Say his name three times (they said forbiddingly) and the boogeyman appears, manifesting your worst nightmares: snakes, spiders, failing French class, forgetting to clean your room, the blur of your father’s bony knuckles.

We tiptoed, mute, terrified of our own voices,
unaware that it was our silence that fed him.

Michelle Wilson’s words have appeared in Potato Soup Journal’s Best of 2021 Anthology, Rejection Letters, Maudlin House, Litro Magazine, The Drabble, 50-Word Stories, Literally Stories, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, among others. Her story ‘Fish Brain’ has been nominated for a Best of the Net 2022 Award. She lives with her partner in Miami Beach, Florida.