I don’t know his name, or what he is. It’s more of a being than human, unlike anything I have ever seen. I played a game once and he appeared. I wish I hadn’t. Kids always play games like Candy Man and Bloody Mary to scare them, why was I cursed with this?
His skin hangs like loose clothing from a clothes wire, it’s yellow eyes bulge out of its head with black pool for pupils. Claws extend from its withered hands into thick white and bronze nails. When it opens his mouth it’s like staring into the mouth of Hell. You can literally hear the screams of lost souls screaming for salvation.
No hair is on its head just wrinkled skin, its body is curved in a way that it can’t stand straight. Just hunched over, it usually crawls on all fours due to it. No one believed me, I told my mom and dad thought I was crazy. My two little brothers laughed as they overheard me. They don’t know what it’s like to see something no one believes. He comes to me at night, telling me that he’s gonna take me something from me. I’m terrified he’s gonna take my family. I scream when he appears but he leaves before they can get to me. They think I’m mental. I told them he lives under my bed but they of course laughed. This is too real to imagine. I’m gonna have to take matters in my own hand.
Laying in my small bed after dark I waited patiently for him to come. A bat tucked neatly under my blankets next to me. I gripped my hand tightly around it while pretending to sleep. It wasn’t hard to hear him coming, my bed would slightly rattle as the opening underneath would appear. From it’s home it would crawl out shivering and shaking in a movement that made his skin slap against its bones. The smell foul like rotting meat. I knew he was here. If my family wasn’t gonna help me I had to do it myself, despite being only 13.
My bed began to lift as the monster picked it up under its weight. My head touched the headboard as my legs lifted into the air at the angle. I opened an eye to see it crawling out on all fours. I gripped the bat and swung as hard as I could. My bat made contact with the spinal cord jutting out of its back under thin skin. The lump sunk down as it roared out in pain. I pulled the bat out and swung as hard as I could again this time cracking his right shoulder plate apart.
It felt good to get the best of it. Adrenaline swirled through my veins, my heart rested in my throat pounding. I never felt this way before, a serenity covered me like a child’s security blanket. My family was finally gonna see I wasn’t crazy. I pulled the bat back as it rolled over opening it’s mouth. It was like looking into a pit of despair, tortured souls spun in a circle reaching out for help as their screams echoed through the room. Surely this would wake everyone.
I jumped off my bed and began to swing as hard as I could into it’s open mouth. His jagged teeth began to crumble into pieces into its throat. His brain became visible after three more swings. It stopped breathing after the first swing, I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to release all my anger and frustration on it, it needed to feel how I felt. Broken and worthless, weak and used.
The muscles in my arm began to burn by the time the door flung open with my mother standing there. A look of shock in her face, “You see?! I told you there was a monster under my bed! I told you!”
She covered her mouth and turned to throw up in the hallway. She couldn’t believe it. She grabbed my two brothers who happened to be standing there and run out. I felt like a hero. I continued to beat the creature until my arms couldn’t allow me. He wasn’t taking them from me. Where a head once was a pool of chunks and blood rested on the ground underneath my worn out bat. Blood covered my face as it dripped down my curved lips. I couldn’t believe I beat him.
I looked up and was thrilled to see the police, I didn’t know how to explain to them but was willing to start somewhere. They grabbed me and threw me in handcuffs. I couldn’t believe it. I screamed at them asking if they saw it, asking where my family was. My mother watched from afar as I got into a police car.
The entire neighborhood of Mooncrest came out to watch as I was taken away. I’m a hero, why am I getting arrested? I heard mutters from people saying I was going to Arbatian Mental Institution. I don’t belong there, someone else had to have seen it. I saved my family.
As I rode in the back of the cop car I looked over and saw him next to me. His skin hung low against the hard seats as it laughed on a deep voice. I screamed and began to yell for the cops. They looked back and told me to quiet down. They couldn’t see him. I looked over at him with tears and asked what he was doing there, hadn’t I already beat him?
“I told you I would take something from you when I found you. You wanted to play the Ouija board game. Every play has a price.”, he snarled, “It wasn’t your family I was after, it was your sanity.”. He breathed heavily for a moment before responding, “I won.”.
Eight hours earlier:
“Yeah I know she thinks some monster is under her bed, but she’s too old for that she’s thirteen years old.”, Pat says. “Maybe she’s going through some things babe? I know she’s too old for that but what if we help her? Or at least try?”, Hannah replies.
“How do you propose we do that?”
“Well she’s scared something is under her bed? Some creature right?”
Pat nods his head, “Yeah so how do we fix it?”
“Well you’re the hero in her life, you used to check in the closet and under her bed when she was younger”, Hannah says,” Remember how you used to creep under her bed and come out when she fell asleep? And if she woke up you pretended to slay the monster and come out to her rescue? Why not try it again?”