“I really should’ve caught this on camera,” Axel said. “I could win the Noble Prize posting this on the forum.”
“Those human children are our real pain in this world,” Georgie explained. “They never go to sleep on time like their parents tell them. They love to sleep with the light on, and we can only work our scary charms in the dark. Nowadays children aren’t easily scared, having watched all those gory movies. So we have to build up the suspense all night, making creepy sounds, whispering from the closet, creaking the closet doors—”
“Even those tactics hardly work anymore,” a Boogeyman interrupted Georgie. “They have all closet doors oiled these days.”
Everyone agreed with him.
“I feel ya,” Georgie drummed on his chest with one hand. “All that hard work we go through, and for what?” Georgie said, pulling out a small glass full of Baby Tears. Loki and the rest tiptoed, looking at it, thinking they could snatch it and run away. But could they outrun a Boogeyman? If they did, revenge would follow every night for the rest of their lives, unless they lived in homes without closets.
“And why do we still do it? We do it for this!” Georgie raised his glass of Baby Tears in the air, staring at it as if it were the Holy Grail. The rest of the crowd raised other glasses of Baby Tears in the air. Georgie’s eyes were teary for a moment, and the atmosphere in The Closet was intense. There were a couple of Boogeymen sobbing somewhere.
“Now that’s a lot of Baby Tears,” Axel said.
“More than we could ask for,” Loki followed.
“I wonder why Boogeymen are so big,” Lucy said. “Wouldn’t that be awful for someone who lives in children’s closets?”
“I wonder why they need those Baby Tears so much,” Fable said.
“But we get our tears in the end,” Georgie’s face changed, and his pirate attitude returned. He made a toast and everyone clicked their glasses again. “Always remember our motto,” Georgie said with happy eyes. “Spooky Woogy Boo!” he said and gulped the Baby Tears.
“Spooky Woogy Boo!” the other Boogeymen cheered and gulped.
“What a waste of tears,” Axel mumbled. “Shouldn’t they ask us to join?”
“We’re too short for them to notice us, I think,” Fable said. “Spooky Woogy Boo!” she shouted, tiptoeing, but no one heard her.
“That was so boo,” Georgie said, slamming the glass against the bar.
“I guess boo means fantastic or something,” Axel speculated.
“What a night! Let the music play again,” Georgie ended his speech.
It was time for Loki and his friends to go talk to the Boogeyman.
“Hi, are you Georgie Porgie?” Lucy approached him. She was the tallest of them in her high heels. “I’m Lucy,” she said eagerly.
“But of course, you are,” Georgie flirted.
“Lucy Rumpelstein.”
“Oh,” Georgie said. “I didn’t know Rump had a beautiful daughter like you.”
“Thank you,” Lucy blushed. It was the first time Loki saw her like that. ”I need some Baby Tears. My father said I could ask you to give me some.”
“Baby Tears,” Georgie muttered suspiciously. “Why would a beautiful girl like you need those? Do you want to join Boogism?”
“Me, no,” Lucy talked softly.
“Good, because you’d be horrible at it,” Georgie commented. “So why do you need Baby Tears. We work hard to get them, and we don’t give them away easily.”
“I was told they would help me enter someone’s dream,” Lucy said reluctantly, expecting Georgie to make fun of her.
“I assume it’s a controlled dream then,” Georgie spoke seriously, and it surprised Loki that he knew about it.
“Yes,” Lucy said. “I didn’t know you knew about…”
“Dreamhunting?” Georgie said. “Not so much actually, but I’d love to. The last time someone asked me for Baby Tears to enter a dream was a hundred years ago.”
None of them knew if Georgie was joking. He gulped another drink and raised his glass, saying, ‘Spooky Woogy Boo!”
“So can I get the Baby Tears?” Lucy wondered. “I think just one of the glasses here would do.”
“Nah,” Georgie said. “Baby Tears for dreams are different. They have to be a hundred years old at least. I have some in my room. Follow me.”
They all followed him to a side room that he locked from inside when he got in. It was full of souvenirs and bottles that they assumed were filled with Baby Tears. Some bottles had dates on them—they went back as far as 1812. And some bottles were labeled ‘boys’ or ‘girls.’ Then there was a set labeled with the craziest words, ‘obnoxious,’ ‘sad,’ ‘cry happy,’ and ‘hardest to get.’
There was also a closet set against one wall. It was open and empty.
“So what’s the closet for?” Lucy was curious.
“It’s where I sleep,” Georgie said. “Vampires sleep in coffins. Boogeymen sleep in closets.”
Fable inspected the room with her curious eyes until she saw something that upset her greatly. There was a toddler in a crib in the room. It was a girl and she was asleep.