The Boy

I love my son, I truly do. There’s nothing in the world I would wish for than my parents, my wife, and most importantly, my son.

His name is Oscar, and he was a well-behaved child, even at the age of five, he knew better than to do wrong. That wasn’t the only thing I loved about him, but it was his wild imagination that really amazed my wife and I.

Ever since he was three, he found his love of drawing pictures, really cute ones to be honest. We’d usually find pictures of what we can make out as his own make-believe creatures Oscar had made up. He had different descriptions and stories for each one, it was something really extraordinary for us.

For a few of his birthday parties, my wife and I thought about bringing his world of creatures to life by buying random party supplies and costumes to try and make a real-life representation of it. Oscar loved it, and we’d done two more birthday parties with the same theme.

At those parties, we’d invite my work buddies’ kids to them, to have someone play with Oscar. Surprisingly enough, Oscar already has a few friends, especially Billy.

Billy Hill was the son of one of the best guys I work with at my job as a car manufacturer, Shaun Hill. Shaun had a huge interest in heavy metal music, which is why he sometimes listens to music from his favorite bands while he worked, just something to put out there. His son, Billy had picked up the interest in music that shouted at you, basically the only music Billy and Shaun would listen to. Like father like son, right?

Billy and Oscar’s relationship was something special for Shaun and I, even my wife was glad our son had found his first, new best friend. When Shaun usually came over to our house, he’d bring Billy with him, he only wanted to come over to play with Oscar.

Shaun, and my wife an I would usually talk about what was going on in our lives, mostly about work. Billy and Oscar would be in Oscar’s bedroom, either drawing pictures together or just playing with whatever toys they both got out.

All of that, however, had stopped about a year later on Oscar’s fifth birthday.

My son wanted another monster fantasy themed birthday party, so we’d gave him one. After the cake and presents were given, Oscar continued playing with Billy outside. I started putting the leftover cake and ice cream away when I heard the back door open, followed by small footsteps. Looking over to Billy, walking into the kitchen where I was, towards me, and he had a strange look on his face. Billy had that expression where he was about to scream or cry, or something like that. Either way, it had me worried.

“There’s a man outside,” Billy said, a quiet and shaky tone coming out of his mouth.

I immediately run to the window to look out at Oscar, and surprisingly, there was a man out there, standing in front of him. The man wore a dusty trench coat and leather work gloves on, probably some homeless man or a drug addict. He stood in front of Oscar, who didn’t look afraid at all. No, I know what I saw, he was smiling up at him. Oscar’s lips didn’t move at all, he was just looking up at the man with that dimpled grin spread across his face.

I run out the door, with a broom in my hands, the only thing I had thought of grabbing in an instant.

“Get the hell away from my son!” I shouted at the man, who turned to look at me. He immediately ran around the other side of our house, and in an instant, he was gone. I looked over to Oscar, who was only confused.

“Oscar, are you okay? Did that man hurt or touch you anywhere?” I asked him, staring at him in the eyes, not taking my eyes off him.

Oscar only stuttered, as if he couldn’t get a reply out, but he did.

“I’m fine Daddy. He liked my picture.”

I looked down at a sheet of paper that had some sort of drawing on it, a new creature Oscar probably came up with, possibly. I picked it up to see for myself, and, well, I had no words to let out. This creature wasn’t like anything he had ever drawn. In fact, this wasn’t even a monster. It was what I could only assume is a little boy, his whole, naked body covered in holes. Taking a closer inspection of the holes, I found out that they tried to represent faces, a little boy with faces all over its body. Each face seemed to be frozen in shock or fear, which made this “thing” look more discomforting.

“Oscar, get in the house,” I told him, still looking at his drawing. Oscar got up and walked into the house, very silent as I went in with him.

I had talked with my wife about what had happened outside right after, about that man trying to approach Oscar and what Oscar drew. She wasn’t that concerned about the picture, for that she thought it was normal for a child to draw something strange like “a boy with faces all over its body”. What concerned her was that he was left alone with a man that could’ve been a pedophile or a murderer of some sort, and that it was my fault I wasn’t out there with him. Now, I remember at the time that I was in the house to put ice cream and cake away, but just the thought of what could’ve happened to Oscar had scared me the most.

That night, before Oscar’s bedtime, our wife and I had talked with Oscar about what happened.

“Oscar, can you please tell us what happened when you were outside with Billy?” I asked him, who was drawing a new picture of his usual made-up creatures this time.

“Am I in trouble, Daddy?” Oscar replied, looking up at us.

“No sweetie, you did nothing wrong. We just want to know what happened when you were outside with Billy,” My wife said, reaching over to hold Oscar’s left hand.

“Me and Billy were playing, and then I saw the man walking up to us. Billy ran away and he was talking to me. He’s really nice,” Oscar said, his other hand sketching all over the paper.

“Did the man say anything to you?” My wife asked him, stroking his small hand with her thumb.

“He said that he wished he had a kid, and that he wanted one like that,” Oscar replied, pointing to the sketch I held in my hands. My wife and I looked at each other, then the picture that Oscar drew. We both looked back at Oscar, who still scribbling some features on his new monster.

It was nighttime, almost midnight when I woke up with Oscar, standing at the side of the bed, with tears dripping down his cheeks. I was able to fully comprehend what I was seeing as I sat up and comforted him in my arms. Oscar’s crying now softened into quiet whimpers.

“Oscar, is anything okay?” I asked him. “Did you have another nightmare?” Oscar nodded his head, his lips quivering.

“Do you want to sleep in with us?” Oscar nodded again, sniffing as he calmed down and climbed into our bed, covering himself up. As he did so, I tried to go back to sleep, but I felt Oscar tap my shoulder. I turned over to look back at him, he was still wide awake.

“Yeah buddy?” I asked him quietly.

“Can I tell you what I dreamed about?” Oscar asked me.

“Alright, sure.”

“You know my best friend?”

“Billy?”

“No. My other best friend, in my picture.”

“Oh, yeah.” I felt a bit unnerved just thinking about it.

“He was trying to save me.”

“Save you from what, Oscar?”

“That man.” I immediately knew who he was talking about.

“He took Billy away from me, and he told me he wasn't coming back...”

I jolted up, looking down at Oscar, who was already asleep. Those last words that came out of his mouth had my heart drop. It wasn’t just what he said, but what I thought of when he said it. The man that approached Oscar out in the backyard, if he really was going to kidnap Oscar or Billy, that would’ve been a horrible thought.

I tried to go back to sleep, but it still repeated in my mind, still preventing me from closing my eyes, thinking that the man would appear in the bedroom and take Oscar away. About an hour, I was able to fall asleep. And on that night, I had the same nightmare as Oscar.

I remembered it taking place at the birthday party, everything was normal. The kids were playing around, eating cake and ice cream, everything didn’t seem out of the ordinary (or so I thought). I was looking at Oscar, who was drawing pictures with Billy, then I turned back to the crowd of kids and I saw it. Oscar’s “best friend”, the boy with faces all over its body, except in reality it looked a lot more twisted.

A naked boy, who appeared to have the same hair as Billy, had faces of many other children stitched all around his body, looking like something Ed Gein would create.

He only stared at me, slowly walking up to me as I could only stare at him.

“Call the police, mister. The man already took me and the others, and he made himself a child. We’ll never grow up to be grown ups like you did, ever again. The man lives in the forest behind your house, in a small shed. He’s also going to take Oscar too, and you might never see him again. Keep him safe, so wake up now,” The boy said, his voice sounding exactly like Billy’s. I only stood there, unable to think of what to do next.

“WAKE UP NOW!”

That was when I woke up and called the police, and told them everything, about the man who apparently lived in a forest that was in our neighborhood. A few minutes later, I had gotten some texts from Shaun, many text messages to be exact. Each of them were either “CALL THE POLICE”, “MY SON IS MISSING”, or “I CAN’T FIND BILLY”.

My wife and Oscar woke up as I walked out of the bedroom to the front door, the police had arrived. They followed me from behind as they both wondered what was going on. I ignored them, trying to listen to what the police officers at the door had to say.

They were able to find and capture the man, who supposedly was in the forest and lived in a small shed that they found. He didn’t have a name, information unknown so far to them, but unfortunately it was true, he did kidnap a few children, including Billy Hill. Like what Oscar and the “thing” said, the man made himself a child, but the man had admitted that he always wanted a child to raise and take care of. He once had a wife, but every time they tried to have a baby, every child was miscarried. The man moved out of the house and ran away for that reason, and kidnapped as much kids as he lost the same amount of unborn lives, he mostly wanted a boy. That must’ve been the reason why Billy had to be the kid to stitch the faces onto, but it still doesn’t answer why he had to be the one.

My wife took Oscar into his bedroom where he was able to fall asleep, hoping he wouldn’t come out to listen to the truth. Shaun was also able to come over, really upset about the current events that were happening. He couldn’t stop crying, his hands covering his face as he wept loudly, being comforted by my wife, who were sitting on the couch.

The one thing that really disturbed me the most about what the police told me, was that they were able to find the bodies of all the missing children, even Billy. Every child, except for Billy, had missing faces, possibly the flesh was torn or cut off. They also found Billy, who was also found dead in the shed the man lived in, his clothes were gone and his body found naked, all of the children’s faces were stitched onto the body. Described exactly like the one in my dream and in Oscar’s picture.