Puss In Boots

I just want to start off by saying, this happened when I was eight years old, old enough to be scarred for life. I was old enough to walk on my own, speak for myself, and old enough to be scared shitless by a guy in a mask in some scary haunted house. I loved fairy tales, I do. But what happened during those nights... Made me cringe about the thought of it. I don’t trust fairy tales anymore.

It was a Friday afternoon. My mom just got back from a flea market, and picked up a book of the old fairytale, "Puss in Boots". She was supposedly shopping for groceries, but she probably got distracted. This was one of the only time I had the time to sit and read the book.

My mom’s always out shopping, and I don’t know what dad’s doing most the time. My big brother, Kevin, was there too, but he was always on his phone, Facebook-ing or doing some other crap. I was the only one excited to read the book, but after I read it... I had a nightmare later on, as I went to bed.

A real, fucked up nightmare, like something out of a John Carpenter movie. There was this black sky with storm clouds flashing lightning here and there. And I was in some sort of desert. I was tied up by my hands and feet, and there were these cultists in black hooded robes that chanted:

"Praise Tezcatlipoca, for his bloodstained hands will bring salvation to us all! HE shall bring us closer to our everlasting paradise! HE is our lord and savior! Praise Tezcatlipoca! Praise Tezcatlipoca!!"

I woke with a scream. My dad came in, calming me down. He told me it was just a nightmare, then told me to go to bed. I, scared shitless, slowly went to bed. I slept on the bottom bunk, and Kevin slept on the top. I stayed up all night, too paranoid to go to sleep. About three hours after I laid down, Kevin was too tired to stay up, but I could not go to sleep. Being only eight, I started to sing my favorite song (“Golden Lullaby” by the Beatles) to help me fall asleep.

Soon enough, I did, but my dreams were filled with the horrific chanting of the cultists. Morning came fast, I was on our way home, but I both thought I was being followed. I just ignored it, because I thought it was just the paranoia. Me and Kevin had a pretty normal afternoon. After our dinner, we both went to bed. Being not as paranoid or scared as I was yesterday, we both were able to get some sleep. But then, I woke up at about 12:30 AM. I heard something. It sounded like something was trotting on the roof of the house, like a horse was trotting on top of our home.

I was too scared to do anything about it, so I slumped in my covers and closed my eyes. After about 30 minutes, I looked up at the underside of the top bunk to see a cat-like creature, right there, watching me! I ran from my bed as fast as I could to my parents’ bedroom. Them reassuring me and telling me it was just a dream, I still refused to sleep in my room. Of course, I ended up sleeping in their room for the night.

with my parents, I always had a great night’s sleep. But when I woke up, the most disturbing thing ever happened to me. I was sleeping in the middle of the same exact desert, alone with the creature. Terrified, I ran away from it, only to find a seventy-five foot drop. The creature was hacking into my brain.

Possessed, I hopped off the drop only to figure out that it was all a dream. It felt so real! There is no way that this could have been a dream. That night, I slept in my room with my brother again. After going through some counseling the following day, I had never been so unafraid of anything my whole life.

I tried waiting for the creature to appear on the underside of the bed so I can confront it, but I got too tired and fell asleep. Waking up in the middle of the night, for the same reason I did the night before, I looked to see the creature watching me. I then reached out to where the knife of the creature would be. I got a migraine and stopped. I looked at the large, sunken, lizard-like eyes of the creature, and stared. Then, becoming conscious, I crawled into a ball under my covers.

I started singing “Golden Lullaby” to calm me and forget everything that had to do with this nightmare. Then I noticed I wasn’t the one singing it. Kevin started screaming, and I ran out of my bunk and turned on the light.

Kevin grinding his teeth in pain I looked at the underside of the top bunk, to see a piece of paper crumpled up in a ball. I opened it. "1-19-1809” is what it said in curly letters. I don’t know what this monster wanted. But it got it. Because, Kevin was never able to speak again.

Was Puss in Boots some sort of wild demon god? I don't know if that was even the case, but I could tell; the cultists calling him "Tezcatlipoca", how the creature would disappear and reappear in my dreams and in my room every night, and how it stole my brother's voice.

I will find the answer, and I will try and restore the peace. And most of all... I will, confront, my fears.

"Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality."

- Edgar Allan Poe

(October 9, 1849 - November 17, 1875)