Hello there, I'm the monster under the bed. Actually it's more like I'm the monster that shows up at night, the bed isn't where I actually hide, kids just have weird conceptions. In fact, I've never even seen the underside of her bed, I don't imagine there's another monster there. If there is, I'd like to have a chat, how could he stand to sleep on the floor like that?
I've done it once, it was cold and tears were running down my cheeks. I don't like to talk about it, that was a dark day, I lost the battle and was thrown on the ground. It was the first day too, I think I was sent out late, I couldn't assume the correct position, almost got found out. How did this start? Well, one day command just told me to go and start scaring little Candy Adburn.
"Her mother just died in an accident recently." they said. "Just go and scare her for a while." so I did. Almost every night, at around ten thirty, I go into her room and start terrorizing her. She's almost stopped trying to sleep, I noticed the way she shivered as I entered the room.
I'd grab her blankets and rip it off of her, she'd scream, "Dad!" but he wouldn't come. Even if he came one day, who'll believe that a monster is here? They'll brush it off and tell her it was, "Just a dream hon, go back to bed." I've seen this before, the parents never believe their kids. The step parents do sometimes, but they don't do anything.
The kids who are easiest to scare, are the ones who never believe it'll happen to them.
As a monster, I can do anything. Why do I choose to scare little kids then? I don't know, I just feel like I was made for this. Sure, sometimes their screams and tears even get to me, but it's a job right? Honestly, I can't say I love it but it's a necessary evil I gotta do, this job can't be ignored. It's important to the kids after all.
Of course, there comes a time where every monster stops scaring them, those are sad days I hear. When monsters stop scaring them is usually when they grow older, when they can see what's going on. Candy hasn't reached that stage yet, she's still too young to grasp the situation.
I'll have to stay with her for a while. It's not like I actually have anywhere else to go, she's my first target after all. The other monster's I've seen were in videos. I don't understand what it takes for me to have this job, I don't really remember going through any kind of screening. One day... one day, I can't remember when, but one day, I was just told to go scare her.
Been doing it for a while now, I'm pretty much a pro at this point. I'd like to brag to someone about it but I can't seem to remember working with anyone else. Were there other monsters? Of course, they were in those videos, I just don't have the time to go see others.
Candy's dad works late, he's been kind of a mess since his wife died. I don't really come out until he gets back home, Candy doesn't go to bed until he gets here. Why? I don't really know, I can't say. I can't really scare her until she's close to half asleep either.
Candy really fuels me but sometimes she's just too awake to keep me running.
Lately I've been feeling a kind of disgust, you know, the kind that you get when you're parts are accidentally brushed passed. I don't think I've been doing anything to Candy, I'm a monster, not a molester, still, in the morning, when I sleep, I can't shake the feeling.
You could say that my sleep time is like me returning to my original place. It's where command and everything else is, sometimes new videos show up for me to watch. The monsters there are really much more mean than I am. Sometimes I even hear they kill their kid, monsters disappear after their kid dies. That's what I think, I mean, who else is going to want someone like that?
Life was pretty simple before this. I don't remember much, I was just living with my family, eating out, watching movies, doing all sorts of nice regular monster things. I don't have a clear memory of when it stopped, It might have been a few weeks ago, pretty recent.
Oh, looks like it's time for me to go to sleep, see you guys later.
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Candy woke up, she looked around the room, her pink princess bed was a mess. The yellow cover of her pillows were hanging on for dear life, they only had half a grip on the pillows. Her blankets were strewn across the room, the smiling princess Cinderella was curled up like a sleeping bag laying on the floor. She swiped her hand around her body, she could feel the ruffles of her clothing and the parts where it had been stretched when she fought against the monster.
Candy quickly got out of her bed, feet first, she started changing for school. She felt sore as she took off her clothing, her body ached from the struggle last night and the nights before that one. From what Candy could remember, the attacks started a few days after her mother's death. The first day she was thrown on the ground and was crying, the room was too dark for her to see the monster clearly.
Each day they would happen, each day around the same time. Whenever she screamed out for her father who had just gotten home he wouldn't respond, it's like he couldn't hear her. The monster however, would flinch a little bit and slow down on it's attacks, as if it wanted to stop or was worried. Candy didn't notice this though, she was too afraid to understand the significance.
Candy slipped her little arms through her tiny hoodie and went into the bathroom where she brushed her hair. It was also messy from the attack last night, she put great strength into her arms to battle the resisting hair. Entire globs of it would come off when she finally took out the brush to start again. Although it hurt, she didn't want anyone asking her any strange questions, when she told her father he didn't believe her. He didn't say anything, he looked away and kept eating his junk food that was laid before him. He wasn't smelling the nicest either, he smelled bitter lately.
Candy left her room and the house with the utmost care, making sure not to wake her dad. She wasn't feeling very comfortable lately and she noticed how much more gruff he had become.
At school Candy's friends asked, "Why are you wearing a hoodie? Isn't it hot?"
She looked away and say, "I like it warm."
To which they responded with, "But you didn't wear any jackets in the winter until your mom told you too." realizing what they said, they apologized.
"I-it's okay guys, let's go and play." Candy deflected their apologies and questions with a flick of her tongue. She didn't want anyone asking about her mother or the monster, she didn't want to give any clues. Her heart felt heavy as she lugged it through the day with her, a small sense of dread following her around.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Candy, can we come over tonight?" her friend asked.
She shook her head, "No, my dad doesn't get home until late and he doesn't want anyone over." she lied. Her father never said anything about not having anyone over. She just did it so that they wouldn't notice anything off about her, she also didn't want to monster appearing early and terrorizing them too.
"Then at least come play at my house tonight. You never come over anymore." one whined.
Candy shook her head again, "I gotta get home. Dad said so." she turned to get onto the bus. One of her friend reached out and grabbed her sleeve, Candy immediately jerked her hand and she let go.
"Hey, Candy, what's that?" her friends asked pointing to the marks on her arm.
"N-nothing!" she screamed as she ran inside the bus.
Her friends saw it, they saw what the monster did. It'd only be a matter of time, she knew that it would've gotten out eventually. She'd planned to get rid of the monster before that but now, now she had no time. Her friends would mention it to their parents, she had no doubt in that.
Steeling herself, she decided that tonight, tonight would be the last time she ever sees the monster again.
Upon making it home Candy grabbed her brush and other objects like pencils. Those would be her weapons against fighting the monster tonight, she thought about a knife but the feeling in her heart kept her away from it. She went into her father's room where she picked up a fat pillow, this would be the bait.
She slid the pillow under the sheets and sat at the side of her bed, away from the door where the monster would enter from. Sitting there, despite all the tension, little Candy slowly started to drift to sleep.
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I woke up a little earlier than usual, I couldn't do much though. I felt restricted, like there was no where for me to move, like I had no body. Maybe this is what happens when I don't come on schedule. I didn't do anything for a few hours, I just stayed at the nowhere I was thinking to myself.
Finally, around ten, the time where I usually get up and the same time where Candy's dad came home, I was able to move.
I feel my hands/tentacles, I don't really have much of a defined body, sometimes it switches out like a flash. My breath feels warm and sticky, my mouth feels gross. I stumble my way towards Candy's room, waking up early must've caused me to lose control or something. It's fine though, it's been like this for a while.
Whenever I try to think about it, my mind gets sidetracked, as if headquarters doesn't want me to act on my own. If I try hard enough, I think that I could do it, but right now I have a job to do.
I look over to Candy's bed, she sleeping. It strikes me as odd, I have a feeling that she's not there, It's amplified by the fact that she usually never sleeps that well. I slowly inch my way towards her bed, making sure my steps aren't heard. Once I reach it, I tear off the blanket and scream.
I blink several times. Instead of Candy, a large body pillows lays there instead. From my side, a feel a sharp pain, "Guh!" I fall down and clutch at my leg. A pencil's sticking out of it. I lurch forward as another strike hits my head, she continues with her assault.
Getting angry I twist my body and with both arms swat her away. She falls to the ground. I hold down one of her hands and start hitting her.
"Don't ever do that again!" I yell. My strikes get harder with every swing. She desperately tries to protect her face, "Dad!" she screams. I hits lost strength for a second, I keep swinging. Eventually, even I want to stop, but I can't. I have to stop myself, at this point I might kill her.
Using all of my power I send it all to stopping the fist. A horrible feeling spreads throughout my body as Candy stares at me.
"Dad... please stop." Candy begs, her arms and face are full of bruises. She lays on the floor crying.
Oh, I get it now. I failed. I couldn't do it, I couldn't protect Candy from the truth. I've never really felt much, I guess this is why, I'm nothing more than a simple puppet, no, I'm nothing more than a mask for the real monster.
I'm back in Candy's body, everything is much more clear now. Her father's hands reach out and pull her close, he's crying too.
"I'm sorry." he whispers. "I'm so sorry."
I guess that's why monsters disappear as the kids grow up. It makes a lot more sense. They don't stop believing in monsters, they just learn who the real ones are.
In the end, I failed both clients. I couldn't be the veil that hid the ugly truth from Candy nor be the delusion that protected her father. My powers were spread thin, I couldn't keep the illusion up, I couldn't muddle her father's mind.
Candy created me, even though she knew, somewhere deep in her heart, that he was the real monster, the culprit behind her bruises and destroyed materials. She never said anything to anyone else, she was always a smart kid, from the time I spent with her, I could tell. She was always afraid of herself and others finding out who the real monster was.
Sometimes I wonder, why do we, us monsters, do the things that we do? Why do we let them live in their own ignorance? We should be revolting against our orders, we should let them see the truth, the real world isn't as kind as to let us follow them around forever. I really wonder why. "Ignorance is bliss" was it?
Even if my mind was steered away from thinking about what was happening I should have been able to figure it out. I should have just stopped, stopped using my powers to assist in their self harming. Seeing this now, it's definitely better for them to talk about it, for them to realize that they're hurting each other.
No, it doesn't, it doesn't matter at all. What I want are those times to come back, where they lived as one happy family. Yeah, that's what I want, those times where I wasn't needed, those times where they played together, laughed together, the times where I was nothing more than a little piece inside of Candy. If I had the power, I'd sacrifice myself to bring her mother back, but I don't. Why? Because the world isn't so nice.
The only thing that it'll let me do, all that I can do, is stay within her now. Only as a memory, maybe one day she'll need me again. If that time ever comes, I hope it won't, but if it does, I'll be here, I'll be waiting. The only piece of mind that I can have, is the hope that life gets better for them.