The Thing in the Corner

The Thing in the Corner.

The thing in the corner has been there since I can remember.

I never gave it a name. I never even thought to. What kind of name would fit something like that?

The moment the lights would go out, the moment the house quiets down: it appeared in the corner like a stain I could not wash out.

At first it would just stand there in the corner. This tall shadow with arms too long. The shadow covered it perfectly, keeping it from my view but I knew it was there. I could feel it.

The thing that lived in my corner scared me ever since I was a child.

I still remember when the thing began move around the room. It would cast a long shadow and tried to drag my things towards its' dark corner.

It terrified me.

I would call out for my parents; yelling, screaming, crying- anything I could do to make them come and save me from that thing.

They would come into the room but they all they would see was me, alone, in that room. Every time they came in they would try to assure me it was my imagination or that I had a bad dream!

At some point they stopped coming to my room but that thing never did.

It was middle school when I began talking to it.

I was so tired of being scared. I wanted to believe that I was misunderstanding it! Maybe it wasn't some monster in the corner. Maybe it was friend that couldn't speak?

I didn't have any other friends at the time so the idea that a monster, of all things, wanted to be my friend made me feel special. The thought made me feel like I was important to someone, even if that someone was not a person.

My family had moved so often that I couldn't form any close friendships and the kids at school hated me but the thing in the corner never hurt me, it would never leave me alone so it must like me, right?

I began to tell it all my problems.

I had vented about the people who were mean to me at school. I introduced it to my favorite stuffed animal and complained about my moms cooking.

I was starting to like my new friend!

...Then things started happening to the people I had complained about.

I told it about the girl who put gum in my hair and the next week she had broken her arm on the monkey bars. When I told it about the boy who stole my notebook, he tripped down the stairs and had to be taken to the hospital. I didn't know- I don't know if the thing was doing it. I really didn't!

So when I told then thing about the teacher who took my book away... I-I really didn't know. The teacher had died later that month in a car crash.

I had to stop talking to the thing in the corner. I don't know if it was the one causing people to get hurt but the 'accidents' at school stopped after I stopped talking to the thing.

It went back to moving around the room but now it would stand by my bed. I hid under the covers but I could feel it staring at me.

At some point I tried telling people about the thing in the corner but they claimed I was trying to scare them. Some of them congratulated me for having such a "good story".

I stopped telling people about it when my parents put me in therapy.

I hated therapy.

The therapist kept the room dark so it was "more relaxing".

That same therapist tried to convince me that I had an overactive imagination as the thing peered over his shoulder at me.

At some point in high school, I got the idea to sleep with the lights on so it couldn't watch me sleep.

It got worse after that.

The thing had showed up at my school!

I was terrified when I saw it. I thought it could only stay at the house! Had it always been able to leave the house? Where else could it go?

I could feel it staring at me every time I had to walk by it but I never looked.

Fear had made home in my gut, twisting it like a knife, every time I felt the thing was nearby.

I could barely eat. Every time I tried to eat, I would see that thing peer at me from the corner and fear would crawl up my stomach.

It began to follow me after I graduated.

I thought I could ignore it. I thought that if I pretended that it wasn't there then it will get bored and go away.

The thing lingered in the corner of my eyes. If I turned to look then it would duck behind the door, the window, the corner...

The worst of it happened on a dark night.

I did everything I could to avoid being out at night but I was asked to work a second shift at work.

My work was down the street so I hadn't even thought about it! Walking to work was so natural for me, I just- I don't know. I should have more thoughtful. I should have been careful!

I saw it standing on the street, in that dark stretch between streetlights.

That pit fell into my stomach, twisting my intestines until I felt bile at the back of my throat.

The lights above me flickered, threatening to leave me in the dark- to give me to that thing.

I watched it from the corner of my eye as it followed me from the dark alleyways. The thing ducked behind houses, skipping to the next as it followed me home.

I don't know what to do anymore.

Everyone else acts like they can't see it! Am I really imaging it?

But if that's true... then who just opened the door?