• A girl looked up as the rain outside on a stormy night suddenly got fiercer and pattered harder against her bedroom window. She slipped out of bed and padded over to the window over the floorboards, where she pulled back the curtains. The white picket fence could be seen at the front of the house and stood out as if it was glowing, and so it was she saw part of it break off and swing open, then lock back into place silently. As she squinted to find out what had made this strange thing happen, she could just make out the figure of a hooded figure with a bent head making its way up to the front door. The figure suddenly stopped in the middle of the path. The girls face peered ever closer to the glass to better examine this odd happening, until the head looked up at the window where the light was coming from and stared at the small shape silhouetted against the firelight of candles inside. It was then she saw the face of a man who had a sneer stuck on his pallid face, with hollow cheeks and thin lips. He ran a long tongue over his white teeth as if to emphasize how frightening he was, but then the head was down again as if it had never been. But the young girl could remember his face as if it were still there, staring at her with its paralysing stare.
    She stumbled back from the window and ran out the door, to the hall beyond. “Daddy!” she cried, and ran to the entrance of her father’s room.
    She pushed it open and shrieked out desperately, “Daddy, there’s a scary man outside!” For what had scared her most about the man were his penetrating eyes which had been bright purple, and shone in the moonlight. Her father looked up from a book that had been in his lap, and stood up quickly. He stayed still for a moment, thinking of how to handle this situation.
    Then he came over to his daughter and put his hand on her shoulder.
    “Go to your room, now and hide. Don’t come out. Don’t make a sound.” Then he was up again and at the door. As the girl was running back to her room, she heard the click of a door knob being opened.
    Then a sly, slippery voice said, in a way that sent a chill down her bones, “Where is the girl? She belongs to us.” It was said softly, but in a way so menacing she would have whimpered if not catching her tongue before it made a sound, for she sensed that this man would be able to hear it if she did.
    After running into her room and locking the door behind her, she decided to hide in the cupboard, and sat quietly inside it with the door only open a crack. Although she was far away, she could still hear shouting, then a cracking sound and a loud thud. She held her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes tightly.
    She heard the door of her room opening, and saw a shadow pass over the light coming in through the crack. After a few moments the cupboard door opened and there was the pale face, the purple eyes and the sneering thin lips. The sneer grew ever wider, almost to a smile, as the man saw his prize in the cupboard.
    The last words she heard as the man’s hand came over her face and her mind retreated into itself were, “There you are.” And the only things she could think in her restless dreams were the purple orbs that had shined brighter than ever with greed when he had opened the cupboard door.