The Haunted_Edit Copy 4-7-17
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“He lives in my closet. He doesn’t come out when anyone<br />
else is around. Mostly at night, when I’m trying to sleep. He<br />
whispers things to me.” Timmy rested his elbow on the table and<br />
pressed his forehead against his palm.<br />
“What does he say?” Susannah pressed gently.<br />
“He says my name. He asks me to play with him. But one<br />
time I tried and he shut the closet door behind me and growled a lot.<br />
I got really scared, but finally he let me open the door again.” Tears<br />
were actually starting to glaze his eyes. This kid wasn’t kidding.<br />
Either there really was something in his closet, or he was in need of<br />
some serious help.<br />
“We’ve never noticed anything strange,” his mother added.<br />
“His father and I have never heard any voices, in his room or<br />
anywhere else.”<br />
“He doesn’t talk when you’re there.” Timmy glared at her<br />
through eyes with water just barely held back from spilling out onto<br />
his cheeks.<br />
“How long has this been going on?” I asked, glancing from<br />
one to the other.<br />
“He started telling us about it maybe three months ago,” Mrs.<br />
Johansson said. “We didn’t think much of it. Maybe a boy’s<br />
imagination, you know? But he seems so frightened ...”<br />
“But it’s been happening for longer. Almost a year. At first<br />
I thought it was cool.” His chin dropped onto his chest like he was<br />
ashamed of himself. “But then when I realized he wasn’t nice, I tried<br />
to pretend he wasn’t there. And it didn’t work.”<br />
My lips pressed together tightly as my brain started to smoke<br />
from overworking. I was struggling to keep the fear down and think<br />
logically. Just because the little boy said that it was a demon didn’t<br />
mean it was. It could just be a really nasty spirit. Or it could be, as<br />
his parents seemed to believe, all in his head.<br />
Susannah leaned forward and brushed her long, bleach-fried<br />
hair behind her ear. “I need you to think really hard, Timmy. Was<br />
there anything big that happened in your family or in your house<br />
right around the time that this guy started talking to you?”<br />
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