Me and my wife Lindsay recently brought a new blue-eyed bundle of joy into our lives, Damien, he is now four months old and it feels like time just keeps on ticking by with him. Lindsay is currently a stay-at-home mom to him while I go out and bring home the bacon at the oil rig. I’ve been expressing my desire to be at home with the newborn to my boss which managed to secure me a few extra days off this weekend especially since I haven’t had the chance to do many bonding activities with Damien as of late. When I finally arrived home tonight after another long day Lindsay was fast asleep upstairs with Damien cooing in his crib nestled in the living room. Lindsay had been stressing all this morning lately about the importance of healthy development for the little guy and making sure he reaches all of his milestones, personally I think he’s just a baby still but as long as it meant more one on one time I get to spend with him without interruptions. I leaned over and plucked the stirring little ball of love up and gently bounced him on my knee. After a quick google search for “Four-Month-Old Development Checklist” me and Damien decided to try out a few of the games listed. First off was ‘Acoustic Waves’ to help improve his sound recognition. With that I reached into my back pocket and dangled some keys for him, seeing his little grabby hands reach for the glittering metal trying to hold them made my heart melt even more to be a father. Placing the keys on the side table I continued to scroll through the checklist coming across one of the items labeled ‘Object Permanence’ Object permanence I thought this should be easy enough, just a game of peek-a-boo to help him understand the perception of objects and that daddy isn’t really gone. I crouched down and placed him in front of me on the floor then proceeded to place my hands over my eyes asking him where’d I go not expecting a reply of course. Damien seemed all amused with this, giggling in response to my various attempts at hiding my face from him with silly faces. I placed my hands over my eyes once more this time getting more excited myself at seeing how well he was responding to this game. Lindsay is going to be ecstatic to see how far he’s come along in such a short amount of time, then Damien suddenly started wailing at the top of his lungs. Usually, our son is a very tame child without much of a fuss so this caught me off guard I figured maybe I’d just scared him from playing too much. I removed my hands and opened my eyes deciding to call it a night and put him back to bed but when I did all my surroundings were turned into a black oozing sight trembling with every air particle making contact with it, what was once my living room was obscure darkened copies of it that looked like a child crudely filled in the lines with a black crayon. I looked down and screamed at where my son once sat crying and all that remained of my baby boy was a grotesque black puddle when I tried to grip him in my hands they became stained in a thick oil like substance. I think I’m going to have to start perceiving an entirely different reality from my own now.