Boogeymen

The Monsters Under Your Bed

Subject MS-4 "Boogeyman"
12-03-2011
Head Researcher on site: Camilla Ellestrom.

The creature showed up in a heap, and is clearly non-humanoid. Rigor Mortis, Null. Livor Mortis, Null.
OXENFREE brought it in at seven hundred hours. Previous research shows that the subject is dependent on its host, a child. This child determines the subject's appearance, mannerisms, and how violent it becomes. This particular specimen killed a Seeker before it was killed in turn.
Beginning first incision...

— Boogeyman lab report

Boogeymen are thought-forms. They haunt a household, more specifically, they haunt a child within that household. Boogeymen are the result of a perfect storm, stress and anger from parents feeding into the fear and imagination of the child.
They are a simple story at first. "Behave. If you don't, the boogeyman will get you." The story begins to take form as the negative emotions felt by the parents, who merely want the child to correct their poor behavior, are further accentuated by the child's belief in the entity and genuine fear of it.
A boogeyman is not a spirit, nor is it a demon. They are merely formed by thought. Boogeymen are classified as supernatural, a term only given to 12 distinct creatures that have been encountered. This means it doesn't follow natural laws. It doesn't feed, does it need to do much to survive.

A Troubled Home

Boogeymen are given form by the child and as such, every boogeyman is radically different. Many can appear humanoid, but more imaginative children have created terrifying creatures that defy such simple terminology. Genders, sounds, and more are just as varied. Effectively, the boogeyman is a personal monster for the child, catered by the child's mind to be what they are most afraid of.
What is most peculiar is how boogeymen vary from one case to another. Some seem similar to fear spirits, only wanting to scare the child, others are more malicious.
In particularly troubled homes where domestic abuse is present or where either parent of the child is emotionally or mentally abusive, the entity grows more hostile and will resort to violence in an attempt to steal the child from their home or worse, kill them.

Development

A boogeyman starts as a lie told to a child by a parental figure. This lie alone is not enough to give it form. There must be a deep fear of the entity from the child, extreme stress within the home, and a particular set of random events that lead to the belief in the entity's existence.
A boogeyman forms first in the mind. Children are remarkably aware and capable of seeing emotional changes in their parents. They will notice the stress and anger and even if it isn't constant, they may think that it is. The child may blame themselves for the negativity in the home and this is coupled with the fear of their own personal monster. This is how it starts.
In order to create a boogeyman, the child must actively be on the lookout for the boogeyman and also must, at times, disobey the rules despite the fear. The child may then begin to hear sounds, some may be normal but it is common for some of these sounds to be auditory hallucinations indicating the boogeyman is beginning to take form.

Face your fear

The Boogeyman will be directly connected to the child that gave birth to them. Most of the time a boogeyman haunting fades away as the child is repeatedly told that monsters do not exist or even that The Boogeyman was a lie.

As the child grows older they may defeat the entity on their own. The easiest way of handling even the most severe cases is to simply have the child conquer their fear. However, the more severe the case becomes, the more likely outside intervention will be needed to avoid tragedy.

Usually when such cases are found The Troubleshooters will call upon the aid of The Magicians of Carthage or OXENFREE, as their connection to metaphysical incursions gives them a major advantage.