The Nightmare Child: Part 1

The Nightmare Child
By KRS

      That first night couldn't be described as surreal.  No, it actually quite ordinary…but something was set into motion that night that I didn't realize until long after the mistakes were made.  Perhaps, if I had chosen a different house, the events might have unfolded differently.
      Then again, perhaps it was inevitable.
      Summer was never a season that I loved.  In fact, nearly all of my kind hates summer because of how it restricts us.  We cannot easily hide ourselves in sunlight.  It is hard enough to hide ourselves as it is.  Yet despite my hate of summer, those nights were always somewhat enjoyable.  I spent most of my time looking for toys left out by forgetful children and taking them back home.  I kept them for a day or two and then put them back as my father told me.
      "Our two worlds, the humans' and our own, cannot interact safely for long.  Too long in the other, and some things cannot be undone."  My father always told me this when I didn't want to put back a favored plaything.  I didn't understand; what three-year-old would?
      However, it was one summer night that I unintentionally started to push at that natural barrier between the two.  I couldn't find any toys around the current area we were inhabiting and it made me reckless.  I did the one thing my father always warned me about; I entered a human home.  While there had been many times when we would stay in an abandoned house somewhere, seeing one that was being used was almost dreamlike.
      Using some of the abilities my father had taught me, I managed to unlock the back door and slip inside.  Hearing my talons click on a wood floor startled me and I jumped onto the first spot of carpet I could find before looking around.
      It was a very odd room or set of rooms for they were connected, that I had walked into.  To my right, and the carpeted room I was currently standing in, were black lumpy sofas and chairs with ceiling high cabinets and selves along the back wall.  To my left was an open room with wood floors.  There were counters with cabinets above and below as well as a wood table closer to me.
      On those counters were what I thought were the best looking toys I had seen; definitely much better looking than the bright colored plastic ones.  I curled the point of my talons into the bottom of my foot and walked clumsily towards them.  It was an old trick my father used to move on wood without making a lot of noise.  Needless to say, I still wasn't very good at it.
      The toys on the counter looked fun, but that didn't change the fact that I couldn't reach them.  The only one my small fingers touched didn't have something for me to grab.  It frustrated me to no end and I crossed my arms to sulk.  I knew there must be some way for any human children in this house to reach them, and if there wasn't then they must be kept out of reach for a reason, which only served to intrigue me even more.
      But my planning was interrupted as my ears picked up the very light shuffle of feet coming down the hall.  I was too scared to think of trying to run through a door into another room but I knew the table couldn't hide me.  I darted behind the little kitchen island just before she shuffled around the corner…
      She was a small human child.  Based on the difference in growth rate between our kind, she must have been a year older than my three despite the fact we looked about the same age.  She clutched her beat up knit blanket as she paused at the corner.  I couldn't see any details about her face since the only light was coming from the hallway behind her, but she seemed scared to step into the dark kitchen.  She stepped in only far enough to run her small hand up the wall to the light switch.
      When the light clicked on, I didn't pull back fast enough.  I had seen her head turn towards where I was hiding.
      "Sissy?" she called after me. "Is tha' you?"  I didn't budge from my spot, but when I moved slightly, my talons clicked.  "Who's there?"  I was so frightened that she would find my hiding spot if I didn't respond that I did the only thing my child mind could think of.
      "Please don't come closer!" I almost cried when I heard her take a step forward.  Her footstep's stopped after that.
      "Who are you? You sound like a boy."  My breathing sped up slightly when I heard another step closer.
      "Don't come closer!"  She stopped again.  I wanted to bolt for the door…but the only door to the outside was the one behind her.  I was afraid she might scream if I ran out.
      "Why don't you come out?"  I searched for an answer.  I couldn't think of any good lies so I settled for the closest thing to the truth.
      "I look ugly."  I hoped she would leave soon so that I could get away from this house.  I didn't hear her move at all.
      "Daddy says nobody looks ugly."  I heard her feet pad against the hardwood again and I started to panic.  I couldn't see which way she would come around the island so I was trapped there until she found me.
      "Come out. Please?"  I couldn't think of anything else I could do.  So, I did exactly what she asked and stuck my head around the corner.  I was too young to have grown the bone ridges above my eyes, so my face still looked like that of a human.  She smiled at me, her bobbed brown hair sticking up around her round face.  I smiled back and didn't think about what I did next.  I was too happy that she hadn't screamed.
      Without thinking I started to step out from behind the island counter.  Her smile disappeared when she saw my twisted body.  She took a step back and I saw that frightened look come to her face.  I shrank back, waiting for the scream.
      But it didn't come.  I watched as she turned and ran away from me, her blanket dropping to the floor.  As she rounded the corner to the hall I bolted for the door.  As I swung the door shut behind me, I saw her reach a set of stairs leading to the second story.  I was outside and safe in the darkness, with the door once again locked behind me, before she could make it up those stairs.