Eli, a small boy of seven with tousled brown hair and wide, innocent eyes, clutches his Teddy Bear tightly. His breathing is steady, lost in the gentle rhythm of sleep. Shadows flicker across the walls as the moon shifts, and the silence is punctuated only by the distant hum of the house settling.

Eli squirms in his sleep, his brow furrowing. The smiling face grows nearer, stretching impossibly wide as if to swallow him whole. "No… no, please… stay away!" he whimpers, voice muffled in the depths of the dream.

Eli bolts upright, clutching Teddy to his chest, heart hammering so loudly it drowns out the monsters’ hissing voices. "You’re not real… you’re not real!" he whispers, but the monsters only draw closer, their eyes gleaming yellow in the darkness. One slides a long, spindly hand toward his foot, and Eli screams, leaping from the bed.

Eli races toward the door, his small hand outstretched, fingertips brushing the doorknob. "Mom! Dad! Please, help me!" he cries, voice hoarse with terror. Just as he is about to turn the handle, icy hands clamp around his arms and waist, dragging him backward into the suffocating darkness.

Eli’s Mom, a gentle woman with tired eyes and a kind smile, stretches and rises from bed. She pads down the hallway to Eli’s room, humming softly, and draws back the curtains to let in the light. "Time to wake up, sweetheart," she says, pulling aside the covers—only to find the bed empty, Teddy Bear lying alone on the pillow.

Eli’s Mom stands frozen, confusion turning slowly to dread as she calls for her son, her voice echoing unanswered through the house. "Eli? Where are you? Eli!" Her words dissolve into silence, swallowed by the ordinary morning that hides an extraordinary horror—a little boy taken by his nightmares, leaving only a Teddy Bear behind.