Popobawa: Chapter 1 "Doubt"

Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions. - Primo Levi

For the third day in a row Rich was spending his morning watching the sun rise through the mini blinds of his girlfriend Shay's bedroom window with her two young boys, 8 year old Andre and 4 year old Jo-Jo, in between the the two of them. Rich considered himself a patient man. He was 32 which he considered relatively young, had no children of his own, a small business selling security to neighborhoods that he wished to live in one day, and helped take care of his brother Jai that lived at home with his mother.

Rich could feel his patience slipping.

At 2am, minutes after having sex with his girlfriend of four months Shay, the door suddenly exploded. Jo-Jo was first to enter. Rich had just enough time to cover himself up before Jo-Jo landed on the bed screaming. Moments later Dre ran in and joined his brother. Shay rubbed their heads. Rich retrieved his boxer shorts from the floor and discreetly put them on while the boys were distracted.

“It came again!” Jo-Jo shouted. “I saw his eyes this time!” Last night it was his hands Rich thought. The night before it was his teeth. “His eyes were yellow!”

“No, they were green!” Dre chimed in. This started a debate about color.

“You can't see green eyes in the dark!” Jo-Jo said.

“You can when they glow!” Dre replied.

“Eyes don't glow in the dark...” Rich said which caused Shay to sigh.

“Y'all can sleep in here tonight” she replied which made Rich sigh. “Richard can you go and make sure its safe in there?” Rich stared at Shay for a moment. Rich was weighing his options. He could say “Hell, no!”, pack his clothes (honestly, all he kept at her place was two pair of jeans, three shirts, a 99 Cent Store toothbrush, and an old pair of Nike's) and leave. He could, for the third night in a row, go look under a dirty bed and messy closet for monsters and return with a fake smile plastered on his face and climb into bed with Shay and her two obstacles and wait for the sun to rise. Or he could do what his brother did when Rich himself was scared of monsters and the dark when he was a child.

Rich was terrified of the dark when he was a kid. Not afraid. Terrified. He and his brother Jai slept in different rooms but every night without fail Rich would end up in bed with his brother. After months of this Jai asked Rich if he wanted him to kill the things in the dark that Rich was afraid of.

“Yes!” Rich replied. “Can you?”

Jai exited the room and after about a minute of the sounds of furniture being moved, banging, and growls Jai returned to his bedroom. Rich sat on the edge of the bed with his knees pulled to his chest and his eyes wide. Jai, torn shirt and swollen lipped replied “Yeah...” Rich hugged him and has slept amazingly ever since.

These boys were ruining that.

Rich smiled and left the bedroom. Shay lived in a small apartment. Altogether her entire place was perhaps the size of his living room. The boys room was five steps from Shay's separated by a small bathroom. Rich stepped into the boys room and held in a shout as he stepped on a small truck left on the floor. He kicked it across the room and continued.

This room is too dark he thought to himself. No night light or anything. This side of the building faced another apartment that was four stories higher blocking out any form of natural light. In the back of his mind he figured that he would add some lighting in here. One more in the hallway. Perhaps a security light outside the window though no one would be able to climb through the window unless they were some sort of caped crusader. Rich chuckled to himself and then froze. For a moment he thought something laughed along with him.

A chill ran down his spine and he could feel the hair on his arms stand up. “Maintain” he said to himself. Its a phrase his brother would whisper to him on those nights where he was too afraid to go back to his bedroom. Before the games on Friday nights when he could have sworn the teens on the other football team were adults because of their size. Maintain. All he had to do was maintain. “What the fuck?” he whispered to the hopefully empty room. I'm a grown ass grown man, he thought. I pay bills. He slowly looked around the room before his eyes settled on the closet. He carefully walked towards the closet that was partially open. He saw that the doorknob was broken even in the dimness of the room. He reached for it when he heard a scream from the other room. Shay and the boys.

Rich rushed out of the boys room and into Shay's. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “What?!” he shouted with far more panic in his voice than he'd like to admit.

“Your phone” Shay said with relief. “Your phone rang and scared us.” Rich turned his back and took a deep breath and counted to ten. He walked over to the table next to the bed and checked his phone. It was a text from his mother saying that his brother Jai had fallen and was being rushed to the hospital. Rich texted her back that he was on his way.

“I gotta go see my brother” he said. “Are you all okay?”

“Yeah” Shay said. “We'll be fine. I need to start getting them ready for school soon anyway. I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon.”

“Did you get the monster?” Jo-Jo asked.

“Of course” Rich said. He hoped he sounded as confident as he pretended.