Caleb beheld the thing inside of his closet, and rather then screaming he simply seized up and froze as his nine-year old mind failed to comprehend that which he saw. It was some kind of vaguely human-like monster, an abomination in the shape of a man that was unnaturally large and muscular, with two blazing green points where it's eyes should have been, and a set of sharp, horrible teeth that belonged more to a predatory animal then anything resembling a human. Where a scream should have been, his mouth simply opened in shock as he looked directly upwards at the man-thing's hideous face, his soft blue eyes wide with fear as panic and confusion stabbed through his heart. And in that screamless instant, a cold, powerful, ruthless hand seized the sweet young boy, lifted him like a rag doll; and the beast threw him over it's broad shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Only when the door closed of it's own volition, and Caleb's small body was draped over it's inhuman captor and started to be carried away, did the young boy manage to scream. And it was the loudest, most terrified, and desperate scream he had ever screamed in his life. For at that moment he knew that monsters were real, that he'd been captured by one, and that he was entirely helpless.
For a split second he'd entertained the notion that it was his father pulling a prank on him with some very detailed costume. He'd certainly been carried by his dad this way, especially when he was a little younger and he failed to obey his dad when he was told to go somewhere. It was simply the most efficient way of getting him from point A to B when verbal orders failed. And if he put up any fuss, he had a free hand to give him a little correcting swat on the rump. Naturally the young Caleb found it very embarrassing, since he was rather helpless over his dad's shoulder and his little rump was pointed forwards and up in a rather undignified way. His dad could still shoulder and carry his nine-year old offspring comfortably, but this demonic abomination had done so with such inhuman ease as to make his father seem absolutely feeble. And whatever doubts remained in the poor boy's mind were quickly dashed as the monster walked deeper into the closet then it ever should have been able to, as if it were a hallway.
This had to have been a nightmare. Nothing that had happened since he opened the closet door had made any sense, and all of his fears were being realized. But as he kicked and squirmed, flailing his legs desperately and helplessly pounded his tiny fists against the monster's back, the little pajama-clad boy realized that it was all too real. He wasn't dreaming a nightmare. He was living one.
"Nooooo! Put me down! Let me goooo! Where are you taking me!? Please stop, I want to go home! Heeeeeelp!"
Caleb cried out in the darkness, his pleas falling on deaf ears as tears welled in his blue eyes. He was terrified.
He realized he was no longer in his house. They were outside, but not the same outside that he knew...there were burning lanterns, a green fire that he'd never seen before, and a moon out which provided some more light. Caleb couldn't see the castle as he was hanging over the beast's shoulder and facing the wrong direction to do so. Then the man-creature spoke, a voice that rattled the boy's bones and chilled his blood.
"Nooooo! Don't eat me!" he screamed in horror.
The abomination carried the squirming, kicking, helpless young little captive draped over it's shoulder back to it's castle. And as it did so, it's powerful hand grabbed the hem of his pajama pants...and began to pull them down!
Suddenly, mixed with his overwhelming terror came a more familiar fear and source of embarrassment. When his pants were pulled down by either of his parental units, it typically preceded a open-handed application of corporal punishment to his bare bottom. But that couldn't be happening. There's no way this monster would do such a thing, it would have been so out of place. Or would it?
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