Ruby woke up with a jolt to the sound of rattling doors. She rubbed her eyes and sat up in her bed to see where the sound came from. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, she saw her closet doors' shaking like something was trying to open them from the inside. Ruby started breathing hard, her whole body felt like thousands of ants were crawling up her. She lay back down in her bed, bringing the cover above her nose, the only wall protecting her from whatever was going to come out of that closet. Ruby wanted to scream, but no sound came out. It was like somebody was choking her. The doors were rattling more and more, louder and louder until they could take no more. The doors exploded with one final crack, white painted wood splinters flew across the room. Where they used to be was a big, disgusting hairy monster wearing a white tank top. There was a huge yellow stain on his shirt from the collar to the middle part of his chest. He had bloodshot eyes, hair all over his face, arms, legs and chest. The creature had messy black greasy hair, worn and ripped blue jeans and old sneakers. The stench of daddy's drinks, dirty clothes and sweat filled the room making Ruby gag. The smell reminded her of her daddy, only worse.

He stared walking towards her in heavy wobbly steps. The smell got stronger and stronger until he arrived close to her. He put his hands on the bed, making the mattress creak and brought his face inches from Ruby's. The monster was breathing with his mouth open, filling her nostrils with the most disgusting odor she ever smelled. "HAHAHAH!!!! DO YOU.... DO YOU... REMEMBER... THE THING....YOU KNOW!!!!! THE THING!" he said. He spoke with a slur and like Ruby was supposed to know what he meant. His voice was so loud, making the walls rumble. She thought that her ear drums were going to burst and bleed. But she was too scared to remember anything. The monster brought his face even closer and Ruby had to inch away deeper into the bed to get farther away from him. "YOU KNOW WHAT?? HAHAHAHA!!!! IM GONNA.... IM GONNA... YOU KNOW THE THING??!?!?! IM GONNA SHOW... SHOW YOU!!!!! THERE!!!!!" With that last word, he pointed to a screen made out of white mist in front of the bed and then collapsed on the floor.

Ruby sat up in her bed to get a better look at the screen and choked a sob at what was in front of her. She saw herself helping mommy with the dishes, mommy was washing, and she was drying. Daddy was in the living room with his friends watching football on the television. The glass coffee table was littered with chips, desserts, plates, glasses and the green glass bottles daddy always drinks from. They were screaming, laughing and cursing at the screen occasionally asking mommy to bring them another round of those green glass bottles. Mommy would oblige, go to the refrigerator, take a couple in her hands, go towards the sofa, put them on the coffee table and bring back dirty plates and empty bags of chips. Same routine all the time. Mommy came back and continued washing the dishes.

They were almost finished when daddy called again for another round. Mommy told him that she was almost finished washing and that she would come in a couple of seconds. He got mad, like he always does and came towards them, but he fell face first on the floor. This made him angrier and he started cursing violently. Mommy told him to be careful and be careful of what he said in front of Ruby and that just made things worse. Mommy and daddy started fighting and for the first time little Ruby intervened. She told daddy to stop and that might have been the worse decision of her life. He yelled at her to go in her room, he yelled at mommy, called her names. Ruby was so terrified; she ran up the stairs and went directly to her room. Even with the door closed she could still hear the shouting.

When it ended, Ruby looked down beside her bed, but the monster wasn't there anymore and the closet doors were in perfect shape. She looked around the room but there was no sign of the monster ever being there, not even the smell was there. Although, there was something, but it was not a sign of the monster. It was a patch of shadows with tentacles of darkness clawing at the corner of her bed. But she didn't feel threatened by it. The darkness felt comforting, like it was there to protect her. When her breathing came back to normal, she fell asleep; hoping nothing else would visit her during the night.