(12)-The Masked Man.

"And the book ends, but what the author was really talking about here was the fact that monsters aren't real." Miss Sherman said, holding an open book she had been reading to the 3rd grade class called "MONSTERS: FICTION, NOT FACT". She then closed the book and sat it on her desk. Clearly, she had chosen this particular book as a way to re-assure the class that there were no such thing as monsters after Tommy's show and tell about the Boogyman yesterday.

Tommy had not been paying attention to the morning lessons, for his mind kept drifting away to the supposed shape he had seen through the front door's window of the Myers house earlier today when he was with Laurie. He looked down at his notebook and realized the image of the drawing he'd been making absently during Miss Sherman's exposition of the book. A drawing of the Boogyman like the one he'd presented at Show And Tell yesterday. Perhaps that was why he sat up straight when he tuned back in to Miss Sherman's explanation of monsters not being real.

"You see...the whole "Monsters Aren't Real" assurance has been said to children several times over the years, but not received. No matter how much parents or other grown-ups assure children that monsters don't exist, the children are never convinced. For they believe they see the reality of the world we live in better than grown-ups do. To the children, monsters are a real concrete secret-existing society that all of humanity has once faced, not just children, as all grown-ups were once children themselves who believed in the existence of monsters at the time." Miss Sherman explained.

As the teacher rambled on and on, Tommy mused about reality. Suppose the reality he lived in was filled with monsters like the Boogyman? Suppose it was his fate to be the Boogyman's next victim? No matter which way he ran, no matter what he tried, no matter how much his parents assured him he was safe and that monsters weren't real, the Boogyman would be waiting for him. Golly, that couldn't be his fate. He was too young, too...well, too nice. But that 17-year Myers girl was young and probably no less nice than he was. It was just her destiny, that's all. It had been determined by Heaven a million years ago that on Halloween night-1963, she would be horribly murdered. But why would Heaven do something like that to a nice girl? Heaven wouldn't do anything like that, would it? He was taught by his parents that-

"He's coming for you tonight, Tommy. The Boogyman." Richie whispered from behind, as he was sitting behind Tommy today.

Ignoring Richie's teasing, Tommy looked out a window to gaze at the beautiful but eerie day. Yesterday the sky was pretty and bright blue. Today it was completely white. Eerie white. He then noticed a brown station wagon parked on the street outside. Behind the wheel, gazing into the class-room...gazing, it seemed, directly at him...was the Boogyman. Though he looked completely different from the versions Tommy saw him as in his nightmares over the years, he could tell it was the monster that had been terrorizing him in his nightmares since the age of 4, as the shape of him looked exactly like the shaped-version in some of his dreams. He wore dark blue mechanic coveralls, his hair was brown, and his face was white as a sheet of paper.

Logan saw Tommy looking out the window and took notice of the dread and fear on his friend's face. He then saw what was making his friend so uncomfortable. Outside the window, inside a parked brown station wagon on the street, gazing into the class-room-gazing, it seemed, directly at Tommy-was a man. At least he thought it was a man. He was dressed in dark blue mechanic coveralls, his hair was brown, but his face seemed...un-naturally white. Almost powdered. In fact, the more Logan looked at the face, the more he wondered if the mystery man was wearing a mask. He'd better be, because if that was his own face, that guy was in trouble. Wow, if he was looking at Tommy, then he was in trouble. But if he was wearing a mask, shouldn't he get out of the station wagon and take it off around about now and say "BOO" and reveal who he was? Logan didn't like this at all. Grown-ups didn't go driving around schools, wearing masks. Halloween or not.

Having had enough morbid thoughts about the Boogyman and monsters for one day, Tommy re-focused on Miss Sherman and concentrated on the lesson.

Hoping the man would go away, Logan followed Tommy's example and focused back on Miss Sherman, who was still ranting on about monsters not being real.

"Eddie..." Miss Sherman asked a 7-year old boy in the class. "what is the originality of monsters and the Boogyman?"

"I'm not gonna look at the Boogyman." Tommy thought. "I can see him out of the corner of my eye, but i'm not gonna give him the satisfaction of looking at him. Well, maybe just a bit to see if he's still there" He thought. The boy turned his head and looked out the window to see if the Boogyman was still outside his school in the station wagon. He was.

"Tommy?" Said Miss Sherman.

Tommy flinched when he heard his name being called and focused back on Miss Sherman. "Yes?"

"Perhaps you could answer one of the questions." Miss Sherman said.

Tommy closed his eyes tight and brought the question to the forefront of his mind, then he struggled to produce an answer before opening his eyes. "Uh, parents made up the story of the Boogyman's existence to scare their kids into behaving."

"That's right." Miss Sherman said. "Parents made up the story of the Boogyman's existence to get their children to mind them."

Tommy looked out the window a third time to see if the Boogyman was still outside in the station wagon.

Both were gone.
...

Later, after school had let out for the day, Tommy, carrying a pumpkin he'd gotten from the school therapist after his first session, exited the school, with Lonnie, Richie and Keith following from behind, laughing and pushing him.

Tommy and the bullies stopped in their tracks and he turned to face them. "Leave me alone!"

"He's gonna get you." Lonnie said.

"He's gonna get you, he's gonna get you, he's gonna get you, he's gonna get you, he's gonna get you." Lonnie, Richie and Keith said.

"The Boogyman is coming." Lonnie said.

"Leave me alone!" Tommy ordered.

"He doesn't believe us." Lonnie said.

"Yeah." Keith added.

"Don't you know what happens on Halloween?" Lonnie asked.

"Yeah. We get candy." Tommy answered.

"Hahahaha!" Lonnie, Richie and Keith laughed.

"The Boogyman. Ooh, the Boogyman." Richie said.

"Boogyman. Boogyman. Boogyman." Lonnie, Richie and Keith said. "Boogy-Boogyman." They said as Tommy turned to leave, only to be tripped by Keith and fall on his pumpkin, splitting it open. The bullies laughed before Lonnie and Keith took off running in one direction while Richie ran off in another as Tommy stood up, looking down at his now destroyed pumpkin. Had he not been looking down at his totaled pumpkin, he would've seen a figure grab Richie for a second before letting him go, allowing the 11-year old to resume running off. Seeing that no part of the pumpkin could be salvaged, Tommy walked off through the schoolyard, not noticing the same figure who had grabbed Richie just now was spying on him. He didn't even see the figure get inside his brown station wagon, start it up, and drive off. For if he had, he would've been able to connect the dots and realize that this figure was the Boogyman he had seen outside his school hours ago.

Tommy soon exited the schoolyard and started walking down the sidewalk, thinking about the Boogyman. Although he was focused on his thoughts about the creature, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the brown station wagon he'd seen hours earlier had pulled up beside him and was now following him, with the Boogyman inside, driving. Despite knowing this, however, he was not going to make direct contact and let the monster know he was aware of it's presence. Finally, after a few short seconds, the station wagon drove on ahead, leaving Tommy behind, much to his relief.

Tommy then started thinking about what Lonnie, Richie and Keith said about the Boogyman coming after him tonight. Little did either of them realize how wrong they were. The Boogyman wasn't coming...he was already here.

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