Short Stories by MissDaisyCrown

Awoken

Awoken
(Dark/light short story)

I hate it. Every single night I wake up with a racing heart. Every single night I stare into the darkness of my room with wide eyes and fear rushing through my veins. Every single night my eyes find my alarm; ‪2:22‬. Every bloody night. The bags under my eyes have started to become more prominently visible on my face. The lost sleep is wearing on me and I don't get why I wake up. Because every night there is nothing.

I've had this problem since I was a child. Then I was scared of the monsters under my bed. Scared they'd take me away from my family or eat me alive while I was sleeping. I imagined myself waking up in the gross stomach of such a creature and started to scream for my mum or dad. One of them would come to my room and either stay with me until I was calm and almost back to sleep or they'd take me with them. A lot of my nights were spent sandwiched in between them. A place I had liked to be. It felt safer, as if the monster couldn't get to you because your parents were able protect you against anything.

Now? Now I'm lying alone in my bed with no parents nearby, nor any other person except for my two roommates. Whom I'm not going to ask to come lie with me to protect me against monsters that don't even exist.

A frustrated sigh leaves my lips as I look around my room. There is absolutely nothing. And yet I'm afraid to fall back asleep. I know there's no such thing as monsters under your bed, but there's still an anxiousness brewing in my stomach. My eyes find my alarm. ‪2:18‬. Strangely enough four minutes before the exact time that I'm normally woken up every night. Woken up by my heart that's trying to escape my ribcage. Awoken by a nauseating feeling of fear and panic. A voice in my head that tells me that I should run. I have often clicked my bedside light on, but it would only show me an empty room. My pile of clothes still hanging untouched on my chair behind my desk on the right side of my room, my closet closed on the other side against the wall and the small carpet in the middle of my room unmoved. I close my eyes another time and try to calm my brain down, but it appears to be a hard task at hand. Thoughts race through my mind from one side to the other and back. Bouncing off the inside of my skull. Once again, I'm too awake to fall asleep right away.

I turn to my nightstand to turn the light on but before I can find the switch I accidently knock my book from its place and it falls on the ground. I move my hand away from the light switch and reach down to the ground with a groan, trying to find my fallen book. Just as my fingers touch the floor, in search of the book, I feel it being pushed against my hand. I immediately pull my hand back above the mattress and stare down at the ground through the darkness. What the hell just happened? My heartbeat raises and a high pitched peep sounds in my ears. The fear that I had felt before multiplies with 200. It feels like I could have a heart attack any moment. There is definitely something under my bed. The book couldn't have come out from under the bed by itself, that's impossible. What should I do? Look under it? No, no definitely not. But I can't run away either. What if the thing under the bed grabs my ankle and drag me to it. But if I stay here, it will be able to grab me easily enough as well. Conclusion; I'm fucked.

My eyes quickly move to my alarm and turn back to the room once they've seen it's ‪2:20‬ at the moment.
'Okay, calm down.' I whisper to myself, trying to stop the racing thoughts. There has to be a logical explanation to what just happened. Perhaps I mistook my own movement for the book's movement? Perhaps I just moved my hand a little too fast to the book and bumped against it. Or- My own voice in my head stops. My heartbeat that had calmed down a bit starts to bounce aggressively against my ribcage again. As if it knows something is wrong, that there is something nearby that I should be afraid for. I narrow my eyes as I stare into the darkness, but my room is still the same. Just when I move under the duvet, trying to let some air under it because with the raised heartbeat came sweat that made my whole body damp, a slight breeze had picked up. This wouldn't be a cause of fear when you're outside or when the window is open. But it's mid-winter and therefore all windows are shut in the flat, nor am I outside.
Before my eyes a dark human sized figure appears out of thin air with blazing red eyes. Its fingers appear to end up in pointy nails and its feet have been replaced by dangerous looking claws. It looks like a creature that came straight out of Hell.

It steps closer to my bed and in those moment my mind is a total chaos and silent at the same time. The sensation of fear is numbing, as if my body knows these will be my final moments since there is nowhere to run to. As if it has given up on any hope of escape or survival. What am I to do? I try to come up with an escape plan, but just as I'm about to start screaming the mattress is slightly lifted for a split second and from under the bed a large creature appears. My mouth opens, ready for a scream to escape, but the scream seems to be caught in my throat without being able to come out.

The monster that came from under the bed pulls its claw back and slams it into the creature in front of it. The creature tries to pass the monster to get to me, but it won't let it and swipes its claws across the creature's body again. A low gurgle sounds through my room as I stare wide eyed at the situation playing out in front of me. What the hell is happening! My heart beats painfully fast in my chest, ready to escape its cage if I don't get it away from the situation myself. The creature isn't giving up and is still trying to find a way around the monster to get to me. Its claws are spread open, ready to tear my flesh from my body. Its red blazing eyes, fixed on me even when the claws of the monster scratch its own dark skin open. It doesn't seem to have the ability to feel pain and therefore isn't bothered with the clawing. The monster goes in for a bite and slams its teeth into the neck of the creature. Dark gas spurts out of its neck and soon it collapses to the floor. Its eyes are still aimed at me, but slowly the fire in them burns out and the creature disappears in front of my eyes, as if it was never here in the first place.

The monster that just killed the creature turns around and notices that I'm awake. It cocks its head to the side with dark liquid dripping from its long, pointy teeth. Its claws are smeared with the same dark liquid and even though he looks terrifying, my heart seems to slow down again.
'No worry. I protect.' a voice in my head echoes. 'No scared. I protect.'
The monster steps to me and I push myself as far back against the wall since I have nowhere to run to.
'I protect. Always.' it repeats before he crouches down to the floor and disappears under my bed again. 'You no hurt.' it echoes through my head before everything falls completely silent. Even my own thoughts manage to shut up for the first time in my life. My eyes flicker to my alarm. ‪2:22‬.

Writing prompt:
"The monsters under the bed are there to protect." – It wasn't written this way, but it sounds cooler this way in my opinion hahah.

A/N:

Hey there!

This short story is shorter than the previous two, but I felt like it was long enough for the story that I wanted to tell.

I'm eager to hear what you think of the short stories up until now! Hope you like them so far!
Also if you have a request for a short story, please leave it down below in the comment section and who knows, perhaps it will be formed into a short story :)

Shoutout to those people who sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and feel anxious. It's totally okay, but just keep in mind that everything is okay and that there is no such thing as monsters. And even if there are monsters that live under our beds, just remember, the fact that you are still here means they are protecting us ;p