Light flooded through the window from the flashes of lightning that were being created by the giant autumn storm. It was at least 12:30am and there was no way that the paranoid Timmy was going to fall asleep. Sure he was tired, but he was even more scared. He and his parents were staying at his grandmother's house for the holidays, and he was stuck in the spare room placed in the basement by himself. The place stank of mothballs and perfume, and there was thick shag carpet that surrounded him, the lead paint was chipped and mildewed. His grandmother also collected dolls and about half of them were displayed in the room, staring directly at him.

    Timmy threw the covers over his head hoping that maybe if the storm was out of sight it would be out of mind. Hoping on the inside that maybe if he hid, he would be able to forget the lightning and fall asleep. This only worked for a little while, until the sound of thunder rang through the house. Timmy jumped up from out of his bed and looked around.
    “Ugh… I just want to fall asleep!” He groaned as he fell forward, smashing his face into his bed sheets. He decided he would just smash his eyes clothed until he drifted off to sleep. Another bolt of lightning lit up the room, thrusting open his eyes, and Timmy noticed a terrifying silhouette standing on the wall across from him, and then disappeared into the dark. Timmy looked all around himself, and only seconds later he heard a crashing sound. Timmy jumped up and shivered. He was stuck down in a room, already horrified as it is, and now he’s hearing strange noises? Timmy ran over to the old mahogany dresser, and pulled out a clean quill pen, he knew how sharp these things were because his cousin had stabbed him in the arm with one once.
    Timmy was shaking violently, however. Tears were welling up in his eyes and he was humming very quietly to himself, in hopes of making the fear go away. He remembered his parents were telling him that when he turned seven years old, he would become very brave and would be able to go to sleep. That was only a lie that his parents had told him because they didn’t want to buy him an actual present, and instead pretended to give him the gift of “seven year old bravery.”
    “It’s nothing, you’re just hearing things.” Timmy whispered to himself. His mother always told him that, but this time the horror seemed much more real than the other times that he had gone running to his mother in tears. However, TImmy’s imagination was too vivid to calm down. He was imagining a giant monster, covered in eyes and hair was crawling around in the basement, looking for him, hoping to eat him. Another noise run from the main part of the basement, it sounded like some sort of scratching noise. Timmy wasn’t even thinking at this point, but his body went into pure fight or flight mode, and he broke out the door, and ran upstairs to his parents, crashing through the door and tripping over a floor mat, nearly flying halfway across the ground, and face planting into the ground.
    “M-mom! Dad!” Timmy’s parents were silent.
    “”Mom! Dad! Hey, please listen!?” Timmy’s dad groaned, this was a daily thing for this kid.
    “What do you want kid? Did a bird fly by the window again?”
    “No, there was a crashing noise! and I can hear scratches… I think that someone has gotten into the basement through the glass door.” Said Timmy. His father responded, very sternly
    “Well did you check the door? Was it broken? Or did you just run right by it without even checking your facts and waking me up?” Timmy looked down at his feet.
    “Look I know that I’m seven now, and I’m supposed to be brave but I think that something bad is actually happening right now. Can we please call 911?” His mother began to speak in,
   

“Timmy, we are your parents ok? If there was a danger, we would know. If you think that we wouldn’t know that you are in trouble, that is in a way doubting our trust. Would you want to break our trust? Are you saying that you don’t trust your own mother Timmy? Because that’s not a very good thing to do.” Timmy nodded his head. He trusted his parents, and he didn’t want them to think that he didn’t trust them.
“Ok mom. I’ll go back to bed.” Timmy then began to walk back out the door, very relieved with his mother.
“That kid is so annoying.” His mother said, turned her head to face Timmy’s father.
    “I know. I can’t believe I actually contributed DNA to make him.”
    “You didn’t.”
    “Yeah… Wait, what?”
Timmy continued to walk back to the basement, and skipped  down the stairs without any fear, his mother was keeping him safe, and he would be able to go to sleep just fine that night. As he made his way down the stairs, he noticed how dramatically the temperature had changed. It was nearly freezing down there. As Timmy went to the last step, he noticed the glass door was completely smashed open, and ran water was flooding in. It took him a moment to understand what was going on, and he opened his mouth to scream, but it was muted by a hand, or more like a claw. Timmy turned his head to see a beast, it looked somewhat like a human being, but with huge claws on it’s hands. The creature hissed and drug Timmy outside into its lair.