The Child

Sometimes he felt like he was on top of the world! No one could stop him, no one could bring him down, and nothing could be done except… Clean up his mess?

Yeah, that's right. He threw his toys all over the floor and pretended like he was Superman. His dad rolled his eyes and picked him up for the 8th time that night.

"Go to bed," he said in a stern tone. "Stop getting up, you need sleep to be a healthy boy.

"But I don't wanna go to sleep! I wanna play!"

"Son, if you get out of bed one more time tonight I'm taking your toys away. Okay? Goodnight." He shut off the light and closed the door.

The child found himself lying still in the darkness. He didn't feel playful anymore, but he was afraid of his father because of the tone he spoke with. He was only 5, but he could tell he wasn't happy with him, and he wanted his mommy instead.

He pouted. He had so much energy, all he wanted to do was play with the toys! Was that too much to ask? Apparently… But, he didn't pout for too long - he just grabbed some toys that were right next to his bed and began playing with them! "Daddy doesn't see me," he whispered as he giggled and flew the plane around.

"Ohhhhh, watch out for the bad guy!" He had a toy, King Kong, that he was flying his ship around. He slapped the plane with the giant ape. "Oh noooo, we're going down!" He imitated the sound of a crash as the plane made its involuntary descent. He was making sure to be quiet, though - daddy was on the other side of the wall.

"But he's not dead!" He whispered as the plane magically came back to life! He swirled it around King Kong and smashed it into him! "There goes the bad guy," he said in his deep voice, but his heart suddenly dropped - he could hear his dad getting out of bed and going to his room. He dropped the toys as quickly as he could and pretended to be asleep.

He swung the door wide open. "I told you to go to sleep!" He halfway yelled as the child slowly rolled over. He lay there for a minute, rubbed his eyes, and said, "what is it, daddy?"

The father suddenly felt remorse as he "realized" that his son had been talking in his sleep. His eyes hit the floor before making their way back to his son. "I'm sorry Jeremy, I shouldn't have gotten upset. You can go to sleep now."

"Okay. Goodnight daddy! I love you!"

"I love you too." He quietly closed the door, and when he did so smiled an evil smile. He got him! He got him good! He laughed as well, and he just learned that as long as he didn't get caught, he could get away with doing very bad things.

He got up and played some more, but more quietly this time. He was tired, though, and he eventually fell asleep for real.

In his dreams he was his dad, going around and telling everyone what to do. His mom, his brother, his sister - everyone got a taste of his medicine! He decided he wouldn't be evil or mean, but confident and commanding. He didn't demand they obey him, but instead strongly suggested it with powerful, positive energy. He didn't know the specifics of what he was doing, but I wanted to add them so you have a clear picture of what was going on.

When he woke up he thought it would be great fun to see what happened if he told daddy what to do! He got up from the bed and found him just as he was walking out the door!

"Daddy, you can't go to work today!" He said in a confident voice. "You have to stay here and play with me!" He pointed his fingers in exaggeration so that he could understand exactly what he was talking about!

"Not today, son. I love you, but I'm not in the mood."

"I demand you be in the mood!" He said in a dramatic voice, once again going as low as his vocal cords could muster. "You stay here with me and mommy and we'll have all kinds of fun together!"

"Son, I have to go now. Bye! I'll see you later tonight!"

He walked out of the door, leaving his son standing in the kitchen. He became sad because he truly wanted his father to play with him, even though he was just fooling around! He also thought what happened in his dream would happen in the real world, so he also became angry. His playfulness hadn't left him, though, so when he played all day with his mother she noticed something was wrong - he wasn't acting like he normally did.

When he returned home from work he was in an even worse mood than before. So, when his son wanted him to play once again he didn't even say anything - he just walked to his bedroom and closed the door. This made the child even more sad and angry, unbeknownst to him, of course.

"Honey, he was different today. Did you say anything before you left for work?"

"Well, he wanted to play, but I had to go to work. So I told him I couldn't."

"Hmm… And just now, when he wanted to play again, you came in here without saying a word. Are you okay, baby?"

"I'm fine," he said in a passive-aggressive tone before turning his head away.

"Hey," she said with a stern voice. "Children can sense when you're angry. Did you treat him with anger sometime today? Or maybe yesterday? He's going to pick up on that if he hasn't already, and I don't want him doing that."

"Sweetheart, I just don't want to play with him! Work is stressful, and now you're saying things I don't understand."

"Well, just work on your anger," she said as she shut off her light. He sat up for a while longer, his anger boiling inside of him. What did she mean? How could he even work on his anger if he wanted to? He hastily shut off his light and went to sleep as well.

---

He had dark visions that night. He was in a creepy-red environment holding a pitch-black sword, and he was hunting down some kind of monster. Everywhere he turned he could see it out of the corner of his eye, but he could never fully look at it. He got angrier and angrier every time he could almost see it, until eventually, he woke up, grunting and sweating.

She softly turned over, awoken by the commotion. "Are you okay, baby?"

He panted for a while before saying, "yeah… I'm fine. It was just a dream." He fell back to sleep, and the rest of his night was uneventful.

The next morning was Saturday, so he didn't have to go to work. He woke up surprisingly refreshed, so he put on his sweats and walked to the kitchen table.

"Morning daddy." He said in a mournful voice, almost as if he knew what he was already going to say.

"Son," he said softly. "Look at me."

He turned his head away from his cereal and looked him right in the eyes.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have treated you like that. We can play today, okay?"

His son didn't smile. He didn't even flinch. He turned his head back to his cereal bowl and started eating once again.

"Son?"

No response.

"Son?" He tried to put his hand on his son's shoulder, but it went right through it. The kitchen began to slowly break apart and melt. His son slowly turned into a crying child as he faded away long with the scenery. He saw a black book mysteriously appear on the counter, and he instinctively knew it had some kind of special power, but he didn't know what it was exactly.

He could hear someone in the distance say, "wake up! Wake up! Daddy, wake up!"

He saw an orb of purple light come into his view. Its energy felt so intense that he had to look away, and yet he couldn't. The orb expanded and filled his entire vision. Then he awoke to his son tugging on his leg.

"Daddy daddy, it's time for practice! Come on, let's go!"

"Good morning son! Yes, let's go! Do you have your shoes on?"

"Yeah I think so… Oh, never mind. I'll be right back!" He turned and ran down the hall.

He smiled to himself. "What a nightmare," he whispered, "I'm so grateful for my son and my beautiful wife." He got dressed and vowed to never treat his family like that for as long as he lived! And what's this? His wife left him a $20,000 check with a note that said, "thank you for being the best man ever… I love you!" He loved her too, and he made sure to kiss her when they saw each other later that day.