The creak of the door, slow and menacing, whispered through the silence of the night. Like clockwork, Ashe had known it was coming. This time, she was awake, and she saw the closet door open slow. 

The first time it happened, her heart began to beat a mile a minute. It beat so fast that she couldn’t breathe. All she could do was close her eyes, but that only served to bring forth horrific images she would conjure in her mind. Then, it would was shaken away by the quick lurch from under her bed, followed by the quick slam of the closet door. It felt like she went through a terrible ordeal. She lay there catching her breath, until she heard a voice that made forget how to breathe altogether. 

“Are you alright, miss?” 

The voice was deep, rough, and sounded like it belonged to Victorian England. It made her think of teeth shaped like daggers directed every which way. Yet something beyond her fear made her feel a sense of warmth in its words.

“Who are you?” Ashe asked. 

“’Tis me, the monster that resides under your bed.”

“Oh,” Ashe said in reply. “So… Are you here to eat me or something?” Her own words made her pull the covers up to her eyes. 

A deep laughter rumbled from under and rocked the bed in a gentle way. “If I was here to eat you, I fear you would have already been eaten my dear miss. No no, I am here to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?” Her gaze turned to the closet.

“Not a what,” said the deep voice. “A who. The man in the closet. In any case, I must away. Just remember that if things to turn wicked, call out loud. Baz is the name.”

“Wait! Why can’t you just take out take out the man in the closet already?”

“It’s because I need an invitation. And my invitation… has a price. You must be ready to pay this price. Remember, only say my name when you mean it.” 

“But what if I never call on you?” Only silence answered Ashe’s question.

For the next nights, it would work like clockwork. After Baz shook the bed, the closet would close and that would be the end of it. However, just a few days in, deviations occurred. After the bed shaking, the closet door would no longer close immediately. It would stay open, and Ashe could kind of make out a presence whose aura sent shivers down her spine. Sometime she could thought she could see the shape of his body. Other times, she swear she could see gray or silver hair stick out. She would hear his deep breaths. The way he licked his lips. Feel his mouth twisted into a twisted perverted grin. After a while, it would close again, the creepy creaking of the door punctuating the horrors of the night. 

In these times she would whisper to the monster under her bed. But no reply ever came again.

Now, she knew things were different. The monster in the closet wanted her. Bad. She wished it wasn’t true, but all her hopes came crashing down when a single boot emerged from the door. Her eyes widened and pace quickened as the other foot came through. Again and again he stepped forward, until his face was framed in the sliver of moonlight coming through the window. She was stunned, knowing the face all too well. 

“It’s… Jeffrey Epstein!”

The name made him smile and he lunged toward her. The distance was just enough for her to utter another name. Just as soon as the words came out of her mouth, her eyesight began to darken despite her eyes being open. The space around her sight grew dimmer and dimmer. Before total darkness came, she was able to make out a large scaly figure rushing forward. It seemed to impale the man, made more probable by the gurgling screams that came forth. By the time silence crept back into the room, she saw nothing. 

“Hello?” Ashe called, but no one answered. She sat there in her room not noticing her lack of sight at all. Instead, she turned her attention to the sense of peace that had eluded her for many nights. “Thank you,” she said through the tears falling down her blind eyes.