Dewi Gruffud just stood staring at the sight before him, unable to move or tear his eyes away from the scene. His stomach turned as he watched the thing hover over the unmoving, and Dewi hoped, dead boy. The sound of a horn and the appearance of bright lights finally broke the spell the scene had over him, and it disturbed the thing as well.
"Dewi?" his father's voice called. "You still here?"
"Yeah." Dewi called back. "Dad, please come here." he said, trying to keep the panic from his voice.
"What is it?" his father asked as he put the car in gear and got out and strode to his son's side.
"Look." Dewi said, pointing the spot where the nightmarish thing had been standing over a prone boy.
"What?" Merrick Gruffud asked, looking in confusion at the empty spot his son indicated.
"The thing..." Dewi's voice trailed off as he turned back reluctantly to see that there was nothing there. "It was there a minute ago." he said.
"What was?" Merrick asked.
"Nothing." Dewi said, shaking his head. "It's late, I must have seen a rat or something." he added, deciding not to tell his father that he'd just seen some sort of monster about to eat a boy.
"These hours aren't good for you." Merrick said as he put an arm around his son's shoulder. "Come on, we'll go home, your mum has some dinner waiting for you in the oven."
"Okay." Dewi muttered as he climbed into the car and fastened his seat belt. As his father drove away, his eyes were glued to the spot of the horror, and yet it looked as though nothing had been there at all.
Maybe it was just a giant rat, he thought, But where did the boy come from?
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The form was back, standing over the same boy, only this time Dewi's father didn't come at just the right time to scare the thing away. No, this time he was forced to watch the boy's arms ripped from their sockets, a sickening popping noise sounding in the near silence. The crunch of the monster's teeth on the bone made Dewi's skin crawl and the bits of muscle and tendon hanging from the thing's mouth made him want to be sick.
He wanted to move, just as he had earlier in the alley, and yet it was as though his feet were glued to the spot where he stood. His muscles seemed to be frozen, as he could neither turn his head away or get himself to cry out for help. He was stuck there, watching this grotesque thing rip this poor child apart.
The boy wasn't much older than Dewi's sister, Hannah, which would make the boy somewhere around ten at oldest. The thought of seeing his baby sister in this same situation made Dewi want to cry. They didn't have much in common, Dewi being seventeen and Hannah only ten, but they were still close.
The thing had finished with the arms and had moved onto to the unfortunate boy's legs, the same popping noise coming when the legs came out of their socket as the arms, but the thing seemed to suck the flesh from the bones this time rather than just biting into them as it had done with the arms.
The smell of blood came to Dewi's nostrils and he choked at the stench. He felt the bile rising in his throat as the thing looked over at him and seemed to smile as it took one very long, razor like nail and drew it down along the boy's chest, moving from the throat down to the pubic bone.
"No!" Dewi was finally able to cry out as the thing plucked the dead heart from the boy and began to devour it.
He jerked awake and looked around, breathing hard. It was pitch black save the neon glow from his clock. 4:47 a.m. He'd only been asleep for a few hours, and though his body wanted more sleep, he decided that he could not give in. Not if those images were going to play over again each time he slept. No, the only thing to do was stay awake.
"It's been a week." Merrick Gruffud was telling the doctor. "He hasn't slept a wink in a week."
"He's not eating either." Ella Gruffud said, holding back tears.
"I understand your worry." the doctor said. "But, I've spoken to your son and simply refuses to tell me why it is he's stopped sleeping. And he won't submit for any tests..."
"We can make him." Ella cried.
"I can prescribe some sleeping tablets." the doctor said, scratching away at the small note pad at his side. "He should take them an hour or two before his normal bed time."
"What if he won't take them? Merrick asked, knowing that if Dewi refused to sleep as normal, than the chance of him taking pills to do so was slim at best.
"They can be ground and placed in food." the doctor said, handing over the prescription.
"Don't like the idea of druggin' my son without his knowing it." Merrick said as he took the slip of paper and tucking it in his pocket, his free hand gripping his wife's trembling one.
"I understand." the doctor said, "But, he must sleep. And eat."
"Hopefully this will work." Merrick said as he got to his feet and shook the doctor's hand, and then helped his wife to her feet and gently led her from the waiting room where Dewi had chosen to wait for them.
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This had been wonderful so far. Those disgusting dreams had not come back to him in a week, and that foul thing had not appeared and tortured the boy. The first few days were hell, that he had to admit, but after that, it had become easier. Other than his parents, they refused to believe him that everything was fine. Dragging him to that quack! He'd been eating more if for no other reason than to please his mother and sister. Seeing poor Hannah look so frightened by him and his haggard appearance weakened his resolve.
"Death." Merrick said as he helped his wife with the dishes. "He looks like Death himself."
"Shut up!" Ella hissed. "Don't say such things."
"I can't help it." Merrick said as he placed a plate in the dishwasher. "Scares the hell outta me."
"I know. But please," Ella said as she put down her dish towel, "Don't say things like that."
"I'm sorry Ell." he said, giving his wife a kiss on the forehead. "I'll watch my tongue."
"That's all I ask." she said with a half smile. "I don't think he noticed the pills in his food." she whispered.
"No, let's hope he sleeps the night through." he said as he pulled her into a hug. "He'll be alright, Ell, I know he will."
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Dewi sat bolt upright in his bed, those horrid images fresh in his mind as he blinked away the sleep from his eyes. What had happened? He'd been doing so well. How could he have just drifted off like that?
"Damn doctor." he said as he stood up and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "No!" he hissed as he snapped eyes open again, the images seemingly imprinted on his eyelids.
He closed his eyes a few times more, and each time he saw that thing feasting on the boy. He paced around the room, running his hands through his hair, and muttering frantically to himself.
"How could you do this to me?" he said. "Why did you make me sleep?" he asked aloud, tears falling freely as the image of the boy with no arms and legs flashed in his mind again. "Damn you!" he said as he rubbed his eyes, but it didn't help.
There he was, back in the alley, the thing slicing into the boy's chest, pulling the cold, dead heart from the child. It practicall drooled as it lifted the heart to its lips and licked his lips, seemingly savoring the idea of the delicacy.
He needed to stop the images. He needed to do it now. Why couldn't he have been born blind? He left his room and stumbled downstairs to the kitchen.
Hannah heard someone in the hall as they fell into the wall outside her room. Sleepily, she got to her feet and went out into the hall and found no one. Turning to go back into her room, she heard a noise come from downstairs, looking down the hall, she saw her brother's door open and decided to go see what he was doing.
"Dewi?" she whispered as she entered the kitchen to see her brother standing over the kitchen sink. "What are you doing?"
A deep, throaty laugh came from Dewi and his shoulders shook with mirth.
"It's so much better now." he said.
"What is?" Hannah asked in confusion, fear growing in her as she listened to his laughter.
"It's gone now." he said as he began to turn around. "I can't see it anymore."
Hannah let out an ear shattering scream as her brother turned, his eyes gouged out, blood oozing from his eye sockets, a melon baller gripped tightly in his hand.
"No need to scream, Han." he said with a ghoulish smile. "Its gone now, it can't bother us anymore." he added as his mother and father rushed into the kitchen, his mother grabbing her daughter and running from the room for the phone in the living room, and his father to his side, forcing the melon baller from his hand.