The Imps In Your Closet

This was a dream I had had when I was in 11th grade. I was going through a rough time having moved 12 hours away from my hometown and leaving my close friends behind for a new life.

"Long ago, back when men had first become civilized, in our minds eye, there lived creatures called Imps. Imps were known to be devilish in their dealings with others, but there were few who could 'tame' these small creatures to do their bidding, for a price of course. Described only as dark, mischievous, elusive, and child-like, not everyone could see them. They were said to have lived only in very small caves and crevices that had a darkness to them that would equal the abyss. For the unfortunate people who met these half-sized demons, they are far and few between a rock and a hard place. Enough of this fairy and demons non-sense Tommy! You need to go to bed now!". Grandpa had lifted himself off of the corner of my bed and wobbled his way across my room to find the door and the light switch that plunged my room into the darkness that I had thought only to be found in the galaxies that I had learned about in school. My Grandpa had nodded me his goodnight and slinked away behind the door he had left cracked for my benefit of the hallway lamp, left on a stand up against the wall right outside my door.

I took a couple of minutes to myself to let my eyes absorb the dark that surrounded me. When I felt like I had my bearings, I sat up in my bed and looked around my room. It was the darkest room I have ever been known to call my own. Here I was, a boy of 13, I have moved over 15 times in my life and this was by far the furthest I've ever been to the place I like to call home. My mom didn't care much for settling down, I'm sure she has her reasons, I just want to have friends. As I looked around my new room, I could smell that 'new-room' smell, where it's not new like freshly coated paint, but new as in your nose is in a sensory overload of old smells of cat hair and newspaper.

My eyes kept drifting around my room, from the door to my unpacked boxes and then to the closet. This closet was different. It didn't have a door. It had hinges on it where a door could easily be placed, but instead, was left open. Squinting my eyes as hard as I could, I tried to guess how big it was. I mean I wasn't the one who toured the house and decided to rent it, so naturally I had no clue. With my windows well placed so as the moon light was shining directly onto the wall next to my closet, it was lit by the beams near the hinges. From this light, I could see on the wall some paneling where plaster had been but someone or something had punched through and behind the paneling and small wooden planks, I could see more of the abyss that blanketed my room. I'm sure my mom had seen this closet and thought it to be another one of those fix-it-upper's that she loved to do.

While looking into the closet, I thought I had seen something move. A rat perhaps? Nah, couldn't be a rat! My mother would never have rented a place with rats! But what else could it be? It was too large for any other critter and too small to be my cat Duchess. I was starting to regret letting old Gramps tell me all of those stories about little demons in far away lands. He never got to the end of that myth, he would always make an excuse to finish it or would get up and walk away like he had tonight. I was too old for those stories anyways, and I was too old to believe them and be scared of the truths that lay below every sentence.

I whipped the covers up so that they lay at the end of my bed in a fierce mess of crinkles. I observed the floor below me to be sure whatever had crawled out had not made it's to my bed. After seeing that the coast was clear, I bolted over to the door and flicked on my light. Nothing was there. My new room was not very large, maybe big enough to fit a full sized bed, a small dresser, and some boxes but that was about it. I had scanned the room for long enough when I decided it was time to find a flashlight. Having just moved into this apartment, this could be a small feat on it's own.

My feet padded heavily down the hall to the kitchen, thankfully everyone was in their beds and asleep from the hard day's labor of moving box after box. In the corner of the cramped kitchen laid a tool box and inside was the trusty torch of light I was looking for. I don't think I could have been more happy even if Ironman were to come to my house and stay for a sleep over. I rushed back to my room, flicked off the lights, and pounced into bed. Holding the flashlight tightly to my chest so as my knuckles would start to turn white soon, I listened.