Profile

if there's one thing wilhemina knows, it's that "i'll sleep when i'm dead" couldn't be farther from the truth. everyone has their own personal boogeyman. a monster that has always terrified them, dogged their every step. for the most part, however, people are able to convince themselves that these boogeymen don't exist. and they don't. at least, not usually. there are only ever four different boogeymen at one time. whether they get along or not is irrelevant, the key being that they exist at all. as time passes, these four creatures get stronger and stronger, haunting the lives of four distinct people who, as it happens, aren't completely normal, themselves. every generation of humans has four individuals who can reach into the unknown — who have a sixth sense, if you will. they have the ability of sight, one ability to one prophet; sight into the past (they can see the past life of the previous prophet), the present (they can see flashes of what's happening to the other prophets and very rarely to their own boogeyman), the afterlife (the closest thing to hallucinating, they can see remnants of other prophets and boogeymen on this plane), and the future (they can see what's going to happen to them in the next twenty or so years, although they won't be able to tell exactly where said events fall unless there's also a calendar or other telling object in the vision). that’s their one defense against the boogeymen of their childhoods. they know about the shadows that haunt them once the sun goes down and the lights are turned out. only vaguely, but they know. as for another thing they know? there’s nothing that they can do to save themselves. their boogeyman is after them. the boogeymen are given a set of choices. when the four prophets pass into adulthood they are no longer charged with scaring children all over the world. instead, they are to focus their efforts upon their assigned prophet. their choices are these: pass on their position as a boogeyman to the person they’re haunting by biting them (subsequently dying and going to heaven), kill their prophet and gain more power by besting their prophet at their favorite childhood game, or slowly disintegrate into the flames of hell by completing neither of those, forcing the prior boogeyman to return from the grave. these boogeymen can roam during the day or night; during the day, they are forced to stay within a human shell (although some come to prefer this form, as vanity plagues the undead, too), while at night they can transform back into their true forms. the darker it is, the more powerful they become. wilhemina is a zombie, specializing in the game of red rover. her fellows are the vampire (hide and seek), the werewolf (tag), and the clown (jump rope). she has played the role of boogeyman more than once, having bitten several profits in her time, only to be risen from the grave to serve again. once the challenge to a game is issued, no prophet is allowed to refuse. so good luck. ( the boogeymen | an original verse )