Prompt Writing: A Collection of Short Stories

Under the Bed

Prompt 

A child is home alone when their house is broken into. Alone, except for the monster under their bed.

Theodora knew that she was a bit strange. The other kids on the playground didn't invite her to their games. When she wandered too close, they found somewhere else to play, suddenly unsatisfied with something about their surroundings.

Her teachers never went out of their way to ask her about her day, her home life, the same way they did with her classmates. They would call on her when she was the only one with her hand raised, but if there was another choice, their eyes would skip over her, like they were afraid of looking her in the eye.

Even her parents whispered behind her back about odd manner, the way she could gaze at you as though looking into your soul, how she often talked to the shadows like they were her friends.

Yes, Theodora knew she was strange, but she liked it that way. In her strange little world, nobody insulted her or left her out. Her strange little world was quiet, peaceful. And the friends in her strange little world understood her in a way that other children, even her own parents, never could.

So strange was she, her parents had difficulty finding a babysitter who could stomach more than a few weeks in their employ. The most recent one had only lasted as long as she had because she left as soon as Theodora's parents were far enough away to not catch her in the act of leaving. Theodora never minded, and she never told her parents. She preferred being home alone anyway, so this was an agreeable, unspoken arrangement.

And so, that is how it came to be that a strange little girl, barely eight years old, was home alone on a Thursday evening, watching Miraculous Ladybug with all the lights in the house off.

After all, the shadows were her friends. Why would she chase them away with the lamps?

Drinking a glass of milk she'd managed to pour for herself and eating a hotdog she'd made in the microwave, little Thea's eyes were trained on the television screen, soaking up the adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir, the heroes of Paris and all the wacky adventures that needing to keep their identities secret caused.

There was a crash from the back door, odd in the otherwise empty house.

Thea frowned. "Was that you Mister Stretch?"

No answer was given.

Thea's frown deepened. Not getting a response was even more unusual than strange noises coming from odd places in the house.

Twisting her little eight-year-old mouth into a grimace, Thea paused the TV and set aside her TV tray, hopping off of her father's favorite recliner.

"Come along Scuffles," she said to the shadow lurking in the corner that seemed to move and twist with her movements. "Let's go see who's making that noise."

To what would be the surprise of anyone else present, the shadow on the wall moved, slithering across the wall and over the floor, following Thea's footsteps with the slight sound of sneakers being scuffed across the floor as it went.

Both little girl and shadow rounded the corner into the hallway to the backdoor.

And stopped.

At the back door, having busted out a pane of glass and unlocked the deadbolt from the outside, was a figure. A man's figure, tall and imposing, with a black mask over his face, wearing black clothing, and carrying a backpack.

And holding a gun.

Thea froze, knowing exactly what the thing in his hand was, how dangerous it could be. "Scuffles?" she whispered. "What do I do?"

This caught the ear of the figure whose head snapped up in her direction, eyes nothing but pools of darkness within the blackness of the ski mask.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. "All the lights were off!"

The gun came up to point at Thea and she couldn't help it. She screamed.

And the gun went off with a bang!

Thea continued to scream as a shadow, faster than sound, leapt in front of her, absorbing the bullet into the darkness.

"Scuffles!" she cried, tears beginning to streak her cheeks.

"Upstairs, go to your room!" the shadow warbled, it's voice nothing but an exhale, like a wisp of smoke. It was struggling against the effort of having stopped the bullet, but it was more than capable of continuing for the little girl in front of it, HIS strange little girl who was scared and crying.

Thea didn't need anymore encouragement as the intruder cursed, taken aback by the odd visual warping happening at the opposite end of the hall. She bolted for the stairs as fast as her legs could carry, storming up them like she never had before.

The door to her bedroom had never looked quite so appealing, so safe. She burst inside, tears streaming down her face and beelined for her bed, crawling underneath it. All the while, shaking with fear.

She tried to stifle her tears as she felt the familiar embrace of the darkness surround her, the bedskirt keeping her hidden from the rest of the room.

"Thea?" a raspy voice came from the darkest corner of the underneath. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Thea scooted closer to the voice, still muffling her tears with her hand as she shook. "Sestri, there's a man in the house! he has a gun and he shot at me and Scuffles jumped in front of me and I think he's hurt and he sent me here so I could be safe..."

She trailed off into hiccupping sobs as two spindly arms reached out from the darkness, wrapping around her and pulling her close, the rest of a long, thin body materializing to hug her close. A head with no eyes, a gaping maw full of razor sharp teeth, and skin the color of mottled dust bunnies rested atop her head, humming a low, tuneless song to comfort her.

"Do not worry for Scuffles, he will be fine," Sestri spoke. "He's done more than stop bullets before. A few days rest and he'll be right as rain."

Thea sniffled, going to respond before the sound of thudding footsteps rushing up the stairs startled her into silence.

"Scuffles was right to send you here," Sestri whispered, his breath tickling her ear. "I will keep you safe Thea, no matter what happens, I will always protect you."

Thea didn't respond, simply burying her face into Sestri's chest in the hopes that this would all soon be over.

The door to her bedroom slammed open, the lights flicking on as the intruder stepped into the room.

"Come on, I don't want to hurt you, you just startled me. I promise if you come out, I'll give you candy."

The intruder's voice was sickly sweet, meant to be soothing, meant to be coaxing, but Thea could hear the malice in it, the same way she heard the malice in the voices of her old babysitters, her teachers, her classmates.

Thea trembled, letting out another whimper against her hand.

"Hiding under the bed, are we?" the intruder's voice said, this time dripping with contempt, victory even.

Sestri moved, pushing Thea back against the wall and moving his entire form in front of her as a protective barrier.

"Cover your eyes and ears Thea," she heard spoken in her head and dutifully obeyed, clenching her eyes shut and plugging her ears as best she could.

What happened next was witnessed only by the intruder and Sestri himself. Two violent forces of nature opposed in opposite goals.

The bedskirt came up, the gun peeking under to take the shot. The shot that never came.

The intruder screamed as he pulled his hand back, the hand that was no longer there. In it's place was a bitten off stump that was spurting blood as the sound of crunching metal and flesh came from beneath the bed.

After a moment, out slithered a lanky figure. Seven feet tall, the creature stood on four different legs, too many limbs sprouting from its torso. It's head was large and bulbous, with no eyes, and a gaping maw full of row after row of sharp teeth. It was the color of mottled dust bunnies, a sight from the most demented nightmares of children, a being that inspired terror.

"Holy shi-!"

The intruder never got to finish his statement as the creature lunged forward, yawning mouth stretching even wider to devour him. And it did, little by little, from the head down as the intruder's body kicked and muffled screams could be heard, eventually going silent when a mighty CRUNCH echoed through the room.

Slowly, Sestri devoured the man who dared to threaten his precious, strange little girl. As he would with any creature, man or beast, who thought to harm her. She was scared and it was his job to rectify that.

Once every trace of the man was gone, not even a drop of blood left to his existence, Sestri gently clicked off the lights with one long, extremely sharp talon, careful not to scratch the wall paint. And after he was sure that the house was silent again, he slid his spindly form back under the bed, back to his crying child.

And Thea opened her eyes, once again safely ensconced in the arms of her monster, the familiar scent of mold and dust settling into her nostrils.

And she cried. She cried and cried, surrounded by protection and comfort until the police arrived.

According to the report that would be filed later, the sound of screams and a gunshot had been heard from Theodora's residence. A neighbor had made the call to the police, concerned for the little girl and babysitter she knew to be in the house at the time. When the police arrived, they found the back door with a window pane busted in, the deadbolt undone, and Theodora cowering beneath her bed, nearly inconsolable. But no intruder. The report stated that the attempted thief must have fled when they realized someone was in the house seeing as nothing was missing or out of place.

Theodora's parents came rushing back home after being alerted to the police at their residence and cried tears of relief as their little girl was deposited safely into their arms, crying and shaken, but alive. The babysitter who was supposed to be in charge was promptly fired and given a terrible review to ensure that she wouldn't do something like this again to someone else's child.

That night, after tucking Theodora into bed with many tears and kisses and cuddles, the parents of the house went to bed, none the wiser to what had really occurred in their house.

Thea, having feigned sleep for as long as it took to satisfy her parent's worries, rolled over in her bed.

"Sestri?" she whispered, fear still tinting her voice. "Are you there?"

Even as she spoke the name, a shadowy figure with impossibly long limbs seemed to materialize by her bedside, reaching out to place a hand on her back.

"Always," he whispered. "Thea, I am always here, and I will always be here for you. You have nothing to fear. That man could not hurt you, never with me here. This I promise."

Thea seemed to relax simply by his mere presence, her entire demeanor finally relaxing, the tension flooding out of her and replaced by a tired that went bone-deep.

"Sleep, Thea. I will ensure you are safe, all night."

That finally did it, sending Thea, strange little Thea safely off into the arms of the Dream-maker.

Sestri stopped for a moment to look down at her sleeping form, hair messy from brushing her fingers through it so many times, eyes still puffy from all her crying, cheeks still cold to the touch.

"Is she out?" came a wisp of a voice from the doorway, barely even audible.

"Yes," Sestri responded without even having to look back. Scuffles slunk into the room, his shadowy form slithering along the walls until he loomed up next to Sestri, barely meeting the taller creature's waist.

"This was unexpected," he hissed, part of his form that could be assumed to be a hand moving to caress the point the bullet had struck. "The lack of a babysitter was helpful at first, but I don't think we could have anticipated this. This was an unfortunate turn of events."

Sestri said nothing, merely reached out to pet Thea's messy curls.

From the doorway came a third hissing voice, this one sounding more like the fluttering of a bird's wing, the clatter of a broom, the crash of broken glass. A voice meant to blend with the noises of everyday life.

"Mister Stretch," Sestri's voice suddenly said. "Where were you this evening?"

If a liquid shadow could looked abashed, this would be the time.

"I was meeting with the master, about Thea's progress. I thought she would be safe enough with the two of you. She's always been safe enough by herself with us here. And my report was long overdue," Stretch explained, floating over to Thea's bedside as well.

"He's not wrong," Scuffles said. "She was plenty safe with the two of us, Sestri. Stretch just would have been that extra line of defense, the lookout, after all."

Sestri sighed, hand dropping back to his side. "I can't argue with that," he murmured softly. "What did the master have to say about her progress?"

"He's very impressed with the great strides she's made all on her own," Mister Stretch reported. "If she were a child of the Family, she might even be a prodigy in the House by now. But as it is, her powers are only going to grow. And if she gets too powerful before she learns how to control herself, she might start attracting the Deeper Darkness. And he's supremely worried that this scenario is the potential future we're staring at."

Sestri sighed again, his many hands curling into fists at his sides. "Foolish creatures couldn't leave a little girl alone, could they?"

"The Master thinks that he might need to start inserting the Family into her life sooner, to teach her, to train her, to keep her safe."

Scuffles perked up between them. "The babysitter!" he hissed. "The babysitter got fired today! And that means they're looking for a new one!"

Sestri nodded, returning to stroking Thea's hair. "That certainly would be a perfect way to get the Family involved with the goings on here. Let the Master know about this Stretch. We await his command on what to do next." There was a pause. "And tell him of the events of tonight as well. We don't want him thinking we're abstaining from sharing information."

Mister Stretch gave a silent hoot, like that of an owl, in affirmation, before drifting back to the door and disappearing under the crack into the hallway.

"Scuffles, patrol the lower floor. Keep close to the base of the stairs. Make sure no one gets up here without my knowing."

"Understood, Sestri," Scuffles grunted, slipping back onto the floor and following Stretch underneath the door and out into the hall.

Thea stirred in her sleep, a slight whimper creasing her brows as she twitched.

"Shh, Thea, shh," Sestri assured her. "You are safe, my terror. You will always be safe when we are here, when I am here. I will never leave you alone to the darkness. We will always be here." Here, the gaping maw seemed to smile, multiple set of hands pulling the covers into places and smoothing the bedspread.

"You will always have us, my terror. Your own personal monsters under the bed."