The Monsters

Monsters haunt children in ways adults sometimes do not comprehend.

The Monsters

 

   She was always scared of the Monsters. Ever since she was a little girl, she was always afraid. They came to her in her dreams. Beasts of several eyes and several arms, there to eat her and take her away.

   That night was especially bad. She was struggling to run through the thick woods while It chased her. She had not yet seen It but she knew It was there, and so she kept running. The sharp branches left long bloody scratches along her face and arms, her ankle pained from a previous fall, out of breath.

   By now it was right behind her. She could hear its heavy footsteps, knocking over trees, and feel its sour breath down her neck. She saw a light up ahead and so she sped up, paying less attention to her surroundings. An exposed root caught her already tender ankle and she fell into a bush of thorns. She felt pain all up her arms as the blood trickled down to start forming puddles on the ground.

   Slowly she turns to face the horror. It was ten feet tall, covered dirty patches of black fur. Its eyes resembled white marbles in Its sunken sockets, Its mouth full of sharp teeth and stained by something that very closely resembled blood. Its body was bonny and hunched, vertebrae  protruding from Its back. Its hands were nothing more than bone covered by a thin layer of skin, but its nails were as sharp as razors and six inches long. It was rotting. The smell itself almost caused her to pass out. It reached out and grabbed her around the arm. She screamed as It lifted her off the ground and Its claws sliced her skin.

   But when she woke, she was not relieved, she was not happy. She was trembling in fear. Not because of the dream that just passed, but because she was back with other monsters. Real monsters and she could hear them in the other room. She wished she was back asleep, back with the rotting beast for she knew it was not real, and this was.

   “Stop. Please stop.” she cried into her pillow as, in the other room, her parents continued to fight.