The Benefit Of Skepticism

Belief, something I think we've all struggled with at some point.

The events I'm about to share happened to me when I was eight and ten. I was the most gullible kid, you could have met. Lots of kids believed in the standard mythological figures. Such as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. While I also believed in these fairy tale creatures, I also had many more I thought were real. For example, my parents told me of one named " The Academic Alchemist". He was a sorcerer that rewarded kids that did well in school.

He was one of many fables my parents made up, for me. One other was, " Store Susan". She was a fairy that would give kids who behaved in grocery stores, treats. I'm sure you can tell by now, that my parents made them and others up, as a means of positive reinforcement. My older brother, however, made them up for a different reason. Said reason being, he was a jerk and liked to mess with me. Although, I wouldn't judge him too harshly. I'm sure many of you can relate to having an older sibling who liked to mess with you in a similar way.

However, he took it further. The monsters he made up for me, kept me awake for nights on end. Usually, this was to manipulate me in doing something for him. Like," Cleaning Carl". He was the ghost of a falsely executed janitor that would suck up kids in his vacuum and take them away, they didn't clean. I asked my brother why he didn't show up for him. Since he rarely cleaned. He replied that it was because Carl only went after little kids and that he was too tough to be taken away.

As a matter of fact, he used that excuse a lot with the monsters he made up. I even remember this one time, where he made up one called " The Fetcher". It was a giant, horned demon dog that'd gobble kids up who didn't listen when their parents or older sibling told them to go get something. Of course, he also made one up called," Tattle Tim". He was supposed to be a deathly thin goblin that dragged kids who tattled to Hell. Cute, right? One above all else frightened the most though, and that was The Boogeyman.

A common monster, I know. The reason he scared me so much is that I, or rather I thought I spoke to him a few times. As it turns out, only one of those conversations was with the real man himself. The others were my brother using some sort of voice filter. I'm not sure why. But he actually put effort into the boogeyman persona.

With the other monsters he made up, he'd just tell me their names and what they'd do to me if I didn't do X for him. With the boogeyman, however, there was a sort of art to it for him. Aside from the voice filter, he'd do other stuff to freak me out. Such as, scratching at my door when I was asleep, and hiding in my closet. Then popping out of it in the middle of the night to frighten me.

He'd do all this while wearing a black cloak with a pale white mask underneath

It goes without saying, that these visits terrified me. Thankfully, they were only an occasional occurrence. Looking back, he'd usually appear when I made my brother mad in some way. Like, accidentally eating chips I didn't know was his, and it'd be by our parents. So he couldn't threaten me in his usual way.