Prologue

"And then Red said, 'Grandma! What big teeth you have!'" A typical night for a typical child, listening to his mom read his favorite book before bed. "And the Big Bad Wolf said, 'All the better to EAT you with, my dear!' And then he jumped right at her and swallowed her up in one big gulp! The end!"

The kid laughed. "That's my favorite part! Red is so mean!"

"Well, let's head you off to bed, little dear."

"Mama?" the kid said in a worried tone.

"Yes, Daniel?"

"I mean, like, if you were like, a wolf and not really my mom, how'd I not get eaten?"

"Well, maybe some other time I can tell you a different story with Red Riding Hood, where she's the good guy!"

"Oh, cool!"

"Well, have a good rest. I love you." The mother smooched her son on the head.

"I love you too, mama."

"Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite."

"Good night, mama."

The mother turned off the lights and shut the door.

And in that feeling, nothing was left but the darkness. Nothing to see, nothing to make out. What hidden terrors lay in this void, what monsters mortal minds dare not comprehend? Daniel bolted out of bed to open the window. The light outside usually did the trick. Except the natural source of light, the moon, betrayed him. Thoughts of full moons, howling wolves, werewolves… werewolves look like humans. The wolf looked like Red's Gramma. And mom might even be….

"Scary thought, isn't it?" The voice that permeated the air was thick, breathy, otherworldly, and all around nasty. It had every hint of a cultured villain who fed off fear, nothing more appropriate to describe the literal monster who used it. "That your mother may not be who she says she is? Of course, dread can come from anywhere, can it?"

The bed bled a creeping darkness which enveloped the room, a darkness that also emerged from the closet. As if the darkness from before was bad enough, this left nothing available to see. A terror which enveloped all light, where nothing escaped its all-obscuring mass.

…except the beast. A man with pale, clammy skin, long, thin claws, spindly animalistic legs, a pair of large, red, pointy eyes, a mouth home to over a thousand sharp teeth, and a pair of crooked horns. "Perhaps Sally doesn't like you, and never did? What if your food is poisonous? Turning you into a horse? That man you talked to earlier, was he a stranger? So many fun things to think about, so much dread. Though, I am lacking a certain kind of delicacy, something a little more… primal."

The bed began to shake violently, light exposing its form. The curtains split into a sort of wings, scaring the boy off of it. Six long, thin legs burst from the bed's sides, and it soon lifted itself off of them. The front contorted itself into a set of compound eyes and a pair of mandibles. And when the creature gave a loud screech, the identity of this beast became clear, "A BEDBUUUUG!"

Daniel ran around the room, but with nothing to see, he found himself bumping into walls and other objects, while the Bedbug bolted at him. No matter how far he tried to run, the bug was always in pursuit, always stalking him.

"Oh, isn't it just the cutest thing you've ever seen? Such terror, such… dread. Of course, it's not over. Didn't mother dear say not to let the bedbugs bite? As in… there's more than one?"

The door burst open, revealing mom and dad's bed, also turned into a Bedbug. And Daniel's mother was lying down in bed, still sleeping, completely unaware of the horrors before him. "MAMA! MAMA! There's Bedbugs, and they're biting, and…"

His mother woke up, and Daniel immediately caught note of something…

"Mama… your teeth! They're… huge."

His mother gave a big, toothy grin, slowly turning into a wolf. "All the better to EAT YOU WITH, MY DEAR!" And she immediately pounced at him, looking straight for the kill. As Daniel screamed in fear, for a split-second, he could've sworn he saw the monster from earlier instead, roaring straight at him lightning fast.

All the boy could do was lie down in the fetal position, repeating "I'm scared" over and over, completely sleepless. The worst part? None of this was even happening. He was still lying in his bed, the events only happening in his mind.

The Boogeyman had struck again.