This is my entry for day 2 of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge (“scary bedtime story that involves at least one goblin”) hosted over at Flutter by Literature.

[And so the tale begins…]

A young boy was spending the night at his grandparents’ house, his parents away for a retreat. His Uncle Joe had stopped over for dinner and was about to leave when the boy said, “Uncle Joe, tell me a story before you go!”

Joe replied to his nephew, “All right, I will tell you a story but you need to get ready for bed first, it is getting late.”

The boy rushed upstairs, eager to get to bed and hear the story. “I’m ready!”, came his voice from the top of the stairs a few minutes later. Joe, true to his word, walked up to the bedroom and began his tale.

“Your dad and I used to sleep in this same room when we were little”, he began. “Each full moon, much like the moon tonight, we’d be awakened by the scariest sounds. The closet door, yes that closet there, the door would creak open and something would scuffle into the room. Dragging a heavy object across the floor. Step, drag…step, drag. Then we’d hear the words…’Kyle…KYLE'”.

“We tried to tell your grandma and grandpa about it”, Joe continued, a very serious expression on his face. “But they told us to quit making up stories, they had built the house and no-one named Kyle had ever lived there. It didn’t stop though. Every full moon the same thing, step..drag..’Kyle’.”

“Finally, one full moon night we had worked up the courage to see what this thing was that lived in our closet. As the door creaked open that night we peered over the edge of our beds as out stepped the meanest goblin you’ve ever seen, dragging an axe behind him. “Kyle…KYLE” it would mutter as it wandered the room. We still had no clue what it was all about.”

The boy’s eyes had started grow at this tale, his heart beating faster.

“One night your dad and I had an idea. We put one of those name tags on our teddy bear, the name ‘Kyle’ written clearly on the tag, and placed it on the floor in the corner there. The next full moon out came the goblin. Afraid to watch him, we lay there in our beds listening to the sounds. Step..drag..’Kyle.’ But then there was a WHACK! followed by a soft thud. The step, drag sounds started again as the goblin returned to the closet. When we got up the next morning the poor teddy bear was missing its head. A mark in the wall showed where the axe swing had stopped. We got into so much trouble over messing up the wall but still our parents, your grandparents, didn’t believe us. It stopped after that night, but I wonder still if the goblin remains, there in the closet.”

“Anyway, it is getting late and you need your sleep.”, Joe said as he headed to the door. “Have a good night, Kyle”, he said as he turned off the light, pulling the door closed behind him. A door that creaked shut, or was that the closet door opening…

[The End]

I hope you enjoyed this little haunt. Find more “goblin-ny goodness” by following this Amazon link! Goblins at Amazon

© 2018 – James Sponseller – mindescapes.net

Special thanks to Pexels for the original teddy bear image!

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