"Then, he comes out from under your bed and..."

"And what?"

"And…"

"What, what does he do?"

"He...GRABS YOU!"

The little girl screamed and ran out of her older brother's room. He threw his head back and laughed. Who doesn't love to torment siblings utterly terrified every now and then? Now that he had told Dolly about the bogeyman, he'd have ammunition for years to come.

"Mama, does the bogeyman ever get lonely?"

The woman looked down at her daughter curiously. She finished tucking the girl into bed while she thought of a reply. Both of them had the same long, strawberry blonde hair and green eyes.

"What made you think that?" Mama sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Well," Dolly looked at her pillow shyly, "Ben told me that he lives under people's beds, and no one else lives under people's beds, so he can't have any friends,"

Mama smiled at that sweet, innocent, ridiculous reasoning that only children could have.

"I guess you're right. He must be very lonely,"

"Can we invite him to a play date?" She sat up in sudden excitement, ruining the perfect blanket tuck.

"Well, you know the bogeyman is very busy, so he might not have the time-" Dolly's smile fell, "-But maybe we can leave him a treat, so that he knows someone wants to be his friend?"

Dolly liked this idea very much. She insisted that they use some of her own week-old Halloween candy. Mama would do anything at that point to get her to go to bed, so she allowed the little girl to spend ten minutes trying to decide whether the bogeyman liked chocolate or skittles. At last, she decided to leave both.

"Goodnight, Dolly,"

"Goodnight Mama," the door closed. Dolly leaned over the edge of her bed, so that the top of her head almost touched the floor, "Goodnight, bogeyman,"

Every night, Dolly would repeat this little ritual. She imagined how happy he would be to finally have a friend, and a friend that gives him their candy! Dolly didn't even share her candy with her best friend across the street. When she ran out of candy, she left toys, drawings, pretty rocks she found, twigs wrapped in ribbon, anything. Some nights, she couldn't sleep until she knew for certain that the bogeyman had a gift waiting for him.

One night, she decided to stay up and wait for him to show. After Mama left the room, Dolly burrowed under her covers and poked her head out of the side. For half an hour, she intently watched the shadows peeking out from beneath her bed.

"You know, I think I like the darker chocolates the best,"

Gasping, Dolly whipped around, wrapping her sheets and blanket around her. A tall, thin man was silhouetted in the light of the moon.

"You came!" Dolly whisper-shouted. She untangled herself from her blankets and scrambled off her bed. Before he could do anything to stop her, she hugged him.

Pitch stared down in disbelief. She could...touch him?

"I'm Dorothy but everyone calls me Dolly," she grinned a gap-toothed grin up at him, "I can't play right now, 'cause it's night-time. But you can still read me a bedtime story!" Remembering her manners, she added: "Please?"

"I…very well. Pick out a story and I shall read it to you," Pitch composed himself. The child believed in him, that was all that mattered.

Dolly came back with a large storybook. She wrapped herself back up in blankets and looked at the shadowy man expectantly. Pitch sighed and sat down on the bed. The things he had to do to survive.

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…"