12 years ago…
Tony curled up in the closet and cried softly, he could hear his parents fighting. A sound a five year old shouldn’t have to hear. His father was a stern drunk, and his mother was a kind and gentle woman. And so when they fought, his father would hit his mother, and beat her furiously. And to Tony his closet was the safe place. The idea of the closet monster never really bothered him, as it did with most children his age.
He flinched as he heard a loud crash from the kitchen, followed by more yelling. After what felt like forever the closet door slowly creaked open and his mother peeked in. she smiled warmly at him, although her eye was bruised and her cheek had a cut. She was the only person who knew about his hiding place, and that’s how he liked it. Her green eyes held back tears as she led her frightened child out of the closet.
…
Tony pulled his backpack out of his locker, slinging it over his shoulder he began to leave only to round a corner to find Collin and carter waiting for him. Collin was the biggest asshole in the entire high school and carter is his little sidekick. Tony sighed quietly as Collin grinned at his arrival, “hey little bitch” Collin taunted, smiling wider. ”piss off” Tony responded, as he angrily began to walk away. “Where do you think your goin” Collin growled as he grabbed the back of Tony’s shirt, causing him to jolt to a stop. “We’re not done with you yet” he snarled, yanking Tony back towards him.
When tony came home late with a black eye and a bloody nose his mother rushed to help him, but with unexplainable rage he yelled, “I’m fine, would you just stop pretending to care?” his mother recoiled at his words. Shock and hurt spread across her kind features. Tony had never in his life raised his voice at his mother. He had never said anything like that either, because he knew his mother cared, but that day Collin had worked at making him think no one cared, even his mother… especially his mother. And with that he stomped up the steps to his bedroom, flinging his backpack at the wall he began to get a strange feeling, it almost felt like a burning pain, but he just brushed it off as nothing.
Tony laid in his bed surrounded by the ringing darkness a sleeping house held. He had cried himself to sleep, angry with himself for yelling at his mother, but something had awoken him. He waited quietly for any sound other than his soft breathing. After a while he brushed it off as nothing… that’s when he heard the gun shots. The sound rang threw his ears and time slowed as he threw off the sheets and dashed down the stairs. His gut wrenched in surprise and pain as he stood at the entrance to the kitchen to see his mother’s limp body slumped against the side of the counter in the corner of the room, her blood seeped from the two bullet wounds in her chest. Tony cried out at the sight in anguish and grief. A burning feeling spread through his body as his sadness was replaced with an unstoppable sense of rage.
His eyes were blurred with tears as he seized the AMT off the counter top, cocking the loaded gun, he barreled into the other room where his father stood. His father looked up at him and his nonchalant features twisted into an expression of horror as he regarded the gun in Tony’s hand. His father opened his mouth to say something but Tony pulled the trigger, firing the gun before he could speak. Everything went silent after his body hit the floor. Tony had expected to feel remorse or even pain, but instead he felt… satisfied, happy even. He awoke from his train of thought when he heard the piercing cry of police sirens flying down the street.
He ran upstairs and yanked open his dresser drawers, looking for anything to slip on. He pulled out an old pair of ripped blue jeans and a tattered grey hoodie. As he opened his closet to find a face cover of some kind, he looked down to see an old ragged bear mask. The masked smiled up at him with a toothy grin, its button like eyes stared deadly into the dark. Tony grabbed the old mask and slipped it over his face. Stuffing the pistol into his pocket he unlatched the window and quietly slipped out onto the roof. He crawled silently along the old shingles, headed for his backyard which led to the woods. It seemed the best place to escape to would be the woods, it was dark and the shadows that the moon casted upon the trees would simply make him harder to spot.
As he came to the edge of the roof he began to gently lower himself down onto the railing of the deck. The old wood creaked under his weight, as he jumped from the railing to the grass. His landing wasn’t as graceful as he had intended, but he had made it to the ground nonetheless. He could hear the police scavenging his house, and not being very subtle about it either. Quietly yet quickly he made his way through the trees, occasionally tripping over an unseen log or a dip in the ground.
As he ran he could only think about how good it felt to pull the trigger, the relief, the joy and excitement that had spread through him was breath taking. As he ran through the woods he soon came out onto a suburban street. He stayed in the shadows as he crept silently down the dark sleeping street. Slowly, he climbed in through the window of a stranger’s house, he made sure not to let the window squeak as he opened the unlocked window and entered his first victim’s room. At first he just stood there over the sleeping boy and stared. The sound of footsteps broke him from his intrigued trance and he looked up to see a yellow light shine under the door, signaling that someone had turned on a light in the hall, and was headed this way. He tightened his grip on the gun in his hoodie pocket before ducking into the closet, his safe place. He didn’t fully close the closet door behind him so he could peek through the crack between the door and the wall.
The hall door creaked open and the boy’s father stepped into the dark room. He walked over to his son’s side and the boy awoke almost instantly. He hugged his father who tucked him in and told him a story before getting ready to go to bed himself. Tony watched in interest, his father had never treated him like that, because his father had never cared. What the boy said next only excited his growing interest. “Daddy, is there anything under my bed?” his father crouched next to his bed and peered under it with a smirk. “No Jared there isn’t anything under your bed” he reassured his son with a smile. “What about my closet?” Jared asked. Tony stiffened as the father looked up at the closet door. He watched through the eye holes of the old bear mask as the father stood and walked casually over to the closet door.
As he opened the door his composed expression turned to fear and surprise as tony put the gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger all in one quick movement. The man’s body jolted back slightly before he feel to the ground. His son looked up at tony, his face was plastered with horror and grief as tears slipped down his face. tony stepped out of the closet with the gun extended outward in his right hand, he tilted his head slightly to the side before saying “I’m the monster in your closet” he smiled as he pulled the trigger.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7e6QpEP22m
