No Place for Monsters

On Monday Cindy Fogle woke her parents at 2 a.m. with a scream. Mr and Mrs Fogle found Cindy sitting bolt upright in her bed, eyes wide and skin clammy. Night terrors, figured Mrs Fogle. Cindy slept with her parents the rest of the night. On Tuesday Cindy woke at 1:45 a.m. She was hysterical when her parents arrived to calm her. She spent another restless night in her parents’ room, babbling about the Really Tall Man. On Wednesday Cindy’s screams started shortly after midnight. She begged to spend the night in her parents’ room again. Her room was bad. The closet was bad. The curtains were bad. Under the bed – bad, bad, bad. Mr Fogle even checked under the bed. See? No monsters. No “Really Tall Man”. Just a plush rabbit that Mr Fogle didn’t remember buying. At last her parents relented, and while Cindy snuggled between them, Mr Fogle silently vowed this would be the final time his daughter slept in their bed. On Thursday Mrs Fogle was roused in the middle of the night by a faint shuffling noise. She held her breath and listened.