Tommy sat silently in his dark room. The darkness felt heavy, completely surrounding him, suffocating him. His small hands gripped his thick duvet, pulling it all the way up to his chin. He couldn't fall asleep.
He was used to sleeping with Mom and Dad but apparently he was getting too old. He tried to diminish his fright by thinking about the fact that Dad had checked for monsters under the bed and in the closet earlier, so he was safe...right?
The eerie silence was broken by the sound of slow footsteps coming up the stairs, and towards Tommy's room. He was relieved, he thought it might be Dad coming to check up on him, or Mom coming to give him one last snuggle before she went to sleep.
The doorknob turned. A ray of golden-yellow light from the hallway seeped into his room as his bedroom door slightly opened. Someone stood unmoving at the doorway. Tommy sat up in his bed curiously. "Tommy" the person whispered through the crack of the door. "Dad?" Tommy called, "Is that you?".
The voice sounded male, but It didn't sound like Dad, Tommy thought. The man's voice was scratchy and brittle, Dad's voice was low-pitched and smooth. "Hello?" Tommy said softly. The man was silent. Tommy felt scared now, he wasn't exactly sure why, but he felt scared.
"Come here." The man said.
Tommy didn't move.
"Come here." The man repeated.
The way he whispered, slowly, aggressively, impatiently, it made Tommy uncomfortable.
"I want to show you something."
Tommy hesitated, then pushed the heavy duvet off his body and got out of bed. The wooden floor felt piercingly cold underneath his bare, sweaty feet. He hadn't realized how much he'd been sweating, his pyjama shirt clung wetly to his back.
He walked up to the bedroom door, trembling. Tommy opened the door, the hallway was empty, there was no one there.
"Tommy." The man called from downstairs, still in a whisper.
"Come here."
Tommy couldn't see the bottom of the stairs, but he knew the man was standing there, looking up at him.
"Come here." The man sounded more impatient now.
He felt afraid, unsure if he should go downstairs.
He looked over to the other end of the hallway to his parents bedroom door. He thought of waking them, desperate for their comforting and reasurance, but that seemed silly, of course they knew this man, how else would he have gotten in the house?
He was probably one of Dad's friends spending the night, that happened occasionally.
Tommy slowly descended down the stairs. He was close to the bottom, he still couldn't see the man, it was still too dark. When Tommy reached the bottom he ran his hand across the wall, blindly searching for the light switch. He flipped the switch. Nothing. He flipped it off and flipped it on again. Nothing.
The living room light had fused, Tommy remembered, Dad was supposed to change the bulb yesterday morning. The darkness was ominous, that feeling he had in the bedroom surfaced again, he felt engulfed by the shadows, suffocated by them.
"Tommy."
Tommy was frightened by how close the man sounded.
"Can I show you something?" The man said, sounding friendlier than before, the impatience was erased from his voice.
Tommy looked back at the stairs, contemplating running back to his room and hiding under the covers.
"Okay." Tommy said.
"You'll have to come with me if you want to see what I have for you, Tommy."
Tommy was afraid.
"Can my Dad come with?"
The man didn't say anything.
The front door opened, the night air was cold, bitter, unfriendly.
"Come with me." The man said, "I have something just for you."
"What is it?" Tommy asked.
"Come with me and you'll see."
Tommy walked to the door. He could hear the man outside, he was whispering unintelligible. Suddenly swift footsteps echoed from the staircase behind Tommy.
"Tommy!" Tommy's mother called. "What are you doing?".
It took Tommy a moment to register what was happening.
"There was a man." Tommy said.
"No, darling. There is nobody here. I saw you open the door, where were you going!?"
"I don't know." Tommy said.
"Are you hearing voices again? They're not real Tommy, remember what the psychologist told you, it's all in your head."
Tommy didn't want to argue wheather the voice was real or not, that argument usually upset Mom alot. Mom tucked him back into bed, kissed his forehead and warned him not to leave his bedroom again until the morning. She went back to her room when she thought Tommy had fallen asleep.
Tommy lay in the darkness once again. Gripping his duvet. Feeling the weight of darkness. He almost did fall asleep. But he heard the sound of hangers scraping on the rail in his closet. His closet door opened slightly, a man whispered from inside the closet, "Tommy... ".
