Beware, Beware The Boogeyman’s Scare
Fear had a reputation.
One perhaps unironically frightening, given how most people used it more often than not.
But this didn’t change the fact that fear was a good thing in the long run.
It kept people cautious and alive. It made them stronger, faster, and smarter. It could bring out the best in those it touched.
What’s more, in the right doses it could be fun to feel that chill down your spine, to jump out of your skin, the exhilaration of having your heart pumping and knowing you endured the thing that terrified you so.
And perhaps most importantly courage could not exist without fear, for courage is merely the willingness to stand despite your fears. The willingness to face your monster and rise to greater heights than you ever thought yourself capable of.
That was the thing he loved to see the most from children. That spark of courage, that growth of potential that only facing their fears could bring into being. (It’s the thing that makes everything else worth it.)
Of course that wasn’t to say he would deny the fact that all of that was only if you gave them a more moderate fright. In truth, he was probably the last person to pretend that fear couldn’t make people careless, slow them down, and make them run rather than fight as fear turned to despair rather than courage. (But even then that kind of fear has its purpose.)
Still that caution and the courage born from it was the reason for his people’s job.
Nightmarians such as himself would sneak the shadows of the night and haunt the homes of children, filling their dreams to the brim with fright, but never so much that the child couldn’t stand up to them. Which is why over time after exposure and nightmares those children would eventually grow to face their fears and become so much greater.
And as painful as it was to watch their children grow, the day they faced their fears was always the proudest of any monster.
Which is why his people went to such lengths to make sure every child was assigned the exact monster needed to help them reach their full potential. Someone with long and spindly limbs for the child scared of spiders, a shadowy figure with glowing eyes for the one scared of the dark, or perhaps someone capable of a low rumbling growl for the kids scared of thunder. Regardless of what kind of monster they were, every Nightmarian knew they would be assigned to a child they could help better than any other monster.
This wasn’t to say they got it right every single time, whether it be due to multiple fears or a simple misunderstanding of the situation, sometimes the monster assigned to a child not being the one necessary to help them bring out their true courage. In which case they helped figure out the monster that would help the child the most, occasionally forming entire teams of monsters to help the child work through their numerous fears so that they can build the courage to face the world with their head held high.
In a mix of fortunes, he was a monster most often brought into a situation only after another monster had been assigned and discovered they weren’t up to it to deal with the situation.
Normally his brand of fear was… frowned upon by his fellows, but as times changed and the number of children grew to be far greater than what his people could feasibly handle it became more and more apparent that his kind of fear was a… necessity to help certain children in need.
“Would you like more tea Mr. Bubbles?”
“I would love some.” He nodded to the little girl sitting across from him before turning to a stuffed animal next to him. “How about you Mrs. Bearington? A cookie perhaps?”
“No, no, she has to watch her figure.” The little girl told him.
“Oh, of course, how silly of me.” He scoffed, rapping his knuckles off of his skull.
“You know you’re not like the last monster under my bed.” The girl confessed, rubbing at a dark spot on her arm.
“How so?” He asked, tilting his head and suppressing a frown.
The little girl seemed to think about it for a moment. “You’re a lot nicer.”
“Am I really?” He wondered tilting his head to the other side before giving the girl a wide smile with far more teeth than any human had. “Personally I think I’m a lot meaner if we’re being honest.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t sit down and play tea party with me.” The girl pointed out gesturing towards the fact that he was sitting in a chair so small his knees came up to his chest.
“And what kind of monster doesn’t like tea parties?” He scoffed, forcing himself to remember that not all Nightmarians were built like him. (It’s not anyone's fault, it’s just how things are…)
The little girl smiled at him shyly, before there was a thumping in the hall and she gasped. “That was my dad, you have to hide. I’m supposed to be in bed!”
(Well, it was fun while it lasted.) He thought just a little sardonically as he bonelessly slithered beneath the table and made his way around the toys he’d gotten the girl to play with before hiding under her bed, unable to keep from savoring the smile he’d put upon her face with his little act.
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The door to the room opened and from beneath the bed he saw a pair of boots walk into the room.
He was a special kind of monster for a special kind of kid.
“What are you still doing up? You were supposed to be in bed hours ago.” The girl’s… father said.
Every Nightmarian knew who he was, and far fewer approved of him.
“I, I couldn’t sleep.” The little girl lied.
(Which is fair.)
“Really because it looks like you were up playing when you’re supposed to be sleeping.”
He’d never deny he tended to take things too far.
“No, that’s, that’s from earlier!”
Sometimes he just couldn’t help himself.
“Are you lying to me?”
But despite what they knew, his bosses still assigned him children.
“...” The girl was quiet, the bed creaking as she shifted on it.
Because they knew as well as he did that some kids needed a monster like him.
“What have I told you about lying?”
And maybe he was on probation for taking things too far, too often.
“...”
But he wasn’t the only one, and some kids still needed him.
“Not going to say anything?”
And sure this tendency meant he couldn’t scare kids like every other Nightmarian.
“...”
But what he could do is…
“You’re a liar just like your whore of a mother.” The man spat. “And you know what we do to liars.”
Scare the shit the monsters that took it too far.
The man lunged for the little girl, and he shot out from under the bed snaking around the man and throwing him across the room with a loud thud against the wall.
“Uh-uh-uh.” He told the man undeserving of the title ‘father’ as he wagged a finger through the air. “There’s no need for violence.”
“The fuck, who the fuck are you?!” The man yelled, picking himself off of the ground.
“Me?” He asked, tilting his head at an angle no human could match. “Why, I’m the monster under her bed.”
“The what?”
He glanced at the little girl cowering behind him and gave her a sad smile as he waved his hand in front of her face. “Shh, little one, this is all a bad dream.”
The little girl slowly nodded off.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” The man yelled.
He sneered at the man. “Something far kinder than you were about to.”
The man growled before swinging at him.
“I told you there’s no need for violence.” He reminded the man as he caught the blow with ease.
As he loomed over him, the man paled as he realized that of the two of them he was the bigger monster by a good head and a half.
“Though I suppose with how you treat your daughter, violence is your prefered language.” He admitted, picking the man up by his throat -sure to let his fingers grow long enough to wrap around the man’s neck thrice over- and raising him so that the back of his head hit the ceiling.
“W-what d-do you want?” The man whimpered.
“What do I want?” He repeated, scratching at his face and purposely peeling away his own grey skin to reveal the black and white muscle beneath. “Well that’s really simple…”
He pulled the man close to his face, while letting the stench of rot leak from his mouth. “I want you to never lay a hand on the girl again, or else… I’ll skin you alive and feed you your own flesh as we take her somewhere you’ll never touch her again.”
“Y-you can’t-”
He slammed the man into the ceiling once more. “I think I can, after all no one stopped you from hurting the girl, so who’s going to stop me from hurting you?”
With that said he released the man and let him fall to the ground before kicking him over and putting his boot on the man’s neck. “Besides you’ll find I can do a lot of things other people can’t.”
He opened his mouth and let the spiders crawl out and down onto the man’s crying face, amused by the fact that someone who’d bully children would be scared of something so small.
“Meaning I can come for you whenever I please. That there is nowhere I won’t hunt you down if you ever harm her again.” He continued as he ran his claws over the man’s face. “And honestly if it was up to me you’d already be dead.”
The man merely whimpered.
“But luckily for you, and unluckily for her, the little one still actually loves you for Cheshire knows why.” He explained, before crouching close enough that their faces were touching. “So remember, she is the only reason you still breathe, and everyday you wake up is another you owe her your life. Am I understood?”
The man nodded.
“Good.” He opened his mouth wide enough to bite the man’s head off as he yawned, before giving the man a disgusted look as he let him up. “Now get out of my sight.”
Rather than standing up or trying to defend his daughter, the coward ran abandoning his daughter to the friendliest monster she’d ever know. All the while a faint haunting tune of a dozen children followed the man as he ran in terror.
With the nuisance dealt with he reached down and picked up the girl’s stuffed bear before giving it to her sleeping form and tucking her in as he himself hummed the tune that all of his people had come to know him by.
“Beware, beware the Boogeyman’s Scare
He haunts and prowls the night,
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright
Beware, beware the Boogeyman’s Scare
Under your bed he lurks and hides
In the darkest hour does he reside
But child fear not the Boogeyman’s Scare
For the monster is on your side this night
But those who’d harm innocence’s light
Beware, beware the Boogeyman’s Scare
For should you lay a hand upon a child’s head
Then the boogeyman shall see you dead.”