Bedtime tea recipes

As children, we all heard the stories. Boogeymen type characters who were said to prey on the vulnerable, snatch up children who strayed too far from their parents or wandered off alone. The most commonly known examples are the abominable snowman and the boogeyman himself. <br><br>But when I was a child, we heard a different legend. And this one was so, so much worse than the others. <br><br>His name was Mac. A lot of people said he was the boogeyman, that he was just another name for a figure who was seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt by so many children. But those of us who knew about him, knew how he operated, knew that he wasn’t the boogeyman. <br><br>The boogeyman was a lot of things to a lot of people, but he was never a lure. A bait, a trap. Whatever you want to call it. <br><br>Mac was always a woman. She was a tall, slender figure with long, curly hair that appeared to change colors pretty regularly. As far as I’m aware, nobody knows what her actual hair color is. Red, black, blonde, brown. It was always like that, even as a child. <br><br>She always wore a flowing, floral print dress. It was also multicolored, but the print never changed. <br><br>For those of you asking why we know so much, I won’t be disclosing any information about how we got that information. Let’s just say that some of us have been... close... to Mac before. <br><br>Now, you’re probably wondering what Mac does, why all the paranoia about some random woman. <br><br>Well, she lures children in. She’s a nocturnal creature, so she usually comes out at night. <br><br>This is where the tea comes in.<br><br>Apparently, she’s an expert at making tea and makes different cups tailored to each child’s tastes. That’s right, she knows what each of us likes, what flavors we will never turn down. <br><br>And once you drink that tea, you’re gone. Some people say she kills you, others that she kidnaps you to make more tea, others that she just traps you in some pretend world for all eternity. But one thing is for sure, and that’s that we never see the kids she gets again. <br><br>She was an urban legend up until a few months ago, when she took my little brother. <br><br>Eli hadn’t been doing well. He was a very intelligent kid, but he couldn’t figure out why Mac had taken him. When she came for me, he just shook his head and said “I should have drunk the tea.” <br><br>I have reason to believe that Eli was right, and that if he had drunk the tea, he would have been able to figure out how to escape or stop Mac. I don’t know why I think this, but I do. <br><br>So I’m going to include a list of the most common tea flavors, and explain what each means if you drink it. <br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>*Vanilla tea:* This is the most common one. If you drink this tea, you’ll probably never see your parents again. It’ll feel like you’re at an amusement park, but whenever you try to find your parents you just can’t seem to. You’ll forget about them eventually, and once you do, there’s no getting them back. You’ll live happily ever after with a slight knot in the pit of your stomach, but you’ll never remember why. <br><br>*Strawberry tea:* If you drink this one, you’ll be forced to think about your biggest fear constantly. If you’re afraid of heights, you’ll think about being on top of the world’s tallest building twenty four seven. If you have arachnophobia, all you’ll think about is spiders. It doesn’t matter how big that fear is to you, if you drink this tea it will consume you. <br><br>*Jasmine tea:* This one is a little different. If you drink this one, you’ll remember your parents, your siblings, your pets, your friends. Everyone you’ve ever loved or known. But you’ll have a key word, a buzz word, something that you can’t say. Whenever you say that word, bad things will happen to the people you love. If you say it enough, they’ll die. If you say it too much, you’ll forget about them and move on like you would with the vanilla tea. But it will haunt you, and you’ll never be able to stop talking. <br><br>*Earl Grey tea:* If you drink this one, you’ll lose all ability to feel pain. You’ll feel pleasure, you’ll feel happiness and sadness and guilt. But you won’t feel pain. They say that Mac tends to favor this one. She’ll cut you, burn you, flay you. And you’ll never feel a thing. But you’ll be fully aware of what she’s doing, and what she’s capable of. <br><br>*Ginger tea:* If you drink this, you’ll forget about Mac. You’ll remember that you’re trapped, but you won’t remember who trapped you or why. You’ll try to find a way out, to escape. You’ll know that you’re in danger, and that you have to get away from... something. But you won’t know what. And without knowing the cause of your imprisonment, you won’t be able to find a way out. You’ll eventually forget why you’re trying to escape, but that feeling of urgency will never fade. <br><br>*Green tea:* This one is the most unexplainable. It’s been used less than any other flavor, but those of us who have seen it have agreed on two things: <br><br>1. She never offers this tea to children. <br><br>2. Whatever it does, it isn’t good. <br><br>It doesn’t matter which tea you choose, because none of them end well for you. But if you ever have to choose, now you know what you’re choosing between. <br><br>And if you ever see a long, curly red head of hair, get the hell away.