This is an early draft of a blog post I'll make some time in the future, that will include illustrations. For the time being, though, I'm curious about your Boogeyman.
Everyone knows about the Boogeyman even if they know him by a different name. The concept is always the same, just a vague threat to children in the night. He's gonna get you. He lives in your closet. He lives under your bed. He scratches at your window. You better eat your veggies, do your homework, and be nice to your siblings, or he's gonna get'cha.
What makes the Boogeyman such a scary thing to us as kids is the fact that we are left to create our own terrifying manifestation of that creak we hear in the dark, or that unknown fear lurking just outside the door. This is also what makes the Boogeyman so interesting to me. Like horrid snowflakes, no two Boogeymen are the same. I want to know what your Boogeyman is.
What does he look like?
Where does he live?
What does he do to you if he gets you?
How do you protect yourself from being gotten?
What he looks like.
I've always been frightened by the distorted human form. The so-called gray aliens are a perfect example of what I mean. They don't have fangs or claws. They don't have spikes or stingers. They're just vaguely human-like. Spindely limbs, long boney fingers, and holy mother of Christ, those fucking eyes.
My Boogeyman features all of these fear-enducing attributes. I imagine him to sort of look like the Soggies from those old Cap'n Crunch commercials. Just a tall, pale, lumpy, drippy-looking body with long skinny limbs, long boney fingers, and big empty eye sockets as black as the abyss.
Where he lives.
I've never really been scared of anything living in my closet, because for my entire childhood my closet was packed to the gills with my grandmother's old sewing junk. Even though I was irrational enough to believe in the Boogeyman, I was still rational enough to know that even his demonic powers couldn't trump a full closet.
Mine lived under the bed, or just outside my door. It depended on the night. If I was having trouble sleeping, I would stare at door. I was sure that any second I would see those pale, spider-like fingers wrap around the edge of my door, and he would peak through the crack with one of those lifeless eyes.
If I was getting ready to fall asleep, I would always make sure to keep all limbs on the mattress. All it takes is one idle foot and you're a goner. That icy nightmare hand is going clasp onto your little ankle and drag you under. I figured that the Boogeyman had the power to create portals to his lair and that there was just enough space under my bed for one.
What he does when he gets you.
Oddly enough, I never really gave it much thought. The process of being gotten was a much bigger concern than what would happen afterward. After all, if you can avoid being gotten, it doesn't really matter, does it?
How to protect yourself.
There are two things that all kids know deep within their souls:
1) Cooties are contageous.
2) The Boogeyman abhors light.
For the longest time in my childhood I had a really hard time sleeping without some kind of light source. It could be anything. The glow of a tv, a light in the hallway, a Glo Worm nightlight (yeah, I had one, bitch). As long as there was light I was safe from all the things that live in the dark, chiefly the Boogeyman. I didn't always get to have a light on, though.
One thing you have to contend with as a kid is the fact that the underneath of your bed will always be a dark spawning ground for hellbeasts, no matter how lit your room is. Remember when I said that keeping limbs on the mattress was important? It was important, but not that important.
If I wanted to be bold and let a foot hang off the edge, there actually was a way to protect myself. My foot had to be tucked into my blanket. Dangling a bare foot is just inviting doom. For some reason, though, a blanketed foot was an impregnable fortress for the Boogeyman, and he daren't even try.
Doesn't make sense? It never did to me, either. All I know is I was never gotten, so I must have been doing it right.