At first, Mickey’s drawings felt like a sweet glimpse into his world — flowers from our garden, our rusted mailbox, the neighbor’s cat. But one afternoon he rushed into the kitchen holding a new picture, his face glowing.
“Look, Mommy! I drew my friend!”
I wiped my hands on a towel and bent down. In his sketch was a man — tall, wearing a hat pulled low over his face, standing near our backyard fence.
“Your friend?” I asked. “Who is he?”
“My friend,” Mickey said simply. “He’s nice. He waves at me.”
A cold shiver crept up my spine. Mickey wasn’t like other children; he never drew things from imagination. Every picture was of something he’d actually seen.
Over the next week, his drawings multiplied. The same man appeared again and again — by the apple tree, by the garden shed, at the front door. Then one sketch stopped my heart: the man inside our house, standing in Mickey’s room beside the toy chest, smiling.
“Honey,” I asked quietly, “when did you see this man in your room?”
“Sometimes he peeks in when I’m playing,” Mickey said, sipping his juice box.
That night, I didn’t sleep. I checked every lock, peered out every window, and felt like the walls were closing in. By morning, I’d made up my mind. I bought a security camera and mounted it by the back door.
“Why are you putting that up?” Mickey asked.
“Because I want to know if your ‘friend’ ever comes back,” I told him, forcing a smile even as my heart pounded.
For a week, I stayed up like a sentry, staring at the live feed, drinking cold coffee until dawn. Nothing. No sign of anyone. Even Mickey’s drawings changed back to normal. But Mickey himself seemed quieter, sadder.
“Mom,” he whispered one afternoon, eyes on his coloring page, “my friend doesn’t come anymore. It’s because of your camera.”
I told him gently that we don’t play with strangers. He didn’t argue. Just walked to his room, and I felt a strange pang of guilt. Still, I believed the danger was gone.
Until one morning, when I opened the camera app and my blood ran cold.
Just after midnight, the porch light flickered on. A shadow climbed over the fence, moving low and fast, straight toward Mickey’s window…
