Flat Man

The Flat Man is a scary story for kids about a monster that creeps into your room at night and hides in the darkness, waiting for his chance to strangle you in your sleep.

At night, when you’re lying snug in your bed and you’re tossing and turning and unable to get to sleep, you sometimes hear strange noises.

You hear a soft tap tap tap on the window. You try to tell yourself it’s just a tree branch tapping against the glass, but deep down inside, you know it’s the flat man. He’s trying to get in.

His bony fingers scrape against the window frame. He squeezes himself through the cracks. He slides across the windowsill. He’s so thin, he can creep in without you knowing. You can’t keep him out.

You peer into the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse, but he’s too smart. If you turn on the light, he hides behind wardrobes and curtains. He’s always one step ahead. When you breathe a sigh of relief and turn off the light again, he emerges from his hiding place.

The flat man is afraid of the light. He lurks there in the shadows. He presses himself up against the wall. He creeps in the darkness from corner to corner, silently waiting for you to fall asleep.

You strain your ears to listen, but you can’t hear a thing. The flat man is holding his breath and waiting, without making a sound. You feel a chill run down your spine because you know he’s there.

The moment you relax and close your eyes, the flat man will slide across the floor and slip under your bed. Even though it’s warm, you still shiver because you know he’s close.

You pull the covers tightly around you, trying to protect yourself, but nothing can protect you from the flat man. As you lie there on your side, you can feel him behind you, lying beside you.

His bony fingers skitter and flutter softly against the bedsheets. You feel the chill of his breath on the back of your neck. You lie there, too terrified to move as his paper-thin arms slowly wrap around you.

As soon as you fall asleep, his gnarled hands will cover your nose and mouth. You won’t be able to breathe. Your body will struggle to take one more breath of air. You’ll wake up, gasping for air and you’ll cry out for help.

Perhaps the flat man will let you live. Perhaps he will just slide back into the shadows, where he will lurk again, waiting for his next chance, waiting until you let down your guard.

He’s waiting for that perfect night, when there’s no one else in the house and no one there to hear your cries and no one will come running when you scream and he can strangle you in your sleep and nobody will ever know what happened to you.