Those That Bump In The Night
A boy’s head appears upside down, hanging off the bed. “Is anyone there?” he calls out curiously, looking right at Derek’s eyes.Caught, then. The protocol for being deliberately seen by a child is just to look as strange and fearsome as possible. No one would believe them, anyways. But Derek is tired, and he’s been running and scared, and now he just kind of flickers, curling out a tendril of dark smoke, hoping that he’s a little bit scary.No such luck.The boy’s eyes widen. “Oooh, are you the bogeyman?”“Bogeyperson,” Derek says, before he can help himself.
~
When Stiles was a boy, he had an imaginary friend named Derek. Ten years later, Derek comes back, and is very, very real.