What you're about to read follows the events that changed my life. What this is now...I'm not sure if "life" is the right word. But I'm determined to share my story in order to keep others safe. If you're an adult and there's a kid in your life that you care about a lot...then read on. For their sake, and yours.
“It came out already?” Dave asked.
I held up the tiny tooth in one hand, peering at it as I cradled the phone between my neck and ear. “Sure did. It’s so tiny!” I said, grinning down at my niece.
Robyn gave me the big lip. “S’not little,” she insisted.
I ruffled her blonde hair.
My brother sighed on the other end of the line. “Can you put me on speaker?”
The phone beeped as I pressed the button, and the bedroom was filled with the bustling sounds of David’s office. “Hi sweetie! Uncle Jimmy tells me you lost that wiggly tooth, huh?” His voice had dropped all of its weariness, and instead had a brand-new sugary glaze to it.
“Uh huh! I wiggled it right out!” Robyn said. She bared her teeth at the phone as if to show her dad the gap between her incisors. “And there’s another loose one too!”
“Wow!” said Dave, almost like he could see what she was showing him.
I held the tooth in my open palm, examining it while Robyn chatted with her dad. It was pearly white, and a little smaller than my pinky nail. The root had been worn away to make room for the adult tooth that would soon come in. I grinned to myself at the thought of Robyn with one huge grown-up biter, commanding attention in her mouth full of tiny baby teeth.
“I can’t come get you until tomorrow, sweetie,” Dave said. “So tonight Uncle Jimmy is gonna get you all set up for the Tooth Fairy, ok?”
Robyn nodded at the handset.
“She says yes,” I supplied. I turned the phone off of speaker and held it up to Robyn’s ear. “Say bye to Dad!”
“Bye!”
I brought the phone back to my ear and chuckled. “So I’m the Tooth Fairy concierge tonight, I guess.”
“I’ll give you five bucks tomorrow morning when I drop by,” he said.
I whistled. “Is that what they’re going for these days?”
“Bye Jim!” Dave called out as he hung up the phone.
I sat down on the bed and tossed the handset onto the pillow. There were some animal cracker crumbs on the comforter from last night’s bedtime snack, which I brushed onto the floor with a sweep of my hand. “I think you’re having grapes for snack tonight,” I said. “Less messy.”
Robyn crawled up onto the bed beside me. “Maybe ice cream?” Her blue eyes were round and hopeful.
I scratched at my stubble, pretending to mull it over. “Hmmmmmmmmmmm–” I said, just long enough to make her impatient.
“Uncle Jimmy!”
“–mmmmmmmm, ok! Ice cream it is!”
I collected her bowl and spoon and stacked them with mine. She had licked both clean, and now had remains of chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream all over her face. “Time to wash up, Monkey,” I told her. “I’ll go grab your tooth, and then we can put it under your pillow for the Tooth Fairy.”
Robyn gasped in excitement. She launched herself off of the bed and sprinted down the hall to the bathroom.
There was a chocolate handprint on the blanket that needed tending to. I grabbed it and balled it up, intending to throw it into the wash on my way to the sink with the bowls. Robyn was a wild child and constantly left messes for me to clean up, so this was no surprise to me. Just a day in the Uncle life.
On my way downstairs with the dishes and blanket, something caught my eye. I turned to see the curtains fluttering at the end of the hall. The window was wide open. A handprint, outlined in what looked to be chocolate sauce, was stamped on the white windowsill.
“Robyn!” I called out, in the kind of tone that emulated David and indicated that I meant business.
She did not reply.
“Robyn Forrester, come out to the hall right now,” I said. “I mean it!”
Still no answer.
I shook my head, walking towards the upstairs bathroom and grasping the doorknob. The wind blew the curtains behind me, linens rustling against wallpaper. I glanced over my shoulder and out the open window, into the dark backyard. The sky was cloudy that night. No moon.
The brass handle felt sticky with chocolate.
“I’m coming in, Robyn,” I told her.
Just as I began to turn the handle, the door swung wide open.
There was Robyn, clean-faced, toothbrush in her hand. “I was going pee, Uncle Jimmy,” she said. “Why are you yelling?”
I looked down at her, schooling my face into a stern expression. “Did you open the window, Robyn?” I asked. “It’s winter. You know what I said about keeping windows closed.”
Robyn looked like she was about to cry. “I…I didn’t, Uncle Jimmy. I promise.”
“Robyn, there’s a chocolate sauce on the window,” I said, pointing to the stain. “I know you opened it, I just need you not to do it again.”
Her bottom lip wobbled, and those big blue eyes suddenly got very wet. “I…I…I didn’t. I didn’t.”
I felt the line between my eyebrows melt. I bent down to give her a hug. “Hey, it’s ok. It’s ok! Don’t worry about it, Monkey.”
She sniffled, but the tears were kept at bay.
With one last squeeze, I sent Robyn to get ready for bed. I moved to shut the window at the end of the hall, peering into the dark yard one last time before shutting it and drawing the curtains. I’d wipe down the chocolate handprint tomorrow.
When I got back to her room, Robyn was nestled under the blanket with her nightlight on, looking excited. The window incident seemed far from her mind. “Are we gonna put the tooth under the pillow now?”
I reached into my pocket and produced a small plastic bag, wielding it triumphantly. “Presenting! Princess Monkey’s front tooth! First of its name!” So what if I threw a little Game of Thrones in there? Robyn certainly wouldn’t know.
She giggled. “I’m not Princess Monkey! Princess Robyn!”
I bowed. “My mistake, my lady.” I carefully took the tooth out of the bag and held it between my forefinger and thumb.
Robyn sat up, and I placed the tooth under her pillow. She laid back down and giggled. “Losing teeth is fun, Uncle Jimmy.”
“It sure is, kiddo.” I kissed her goodnight, switched out the lamp, and closed her door.
I spent the rest of the night working on my novel. My office was dimly lit, save for my computer screen, which offered a distraction-free environment to focus on my writing. In particular, it didn’t allow enough light for my job search bulletin board to taunt me from its place on the wall.
After each job I applied to, I kept the clippings on that board to keep track of them. They were all searching for an entry-level worker to man the cash registers, stock shelves, sweep the floors, you name it. I tailored my resume to fit each.
Not a single one had called.
Now, this novel was seeming just as elusive as my job prospects. My protagonist – Beth – had just discovered that she made the national women’s soccer team, but her twin sister hadn’t. But every line I typed of their conversation just felt like cardboard. Hollow, somehow.
I sighed, rubbing my eyes. I badly needed a career.
My phone began to buzz beside me. My midnight alarm was reminding me to complete my Tooth Fairy duties.
I shut my laptop and grabbed a five-dollar bill from my wallet. I tiptoed up the stairs and into the dark hallway, listening for any sign that Robyn was still awake. I came to a stop outside her room, listening, and peering through her half-open door.
Her nightlight barely illuminated anything from across her bedroom, but I could sort of make out the shape of Robyn standing by her bed.
Ugh, David was going to kill me. It was way too late for Robyn to be up. I wasn’t the best at putting her to bed every night at the same time, but it was definitely around eight o’clock when I had said goodnight.
I pushed the door all the way open. “Robyn–”
The figure by the bed jerked.
It looked at me.
And it screamed.
All at once, paralyzing fear rippled through my body. Whatever was in the room was not Robyn. No, it was hovering over Robyn’s sleeping form.
As it screamed – a horrible, metallic sound that ripped at my brain – I fell to my knees. Pain wracked my skull, forcing me to shut my eyes and cover my ears. Everything became foggy. After what felt like hours, but could have been seconds, I slipped into unconsciousness.
I woke up in my office. My face was mashed up against the keyboard of my laptop, and felt like it had been there forever. My wall clock read quarter-past eight in the morning.
I sat upright, immediately recalling the events of the night before. A dream? That couldn’t have been a dream. But…it seemed like I had just fallen asleep at my computer.
A knock came at the door. I jumped.
“Uncle Jimmy? I’m hungry,” Robyn said from the hall.
Rubbing my bleary eyes, I shut my laptop and stood up from the desk. “Coming, Monkey,” I said.
She was standing outside my office with a crumpled five-dollar bill in her hand. “Look what I got!”
“That’s…great, honey!” I forced out. My mind was racing. I must have actually gone upstairs at some point to swap her tooth for the money. But…when? And what did I do with the tooth?
Robyn’s stomach growled loudly. I had Uncle duties to attend to, it seemed.
The smell of pancakes was enough to get me out of my head. I made Robyn’s batch first, watching her smother the stack in maple syrup and stuff a huge amount in her mouth. “Careful not to choke, silly kid,” I said. When she grinned, I saw pancake filling the gap in her smile.
She wiggled her newest loose tooth with her finger. “Soon I’ll have another five bucks! Right Uncle Jimmy?”
David chose that time to ring the doorbell.
“Daddy!” Robyn said, taking another bite of pancake.
I opened the door to let Dave inside. “Hey Jim,” he greeted me, stepping into the entranceway and taking off his snowy boots. Robyn got down from her chair and ran towards him. “And hey sweetie!” Dave exclaimed, taking his daughter in for a bear hug. “Was the tooth fairy good to you?”
I remembered the scream. The horrible scream.
And the figure bent over my niece’s bed.
A chill wracked my body, and my eyes prickled like I was about to cry. That paralyzing fear. I’ve never felt anything like it in my life, not even in dreams. This was different.
“Uh huh!” Robyn said. “I got five dollars!”
“Wow!” he said. “That’s awesome! Now go grab your stuff, sweetie. We’re meeting Grandma in an hour.”
Robyn ran off to pack her bag, which was a purple sparkly thing with a Dalmatian dog on the front. Not that she had many possessions; she usually brought a doll or two, and a pair of pajamas, when she came to stay with me.
“How’s the job search coming along?” Dave asked.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Oh, you know. The usual.”
Dave prodded my arm with his knuckles, holding out a ten-dollar bill. “Thanks again, man.”
“A tip?” I asked, laughing.
Dave waved it off, prodding me again. “You’re keeping the magic alive for her.”
I took the money with a shaking hand and managed a smile. I wasn’t so sure about magic. “No problem. Anytime.”
I didn’t sleep that night. No amount of tossing or turning, or even a glass of warm milk could make me drowsy. On the backs of my closed eyelids all I could see was that…thing, in Robyn’s room. All I could hear was its scream.
I hadn’t eaten all day. The leftover pancakes were in the refrigerator, likely to be thrown out in a few days. I had felt too nauseous for lunch. Too agitated for supper. But now, laying in bed at 3:23AM, I was suddenly ravenously hungry.
I decided that a bowl of cereal would do me good. In the kitchen, I left the refrigerator door open for some light as I poured myself a healthy amount of milk over my Frosted Flakes. Each spoonful tasted delicious and seemed to further ignite my hunger. I took my second bowl of cereal out to the living room and flopped down in front of the television to eat.
On the fourth spoonful, I bit down on something hard. It felt like a rock.
With shaking fingers, I reached into my mouth and pulled out the object. I held it up to the light of the television.
A small, white rock.
No.
A tooth.
I dropped my spoon and ran to the bathroom to get a closer look. Under the brighter light, it was obvious that this was a baby tooth, smaller than my pinky nail. But when I looked harder, this was no front incisor. The pointed tip gave no room for doubt in my mind that this was a canine. It was definitely not Robyn’s lost tooth.
My stomach flipped. I flushed the tooth down the toilet and sat down on the closed lid, shaking and drawing in deep breaths.
A bang against the bathroom door rattled it on its hinges.
I jumped, scrambling to lock the door before whatever was outside could get in.
A series of taps sounded from the bottom of the door, gradually tapping higher and higher, increasing in force, until it was slamming hard against the very top of the door. The wood creaked and moaned with every blow.
As the banging grew louder and more powerful, I felt panic consume my entire body. I was sure that it was going to split the door in half. I did not want to come face to face with whatever was outside. I couldn’t.
“Stop! Stop it!” I screamed, hands over my ears and eyes screwed shut. “Stop!”
And – to my amazement – it stopped.
The banging ceased, and was taken over by a soft scratching sound.
I slid my back down the wall until I was sitting on the cool tile, fighting back terrified sobs and the knot of fear in my gut. I don’t know how long I sat there. Hours, maybe. Eventually I found sleep as the sun crept in through the skylight and morning had arrived.
I woke up that evening locked in the bathroom with hunger gnawing at my stomach like a wild animal. I needed food. Any food. I’d never wanted it so much in my entire life.
Hunger seemed to dull my fear as I burst into the hallway and rounded the corner to the kitchen, digging through cupboards and tearing open bags of chips, boxes of crackers, sleeves of cookies and biscuits and demolishing an entire loaf of bread.
In the refrigerator, I consumed everything that I could get my hands on. A head of lettuce, a bag of tomatoes, the leftover pancakes, a jug of milk.
I finished a bag of apples in its entirety. Cores and all.
I gnawed on uncooked pasta and felt my gums bleed.
I chewed up and swallowed a raw chicken breast.
Tearing the top off of a carton of eggs, I popped one after another into my mouth, feeling the shells shatter as I chewed. The sharp pieces slid down my throat in a river of yolk.
As I began eating handfuls of uncooked rice, I felt something give way in my mouth as I bit down. The pain startled me out of my trance momentarily. I reached into my mouth to scoop out the contents and emerged with a handful of bloody, rice-covered mess.
In the middle of my palm sat three of my molars. Bloody, roots intact.
I probed the area with my tongue and felt the neighbouring teeth become loose as well. Two more teeth dropped onto my tongue. I spit them out. With a finger, I nudged my remaining teeth, and felt them all come out one by one.
Soon I was staring at 32 bloody teeth in a pile in front of me. Shaking, I ran a finger over my raw and empty gums. My heart was hammering in my chest.
And still, I was hungrier than I had been in my life.
I caught a glimpse of myself in my car window as I got behind the wheel. Disheveled hair, wild eyes, and a bloody, toothless mouth stared back at me. I pulled out of the driveway at breakneck speed and took off down the road.
When I got to Walmart, there were only a few cars in the dark parking lot, illuminated by the street lights. Which was good. Considering my state.
I had filled my cart nearly entirely with yogurt – seeing as how I no longer had teeth – when I saw him. He looked to be about eight years old, and was picking through a pile of $5 movies. His hand was resting against his mouth. His index finger, wiggling a loose tooth.
“I’ll be right back, Derrick,” his mother said, heading for the baking aisle. “Don’t you move.” She disappeared around the corner. Derrick wiggled his tooth.
I was much closer to him than I had been a minute ago. My cart, filled with yogurt, was only a few feet away from resting on his back.
Derrick didn’t face me. He wiggled his tooth absently, and dug through the bin of DVDs.
I was right behind him now. So hungry. Oh God, I’d never been this hungry. My hand reached out, seemingly on its own agenda. I reached for him.
A tinny rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody filled the air. My cell phone. It was ringing.
Derrick startled. Seeing me behind him, he immediately called out, “Mom?” and took off towards the baking aisle.
Something inside me breathed a sigh of relief. I took out my cell phone. David was calling. I wanted to answer it – I really did – but what could I say? I didn’t have any teeth. Literally, what could I say?
The call went to voicemail, and I hurried to listen to the message.
“Hey, Jim, it’s Dave. So, um, this might sound kind of strange. But Robyn wouldn’t go to sleep last night because of a nightmare she said she had about the ‘Tooth Fairy’. Do you know anything about that? You didn’t play any pranks on her, did you? I mean…Jesus, what am I saying? I know you wouldn’t do that. It’s just…well, this is really bothering her. She won’t sleep. Oh – also, she left her doll at your place. So we’re going to come pick it up tonight. Call me back, and we’ll find a time that works.”
My blood ran cold. No. No, they couldn’t come. My fingers hovered over the keys to text him back a reply, but something inside stopped me. Something that wanted them to show up at my house. Something that fixated on Robyn’s newest loose tooth, wiggling and wiggling, nearly ready to come out.
Something hungry.
“No!” I shouted. It came out a mangled roar. I fought hard against the growing hunger to type out a message to my brother.
do not come. stay away. PROMISE!!
I hit send. It felt like all the energy had been drained out of my body as I battled to write that text. My limbs hung limply at my sides and I was breathing hard, and yet the hunger only seemed to intensify. It seemed not only to come from my stomach, but emanated from my very bones. It was something no amount of yogurt could satisfy.
The front door was open when I pulled up to the house. Nothing inside looked disturbed, other than the disastrous wake of my binge eating earlier in the day.
I went straight to the pile of teeth that I had left on the kitchen table. I sat down and stared at them. My stomach growled, and my fingers itched to pick one up. I looked down at the ground to try and regain some resemblance of willpower.
That’s when I noticed the trail of brown footprints leading from the bathroom, out the front door, and all the way down the porch steps. Not chocolate syrup footprints. Footprints made with something I had no name for.
I looked back at the pile of teeth. As badly as I wanted to pop one in my mouth and swallow – as truly badly as I wanted that – there was another purpose for them. I scooped them into a bowl, ignoring the pool of saliva and blood that they left behind, and headed for my room.
Pulling back my sheets, I picked up my pillow and dumped the bowl of teeth onto the space it left. They left a reddish stain on the white fitted sheet, which tomorrow I figured would look a little like the Japanese flag. I replaced the pillow and crawled into bed, trying to ignore the frantic beating of my petrified heart.
The room around me was completely still, in a smothering kind of way. The only light that reached my eyes was from the streetlamp filtering in through the blinds.
I pulled the sheets up around me, and waited.
It was at midnight exactly that I woke up to the feeling of something moving beneath my pillow.
My eyes shot open, and blinked blearily as they attempted to adjust to the darkness. Something was rifling around under my head, moving frantically. I turned, and felt something bite my face. I yelped.
Whatever was under my pillow was startled, and it snatched its hand away and shrieked. A metallic, sickening screech.
I leaped for the light switch and flicked it on.
There, crouching beside my bed, was a lanky creature with spindly arms and legs. It screamed when it saw me in the light. That horrible sound. The same sound from that night scraped against my bones and clawed behind my eyes.
I watched as it rose to its full height – about six or seven feet. It was human-like, for the most part, but lacked eyes and ears. Its entire body was covered in a yellowish-grey skin…only it wasn’t skin. The creature was covered head to toe in human teeth, save for a gaping, toothless maw in the center of its face.
My hand darted beneath my pillow to find a few teeth remaining. Fighting the terrible screaming noise, I pulled them out, put them in my mouth, and swallowed. The first feeling was pure bliss. My terrible, ravaging hunger seemed to subside for a moment as my body accepted the food.
The second feeling was unadulterated agony.
Something sharp was tearing through my gut and making its way to the surface of my skin. I watched in horror as a small lump appeared on the back of my hand, pressing against me from the inside. It pushed, and all at once, several teeth erupted from below my skin and protruded out of my body.
As I swallowed another handful, it happened again, and again. My hands were now studded in teeth, gleaming, which I admired in the light as blood leaked from the area.
I rose from the bed, feeling something akin to raw power flood my veins and muscles. Although I stood a good foot shorter than the creature, I felt it shrivel at the sight of me, and resume its crouching position. I loomed over it, clenching and unclenching my fists, wondering what to do with the beast that had terrorized me and my family.
A sound rang through the house. The doorbell.
The creature’s head snapped up. Before I could move, it darted around me and ran into the hallway, swinging its legs through by its long arms like a monkey.
Monkey.
I bolted down the stairs as fast as I could. On the fourth step I tripped, and fell down the remaining steps to crash into a heap at the bottom. As I lay there stunned, the door creaked open.
“Jimmy?” someone called. “I know it’s late, but I’m worried.”
“Dave! Don’t!” I tried to scream. But all that came out was a garbled cry.
“Jim, what is going on?” Dave shouted. “Are you hurt? Where are you?”
“I’m in here,” someone said calmly. God, that voice! It sounded just like me! It was that…thing. I knew it. It was trying to lure them into the bathroom.
I scrambled to my feet just in time to see Dave stepping across the dirty floor with Robyn in his arms, trying to avoid eggshells, spilled food, and puddles of blood and spit. “Baby, cover your eyes,” he whispered, holding his hand in front of Robyn’s face.
“Over here!” the creature said in my voice, from the bathroom.
Dave walked faster.
I knew I had to think fast. I was between Dave and the bathroom. I lunged for the nearest kitchen drawer, producing a massive carving knife. I grasped it by the handle and held it above my head. Screaming, I ran at Dave with the knife, making a move to stab at him with it.
Dave turned and caught my eye. Now, I’ve never seen true terror on my big brother’s face before, but it was nothing compared to what I saw on Robyn’s. Dave’s hand had slipped down, no longer covering her eyes, and she saw the whole thing.
My niece watched me lunge at her father with a knife. She shrieked, and Dave dodged, shielding her with his body. She was crying, and I could see the shock and disbelief in Dave’s eyes as he backed away towards the front door. The blade had missed them both.
I held the knife high, tip pointed towards my family. “Get out,” I try to say, but they couldn’t understand me. Dave only saw his brother wielding a weapon, toothless and bleeding, threatening him and his daughter. Robyn only saw that her favourite uncle had become a nightmare.
Dave took one last pained look at me, and one more disbelieving look towards the bathroom. He slowly backed up onto the front porch. When it appeared that I wouldn’t be pursuing him, he turned and sprinted away with his child.
I gripped the handle of the knife so tightly that I thought the teeth growing out of my hands would pop right off. Weapon ready, I crept towards the bathroom, prepared to absolutely mutilate this thing. I stopped in front of the door. Listened.
I heard nothing.
Steeling myself, I kicked open the door.
The bathroom was empty, save for some oozing brown footprints. The window above the bathtub was wide open. A frigid winter wind blew inside and rustled the linen curtains against the wallpaper.
Dave and Robyn’s vehicle pulled away down the street, the opposite direction from where the brown tracks led in the snow. They were safe for now. But it was up to me to make sure it stayed that way.
I left my home that day for good. I haven’t been back, and I haven’t spoken to my family since. It’s all on me to protect them from whatever that thing was, because I know it doesn’t just want Robyn’s teeth; it wants revenge. Revenge on me, for having the strength to challenge it. It knows just what would hurt me the most. I can’t let that happen.
The hunger is still there. It eats away at me most days, when there isn’t a dentists’ office nearby that I can scavenge from. I’m not the kind of Tooth Fairy that crawls into people’s rooms at night. Wouldn’t want to meet an unsuspecting parent, after all. I know better than anyone what happens to adults that encounter the Tooth Fairy late at night.
My advice for parents? Tell your kids the Tooth Fairy isn’t real. Maybe they’ll stop putting teeth under their pillows and putting you all at risk.
I will say, though, that being a Tooth Fairy isn’t all that bad. I mean, in this economy? At least now I have a job.
the end.
Submitted December 10, 2016 at 09:01AM by stella-ella-hola http://ift.tt/2hgDWiN nosleep
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