go to bed and wait for the Sandman even as it came out of James's mouth it seemed to him a strange thing to say and he was not sure why he had but for some reason in what Daniel went to bed the next morning though he asked what does the Sandman look like James is making breakfast then you'll sat at the table short legs swinging under his chair nothing really James said it's just an expression why does it mean just something people say he put a plate of eggs in front of Daniel and kissed him
on top of the head he thought that would be the end of it until he saw the Sandman for himself he was getting ready for bed and stopped by Daniel's room to check in on him while he slept as he often did it was such a routine precaution that when he saw her pale naked man sitting on the edge of Daniels bed rocking back and forth it took a moment for him to process what he was seeing he reacted the way any father would of course he ran into the room screaming and for a moment
he thought about attacking the intruder but then the man on the bed turned and that's when James saw that it wasn't the man at all it was a pale slithery think hairless and walked its joints turned the wrong way and its body out of shape with itself when it moved it was like an insane marionette dancing on a stage James froze the skittering thing watched him he felt spreading warmth and he realized he'd peed himself only when he remembered that Daniel was still there in bed staring at the broken shaped Bing sitting a foot away
did he brag Ain the courage to move he grabbed Daniel and ran in the hall he turned to save the thing would follow them but it didn't for a moment it watched and then moving like a stop-motion nightmare it crawled to the window and jumped out leaving only the billowing curtains to mark its passing James had trouble talking to the police he reported a break-in but when asked to describe the intruder he didn't know what to say how could he make the ordinary man in the blue uniform sitting in his kitchen table while two of
his colleagues searched the house understand a thing like he'd seen he couldn't even understand it himself to make it worse Daniel's memory did not correspond to James's he describes an ordinary locking burglar a man in a mask he said James thought about it had it been a mask no it would have to have been a full costume and an elaborate one something like they would use for a movie and that would not explain the way it moved but in the end he simply echoed his son's testimony a man in a mask he said a burglar
the lion settled him almost as much as what had happened the doctors said Daniel wasn't hurt and showed no signs of molestation James was relieved they stayed at a hotel for a couple nights until they felt ready to come home and then James had a new security system installed along with bars and the windows he didn't like the sight of them in Daniel's room but it seemed like the only thing to do James was frightened that first night back in the house but Daniel strangely was not when asked if he felt okay sleeping alone he
just said yes in the end it was James who found himself wishing he were not sleeping alone he was up all night listening for the sound of anything moving in the house although he had convinced himself that his memory was faulty and that it had been a normal I'll be it probably deeply disturbed man in his son's room when he closed his eyes for even a moment he pictured bloodless skin and a twisted inhuman face he found himself wandering behind my house why my family he knew of course that there didn't have to be a
reason but still he wondered to each later Daniel stopped talking James didn't notice at first kids went through quite phases sometimes but eventually he tried to get Daniel to talk and he wouldn't eventually it became clear that he couldn't back to the doctor they went nothing wrong with him that we can see was the diagnosis was it the trauma James asked could be they said sometimes these things come on late children can be a mystery to even those who know them the best they recommended a child psychologist who James couldn't afford he could not for
that matter even afford the bill they were giving him now nothing seemed to help Daniel would write out answers to questions sometimes but never more than a yes-or-no James would then ask him what was wrong or if he'd seen or heard anything that frightened him Daniel would only stare he seemed furtive and bemused James found himself missing the sound of his son's voice sometimes he wanted to hear it so bad that he ate but it seemed that Daniel would not talk again until he was ready James had other things to worry about - it was
convinced beyond reason that the intruder was not really gone though the alarm never went off and the lots and the bars remained undisturbed he was sure that he heard movement in the night not normal movements it sounded like a huge snake slithering through the house when he heard it he imagined horrible things nothing was ever there when he went to investigate though he often thought he glimpsed something just out of the corner of his eye a pale foot or a misshapen shadow that would slink away as soon as he turned he rarely slept and when
he did he had haunted dreams soon he realized he had not left the house in weeks except to go to the bank and buy groceries he felt hemmed in with daniel actin mutes he hadn't had an actual conversation with anyone in weeks so he called his mother the connection was bad and a voice sounded faint and the verge of not being there at all I guess I'm okay MA he said pausing to wipe the sweat from his palms and then make sure he could hear Daniel playing in the next room but things have been a
little rough we had a break-in oh how awful mom said did they take anything no just ran off it was weird though I haven't felt comfortable since then are you still working at that Hospital no ma I left last year you've know that oh well have you been get no what about that nice woman you were seeing last year the one who played the piano James scowled she was always asking that kind of thing doesn't she know how hard it is to be a single father that he didn't have the time he was about to
say so when something made him in pause mum is there anyone else on the line I don't think so James was sure he heard it though the short gasping sound of someone trying to hold their breath and failing a cold feeling crept across the back of his neck you're sure nobody's listening on your other phone dear there is no other phone I'm on the cell that's why the service is so bad then what is James stopped if the sound wasn't coming from her end then he dropped the phone and raced through the hall the extension
hung out on his hook undisturbed heart-pounding he hurtled into the garage the spare phone sat on the workbench no one was in sight but could they've been could someone have been here all along listening to his phone call and then slithered away might they'd be here even now the next day he took out the extra phone extensions even filled in the jacks with rubber cement Daniel watched him work ice curious but James offered no explanation he began giving Daniel a light physical exam every week his cna training was a little rusty after a year on
disability but you never really forget it was an absurd thing to do of course even if there was a physical cause for Daniel's behavior it would be nothing he could discover this way and he was aware on some level that it was compulsive behavior nevertheless it made him feel better one morning James set the diaphragm of the stethoscope against their Neal's chest but he could not locate the heartbeat he moved his hands in search of the right spot to no avail then to test it he listened to his own heartbeat it came through steady and
clear but when he checked Daniel again he didn't hear anything a thought came unbidden to him of the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz whose chest was empty as a kettle a sick feeling or a halt in his stomach he threw the stethoscope down and grabbed Daniel by the shoulders looking into his face Daniel stared back with bright eyes he even smiled a little with the corners of his mouth James felt a tingle of Tears he swept his son off in his arms and hugged him and Daniel hugged back then James put his shirt back
on him and sent him to play the stethoscope he decided was broken he threw it in the trash things got worse James's terrors were no longer relegated to the long hours of the night now it seems that some creeping some skittering get scuttling some unknowable sauce some unknowable noise in the dark corner or another filled every second of his day the thoughts of how big the house really was started away on him there were so many rules he wasn't in at any given time so any places someone or something else could be imagined strange figures
occupying the rest of his home when he wasn't around melting into the walls or merging with the shadows whenever he turned on a light or opened a door how would he know if they were there how would he ever know soon he didn't have to be outside of a room to imagine it when he walked up the stairs he pictured pale figures lurking beneath them when he went down the hall he pictured a crawling thing slithering behind the walls shadowing is every step if he sat too long in the same chair he imagined that it
was right behind him and he was never comforted when he turned around and found nothing there as he could only guess that meant it had moved swiftly and silently behind him once again wherever he was not looking right now that was where he imagined it to be he was losing his mind he knew the only thing that helped him cling to sanity was that Daniel seemed undisturbed other than his mutinous his behavior was perfectly normal and whenever he seemed to sense that his father was troubled he would hug him or squeeze his hand or even
smile sometimes when he left the room James cried one night he found himself creeping around the house with no lights on it two o'clock in the morning if the intruding thing had taken to violating his daytime activities then he would get revenge by confronting it on its own terms the night and really night was no more frightening to him now than they they were almost interchangeable he padded barefoot down the halls up the stairs of in and out of disused rooms sometimes he stopped to listen hoping to located by sound it was a stealthy creeping
thing he knew but it was awkward at times and it couldn't always keep its strangely shaped limbs from making their distinct in regular footsteps the smallest noise would give it away there was one room he suspected it spent most of its time in the spare bedroom not a bedroom at all really more like a closet just large enough to accommodate a bed if one was so inclined it was unpainted and uncarpeted and drafty he'd always meant to fix it up he didn't come in there very often because he disliked the bare unused lock of it
it made him think of a partially dissected corpse he came in now though if the thing made its nesting any one place in the house that this would be it of course there was nothing there now but that didn't mean there was nothing there because running a hand through his sweat damp air what was he missing how did it hide from him what was it secret he peered into the rooms empty corners one by one getting his face a few inches from the plaster floorboards so that he could be certain certain that there was no
space for it to conceive itself the lightbulb flickered he froze my god he thought it's on the ceiling he pictured it crawling above him up a huge pale lizard that's how it gets around he thought that's how it escapes anytime I should have it cornered it just scuffles up the wall and hides right over my head he imagined it darling down behind him like a spider if I turn around he thought it will be there hanging with its face right next to mine he held his breath he did not want to turn around but he
had no choice it was between him and the door with a quiet sob he rounded on his heels of course he was alone there was no man in the ceiling he checked twice maybe crawled out and was waiting for him in the hall but when he checked there the coast is once again clear it should have been a relief but it was not after all it had to be in here somewhere if the ceiling was not it's trick that just meant it was something else something even more strange even more clever he went to Daniel's
room he had not stopped to check in on him at night like he always had this time though rather than open the door he listened that's it first pressing his ear against the grain of the cheap wood and holding his breath terrified that he would hear a skittering sound on the other side of the barrier what he heard instead shocked and more Daniel was talking to someone James recoiled for a second and then when he'd caught his breath he all but kicked in the door Daniel was already awake indeed sitting up in bed but he
was not saying anything now the light flashed on and James stopped halfway into the room before stopping suddenly torn what did he want more to confirm that his son could speak again or to find whomever he was speaking to the creak of the door hinged settled the matter for him he ran to the closet it threw it open there was nothing inside or at least nothing that shouldn't be there he swept aside clothes on their hangers but nothing was hiding between them then he dragged a toy box out and entered it into the floor nothing
he combed along the bare walls and floor and yes the ceiling pushing aside every last bit of rubbish and stray knickknacks so that he could be sure absolutely sure that nothing was hiding all the while Daniel watch them after a few minutes James was panting and covered in sweat and the closet was bare and there were neither intruders nor answers inside it struck him as funny somehow and he started to laugh very quietly he kicked his son's toys out of the way as he went to sit down on the bed dazed he became aware all
at once of several things first being that he had not slept in days and was nowhere near his right mind the second was how close he'd come to really losing it for good tomorrow he decided they would both sleep until afternoon and when they did wake up he and Daniel would get out of this creaky old house no more staying up cooped up like prisoners and no more checkups and no more dreams about monsters he would even take the bars of the windows it was time to get back to living like real people again James
saw it when he brushed his hand through Daniels hair he pulled Daniel a little too roughly closer his son acquiesced through the exclamation without fidgeting or complaint as James poured the side of his head hoping that what he was seeing would somehow stop being a parent he stared and stared until he ate from not blinking but there was no denying what was right in front of his eyes Daniel was missing an ear no he realized with mounting nausea both ears there was no injury no incision no mark where they should have been simply smooth blank
flesh as blank as Daniel's quiet unperturbed demeanor James swept him up in his arms and ran into the hall he was not sure where he was going or what he meant to do when he got there he just knew that there was now nothing more important than getting his son out of that house but their path was cut off the naked man sat in the hallway with his back to them no not a man James recognizes stretched limbs and stooped shoulders the pale things squatted on its haunches rocking back and forth like it was Paulo
seed it almost seemed to be in pain James Otis son close and backed away then he heard Daniels voice dad the James turned to Daniel and he heard the voice again daddy daddy but Daniels lips hadn't moved James looked back at the hunched figure its head jerked when it talked like a tick hello dad the James mouth went dry it took several tries before he could speak don't call me that it is this voices name for you go away leave my family alone but I am your family the longer it taught the more the voice
became distorted and blurred an icy feeling nestled in James's stomach who are you someone who came to visit why here you invited me James's hot loaded against the inside of his chest why I had something you wanted James licked his dry lips you're like you don't have anything I want I wanted to leave leave and never come back who is Daniel's mother James blinked what who is Daniel's mother the hell kind of question is that how old is Daniel James blinked again the things voice caused a pinching pain in the center of his forehead stop
asking me these things when is Daniels birthday I don't know what is his middle name shut up what was his first word I said shut up James wanted to tear the thing apart with his bare hands only the heaviness of Daniel in his arms kept him where he was you were alone you wanted his son so I made one for you James's hands began to shake that doesn't make sense made out of what out of myself James's stomach turned over but now I need those parts back Daniel picked that James is shorter to get his
attention something was strange about Daniel's face Danny open your eyes Daniel scrunched his eyes shut tighter open your eyes Danny Danny open your eyes open your eyes Daniel shook his head trying to refuse but he couldn't hold it forever eventually his eyelids flickered up and James saw the truth Daniel's eyes were gone James almost dropped him for a second he wanted to throw his son down to that he could stop locking into those empty holes in his face Daniel opened his mouth as it to speak but of course he had no voice he's coming back
to be a part of me again no no no no no no give him back give him back I cannot it has been too long I warned you this would happen lying you're lying you're a liar give me back my son give him back I do not lie I warned you he could not exist forever but you do not remember you can only remember what I want you to you forget all the times we have talked Daniel felt like a doll on an empty bag his hair was falling out disappearing before it touched the ground
his hands vanished into his sleeves and his feet rolled up inside his pants cuffs James cradled the tiny shapeless thing tears streamed down his face soon he held an empty pile of clothes and then those two were gone he looked around the house toys disappeared photos vanished from their frames Daniels little shoes were no longer by the door James turned towards Daniels room and confronted a wall where the door should be he groped the blank surface fingertips scrambling he hit his head against the wall the pain didn't feel real why why did you do this
it was what you wanted and I learned so much this is impossible people will ask people will wonder the police the hospitals the people in the neighborhood they have already forgotten him they only remembered what I wanted them to like you James pressed his hands against his aching skull well will I at least remember him after this you can try but your mind will fail you now that everything he was is a part of me again James sat on the floor looking at the blank wall out of the corner of his eye he saw the
thing creep toward him and even felt its wet hand on his shoulder but he did not look at it if I don't remember any of this he said then why tell me [Music] because the father should know and then James was alone [Music] abigail was worried about James sometimes when they met a year ago he said that he'd never been married and he'd never had kids but there was a certain pained expression he assumed when he said the last part abigail knew that Locke she met parents who'd lost children before you learned to recognize it
and there were other things about him that bored her too sometimes she would find him staring at a particular spot on the wall brow furrowed in concentration he did not seem to realize he was doing it and of course there was the insomnia and the sleepwalking to consider - yes there was lots to worry about but she loved him all the same James still said he'd never had kids and neither had she she'd long wanted one but it was impossible and she worried that James wouldn't stay with the woman who couldn't be a mother though
he constantly assured her that it was not so there were times and more and more often of late there were nights when James took to sleepwalking and even Abigail imagined that she heard strange scuttling noises in the house and saw impossible shapes in the dark corners when she thought she would do anything absolutely anything if it meant having a little daughter for she and James the race and at those moments she became truly afraid but she never knew why [Music]
