One Shots, Poems, and Scenes

The Heart of a Monster

     Being a protector in the disguise of a monster was just as difficult as it sounds for most. The human I had been assigned to protect was a timid six year old boy who had yet to know about my existence under his bed. He had spent almost all his time in his room reading books and writing stories, which made my job all the more easier. Most "monsters" hated the child they were assigned to for they never seemed to stay in one spot, but my human was different. He, unlike the other children, rarely left the house. Not even for this place called School kids his age were always complaining to their parents about.
I had heard many horror stories about the children others had been assigned to and I had always been grateful to the Highers for the child they had given me, though, I'll admit I hadn't fully understood what it was about the little boy that needed protecting. Other children were in need of protection from dangers such as bullies and in some cases their own parents, but that wasn't the case for my little human, for he had no enemies and his parents were an acceptable couple who always made sure to take good care of their child. I had never thought to ask any of the Highers what it was I was supposed to look out for when it came to the protection of my little human and instead, I spent everyday curled under his bed, making sure to check on the boy through the small crack between his bed and the brown carpet every now and again.
    While I had appreciated that my human was far from troublesome, in the beginning, I had often gotten bored with the lonely days spent hidden in the shadows beneath his bed, though I soon grew used to it. I came to enjoy the silence of the small room which was only interrupted when my little human turned a page in his book or he began murmuring beneath his breath when trying to decide how to proceed with a story of some sort. He was a quiet but smart boy for his age, and it intrigued me immensely. I had never had a single doubt that one day he would grow up to become one of the smartest minds of his generation.
    It was on May 18th when things had begun to change. The day had started out as every other day, with my little human's mother waking him up for breakfast. "Levi, Honey, you need to get up. Breakfast is waiting for you in the kitchen," she had said as she gently shook the little boy. My human had rolled over in his bed and let out a little groan of irritation. "Hurry up or your breakfast will get cold," she said as she left the room. 
    Five or so minutes later, my human had reluctantly crawled out of bed and slipped his tiny feet into his pair of bunny slippers that lay by his bed. He yawned as he left the room and returned later with a satisfied smile on his face as he patted his belly. He had spent the rest of his morning finishing up a book he had only just began a few days prior. It had been almost noon when I heard a quiet whine followed by a loud oomph. "Levi are you okay?" a male voice from downstairs had yelled.
    "I'm fine daddy! I just dropped my book," my human had shouted in return as he slipped off his bed and onto his hands and knees to search for his dropped literature. It wasn't until his hand had slipped under the bed that I realized the book had slid under. Before I could even think to conceal myself, my human let out a startled gasp as he gazed at me curiously. I could do nothing but stare back at his light green eyes that were covered by a pair of  thick black rimmed glasses. I had expected him to scream and run to his parents, tell them that there was a  monster under his bed, and beg them to hurry so they could catch a glimpse of the creature. But instead he merely showed me his lopsided smile that showed off his missing front tooth and dimples perfectly. It had been my first time ever being able to see the face of my human in person. He was quite appealing with his toothy grin and wild brown curls,"Hello, I'm Levi Dukane! Who be you?" he asked.
    I had debated with myself for a few seconds on whether or not to answer his question and decided that there was not any harm in doing so,"I am Aylward child."
    The boy giggled and tilted his head,"That's a funny name. I like it! What are you doing under my bed?"
    "It is my home," I replied simply.
    Confusion lite up the boy's eyes as he stared at me,"Then how come I've never you seen you under here before?"
    "I hide myself from you child," I replied.
    The boy pouted,"Well that's not very nice! We could've been friends sooner if you had let me see you!"
I tilted my head in surprise at the statement. I had heard stories of humans discovering their monsters under their bed and it had almost always ended with the monster being transferred to a new human. It was a rare thing when a monster and his human were friends. "Friends child? You want to be friends?" I asked as I attempted to free my voice of any surprise that may have tainted it.
The boy giggled again,"Of course I want to be friends! We share a room. We HAVE to be friends. Imma call you Ayl! Okay Ayl?" I simply nodded.
The next few weeks were filled with me and my human getting much more acquainted with one another. I learned that he very much fancied a man named Thor who had a pet hammer and that his favorite color was pink, "not salmon" he had said, "but pure beautiful pink". Spongebob was his TV show of choice and he could not stand yellow jellybeans. He was a strange but fascinating human. In return I told him what little I could about myself, that I had been sent to protect him from something that the "Highers" only knew about, and that this unknown reasoning was just as confusing to me as it was to him. I also told him that he was my first human I had been assigned to. He found this quite intriguing and was always sure to ask as many questions as he possibly could, despite rarely receiving answers. By the time the month had finished my human and I had formed an unbreakable bond that I had treasured immensely.
It was nearing the end of June when I had began to notice something was amiss. My little human had seemed to change virtually overnight. He had not been the same energetic little boy I had come to adore but instead a tired toddler who could barely get out of bed without the help of either his mother or father. He had constantly complainined of pain and cried every time a clump of his brown curls fell off. I had been very confused to say the least as human illness was a topic I had never truly paid attention to for it had not interested me in the slightest before than.
"Are you sick child?" I had asked one night after a particularly bad day of pain for my human. It had been almost midnight. His parents had gone to bed the hour before meaning I had been free to come out from under the bed to visit with my human.
He turned to face me with a tired smile on his face as he quietly answered,"I have brain cancer Ayl." I had felt a jolt of pain in my heart at those words,"Momma says the doctor says he's doing everything he can to make me better but I don't think I'm gonna get any better Ayl. I think I'm going to be with grandma and grandpa soon. Daddy says that it's okay to be scared. He's the only one that tells me things the way they really are. Momma likes to sugarcoat. Daddy doesn't. I like that," he had whispered as he fell asleep. I had never seen a fellow monster cry despite the feeling I had had to do so. My human had been in the process of dying, it was a fact that I had not known how respond to.
It had taken me a few seconds to realize what this meant exactly. Levi was sick. Levi was dying. If the Highers had known about this development, which of course they had, they were the Highers afterall, they were bound to assign me a new human. A new human who was not my precious little Levi, the human boy I had come to love. A new human I did not want. The thought of a new human was enough to have me flinching and stepping back from the bed. It had only taken a few seconds for the anger to well up in my chest. "They will not take him from me, I will not allow them to," I had thought as I closed my eyes before opening them, coming face to face with the three Highers.
"We have been expecting you Aylward," Besach stated dully from his chair.
"I see that," I responded as I took note of the two Restrainers on both sides of the room. I supposed they knew that I was not leaving Levi without a fight. "I am quite curious," I continued, "as to why the first human I have ever been assigned to protect is a dying boy."
Dhelweard chuckled as he leaned forward from his seat beside Besach, "Aylward, Levi was simply a test designed to assess your method of protection for your human. You passed." They were words that should not have surprised me as I knew that for most monsters, the first child they were assigned to protect was a test of some sort. It had made sense that the first human I had to protect was a boy who was already lost. "You have been assigned  a new child. Her name is Rebecca, she is seven and her father is a very drunk man who hits her quite often. You may say good bye to Levi if you so wish, but you are to go to Rebecca immediately after," Dhelweard finished.
I glared at the supreme rulers as their words washed over me,"Should I not be allowed to stay with Levi until the very end? He is my human after all!"
"Levi is a lost cause Aylward. We will not have a valuable monster waste anymore time with a child who does not need it," Argus spoke up for the first time, "Besides the sight of your human dying is a scene in which you would most definitely not benefit from."
"Now go say farewell to the child Aylward. And then stay away from the boy," Besach muttered.
I decided against arguing further when the Restrainers took a few steps toward me. Sighing, I closed my eyes and opened them to a barely awake Levi.
"Oh there you are Ayl. I couldn't find you," he stated sleepily.
"Child we have an issue to discuss," I said as I walked over to his bed. He nodded his head, indicating that he was listening,"It seems that the Highers have assigned me a new child to protect. I am to say my farewells to you and go straight to her," I had said curtley as I watched the little boy frown.
"You're leaving me Ayl?" he asked, sadness laced in his words. I nodded in response." Is it because I'm dying?"
I nodded once more,"I truly wish I did not have to go child but what the Highers decree is what must happen. You do not require my protection, therefore I must be given a child who does."
The frown on his small face remained as he nodded in understanding, "I'm going to miss you Ayl."
"And I will miss you, though you will always be my treasured human Levi," I responded as I gave his head a farewell pat.
He grinned in return,"And you'll always be my best friend." He fell asleep not long after.
***
Months later, I found myself despising the little girl called Rebecca. She had had more than three monsters before me, all of whom she had driven away. She was a bit of a menace despite how cruelly her father treated her. She liked to pull her so called pranks more often than I would have liked. I had always seemed to be covered in some sort of substance whether it be paint, glue, or some sort of food. She was absolutely nothing like my little Levi. She was very unintelligent to say the least, she hated reading, and could not write anything decent enough to be considered literature. I despised her even more for just how much of a seven year old she behaved.
My strong dislike for her was one of the many reasons I managed to convince myself to go back to Levi, despite knowing that going against the Highers was going to result in severely harsh punishment. Levi would be gone soon, and I refused to allow him to leave without seeing him for a final moment.
It was after midnight when the little nuisance had finally decided to go to bed. I closed my eyes only to open them to the sight of Levi's parents crying as they cuddled their seemingly sleeping boy, whose head was bald and skin a pastey white. The boy's doctor gazed upon them, a grim look on his face as he uttered the words,"I'm sorry for your loss." My heart exploded in pain as I realized I had already missed saying goodbye.
Closing my eyes once more I opened them to the sight of the Highers, all three with the same grim expression their face as the human doctor had had only moments before.
"Aylward?" Argus asked gently. We all had stayed silent, staring at each other for a considerably long amount of time.
Tears were welling in my eyes as when I finally uttered the words, "He is dead," They all nodded in response, the same solemn expression on their faces. "You were right. I am sor-"
"We were wrong to keep you away from the boy Aylward," Dhelweard interrupted," and for that we are truly sorry. We should have allowed you to spend those last few months with the boy you have seemed to grow so fond of instead of the girl you seem to despise. It was a blind mistake on our part."
"You are no longer assigned to Rebecca. We have decided that you will be taking a break from child protection. We will assign you a new child when we see it fit." I simply nodded, my emotions still reeling from my human's death to care for their words. They dismissed me and I gladly left.
Later, I found myself in Levi's bedroom once again. The room was a bit dusty -- as Levi had spent his last few months in his hospital room-- but was as clean as it had been when the small boy occupied it. His bookshelf overflowed with dozens of different books and notebooks, his bed had looked completely untouched, and his Spongebob nick nacks that lay on the desk beside his bed seemed to look abandoned. It had taken me a few seconds to realize that there was new addition to the frames that helped decorate that very same desk. It was a childlike drawing of a little boy with wildly curly brown hair holding hands with a seemingly fluffy black monster, who I assumed was meant to be myself. I could not fight the smile that found its way onto my face as I took the drawing out of the frame, hoping his parents would not realize it was missing. I decided right then and there that I was going to be the greatest child protector to ever grace the planet. If not for me, then for Levi, who would always be my tiny human.
I spent my break studying everything I could about child protection, human illnesses included. It was not until five years later that I received my new human, a two year old girl named Livia Dukane whose parents had become a bit neglectful. And on that first arrival under her bed, I recognized that she had the same wild curls and bright green eyes as her older brother Levi.