The Man In The Corner

Ever since I was a little kid, the man in the corner of my eye left an impression on me. I was just a wee bit lad, easily impressionable, by stories and old wives tales told by my folks, in an attempt to get me to behave. Little do they know that these stories can leave a mark on a child’s psyche as the doors of imagination are wide open, ready and raring to go wild when you’re just a 6 year-old boy. But what I felt during that night still haunts me to this very day. After a long school day and the usual mundane, I came back home eager to get to bed. It was during the dusk hours, my body heavy from the tiredness, my consciousness slowly begins to drift away. I felt like a corpse that had just had the soul snatched out of it. After a while, I woke up suddenly, my mind still at disarray.

“Why am I awake? How am I going to go back to sleep now?”

These were the thoughts going through my mind at that time. After a few seconds of deliberation, I decided that maybe a warm cup of milk might help me go back to sleep. But as I try to move my limbs, I am shocked by a revelation.

“I can’t move!”

I try to move my hands. Nothing.

I try to move my legs. Nothing.

“Why can’t I move?!”

At first it was the surprise of not being able to move that caught me off guard but as soon as I realized that there was no imminent cause of fear, I start to relax. I scan the room using my eyes.

“At least I can use my eyes to look around.”

Nothing looked out of the ordinary. The door was slightly opened as I never close the door to my room in fear that anything were to happen to me, my father would be there to protect me. The curtains gently swaying as a feint breeze blows through the window’s crack. I could hear the breeze very clearly as I laid there in silence, confused and unsure why something like that would happen to me. I look at the ceiling as I wait for something to happen. Seeing as there was nothing I could do, I decide to close my eyes and try to go back to sleep. After about ten seconds or so, something happened which made my heart sink into my innards. I unmistakably could hear the sounds of…footsteps…

“This isn’t dad…”

I don’t know how to explain it. But the sound of those footsteps didn’t feel…human. They were slow, methodical. I wanted to open my eyes and look but I didn’t want to find out what it was. The sense of dread started to eat into me. I wanted to shout but…YES! That’s it! If I shout, I’m sure that my father would rush to my room. I’d get scolded but anything’s better than whatever is going on right now. I open my mouth to let out a scream but to my shock...there was no sound. I could feel the sweat build up all over my body. What I thought was an ingenious idea, turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking. I had no idea what the source of the footsteps was as I refused to open my eyes to see. I knew that I would regret it if I did but at the same time the curiosity of the cat had possessed me and much to my dismay, I slightly open my eyes. As I open them, the room was dark but not to the extent that vision would be impaired. I look to the foot of my bed and let out a silent scream. I scream and scream yet there is no sound. A giant shadow figure is standing there silently staring at me. It had no face, no eyes and no mouth. I tried to struggle but my body refused to move. He was perfectly content just staring at me but it was almost like he could smell my fear which gave him some sort of emotion prompting him to get closer.

*thomp* *thomp*

He was now at the side of my bed. Still staring. Even though he had no face, I could tell that his attention was fixated at me. Seeing him on my side made me go nuts.

“Move damn it! Move!”

I tried with all my strength to get my body to budge but it never did. I could feel the air quiver as the figure moved his face closer to me. I wanted to cry. I think I was crying but my distress didn’t seem to bother him, only pique his curiosity. He extended his arm, his hand reaching out to my face. Unable to bear it anymore, I closed my eyes and hoped for it to pass. My hearing was getting distorted the closer his hand got and then…Silence.

*pant* *pant* *pant*

I open my eyes and here I was again, in my room with full control of my body. The figure was gone and the room was just the way it was when I first went to bed. I was trying to process what just happened to me but at the same time felt so tired like I hadn’t had any sleep at all. I look at the clock at it was 3:00 A.M. I knew that I should go back to sleep as I had to go to school the next day but I couldn’t sleep after what I had just gone through. Who was that black humanoid? What did he want with me? Even though I no longer saw him after that day, somehow I know he is out there, ready to pull my feet from under the covers.

A terrifying thought sometimes crosses my mind. What if that him were actually a “They”?