A wretched monstrosity hiding in the dark, the Childminder slips into the bedrooms of sleeping children. It emerges through cracks in the floorboards, the corners where the ceiling meets the wall, and the unseen darkness behind where mirrors show. At a glance it can have six limbs, nine limbs, sometimes upwards of twenty, all in the same instant, their only consistency coming from the long twisted hands that sprout from the end of each limb like gnarled branches.
The Childminder steals away children whose parents, it feels, does not deserve children, doling out harsh 'justice' to the parents before it leaves. However, the criteria for the worthiness of a parent is known only to the Childminder itself, as an abusive parent is just as likely to lose their child as one who forgot to tell their child to brush their teeth one night.
Pulling itself across the veil of reality into the child's room, it silently crawls across the ceiling over the child's bed before exhaling a heavy fog of poison to keep the child asleep. Then it moves onto the parent's room.
To be deemed unworthy is to be granted a slow painful death at its twisting claws, its preferred method being the drawing and quartering of the parent with its many limbs pulling in half a dozen different directions.
Once the parent is dispatched, the Childminder makes its back way to the child's room, plucking the child from their bed with long claws before slipping back from whence it came with the child in tow. What it does with the children is unknown but there are reports from spouses of the 'unworthy' parents of the beast singing this song softly to itself as it murdered the unworthy parent in front of them, that may bring some insight on the creature's plans.
Sung to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider (first stanza):
The Childminder is com~ing, Sleep within the light. Only foolish par~ents Will leave their child tonight.
Mom-my sleeps forev~er, Daddy wears a shroud. Sissy is the new~ bride, Brother will be chowed
Follow me dear chil~dren, Bring your siblings too. Come into my play~ house, Childminder loves you.
I will likely be drawing a fully visible version of Childminder soon as a minor ref sheet. Edit: Have added Childminder's Ref Sheet
