MidReal Story
Whispers in the Night
Scenario: A father went to say goodnight to his son, as it was routine, since he knew his son would have trouble sleeping if he didn't.
00:07
It was a sort of silent tradition between them, one he never forgot to attend.
00:13
The room was dimly lit by the lamp, but the father could clearly see there was something unusual about the kid tonight.
00:20
He looked the same, just with a huge grin that drew from ear to ear.
00:24
You OK, buddy? He asked.
The sun nodded, still grinning, before saying.
Daddy, check for monsters under my bed.
The father chuckled and got on his knees to take a look.
There, under the bed was his son, his real son, pale, trembling and scared to death, He whispered.
Daddy, there's someone on
Create my version of this story
Since the day you were born, you’ve had trouble sleeping.
You’d cry and cry until I held you close.
The moment my chest pressed against your cheek, you’d stop and go silent.
I was your father, and you knew that when I was near, nothing could hurt you.
With my hand on your back, the other cradling your head, I’d whisper softly into your ear, telling you it was okay to sleep.
You’d close your eyes and listen to the steady rhythm of my voice, and eventually, you’d fall asleep.
Every night since then, I’ve come to see you.
“Dad…” Michael whined.
I looked up from my computer screen to see my eight-year-old son in the doorway.
I smiled at him, pushed my chair back from the desk, and crossed the room to his bed.
It was our ritual, one I cherished more than he’d ever know.
I sat down on the edge of his bed, and he rolled over to face me, his eyes still heavy with sleep.
“I love you too,” I said, tucking him in.
As I stood on the threshold of Michael’s bedroom, I watched him sleep.
My son had always been a light sleeper, but he’d never had trouble falling asleep when he was younger—at least not when I held him close like that.
But as he got older, he started waiting up for me to come into his room at night as part of our nightly ritual together.
If I forgot to come in one night and didn’t say goodnight to him, he’d toss and turn all night long and get caught in the sheets of his bed while trying to fall asleep because he was so restless.
He’d lie there for hours on end with his eyes open and staring at nothing in particular, lost in his own thoughts.
It broke my heart to see him so upset over something so trivial as me not saying goodnight to him that it became a silent tradition I never forgot to do.
He almost always went to sleep without a fuss after I visited him.
Even though he didn’t need me like he used to when he was a baby, it became our nightly routine just the same.
“Goodnight,” I whispered softly as I peeked into his bedroom one last time before heading off to bed myself.
But instead of closing the door and heading back down the hall to my bedroom like I normally did, I stayed there for a moment as I watched my son sleep soundly in his bed, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips.
He looked so much like his mother—my beautiful wife—when he slept that it was almost eerie how strong their resemblance was.
I could have stayed there for hours, just watching him sleep, but I knew I had to get to bed before I fell asleep standing up, so I whispered to him once more, “Goodnight, little man.I love you so much.”
I never took for granted the fact that I could come to see Michael every night before I went to bed.
Had it been any other child, they would have kicked up a fuss about me interrupting their sleep like that.
But not Michael.
He lived for these nightly visits.
And so did I.
Sarah had her own goodnight rituals with the other children, but this was mine and Michael’s alone.
I missed out on a lot of things because of my job, so I made it a point to never forget the little things like saying goodnight to my kids, even if it meant staying up a little bit later than I should have.
As I stepped into Michael’s room, the dim light from the hallway spilled into the room.
The door creaked as I opened it, announcing my arrival as I walked over to his bed.
The walls were decorated with superhero posters, and Michael had all of his stuffed animals arranged neatly on his bed.
He lay there, eyes wide open, waiting for me to come in.
“Hey buddy, can’t sleep again?”
I asked as I sat down at the edge of his bed.
He shook his head and a faint smile crossed his lips.
He never said anything when I came in to see him at night, but I knew that deep down inside, he was grateful that I came in to see him because he just couldn’t fall asleep without me.
I reached out and ruffled his hair.
“What’s on your mind?”
I asked him as we settled into our nightly routine of talking about his day and other random things until he fell asleep a few minutes later.
His eyes slowly started to droop as his voice grew heavier with sleep, and after a few minutes, he was finally out like a light.
I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and as I pulled away, his small voice called out softly from the darkness of his room.
“You won’t forget to check for monsters under my bed, right?”
I chuckled softly to myself as I leaned over and peeked under the bed.
“Nope,” I said when I saw that there were no monsters hiding under there where they shouldn’t be hiding.
I rose to my feet and glanced at my son, who was watching me with those big, innocent eyes of his, waiting to hear my response.
“Nothing,” I answered, “because there’s nothing there.”
He nodded in satisfaction and buried himself back under the covers, and I quietly exited his room a few minutes later so that he could finally get some rest.
It had been an unusually long day, and I was looking forward to getting some rest myself, but as soon as I climbed into bed, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was off.
I rolled over to check on Sarah, but she was still sound asleep, so I decided to check on Michael again just to make sure that he was okay and that I hadn’t missed anything the first time around.
I got up, headed down the hall to Michael’s bedroom, and went inside to see if he was still sleeping soundly.
“Are you still awake?”
I asked him softly when I saw that he was lying there with his eyes wide open again, waiting for me to come in and check on him like I always did every night before I went to bed myself.
“Daddy, you won’t forget to check for monsters under my bed, right?”
he asked in a small voice as he peered up at me from under the covers.
I chuckled at his question before I moved to go check under his bed once again, just like I always did every night before I went to bed myself, even though there were never any monsters hiding under there where they shouldn’t be hiding.
I had checked the first time around, but Michael didn’t believe me because we had been doing this little routine of ours ever since he was old enough to sleep by himself in a big boy bed, and it had become such a habit by then that I didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop asking me because there really was no need to worry about such things.
I got down on my hands and knees to humor him, but when I peeked under the bed once again, what I saw there caused a chill to run down my spine, and a cold sweat immediately broke out on my forehead as I stared at the figure that was lying there on the floor right in front of me, watching me with wide eyes that were filled with terror, as if he had been caught doing something that he wasn’t supposed to be doing that would get him in a whole lot of trouble if anyone ever found out about it.
