Twisted Tales by Brandon Massey

Author:Brandon Massey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp
Published: 2006-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Monster

It was half-past two o’clock in the morning, and what frightened Jared more than anything in the world was having to get out of his bed in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom. Most times, he’d rather pee on himself. But he was ten and couldn’t pee on himself any more. Mom would get upset, and Dad would ... well, he didn’t want to think about what Dad would do to him.

But the thought of getting out of bed was actually worse than thinking of what Dad would do to him if he peed on himself. See, there was a monster under his bed.

Jared lay under the covers, his bladder throbbing. It was way too dark in the room; the curtains were closed and Dad wouldn’t let him sleep with a night-light. The only light came from the clock on the nightstand. The clock digits gave off a ghostly, greenish glow.

He rose, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. He held his breath. Listened.

He heard the monster, breathing softly. It might be asleep. Did monsters sleep? He didn’t know. He had never even seen the monster, really. But it was real. It crawled under the bed only at night, and he always heard it breathing, shifting around, or whispering in a strange language that he didn’t understand.

The monster had begun living under his bed a few months ago. He remembered when the monster first arrived. It had been the night that Mom and Dad had gotten into the worst fight they’d ever had (until then). Crouched under his bed covers, Jared had heard every turn of his parents’ battle: the shouts, the breaking dishes, the cries, and the scary sound of flesh smacking flesh. Jared had wanted to do something to help Mom, but he was afraid. Later that night, Dad had left the house, and that was when Jared realized that he hated his father—well, stepfather, really. Mom taught him that it was wrong to hate people, but Jared couldn’t help the way he felt. Sometimes he was sure that Mom hated Dad, too.

And in the middle of that unforgettable night, unable to sleep, Jared suddenly became aware of deep breathing beneath his bed, as if a big dog had crawled under there and fallen asleep. Summoning his courage, he peeked underneath the bed. He saw the faint glimmer of a pair of bluish eyes.

The sight had sent him to his parents’ room, screaming. Mom thought he was upset about the big fight and let him sleep in the bed with her. Ordinarily, he never would’ve wanted to sleep in Mom’s bed because that was for babies, but he was too scared to go back to his room. He didn’t tell Mom about the monster. She would never believe him. Adults never believed anything that kids his age talked about—especially when the subject was a monster.

When morning finally came, he crept into his room and checked under the bed. Nothing was there. He wondered if he had dreamed up everything.

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