Between The Doors

“Momma.” Teddy whispered as he came down the stairs. As his mother rounded the corner to the living room, she noticed with great disturbance the ghostly look on her six year olds’ face. He was halfway down when she ran up to meet him halfway.

There was a sound back in the kitchen, an unknown knocking sound. Teddy’s mother looked through the small window dividing the living room stairs to the kitchen but saw nothing. Teddy began to breathe harder, scared, but his mother placed her index finger to his lips so he could quiet down. “Shhh, Teddy. Quiet down, momma is trying to hear something.”

He shook his head, eye wide in fear. “Momma look!” when she didn’t listen to him, he stomped on the step he was standing on and pouted. He pointed again, “Look, between the doors. He’s watching.”

When his mother looked towards the doors she saw nothing, only her own reflection on the glass of the second door. She smiled thinking Teddy was trying to scare her. “Sometimes you have a wild imagination.”

She picked him up, tickling his tiny ribs; Teddy never laughed he kept staring between the doors.

Teddy was tucked into bed with leftover kiss on the cheek. His night light was on, “There nothing to be afraid of, Teddy.” He nodded to please his mother. She smiled and left his bedroom door slightly open.

But that wasn’t enough to forget about the man between the doors. He was standing right behind his mother when she walked down the hall and down the stairs. He looked back and seemed to wink at Teddy as his bedroom door closed shut by an unexpected wind.

Teddy fell asleep right away.

The next night was the same; he was standing still by between the doors as Teddy ran down the stairs. He noticed a slight difference; tonight he wore a cloak instead of pants. He seemed to be made out of smoke; dark smoke, but Teddy didn’t stay to watch him tonight, no. He ignored him.

“Teddy, why are you eating so fast? No one is going to steal your food.” Teddy’s plate was clean by the time his mother finished his sentence. He didn’t want to stay downstairs any longer where the man could reach him. Teddy was washing his dish when a loud knock sounded on the kitchen ceiling. They both jumped, afraid of the unknown.

Teddy then tensed when he peaked towards the small window next to the stairs. “Momma.” She looked down at him, now paying more attention. “He’s tired of watching, momma.”

“Teddy, what are you talking about?”

Teddy shook. “He’s hungry. Look!” the shadow began to hiss at them both as he came closer to Teddy. He and his mother ran from the kitchen running right through the cloaked man and up the stairs. But they didn’t go far up, they weren’t fast enough. The cloaked figure opened its mouth as the house shivered and whined, the floor shook, the windows cracked. He pulled something from behind his back...

...and the Reaper said, “This job makes me feel so alive.” As he watched Teddy’s mothers’ head leave her shoulders in on slice, hitting each stair down with a loud thump. When the head stilled on the wooden floor looking up towards them both, the Reaper smiled down at Teddy. He offered his hand and as Teddy took it he felt as if his entire body was on fire.

Little by little the Reaper sucked the life out of poor little Teddy, staring at him in the eyes as his pain became more severe. It was over in less than a minute.

The reaper sighed with a sleepy smile as he walked back towards the portal between the doors and whispered, “Rule Number One: Never leave witnesses.” As he disappeared leaving behind the gruesome deaths of a mother and her son.