Introduction
The Boogeyman
She woke up with little to no sleep. Her round and small face was covered with soaking cold sweat, and it had spread all over her shirt and pants and greasy black hair. It felt as if she had just been dunked in steamy water. Her back was aching on her squeaky little bed, and in attempt to rid of the ache she rolled off onto the floor, wheezing and dragging herself as far away from her bed as possible. She didn't dare to look back; the darkness was far too overwhelming.
She laid there for God knows how long, panting and pressing her cheek against the cold wooden floorboards. The walls were seemingly closing in on her as she shoved her face into her arms, begging for the pressure to fade away. Her name was surely being called. Mom and Dad were here somewhere, crawling towards her like two twisted centipedes in unison. Rudy … Rudy … Rudy …
The girl couldn't take it any longer, and she began to sob, curling up into a ball on the floor.
Rudy had woken up much more earlier than expected. She was supposed to get eight hours of sleep everyday, but it seemed that she had interrupted her slumber an hour before. When her heart stopped beating and her head was clear, she carefully crawled back onto her stiff bed, looking underneath to make sure she was the only one in the room. Then she laid down and made a cocoon of herself in her blanket. But she couldn't sleep. The best that she could do for the rest of the hour was close her eyes and think of moths and sweet, sweet butterflies.
She was about to drift off into her dreams when a nurse opened the door and chirped that it was time to wake up and get ready for breakfast. After she left, Rudy groggily opened her eyes, once again rolling off the bed and flopping onto the floor like a dead fish. To her, it was fun to be shaken awake like that. It sent a shock through her body like lightning and fried up her cold bones. Perfect for such a dead morning.
Rudy was given some time to get ready for the day. There was no mirror in her room, but she learned to feel what parts of her hair were sticking up and into the air and which parts were tangled into dirty bits. She combed through the knots with her grubby fingers until they were straight and smooth. When she let out a sigh, her mouth felt slimy and gross. She licked her lips, wiping her mouth. She never talked much. Only when people talked to her first.
As time passed, she managed to brush her teeth and wipe all the grime from her eyes before exiting her room and joining the other patients as they lined up against the wall, waiting. Rudy watched as the patients chatted with each other, some of them staying silent and staring at their feet and others watching like Rudy was. It wasn't long until a nurse came to escort all of them down to the cafeteria.
Though Rudy was quiet and usually gloomy, she had quite a big appetite. She didn't hold back as she scooped amounts of bacon and eggs onto her tray, adding a late pancake onto it as well. She plopped her tray onto one of the many lunch tables and began to eat. A low mumble began to build up through the cafeteria. Rudy blocked out the sound, squinting as she stuffed her face with food.
The girl believed that she had some sort of sense. A sort of sense that gave her a feeling of supreme dread. When the feeling grew thick in her chest for the first time, her eyes darted wildly in all directions before she pounded the table in front of her, shouting, "Something's not good! Something's gonna happen! We're all gonna die!" That was one of the first times the employees had to restrain her and calm her down. But as time passed, she learned to keep the dread to herself. Instead, she would squint her eyes and fidget with her hair or fingers, sometimes chewing her nails or loudly speaking through her nose. She told the nurses about her predictions, but they told her there was nothing to worry about and that she was completely safe.
Surprisingly enough, something always happened after those feelings of dread.
After she finished breakfast, she spent time doodling and drawing in a little notebook with crude crayons, and even after that, she went to see her doctor, Dr. Mortcia Rosa.
The woman had brown skin and a bony structure, her dark hair neatly wrapped in a curly ponytail. She had a warm glow to her that Rudy liked. Her dark eyes scanned her desk as her patient slid drawing after drawing of the same creature. The drawings only consisted of two, sometimes only one, colors. Purple and black.
"I've been seeing him again," Rudy whispered. "The monster. The . . ."
"Boogeyman?" Dr. Rosa finished for her, in which the girl nodded.
"He came this morning," Rudy continued, shivering and rubbing her arms. "He showed me my parents. He mimicked my parents' voices. And they were all just … staring at me. Calling my name over and over again." She frowned, sighing and shaking her head. "It just sounded and looked exactly like them. I don't understand how he can copy them so easily ..."
Dr. Rosa nodded patiently, tapping one of her slender fingers on her desk. She went through the drawings once more, examining each one closely. They were all messily drawn, and the remains of crayon shavings were left behind on each shape. But all of them also had recurring features, and from what Dr. Rosa could make out, those features were long, jagged claws, thin and pointy teeth, spikes and a tail, and the most noticeable of them, large purple eyes. None of them were properly colored; they were simply scribbled in with black, leaving this Boogeyman as a mere silhouette.
"You told me that you started seeing him a week ago, right?" Dr. Rosa asked.
Rudy paused for a moment, frowning. "Yeah," she muttered. "I started … seeing him." She said the word seeing as if it stung her throat.
Dr. Rosa pursed her lips, tapping her desk again in thought. "And you've been only seeing and hearing your parents as well, correct?"
"Yeah …"
She wrote a few notes down as the girl waited.
"I'm curious," the woman said after a moment, guiding a finger to trace the Boogeyman's purple eyes. "Why do you call this creature the 'Boogeyman'?"
Rudy shrugged, averting her eyes and putting her hands in the pockets of her pants. "I guess he just … he appears underneath my bed sometimes. And he's always in the dark and only appears when I'm about to go to sleep."
"Hm … the dark?"
"Yeah."
Dr. Rosa wrote again in her notepad, her writing brief and short before she looked back up at Rudy with thoughtful eyes. "What do you feel when you see him?"
"Scared," the girl mumbled, tone trembling a bit. "Anxious. Sad, because he shows me my parents. Lonely. And … frustrated because I can't get away from him because I don't know what's going to happen." She always had that feeling of dread whenever he grew close. She couldn't push it away, even when she closed her eyes.
"Are you scared of the dark?" Dr. Rosa asked.
"I guess you could say that," Rudy replied. "But I'm more scared of what's in it."
"I figured." The woman leaned forward, giving the girl a patient, warm smile. "I think I know something that can help you. Two things, actually. How about some small lights and a stuffed animal for you to hug?"
Rudy shrugged. A stuffed animal wouldn't help much, but it would make her more comfortable; her bed was rather stiff, anyway. But some lights in her room would definitely help, she thought. Hopefully, the lights wouldn't break or shut off when she was asleep.
"Okay," Rudy replied, a bit hesitant but willing to try. "I guess that can work."
"It'll at least take away the physical cause of it," Dr. Rosa explained. "Now, let us try and relieve the mental cause of it."
Rudy sighed, preparing herself to be completely and coherently transparent.
After listening to Dr. Rosa's eloquent words, Rudy received little magnetic butterfly lights to attach to the side of her bed and some strong sleeping pills. She feared that they wouldn't be close enough to her to protect her from the vicious darkness, but when she turned them on, she realized that they were bright enough to form a golden barrier around her bed. There weren't any wires that connected them, for this was a psychiatric ward and they needed things to be safe, but each light had an individual switch on them to flip on that activated the light. Rudy was overjoyed by their warm touch.
As for the stuffed animal, one of the many nurses delivered a cute, pink, fluffy rat plush with big, black eyes, a chubby face, and big, round ears. Rudy's face seemed to shimmer as she stared at it, booping its little snout into her stubby nose and giggling. She found it adorable and very soft, and it fit snug in her arms. She decided to name it, "Snickerdoodle."
The results were acceptable, at least. When she went to sleep that night, all the comfort from before had died down, and she laid in her bed snuggling Snickerdoodle close to her chest. She shivered as she saw the darkness close in on her, only touching the very wings of the butterfly lights. Then a shape began to take form.
Rudy stifled a whimper as she saw the silhouette rise, the darkest lines of the creature's shape barely able to be seen. Two large purple dots resembled two large purple eyes, and upon his curved back, sharp and slender spikes poked out from his spine. A low growl rumbled from his chest as he began to prowl, growing closer and closer to her bed and thudding his tail on the floor.
But he didn't come very near. He growled once more when the lights shown in his face, revealing some of his grey skin, his dark lips curling over needle teeth. He whipped his tail in the air with a sharp crack! Slowly, he outstretched one of his monstrously gaunt hands, trying to see through the blinding light, but it was too much. He squinted, whined, and backed away.
Rudy let out a heavy sigh of relief, sinking into her stiff bed. Light was his weakness. Light hurt his eyes. Now she was finally safe. But when she opened her eyes and still saw him there, she found herself to be unsatisfied. Why wasn't he leaving? There wasn't any way for him to get to her now. Why was he still here?
She must've been furious at that point, because she sat up from her bed, glaring him dead in the eyes with only a little hint of fear. "Leave," she whispered hoarsely.
The Boogeyman hissed, but he didn't share the same anger at her. He seemed to tremble.
"Why are you staying?" the girl snapped, her tone slowly rising. "Go away." When he didn't move, she let go of Snickerdoodle and grabbed her pillow, baring her teeth. "Get the hell away from me!"
The Boogeyman whined and began to cower from her as she crawled to the edge of her bed, raising the hard pillow above her head and taking aim. "You wanna get hit?" she threatened, voice wavering only in the slightest. "Do you wanna get hit? I said get the hell outta my face before I make you!"
Rudy didn't know where this sudden determination and bravery came from, but it worked. The Boogeyman let out a squeal and darted away, the monster's groans and whines ringing in her ears as he disappeared into the darkness and escaped into the safety of the bottom of the bed. Rudy stared at the now empty spot in front of her. Then she slowly lowered the pillow, laying back down again, her heart thumping in her chest.
She still heard the Boogeyman's growls and quiet squeals. They all seemed to resonate one emotion: fear.
From that day on, Rudy seemed to be more calm and less frantic than before. In the morning after that one night, she switched off each butterfly light and gave Snickerdoodle a kiss on the cheek. Then she lowered herself onto the floor and stared at the bottom of the bed. It was dark. But she could sense that the foul creature who had tormented her for so long was still hiding. He didn't dare reveal himself.
She was still quiet, but perhaps not as much as before. She said hello the some of the nurses and workers she passed. When she stacked bacon and eggs on her tray, she listened in on the conversations the other patients had, and made some comments every now and then. She smiled when they laughed with her. Perhaps she wasn't feeling all that enthusiastic, but she seemed to be better.
Her parents weren't talking to her as much, either. But they'd still appear to her at certain times. On her way to the enclosed courtyard, a male voice called her to get ready for school, and she mistook one of the patients who had Asian features like her as her father, and she began to cry and wail the words, "I don't wanna go," over and over again while clinging to his ankle. She had to be pulled and taken away, and she was further told that she had violated the rule of keeping her hands to herself.
Rudy calmed down rather easily, however, regaining her breath quickly. She continued about her day, getting a nauseous feeling of dread in her chest.
As for the Boogeyman, Rudy always knew that he was there. She could see him sometimes if she pushed one of the butterfly lights beneath her bed, which often caused him to squeal or growl and slap the light away. She grew curious one night and slept without the lights on, and though fear had gripped her once more, nothing happened. The monster stayed in his hiding place, only making the slightest of sounds when Rudy was close.
His body was sore and stiff from being curled up underneath the bed for so long, but he was far too afraid to crawl out. This girl he had been feeding on for so long had suddenly turned terrifying. He had never had a victim who decided to talk back to him before, let alone a child of all things! How could someone so little be so strong? There was no use coming out when she wasn't in her room, either, because a nurse would always come in and clean up her room. He only had some time to weakly come out and stretch his aching body, and he felt absolutely miserable.
Oh, how desperately hungry he was. He was practically starving to death. With no negativity and fear to feed off from, he was in constant abdominal pain and his head always hurt. The Boogeyman would always sense Rudy's emotions, both good and bad, and he'd salivate thinking about his empty stomach. He'd whine weakly whenever it growled and he'd shake in anticipation when he felt Rudy's sadness and grief for her parents, but it was all useless.
Rudy suspected some of this when it was quiet time and she was doodling in her bed and heard his stomach growling, followed by his whines of pain. She, no matter how much of a dangerous idea it was, thought of how to get him out. For some reason, she felt that this wasn't just a hallucination. Everything about this felt … real.
And she was going to prove it.
The next day at suppertime, when the nurses weren't looking, Rudy opened the pockets to her pants and slid torn-up pieces of pizza into them, taking a cookie as well. She made sure to have food for herself as well. When movie-time came, the room she was in was dark, and though there were other patients and nurses all around, none of them were able to see her put popcorn in the remaining space of her pockets. She wore her hoodie this time, so most of the food was stored easily. The hoodie was big enough to cover her pant pockets as well. Perhaps she was just too lucky.
She was careful when she laid in her bed, making sure not to get any stains on the sheets. Once everything seemed silent, Rudy rolled off and onto the floor, making note of the butterfly lights.
Laying on her belly, she took a peek underneath the bed. Of course, her face was met with a defensive growl from the Boogeyman. But she didn't push herself back.
"Hey," Rudy whispered. "You wanna come out? I got some food for ya."
It was no surprise that the creature stayed exactly where he was. His purple eyes finally glimmered through the darkness. Rudy could see thick veins plastered onto each eyeball.
"I'm not gonna hurt you," she tried to reassure him, stretching a hand into the darkness. The Boogeyman let out a squeal, slapping her little hand away and whining. There was no worry about her getting any more hurt than that; he was far too afraid of her.
Slowly, she opened up the zippers to her pockets and took out the popcorn she had in the palm of her hand. "Here. Eat this."
The Boogeyman narrowed his eyes at the food. He never had human food before, and he wasn't willing to try no matter how much his stomach turned and twisted, so he answered Rudy's offer with silence.
Rudy laid down the popcorn and took out the bits of pizza she had, along with the cookie to top it all off. When the creature made no reaction once more, she shoved the food closer to him. "Hey, it took some sneaking about to get this for you. Are you going to eat it or not?"
Indeed the Boogeyman was beginning to grow an urge to lean forward and take a bite out of the food given to him. He could barely think about anything else besides this scary little girl and the opportunity to feast on her fears, but he couldn't do that. He was starving, but he was too afraid to try and eat these odd human treats. What if this was a trap? What if she was going to hit him when he poked his head out?
Rudy let out a sigh, standing back up and shoving her hands into her pockets. They felt greasy. "Fine," she said. "I'll leave you alone." She climbed back onto her bed, laying down on her back and staring at the ceiling. She wiped her fingers on her pants and hugged Snickerdoodle tight, playing with the plush's nose. Then she turned off the butterfly lights on the side where she put the food, sighing again.
The Boogeyman did come out eventually, but his moves were slow and reluctant. Rudy heard him whine quietly before she saw his hand slowly stretch out and snatch a handful of the popcorn. Then the bits of pizza, and even the cookie. He munched them all up and didn't leave a single crumb behind. Then it was silent.
Rudy looked down, surprised as she hugged Snickerdoodle close. "Are you done?" she asked.
Her response was a low growl and a gentle thud from underneath her bed.
She thought for a moment of what to say next as she sat up against her bed. Snickerdoodle seemed to tell her to be nice. "You can come out if you want," Rudy said. "I'm not gonna hurt you or anything. I'm in bed; I can't do much, anyway." Except for throwing a pillow into his face, but she wasn't planning to do that unless necessary.
Once again, her response was slow and silent. Slowly, in the darkness, she saw a weak, purple glow begin to resonate on the edge of her bed. Then the Boogeyman's hand slid out from underneath, claws prying into the floor as he sluggishly began to drag himself out. Rudy held her breath as the monster revealed himself, from tooth to tooth and spike to spike, his tail coiling out last.
This time, he didn't loom over her. Instead, he cowered behind the foot of her bed, staring anxiously at her with wide eyes.
"... Hey," Rudy greeted, an unsure but gentle tone to her voice. She waved. "You feel better?"
The Boogeyman growled, bowing his head but not tearing his gaze away. His claws tapped on the floor and his tail curled up. This little girl was surely making him uneasy, and he could feel his weak body trembling at the sound of her voice. He began to back away. Rudy frowned.
"I said I'm not gonna hurt you," she told him. "You'll be completely fine." When he didn't respond and stared, Rudy sighed and turned sides on her bed, facing the door as the Boogeyman's silhouette peeked at the edge of her vision. She didn't have any more food to give him, unfortunately, and he still looked rather hungry.
Though the monster's stomach felt a little bit filled, he was still empty and desperate for more. The girl didn't seem to be giving him any more of that odd human cuisine. It had weirded him out. All of those foods smelled unusual. (Though he had to admit that he very much liked the taste of the offerings.)
Cautiously, the Boogeyman padded to the side of her bed. He was rather large in size, rising to seven feet when he stood straight on his legs, so his head peeked quite high. But he tried to keep himself low, just in case the girl would lash out at him.
He produced a small, squeaky sound as he stared at her back, almost as if to ask, Why did you do that?
Rudy looked over her shoulder and at the dark creature. His spikes twitched.
"I never knew that monsters like you could like pizza," she said. "Or popcorn, or even cookies." She turned back onto her other side, keeping Snickerdoodle close to her chest. "I thought you just liked … y'know, fear stuff. What do you feed off of, anyway?"
The Boogeyman mumbled incoherently under his breath, poking his nose into the side of the mattress. He looked elsewhere and his tail was stiff and still curled up.
Rudy noticed that, now when he was closer and not a threat, he was more humanoid than she thought. In the dark, his skin seemed grey, and his hair that so smoothly blended into his head was a dark black. Same with his clothes; he didn't have any sleeves, but a charcoal gradient flew and faded from his shoulders to his wrists. It was similar with his legs and pants, which cut at his knees.
She never noticed how much he seemed like a human when she ignored all those monstrous features.
"I guess I'll just assume that you feed off of my fear, like in those horror movies," Rudy muttered. "But you kinda like human food too, right?"
The Boogeyman blinked. Then he slowly nodded. He pushed his head into the mattress, watching Rudy with anticipation and uncomfortableness in his eyes.
Rudy stared at him curiously. He definitely was real. How else could he have eaten the food? She gave Snickerdoodle a little squeeze, playing with the plush's whiskers. "I can try and sneak in some food for you tomorrow," she explained. "But if any of the nurses catch me, I won't try again."
Another offer already? The Boogeyman tilted his head, clearly puzzled. For a former victim of his, she was being awfully generous. He was never shown such kindness before, and he was never treated of anything akin to a pet. It made him feel vulnerable. But, he thought to himself, it was better than being cooped up underneath a bed, hiding forever from a terrifying little girl.
The monster still was afraid of her, though. She had been one of his only victims to ever talk and fight back. What power did she have that allowed her to do such a thing?
He rose his position a little, standing up more straight and looking down at her. There were no threatening flames in her eyes. She seemed peaceful. She seemed willing to care for him.
"I guess we should start with introductions first before we actually do anything, though," she explained. "I'll go first." She sat up against her bed, giving him a gentle, patient smile.
"My name's Rudy. What about yours?"
The Boogeyman only growled in response, acknowledging her name. Rudy. Rudy was her name.
He'd remember it for a very long time.
On movie nights, the Boogeyman would sneak out when Rudy told him that she felt no dread of something bad, and he'd snack on popcorn in the corner of the dark room. He was captivated by the movies that were played, and when he heard Rudy laugh at comedic moments, he felt her threatening aura begin to fade away. She didn't seem scary. It took him some time to remember that she was merely a child, and he could still attack her if he wanted to.
But he didn't want to. That was the problem. He was completely fine snacking off of these human foods. He found that he really enjoyed being in this building. But why? Perhaps it was because of the girl. He wasn't even realizing it; he was warming up to her.
Rudy would talk to him minutes before she went to bed, and if she could, she'd try and stay up. The Boogeyman was no longer tense around her, and he didn't dare to try and touch her or her precious mind. Somehow, that hungry urge to feed off her fear had faded away. Now, he almost wanted to protect her. If he could give her dreams, he'd do it.
There was a connection between them. Perhaps he could call her his … friend?
Rudy's sense of dread was used in those steal-and-hide situations, and she made sure to keep her head clear during each moment in the cafeteria. Her chest would grow heavy when she knew someone was watching her while she ate her food, so she knew which moment to tuck pieces of a sandwich in her pocket or even just a small brownie. The Boogeyman ate all of what she offered to him just to reassure her that he was okay. Some days he didn't need to eat; he was an odd monster, after all, and his metabolism was probably different compared to a human's.
She gave him a nickname: Boogey. When he heard it for the first time, he simply blinked and tilted his head, not knowing who she was referring to until she explained it to him. Boogey accepted his new name willingly. He then tried to come up with a name for Rudy, but he couldn't think of much. "The Girl Who Gave Away Ham Sandwiches" was far too long to be addressed, and Rudy was okay just being called "Rudy", anyway.
"Hey Boogey," she said once, "are you feeling hungry today?"
As she was laying in her bed, Boogey crawled out from underneath it and stretched, tail curling and straightening in the air. He shook his head and padded over to her. Rudy stuck out a hand and patted the side of his face, turning on her side to completely face him.
"That's good. I won't have to steal anything today." Rudy crossed her arms. Boogey let out a quiet clicking noise, putting his chin on the edge of the mattress and giving the girl an inquiring look. He was acting almost as if he were some sort of pet. But in reality, he was more of a guardian than anything.
"And since I don't have to steal anything, I won't have to worry about anything," Rudy continued. "You won't have to either."
Boogey pressed his face against the mattress, tilting his head to look up at her.
Rudy gave him a small smile, but it faded and hardened. She looked over her shoulder. Hesitantly, she took the drawing she was working on and stared at it, showing it to her monster friend.
It was a crude, messy, but filled with effort. It features two figures with black hair and empty faces, linking hands together and staring straight ahead. The first figure was tall and thin and the other was similar, except it had short, cropped hair and the other's was like a scribbly waterfall of black. Boogey recognized the features, and his purple eyes slowly scrolled up to the one who drew it. He let out an inquiring growl.
"My parents," Rudy said, averting her gaze. "Sometimes I just … wanna draw them." She sat up against the bed, observing at the picture in her hands blankly. "I guess it's to remember them in a good way, y'know?" It was a good distraction from hearing and seeing them all the time.
Boogey stared at her, blinking. A sudden wave of guilt surged through him, and he whined, remembering how long he had fed off of her and how much he had scarred her.
Rudy looked down at him, expression softening. "Hey. What's wrong?"
Boogey buried the side of his face into the mattress, letting out a sad growl as he nudged his nose into the girl's arm. It was almost his way to say, I'm sorry for what I did to you. The monster growled again, this time more quietly and with more sorrow as he began to regret hurting her in the first place.
Sighing, Rudy patted him on the head. "It's okay," she cooed to the creature. "I'm not hurting that much anymore. And you're helping me heal up." She put the drawing of her parents aside.
Letting out a shameful whine, Boogey slowly climbed onto the bed, curling up next to the troubled youth like a cat and closing his eyes. Rudy wrapped her arm around his head. "Everything's okay now," she told him again. "I forgive you."
The monster emitted a soft clicking noise and opened his eyes, looking up at the girl. There was something innocent in his gaze, as if he weren't a creature to be feared and hated. Instead, it was as if he were a lost child. A lost child that had only grown up to do what he was taught to do: hurt others to feed himself. But surely, he was clever in his ways and knew more than Rudy, as he was a being of incalculable precision and power.
Still, he seemed less of a threat than he was before.
Boogey laid there next to Rudy for a very long time. It wasn't until a nurse came to announce that it was time to meet with the other patients for a bit of a support group meeting, and Boogey darted to the side of the bed to hide until the nurse left. Rudy put the drawing of her parents on her nightstand and rolled off her bed, sighing.
"I'll talk to you in a bit, Boogey," Rudy said. She embraced him for a moment, patting his head again. He leaned against her before she let go, and he whined once more, patting the floor with his tail. He really wanted her to stay. He didn't want to be left alone.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," the girl reassured him. She took his gaunt, clawed hand and gave it a little squeeze. It was hard and cold, but she didn't mind. It was the hand of a friend. "I promise."
Boogey, for a few moments, was unconvinced. He didn't know what he could do when he was all alone without Rudy. But he slowly nodded, growling quietly in disappointment as she began to walk away. As she came to the edge of the door, she turned around and gave him a little wave. "See ya later."
Then she left.
