It had been a long week.
The news said several children
had gone missing,
and this had parents
and kids all *******
themselves in fear.

Some moved away
but I managed to stay.

Though, I was alone
a stranger came lurking
creeping in my home.

Shadows swayed
as he came my way,
curtains danced
in a wind that I never let in.

Unoiled hinges cringed
and boards creaked
where this being sneaked.

Shadows wavered
like dancing marionettes,
and I felt the return
of a feeling I had
struggled to forget.

A cold hand pressed
upon my bare chest,
and I smelled
his stinking devil breath.

Glowing eyes
took me by surprise.
I tried to rise
but his hand slowly descended
as my flesh caved folding in,
I could feel him shivering
with anticipatory glee.

I asked him “why me?”
He smiled and said
“I’ve been dead
for a long while,
but I felt a string pulling me
and stumbled for over a mile.
When I first saw you
I suspected
that somehow
we were connected.”

His arm disappeared
up to the elbow.

But I knew something
that he didn’t know.
The anxiousness
I was feeling
had slowly subsided,
and now I was becoming
super excited.

He lost his eerie grin.
His sharped teeth chattered
and eyes shifted quickly
to my chest then my face.

His elbow disappeared,
and soon he feared
the rest would follow
collapsing into me
as if I was hollow.

He struggled in vain
to reclaim control.
and I laugh at that.

“It is funny” I said,

“but how could you know.
Sometimes better predators
stalk their prey
out there in the cold
and sometime
they lure other monsters
with their favorite fresh flesh bait.”

I burped as I digested
what I just ate.
Smiling because now
it was very late.
I was full and tired,
ready to retire,
safe and sound
cause I had found
the monster out there
and he was in here
where a lot of other
monsters
ended up.