The darkness creeps

I was always afraid of the dark as a child, though I never really knew why. Maybe it was what crept around in the unknown or how I myself went blind to all figures and shapes in the dark. I mostly lie in bed during the night hugging my old ladybug pillow pet the only thing that shined light in the pure darkness.

One night it seemed to all get worse, the night my favorite pillow pet stopped working. Everything seemed to get swallowed into pure black. I even swear to it this day that I saw in the corner of my eye a man, a six-foot one with a top hat. It's smile was terrifying, though I'm not sure if it even had teeth, just a smile that looked only held up from the figure forcing it.


Luckily out of nowhere my pillow pet started to light up again. I turned my head to look where the smiling figure had been stood right next to my bed staring over me. Though it wasn't a figure any longer just my old bedside table. A small fish tank sat atop the table. It had lit up when my parents had first bought it. Though slumber seemed to overcome me how much I wanted to fight back I couldn't.

I soon opened my eyes to the sun shining through my window. I was always so relieved to see the sun. I remember going downstairs to talk to my mother who was making breakfast. Telling her about the smiling man, even though she just told me it was a nightmare. It didn't feel like one, it felt real. The fear I had while looking at it. The way it looked back at me.

Though it had become more troubling over the next few days, when I had started making drawings filled with this smiling creature. I know my mother was getting concerned even if she didn't want to scare me by telling me. That night had been the only one I had seen this smiling figure, yet I still see myself coming to talk about it to this day. Perhaps children do have a reason to be scared of the dark. No one knows what lurks in the pure darkness so why do we blame it on being the child's imagination?