r/nosleep | Reddit Horror Stories • Collection

The Crooked Man

"Once there was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse, and they all lived together in a little crooked house."

I think I was eight when I first heard the rhyme, maybe nine. I can't remember the date, but I can still vividly recall every detail. I was in the family room, the TV was blaring noise from some news channel my mom was watching, and I was playing with the new toys I had gotten for Christmas a few days prior. My mom had just gone to the kitchen to prepare dinner, and I was trying to fit my old toy's ray gun in the new toy's hand. I had just given up, and was halfway up the stairs to my room, when I heard a new show playing on the TV. It was a kids show by the sound of it. I could hear the high pitched voices, like those old puppet shows from my mom's childhood.

Thinking my mom had turned the show on to watch with me, I went back down to the family room. I always hated those stairs, so steep and narrow. Sometimes I felt like I would trip and crack my head open falling down them, I always was a paranoid kid. The stairs were walled off on either side, which meant all I could see going down was the front door. Whenever I'd go down them late at night, I'd imagine a monster on the other side of the door. He would peek through the tall window along the side of the door, making sure I couldn't see him while he watched me. I only briefly thought of these things at this point though, mostly preoccupied with trying to hear what show my mom had put on. When I had gone downstairs and turned the corner to the family room, I was surprised to see it no one was there. I didn't think much of it at the time, my attention was mainly focused on the TV. The show looked like it came from the 70s, both the camera and the puppets were old and poor quality.

"Are you ready to tell me what you learned today?" A tattered old man puppet asked the screen. He had a simple design, it felt too boring for a kids show. He wore a dusty chimney sweep's cap and overalls, and he had thin gray string for hair. His eyes were just large black buttons, and his mouth was stitched into a small grin. He waited, staring at the screen with his blank, button eyes, before he continued. "Well, are you?"

I nodded slowly, almost entranced by the simple puppet.

"Good, repeat after me. Once there was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile..."

I was about to repeat him when I felt something shake me by the shoulders. "Benji? Benji? What's gotten into you?" I snapped out of it with a jump. It was my mom, her face was inches from mine. She looked worried.

I just stared at her, confused. Behind her I could see the TV. The news was on, it was showing pictures of an old house. "What's wrong?" I said, still staring at the TV.

"I've called for you a thousand times! Why didn't you answer?"

"I-I guess I fell asleep." I muttered, not really sure what happened myself.

She looked at me with a twinge of anger, before it changed to concern. "Well, dinner's ready sweet heart."

Life went on as usual for the next year, and I forgot about the show completely. It wasn't until the week after Christmas when I would hear it again.

I was playing a game on the new video game console I got that year. It had a system where you could make a little character to play as on some games, called an "avatar". In the game, you basically just ran an amusement park. You built the ride, and then your avatar would go on them and you could see what it was like in first person. I had just paused the game to grab a snack, when I heard it resume itself. I peeked back into the living room from the kitchen doorway, to see a new attraction. One I knew I hadn't built. It was, a puppet theater. I watched as my avatar sat down in front of the theater, but he looked different. His bright fun colors were faded, and his posture looked sad. As the curtains to the theater opened, I saw the old chimney sweep again. He looked different too, his button eyes were smaller, and there were little gray threads that gave him a thin beard.