“The Monster Under my Bed (and what I did about it)” - A Satirical, Short Story

“Hey there I’m hungry.” It was a dark, gravelly voice.

I heard it again from the underside of my bed. You know when your bed squeaks and you can feel the springs sometimes snap? It wasn’t from me, that was from the creature that lives under there. It was trying to get comfortable.

“Stop moving and go to sleep. I’m real sick of you!” I snapped at it.

It finally stopped wriggling around and right as I felt the chance to slip away to sleep, I heard its voice again, this time much closer to me.

“From here you look mighty good. A little chicken-snack.” I heard it snap its teeth and I could feel its warm breath in my earhole.

It was my instinct to push away whatever was there. Annoying. My open palm pressed against its coarse face, a face void of defining features. To speak it must have a mouth somewhere else, as my hand pushed against what I thought were its moving lips; but I felt nothing there. It was nothing but a rough, and cold exterior. Snake-like, yet it wasn’t scaley. The sensation vanished from my fingertips.

The creature moved and I could smell something nasty from its trail of wind. In the darkness of my room, the creature flung backward, knocking itself into my bookshelf, and toppling my comics to the floor. Among the crashing of books, I heard a sizzle and a deafening shriek. What a baby!

Suddenly my Dad kicked my door down, wondering what all the noise was about. He flipped on the light switch.

“The Hell’s goin’ on in ‘ere?” My Dad cried out.

“Dad! My books fell! It startled me too Dad!” I said pointing to the mess. Nothing but books and broken shelves.

My Dad was barely awake. “Yeah, well be careful with all that…‘an go to bed…mrm…” He moaned and walked back to his room. On his way out, he brushed his hand against the light switch, returning me to the dark.

All was black and I heard the creature’s body slither back under my bed. It said one last thing to me then.

“Rotten thing you did Marco. That really hurt me,” it hushed devilishly.

I always knew I was a tough kid. I had just turned nine years old over the weekend.

“Yeah, you better watch out because I can mess you up!” I boasted.

This time the creature didn’t reply. My room fell still. A couple more comics fell from the broken shelf.

I went to sleep.

EIGHT YEARS LATER: THE PRESENT

I’m lying in bed with my girlfriend and we’re watching TV. It’s raining hard and she’s planning to stay the night. It’s inevitable debauchery, but my Dad doesn’t care and her parents think she’s at some friend’s house. I rule.

A scary movie is playing and she nestles closer to me. I feel the mood initiate. Licking my lips I go to kiss her, but my eyes happen to cross over her and the edge of the bed. What I see makes my heart clench and my penis goes soft.

All of a sudden I experience horrifying deja vu.

I remember that night as a kid; at the time still unaware of the horrors of the world, oblivious to the idea of death and evil. I never saw what it truly looked like then, but I remember the missing features it had. That feeling of its blank, leathery face. The smell of its searing flesh, the scolding it gave, and the silence that followed me for years.

Yes, I’m sitting in the same room, and forgive me, but I’m sitting in the same kiddie bed too. I’m cozied up on the same hunting grounds that this sickening beast has preyed upon me ever since I was a boy. It let me forget about it!

In the TV light, as the flickering blue panels brighten the room, for a brief second I can see half of its head, looming behind my girlfriend. I can see it, but it almost seems to vanish with every flash of light. Was I hallucinating?

Back then, I was naive to think such a dangerous entity could be handled by a nine-year-old. It makes no difference now.

I knew I had hurt it back then, but how again?

My eyes are glued and wide. I watch its shape stretch behind my girlfriend, slowly growing taller and longer.

“What’s wrong?” She asks.

Something happens and it sounds like a phone book being ripped in half.

I pull her out of the way just in time as the creature swings down, sinking these heavy blades into my bed. It pulls its talons away in a tearing motion, ripping and sending bedframe and spongey mattress stuffing everywhere.

The TV casts an extra bright light and from the corner of my bedpost, I can finally see the full-bodied monster for what it is.

It’s only a brief second, but I see a humanoid, lizard-looking creature. It stands like a human yet moves around like a snake. It’s tall, brown, and has arms with extra fingery claws extending and retracting. It has no facial features just as I remember. Its defining feature is a pink blotch that looks the size of a small flower, placed right in the center of its ‘face’. A scar.

That pink scar. Yes, that was from me!

“MARCO!” The creature yells.

I look for the missing mouth, the source of its demonic homily. There’s still no sight of it. The idea of it being hidden somewhere else strikes me as very unsettling, more so than the situation at hand. Half my bed is demolished and my girl is cowering in the far corner of it. It looks us over eerily from the center of the room. Double kill!

“Get back!” I yell as I move to jump the creature-thing.

I’m not gonna let it hurt us. I’m gonna wrap my whole body around the sucker till it squeals. As gross as it looks, and as scared shitless I am, it is what I have to do. It doesn’t occur to me why he’s returned after all this time, but truthfully it’s the creature’s error since now I am much bigger and stronger.

Unfortunately, I’m given only a second of visibility. Right as I jump, the TV goes dark again, and it vanishes from my view.

Unable to control my fall, I crash onto the floor with a hearty thud. Part of me hopes the clatter is enough to wake my Dad. Unfortunately these days, my Dad can’t hear anything, especially not after he’s been asleep and certainly not without his hearing aids.

Now I’m free-game as I have no plan or any idea where the frightening abomination ran to. My bed is destroyed and my girlfriend is just sitting there, frozen from shock. She looks at me with bug eyes.

“What was that Marco?” She trembles, trying to muster up the courage to peer over the thrashed bed. It all happened too fast.

“Just…gimme a sec!” I say, trying to contain the situation; but more like using the time to collect my nerves. I stand up in the middle of my room to scan for the slithery creature. I ball my fists up.

I feel a tickle from above. Part of me just knows; so I look up at the ceiling and there it is, clinging to the light fixture. In the blinks of the TV light, its blank face matches my eyes and I watch as it freefalls upon me.

I’m dead.

Right as it releases to tackle me, to devour me, to suffocate me, to kill me - my old man comes in and turns on the light.

In a brief second, and before it has to chance to vanish again, miraculously I manage to wrap myself around the plunging lizard beast. It crackles and pops in my tight grip. Its skin melts and cooks as I squeeze it harder and harder, hoping I’m draining the life out. I recognize that familiar smell. After a good choke, I drop the thing, letting it collapse and shrivel on the ground.

My Dad walks up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder. My girlfriend is still sitting there, still paralyzed from fear, and still only able to mouth her words. Yikes. My Dad lightly kicks the dissolving heap of creature.

“I never wanted you to find out like this.” My Dad says.

I’m not sure what he’s talking about. “Huh?”

“That’s your brother. You two were always meant to fight to the death but I wanted to wait till you were older.” He says, wiping his brow.

“Dad, are you drunk?” I ask.

“Yes. Extremely. I have no clue what this is boy.” He says.

I have a feeling that tomorrow my girlfriend and I are gonna break up. Yeah.