Monsters

Milo was used to getting brushed off when he mentioned the monster.

"Daddy?"

Milo stood uncertainly in the doorway to Isaac's study.

"Milo." Isaac didn't turn towards him, but he did put down his pen. "You couldn't sleep?"

He shook his head, though his father couldn't see it. "No."

Isaac did turn around then. "Why not?"

Milo took a deep breath. "Nightmares." He said it small, not quite wanting to be heard. "I think there's something underneath my bed."

Isaac tilted his head slightly to the left. Milo waited for him to laugh, say he was being silly and was really getting too old for this and should go back to bed. That was what his mother always said, and his older brother let Milo stay with him but Milo could tell he thought the same thing.

But he didn't laugh, didn't say any of that. Instead he leaned forward towards Milo and whispered, "Do you want me to slay the monster for you?"

"Yes, please."

"Then you have to be quiet," Isaac whispered as he stood up. "We don't want it to hear us."

Isaac grabbed his sword on the way out. Milo smiled, and followed his father.

~~~~~~~~

When they reached Milo's bedroom door, Isaac stopped and turned to him. "I'm going to need you to stand guard. Can you do that?"

Milo was eager to agree, though his stomach churned.

When Isaac entered his room and slowly, quietly, shut the door behind him, it only grew worse.

~~~~~~~~

Through the door, Milo did not hear the clash of metal on metal.

But he heard other things: the scrape of claws, the thud of books hitting the floor, the huffing of a fighter's breath.

And he heard Isaac's yell of triumph.

When Isaac left his room, he was grinning ear to ear in triumph, and spattered with red monster's blood.

(Later, he looks back and realizes that it was probably some kind of sauce, that his father had disheveled his own appearance and strewn objects about Milo's room himself. And he laughs, at Isaac for doing it and at himself for believing it.)

"Your monster will never trouble you again," Isaac said, and he was right. Milo didn't have another nightmare �" at least, not as a child.

~~~~~~~~

Milo slept well for the rest of the night, and so he didn't see his father burning the hideous, monstrous corpse outside his window.

Neither did anybody else.

Reviews

[Ryan Henderson]

!!! Very good story! I love that little twist at the end with the burning the monster's corpse! I like your twist on the classic 'there is a monster underneath my bed' tale. I love the way this story flows, and it is just short enough to keep the reader's attention, and just long enough to leave the reader wanting more. I like your style of writing, and I like how you were able to portray the characters without actually describing them. Very good story, thank you for sharing!