Day 12 Monster Under The Bed
Nightmares and shadows were always the things of make believe. Of over imagination. Of a child being afraid of the dark and developing irrational fears because of that.
You of course never believed in such things now but when you were a child things were really, really scary. You didn't remember what age you were when it started EXACTLY but you'd mother often said that it started when you were around four years old so you supposed that's as good of a guess as any. You just remembered the constant night terrors you'd receive many a nights. That terrible monster that would always crawl out from under the bed as soon as night came and your parents left you to sleep. Only you never got that sleep.
I stead you'd lay there trembling and clutching the blankets as the familiar sounds of claws against the wooden floors would come after a long moment of silence and you'd see the claws reaching out from under the bed and clutching the edge of the bed before slowly poking that grotesque head out. Sometimes accompanying by a nashing noise of his fangs.
"Ah. There you are. Still not quite ripe I see."
You'd scream bloody murder and your parents would come rushing in flicking on the light but every time he was gone. Every time they checked nothing was under your bed minus a few toys. It was just your imagination they said. You should just go back to bed. Then they'd get angry with you if you cried and insisted that they stay or take you with them. But they always refused insisting you need to toughen up and face your fears. So you started sleeping with the light on more and more. He never came back when the lights were on but your parents didn't like the sudden increase in the electric bill so they punished you if you ever tried doing it allowing him to come back.
"They never believe in their children do they? Too bad. Unfortunately you're not old enough yet to eat. I never eat anything older or younger than sixteen so you're death will have to wait until then."
It was from then on you found out more clever ways to defeat him. Pointing a flashlight under your bed or just completely turning your bed on it's side and then sleeping on the floor. If there was no 'under' under your bed while it was sideways then you wouldn't see him. Of course your parents didn't like it either and grounded you for making a mess of your room. But they all but gave up when you just slept on the sofa. He never appeared anywhere that wasn't a bed so you just slept in the living room either on the sofa or in your sleeping bag. For years and years dreading the thought of being eaten by the monster.
You never forget about his horrible face. Sometimes he'd have one horn. Sometimes two. Sometimes even three. But otherwise his image never changed in the slightest. Your parents started cracking down on you sleeping in your own room again when you were thirteen claiming you were too old for this behavior and punished you harsher if you didn't start doing it. You desperately didn't want to! Luckily you could now use the excuse of staying up late to study to get away with keeping the light on to which your parents now didn't mind and that seemed to do the trick because you never saw him again.
You did have a heightened fear of him returning when you were sixteen years old and often slept in your bathroom with the door locked and lights on still as a safety measure. You never told anyone about your irrational fear believing it would only result in you being punished by your parents or getting made fun of by your friends. It was only near your eighteenth birthday that you felt comfortable enough with trying to sleep again by yourself.
Low and behind he never came back
You never saw him again.
You started getting better sleep only sometimes keeping the lights on as a wave of relief washed over you. Oh how foolish you had been for believing in a stupid fear for so long. You didn't have any need to fear it after all because he wasn't real. Just a stupid imaginary monster conjured up from your child mind and you allowed it to run silly. Nowadays you even laughed at it whenever it was brought up. Stupid to believe in a monster that was as real as the tooth fairy. In fact you were talking about the situation to your mother one day over lunch when she came to visit you. Laughing over how funny you were as a dumb kid-
"Oh. That reminds me of a story that was on the news recently."
You rose a brow. "What news?"
"Well a sixteen year old girl broke out of the hospital recently."
"Ok? That doesn't seem too weird. Why did she run away?"
Your mother shrugged. "Nobody knows. They said she suffered from bad hallucinations since she was young. Apparently she'd hallucinate a monster with horns would come out from under her bed every night so they admitted her for treatment recently but somehow she disappeared without a trace. No one knows how she got out. They said it's just just like she vanished into thin air."
Your fork clattered along the table as it fell from your hand.