Here comes the big, bad wolf, and he's gonna getJillian!
I'm gonna get you, get you, get you!
Okay, you two, I've had it. You should've been asleep an hour ago.
Turn the light out, now.
- Good night, Mommy. - Okay.
Mommy, can I have a hug?
Don't make me come back in here. Okay?
Good night. Sweet dreams.
All right, where was I?
I hate selling this stuff.
Hello? Hey. Tired.
Jillian, did you take Bear-Bear again?
No, I don't want Bear-Bear.
Andrew, come and get me.
- Jillian, look! Bear-Bear can talk! - Yeah, right.
I got stuck. Come and get me.
I can't get you way back there.
Please?
I'm scared to be alone.
- Little more. - I can't reach you.
Will you be quiet? Remember what Mommy said?
Help, Jillian!
Help me, Jillian!
There is nothing wrong with your television.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
We are now controlling the transmission.
We control the horizontal...
and the vertical.
We can deluge you with a thousand channels...
or expand one single image to crystal clarity...
and beyond.
We can shape your vision...
to anything our imagination can conceive.
For the next hour...
we will control all that you see and hear.
You are about to experience the awe and mystery...
which reaches from the deepest inner mind to...
The Outer Limits.
It is said only children are willing to believe...
in the possible existence of unknown creatures.
When these creatures are discovered...
scientists will classify them by genus, class, order and species.
But to children, aren't they simply the monsters...
that they already know?
Little girl's still in shock. Mom needs some TLC.
- Anything outside? - Nothing.
No strange cars, no footprints.
I've concentrated the search in the immediate area...
but so far, we've come up with snake eyes.
- Have you found anything yet? - No, ma'am, we haven't.
Well, he's been gone for two hours.
Why are all these people standing around?
We've already started the search. The best thing you can do...
is just to help us with a few answers.
Okay? Now, are you sure...
that the window in your children's room wasn't open?
It's the first thing I checked. I keep that window locked.
What about the rest of the house?
- Were there any windows or doors open? - No, I don't-
I must- I was falling asleep over my work.
Were you in here the whole time that was open?
Until the kids screamed.
I think so. I don't know anymore.
Hey. Hi, honey.
How are you?
My name's Detective Doyle, but you can call me Caitlin.
Hey, I bet you've never seen a real police badge.
She's been like that since I found her.
- Hi, Jon. - Hi.
Business or pleasure?
- Thanks for coming. - My date got called away anyway.
- What happened? - Her name's Jillian Rosman.
She saw her brother get snatched right out of the bedroom tonight around 8:30.
- Look at her. - Oh, God.
She's gonna need some serious counselling. I thought, who better than you?
- Is that all right? - I'll do what I can.
Thanks.
Hi. I'm Jon. I'm here to help you.
Sharon? Sorry.
Jillian's suffering from shock. Her pupils are slightly dilated.
She listless, numb, incapable of speech.
Which all sounds terrible, but is entirely natural given what she's been through.
Now, in order to help her through it, I need to know how she reacted.
She just started screaming...
pointing under the bed.
Under the bed? Not at the window?
Yes. I looked under there.
I thought Andrew was just fooling around, but-
Look, I'm not a cop, but I have a lot of faith in these people.
They'll find Andrew.
You and I need to make sure thatJillian's all right...
because she may be the key.
Jillian, I want you to sleep with your mom tonight, okay?
Okay. Come on. You come.
Well?
We got some prints off the window. How about you?
When Jillian's feelin' better, she might be able to tell us something.
But not for a few days at least.
Any suspects? The mom said something about an ex-
Yeah, Gary Rosman.
Turns out he's violated a restraining order twice in the last six months.
Since there's no signs of forced entry, whoever took him must've had a key.
He must've been one scary son of a bitch to leave his daughter in that condition.
Anyway, we're tryin' to find him.
Any theories on where those bruises came from?
Not at present, Officer.
What, you think I'm too suspicious?
That's your job to be suspicious. I'm supposed to be the bleeding heart.
Did you get any sleep?
Two solid hours. Have you checked on Sharon and Jillian?
I was just over there. Sharon slept about an hour. Jillian's doin' much better.
Sleepin', that is. Maybe I can get a session in with her this afternoon.
- How goes the search? - We haven't found anything yet.
But we did locate Gary Rosman. I thought you'd be interested to observe.
Gary Lee Rosman, Detective Caitlin Doyle.
Mr. Rosman was apprehended this morning at 6:30...
at a Stop & Shop on Highway 12.
- You weren't home last night, Mr. Rosman? - I was in Baker.
I had some calls that ran late, so I stayed over.
Hasn't been much reason to be home at night lately.
- Where did you stay? - At a motel.
- What's goin' on? - Your son Andrew's missing.
What do you mean? What happened?
At about 8:30 last night, he was taken from your ex-wife's home on Warren Avenue.
Andrew? What aboutJillian?
She's fine. She's with your wife- ex-wife.
Now, we were talking about your whereabouts last night.
You don't think I had anything to do with this?
I don't think anything. I just wanna know where you were last night.
- I told you- in Baker. - At a motel.
- We'll need to know a name. - Fine. The Pinetop Inn.
Now what about my son?
We're looking for him, which is why we're talking to you.
Can you tell me why your fingerprints were on your children's bedroom window?
Isn't there a court order barring you from any physical contact with them?
I have two beautiful children, and I miss them.
Sometimes, I've gone to see them, all right?
Like how many, exactly?
Three.
Four. I went by last weekend. That was four.
Were you there last night?
I wasn't near the place.
Why don't you investigate my ex-wife?
Check out her record.
Mr. Rosman, we're gonna have to hold you for further questioning.
Why don't you show him to his cell, Miguel?
Find my little boy!
Settle down. Let's go.
What?
Pinetop Inn says he had a room there last night, but he never checked in.
Who is it?
My father.
- Want some help? - No, I can handle it.
That'd be good. I need work bad.
All right.
- Where is he? - Right over in his usual spot.
Thanks, Ray.
Hey, Dad. You all right?
Oh, yeah.
But Ray didn't think I should be drivin'.
Well, I'm glad Ray's lookin' out for ya.
I'm not takin' you away from some patient, am I?
Well, they know how to find me.
Terrible news about that Rosman boy.
Yeah.
Why don't we go out to the car?
You've been smart, Jonny.
By the time I was your age, I already had two kids.
I didn't know what the hell I was doin'.
You did all right.
I keep thinkin' about the stupid things I've done in my life...
and what they've done to me.
- Your mother- - Dad, it's in the past.
- Ray? - Yeah.
- Bring myJonny a drink. - Come on. You should get some rest.
What'll you have?
Beer.
And check the registered sex offenders and the new parolees.
My mother's in town. I'm gonna be tied up here for the time being.
So get the state police out there! There's a lot of territory to be covered.
Okay. Yeah, I'll be out there around 9:00.
Sorry. I know I'm late.
Don't worry about it. I was 20 minutes late myself.
- How's your dad? - Same as ever.
- What about Gary Rosman? - Damn alibi checked out.
I thought you said he registered but never checked in.
All true. But when we pressed him, he admitted that...
he'd been with a female friend, a female friend of the married persuasion.
He was trying to protect her virtue or something.
What about the fingerprints?
Could've been there for days, just like he said.
I can't bring that in to the DA.
Well, where's that leave us?
Looking for a kidnapper.
I'm having a ton of files shipped up from Lexington.
Registered sex offenders, new parolees.
That's what this is, huh?
That's what it always is. A father with a grudge, or a career criminal...
or somebody becoming a career criminal.
What?
I don't know. This one just feels different to me.
You must beJon.
It's so nice to meet you.
This is my mother, Elizabeth Doyle.
I'll bet you know the story of Hansel and Gretel.
You know where Gretel pushes the witch in the oven?
And she and Hansel run from the gingerbread house...
and they live happily ever after?
Can you tell me a story?
It isn't real, so you can tell me any story you like.
No? Please?
All right, I'll help you.
This is Hansel, and this is Gretel. They're brother and sister.
And we have a mommy, and we have a daddy.
Now, can you tell me a story? I'd really like you to tell me a story.
No Daddy.
No Daddy? Okay.
- Now, who is this? - Hansel and Gretel.
- And then what happened? - Look out, Hansel!
- Look out! - What should Hansel look out for?
What do you- Is it Daddy? Do you want Daddy?
No, no Daddy.
What is that?
The boogeyman.
Tell the other volunteers. No matter how small it may seem-
a shred of clothing, a lock of hair- it might be important.
Okay? Thanks a lot.
Hey, thanks for helping out.
How long's Stratton Mine been closed?
April 1946.
I guess you'd have to be a native to know that, right?
Spend one whole winter here, you'll be a native. There's not much to learn.
I don't know. Five months, I learned to run my own department.
And I met a nice, single doctor who happens to like me.
- Thanks. - How'd it go with Jillian?
You know how you get detached? You tell yourself...
these things aren't happenin' to you.
But this little girl, she's-
There's something she wants to tell me, but she doesn't know how.
And I'm not sure I can get it from her.
What do you think about her mother? Do you think she's telling the truth?
Do you think she could've done something to the little boy?
She doesn't seem like an abusive mother.
Jillian's bruises could've come from a lot of places.
What? Falling down?
Come on. Sharon was drinking that night.
There's a report from Child Services that they had to go out there not too long ago.
And in the divorce filing, Gary accused Sharon of being abusive.
I know. What did the court say?
They threw it out as an unsubstantiated ploy to get custody.
- But there's a pattern. - Spoken like a true cop.
There's no evidence on the father, there's no evidence on the mother...
and there's no other suspect.
Why not hypnosis?
Adults have a tough time with regressive hypnosis.
I could lose ground with Jillian.
There's also some fair-sized ethical questions.
But, Jon, it's obvious she knows who the kidnapper is.
Now whoever it is, she thinks that they're still after her.
Say she's right. How ethical is it to ignore that?
One last time. I'm only doing this...
because I feel thatJillian may still be a target for the kidnapper.
- The risks of this procedure- - Just help me find Andrew.
Yeah, okay.
Just relax.
I need you to keep watching my hand. That's good, honey.
You're gonna feel real sleepy now, like it's very late.
So sleepy, like you're watching a movie.
Tell me what happened to Andrew.
It's nighttime.
Here comes the big, bad wolf, and he's gonna getJillian.!
Andrew makes a shadow forJillian.
And what does Jillian do?
She laughs. Andrew's funny.
Ring, ring.
- Is that the phone? - Is that the phone?
Mommy gets it.
Jillian yawns.
She turns out the light.
- Did you take Bear-Bear again? - Did you take Bear-Bear again?
I don't want Bear-Bear.
- Andrew, come and get me. - Jillian, look!
Bear-Bear can talk!
- Please. - Whispers.
- I'm scared to be alone. - Who? Someone at the window?
- Under the bed. - Who? Is it Andrew?
- Does Andrew whisper? - I can't reach you.!
Will you be quiet? Remember what Mommy said?
- What makes Jillian afraid? - Under the bed!
- Is it Daddy? - He's taking him under the bed!
Who is?
- Who took him? - The boogeyman!
Under the bed! Under the bed! Under the bed! Under the bed!
Honey, honey, honey.
- It's okay, honey. - Take her outside. Get her some water.
- I'll be with her in a minute. - It's okay.
We'll go outside. Good girl.
Boy, that was tough to watch.
Jon, are you okay?
I had an older brother.
- You didn't tell me that. - He was killed when I was six.
He was eight.
Jon, I'm sorry.
We used to live over on Warren Avenue, not far from the Rosman place.
It wasn't built up then. It was mostly woods.
Dad used to warn us to stay in the yard.
"There's a monster in the woods," he said.
One night, we were out after dark.
I was worried 'cause we were in the woods...
and Dad was yellin' for us to come back home.
I was scared, 'cause Dad would spank us.
Chris, he just-
He just kept runnin'...
further into the woods.
That was Chris. Whatever Dad said...
Chris had to do the opposite.
I mean, I just lost sight of him for a few seconds...
and he was gone.
And I never saw him again.
Well, they found...
a shoe.
One of his shoes...
a couple miles away, and-
Your parents must've been destroyed.
Never the same, you know?
Every time I look in the face of a parent who's lost a child...
I see Dad.
- What'll you have? - The usual.
Hi, Dad.
Well, this is an honor.
I usually have to page you.
- Can I buy you one? - No, I'm good.
Dad, I wanna do something I've avoided for 25 years.
I wanna talk to you about Chris.
He was a little boy, and he died.
- What else do we need to say? - How did he die? What really happened?
I mean, I was six years old. I got these weird memories.
- I don't wanna talk about it. - I work with kids. You're worse.
You have to talk about it. Whatever happened seems to be happening again.
And now, there's two kids involved.
I was six years old, and I thought I saw a shadow.
I thought it was a man. What did I tell ya?
We looked for Chris for days, you know.
The whole town. You told us that one moment...
Chris was there, and the next he was gone.
You said you thought you heard something...
another voice.
My dad told me the same thing, you know, about those woods-
about how kids get lost there.
Goin' back years before the mine closed...
when Buford was bigger.
I still think it was my fault.
What are you talkin' about?
I don't think you kids ever would've gone in there...
if I hadn't put the fear in your mind about this monster.
You had to challenge me, didn't-
Come over here, Jillian.
- Come on. - Andrew?
Help me, Jillian. Help me get in.
Help me, or I'll fall.
I told you to stay away from that window!
Ow! Mommy!
A neighbor heard some screams and a crash about 15 minutes ago.
Settle down, okay? Help me. Please, help me.
- Settle down. - We need you to come with us.
- He's back! - Everything's fine. The police are here.
- Nobody's gonna get ya. - He's back!
Who's the boogeyman? Is it Daddy? Is it a man?
- Leave me alone! Come to Mommy, baby. - Mrs. Rosman.
- Get away from me! - Please calm down!
I want my baby! No! You can't take her!
- No! No! - Mommy!
- I want my mommy. - It's okay. Mommy's gone to the hospital.
- It's okay. - I want her.
I just broke about five laws.
She's in need of medical assistance and a whole lot more.
Besides, I don't think she's capable of taking care ofJillian right now.
Honey, we're gonna look after you...
just for a few hours till your mommy feels better, okay?
- Hey. - Got something?
Blood. Might be Sharon, might beJillian.
And it might not be either. Let's get a sample.
I'll take some here and take some off the kitchen floor.
Okay.
Jillian, we're all going to Detective Doyle's.
You'll be safe there, okay?
That's it.
Okay. Come on.
Morning. How's Jillian?
Sleeping about four feet from my mother.
I checked on Sharon. They kept her for observation overnight...
but in another day I'm gonna have to get Social Services on her...
or giveJillian back.
- Did you get any sleep? - Some. You?
Well, I joined the search for a while.
Well, we're both in great shape.
- Where we goin'? - We're going to Lexington.
The tape recorder picked up some interesting sounds from the baby monitor.
Jillian, look.! Bear-Bear can talk.!
- What's that sound? - I can't get you way back there.
Please.
I'm scared to be alone.
I can't reach you.
Will you be quiet? Remember what Mommy said?
The first two show voice samples taken from the mother.
Pretty standard. Below it are the kids, also standard.
But this mystery sound-
Well, its frequency is unusual.
Most human voices don't get above eight kilohertz.
This one is 11.
Are you saying there was something else in there?
All I'm saying is no one I know, including Betty Boop, talks at 11 kilohertz.
What are you thinking, Jon?
There was something else in that room.
Some "thing" else?
Not someone?
Okay, thanks, Bernie.
Ming, what have you got on the blood samples?
All I'm gonna say is that I've never seen anything like this.
Somewhere along the line, it turned into sand.
What?
The closest description that I can give is a sort of crude, crystallized carbon.
Excuse my illiteracy in the exciting world of biochemistry, but-
Proteins. About the simplest form of living organic matter.
- The sand is alive. - Once, before it polymerized.
Think of it as petrified wood.
Well, more like a distant cousin.
Where does it come from, Ming?
Is it animal, vegetable or mineral?
It's probably just some freak biochemical anomaly.
I have to run more tests. I don't believe it myself.
You said it was organic, and then it polymerized.
Could it be a liquid like blood?
Sure, it's possible that some animal...
could have a carbon in its bloodstream...
that could polymerize if exposed to air or UV rays.
Okay. Thanks, Ming.
Where you goin'?
- Back to planet Earth. - I thought that was pretty valuable.
Not to me. I don't need...
this science-fiction mumbo jumbo about mysterious creatures.
I have a child that has been taken by a real-life human being.
Don't take this the wrong way, okay? But based on the evidence...
I think you're better off lookin' for a creature.
- Jon, get serious! - Wait a sec.
We got an ex-husband with an alibi.
No hard evidence on the mother. No other leads.
I just think maybe we should start lookin' at improbable explanations.
There's a whole other approach we haven't tried yet.
Let's get back to your office.
Okay, say "I told you so."
I've checked kidnapping reports all over the area, recent parolees.
Every likely creep is accounted for the night he disappeared.
I even logged onto the national missing persons database.
- Nothing. - Don't log off just yet.
- What are you doing? - Something my dad said got me thinking.
Let's search all missing children, 1800 to present.
3,289 cases.
Let's cross-reference unsolved cases.
2,857.
Bracket them for this region.
1,522.
That's 54%, give or take a tenth.
That's almost three times what we should have.
I used to do batting averages.
We have one-
We checked that. We already checked that. Yes, we did.
Yes, we did. Wait, wait! No. You know what we didn't check?
You know, we should check the- Wait a second. Here, I'll do it.
Bracket for temperatures.
We're getting desperate.
Cross-referencing the missing children database with temperatures...
weather conditions, holidays, positions of Earth, positions of the moon.
There has to be some commonality.
Doesn't look like there's a pattern.
Well, there's no obvious pattern.
Bracket for tides.
211 cases. Check this, Caitlin.
There's a swell in the number of kidnapping every 30 days or so.
Let's try to cross-reference the lunar cycle.
Still almost 200 cases.
Let's see a list.
- I think we got something here. - What?
Look at the lunar cycle for each of these missing child disappearance dates.
No moon. No moon. No moon.
Jon, what do fairy tales have to do with no moon?
Fairy tales tend to be a mix of reality and wish fulfillment.
But deep down, there's more reality than we like to admit to.
You saw Jillian's reaction. She said she saw the boogeyman.
Fairy tales are about the boogeyman.
Look at this. I don't know if this is real...
but something's been scaring kids for hundreds of years.
See, we got Baba Yaga. We got the Norwegian trolls.
We got the fox spirit. We got the jinni.
Every culture seems to have one fairy tale about a creature...
who lives in the forest, under beds...
in caves, and carries children away.
Every culture thought the sun went around the Earth too.
Come on, Caitlin. Think like a cop. Look at the evidence.
It said that trolls turn into stone when hit by sunlight.
Maybe that's- I don't know.
Maybe that's what this carbon protein is.
What? Freeze-dried troll?
Polymerized troll. Jinni. Fox spirit.
Whatever. Its blood literally turns into stone.
Sand, like our sample.
All right, making the giant assumption that this is true-
I can't believe I'm saying this-
how have people missed these trolls all these years?
If its blood polymerizes in sunlight, maybe it's photosensitive.
It likes the dark, lives in the dark, travels in the dark.
That's why we never see it. That's why kids disappear every four weeks.
Moonless nights, like this last week.
What kind of dark places?
Sewers, woods, mines.
Okay, that still doesn't explain how-
how it could've got past Sharon Rosman...
in the living room or under the bed.
Is it invisible?
The Rakshasa had the power to change its appearance.
Now, I don't know how that works.
Maybe it emits some kind of natural hallucinogen.
All I know is that while grown-ups are hard to sell...
children are believers.
Andrew and Bear-Bear.
I just wish I knew why whoever or whatever it is keeps comin' afterJillian.
Because she's terrified.
It smells her fear.
It's drawn to her.
There's no moon.
- There has to be. It's at crescent. - No, there's no moon.
She's with my mother at my house.
Step on it!
- Where's Jillian? - In the bedroom. Why? What's going on?
The mine! Call for help and meet me there!
Damn.
Oh, my God. Are you all right?
- Did you find Jillian? - Caitlin, is that you?
Caitlin, I got him!
I've got him!
- He's gettin' loose! Watch out! - His arm! Hold his arm!!
The sun! Put him in the light!
What the-
This is for my brother, for Andrew, and all the others!
Sweetie.
Come here. Come here.
It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.
You don't have to be afraid anymore. You don't have to be afraid anymore.
It's okay.
We're going to see Mommy right now.
Our world has been mapped...
the oceans charted, animals and plants named and indexed.
Or so we believe.
But there are still places grown-ups forget they've been...
and it is children who remind us there are creatures that lurk in the dark...
and under the bed.