and the scuffed up hoof mark. 'This is just stupid' he thought 'How much did I drink?'. He approached the wardrobe and opened it to wait for something to fall out onto him - nothing did. He then turned to Sophie on the bed.
"See there's nothing in here "
"Daddy"
He'd heard that voice before. He turned around and looked down to see Sophie sat in the wardrobe. She's holding her legs and her face is wet from crying.
"Daddy, there's something in my bed."
Adam froze and kept his eye on his daughter in the wardrobe. A tiny breath escaped his mouth and he nodded.