They wore boots. That’s all he could tell from the initial noises. They were silent at first, hardly making any noise at all. But their boots were too heavy, regardless of how careful they were. The boy of six years old was a light sleeper and heard them as soon as they stepped through the front door.

His father told him something like this might happen, to always be ready because there were dangerous people in the world that might try to hurt him. He had never fully understood what this meant until now. He was told to hide in the closet, in the little crawl space in the back. There he would be hidden from view and ultimately, hopefully, safe.

When he heard the boots, the boy sat up straight and stared into the darkness. Shadows played across his walls. They seemed like living, breathing things. He hesitated as he pulled off the covers and swung his feet toward the edge of the bed. What if the thing that lived under his bed grabbed him and pulled him under?

There was noise downstairs: “Who are you? Get out of my house!”

Then: A loud noise that made the boy jump. Followed by: A scream. Finally: Silence.

The boy held his breath as he listened. From below his floorboards he heard a gruff voice say, “Let’s find the boy.”

Without realizing what he was doing he felt his bare feet on the carpet. He jumped away from his bed, eyes wide and heartbeat frantic, staring at the opening between the bottom of the bed and the floor. There were no red eyes staring back at him. No clawed hands reaching out for his ankles. He turned toward the closet as the boots came to the top of the stairs. “You check that room, I’ll check this one.”

The boy’s hand reached for the handle to the closet, stopping just short. Tears fell from his face as he did his best to hide a whimper. He looked back at the space under his bed. There was nothing there. Maybe there’d be nothing in the closet. Closing his eyes he opened the door as the gruff voice again spoke, “Nothing? Let’s try that one.”

The boy entered the closet quietly, closing the door carefully behind him, and crawled inside the tiny opening that held suitcases and old lamps. A shadow caught his eye; A shadow with a long snout, and a singular cold eye. It wasn’t moving, so he hoped that whatever it was, it was sleeping. He did his best to stay quiet and still. His bedroom door opened and the men allowed themselves in.

The boy listened as the boots walked around on his lightly carpeted floor. A light found its way under the door and through the keyhole, making the boy wince as his eyes adjusted. There was a murmur of voices that the boy could just make out.

“What are you doing?”

“I wanted to see if the kid was in here. Calm down.”

“You’re going to get us caught waving that damn flashlight around. Now turn it off.” The light disappeared, leaving the boy enveloped in a shroud of black. “Speaking of the kid, where is he?”

“I don’t know. . . Let me check the closet.”

There was a momentary silence. “Alright… I’ll shut the blinds and then hurry up.” The boy’s eyes widened as he heard his blinds shut and the boots move towards his closet. He pressed himself closer to the wall as the closet door creaked open and a light invaded the space. The light moved back and forth, searching for something. Searching for him. He worried that the light would wake the sleeping monster across from him. He closed his eyes and listened. The only sound in the room was that of the men’s breathing. The boy wanted to scream, to attack whatever creatures were stalking him. He could feel his anger rising, his heartbeat quickening. The blood vessels in his brain pounded against his skull, screaming for a way out. Tears slid from his eyes into his mouth. He could no longer breath.

The boy opened his eyes and slowly looked back through the hole that was the crawlspace. The searching light and its owners were gone.

The boy emerged from his closet shaking. The house was quiet. The monsters had left. He looked toward his bed, there was nothing. He glanced behind him at the closet, nothing again. He looked toward his bedroom window, at the now closed blinds. Yes, he thought, that’s where the true monsters are.