Children. Who ever expects them to be right, about anything? Especially demons. When your grown up, the things that go bump in the night don't scare you anymore, until you meet them face to face. When I was a child, I lived in the St. Gabriel Orphanage in Cherryville, Oregon. Not a very creative name, I know, but it was home. When I was around six, I began to have nightmares about this monster, his name was Grim Teeth. Every night I'd go to bed, only to see his smiling toothy face, a scar running down his right eye. "Come to feed me again little meat?" he'd say before he ripped me to shreds and ate me. I'd wake up screaming night after night and the nuns could do nothing. Even Sister Annabelle, who was the nicest to all of the children, couldn't help. One night, it was different. "Come to feed me again, little meat?" In his usual pitch and voice. There was a bright flash, and he screamed. "AAUGH! I'LL BE BACK FOR YOU LITTLE MEAT! YOU WON'T WAKE UP WHEN I FINALLY FIND YOU AGAIN!" Then, like nothing stood there, he was gone.
St. Gabriel's closed down 12 years later, from what I heard about the old place. I was adopted when I was eight, by a kind hearted woman named Kaitlyn Strauss. I grew up in her home, and she taught me there was nothing to be afraid of in the dark. We stayed up late and ate ice cream whenever I was scared. She died in a car accident when I was 25, and I attended her funeral with tears in my eyes. When I got up to speak, I addressed her as Mommy.
I lived by myself til I was 28. Life itself was a wonder, a treasure, every day a new experience, every night a rest And then, one night, he was in my dream again. "Oh little meat, it's time to come be my meal again. I've got a feeling that you can't refuse it!" He had Kaitlyn in my dream, my mother. "You'll know where. Come, and hurry. You don't want anything happening to her?" I lamented on it. Hours and days on end, night after night with the same dream. I eventually came to the conclusion that it couldn't hurt to go look.
And here I stand, outside of the old white bricked building. Waiting to go inside.
