Pssst.
Hey.
Wake up!
Muichirō rolled over onto his side, groaning and feeling for the warmth he'd fallen asleep next to. "Mama?"
"Hi there!"
"What...?"
He rubbed his eyes, trying to see into the dark. "Who's there?"
"It's me."
Muichirō saw a ghastly grin, and those yellow eyes. He opened his mouth to scream—
"Shhh! Sorry if I scared you. Hi Muichiro! That is your name, right?"
"What do you want?"
"I want to be friends! Muichirō, I've been watching you for a while now, and I'd really love to be your friend!"
...
"I'm awful lonely, you know."
"But I don't know you. You've been scaring me all night! I don't want you here!" Muichirō snapped angrily. This thing, whatever it was, had no business being in his room and scaring him two nights in a row.
The thing began to cry. Ugly sobs, but Muichirō pitied him. He himself had no friends back in elementary school.
"Why are you crying?"
"Everyone's the same! Everyone's the same!"
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone hates me! I'm not blessed with friends like you are. I'm all alone..."
"Oh. I'm sorry...I'll be your friend if you really want."
"You will?! That's awesome!"
Muichirō shrugged. The best he could do was have a compromise with this thing so it wouldn't bother him.
"Yeah. What's your name? You already know mine."
"Boogie."
"Boogie. What an odd name. Do you ever leave the closet? Or the space under my bed?"
"I do, but only on special occasions."
"Special occasions? Like what?"
"You'll see."
...
"Umm...so, what do you do at school?"
Muichirō didn't mean to, but he ended up telling Boogie everything that went on in his life. The clouds. The stories. Everything that made him feel happy or excited.
And Boogie listened to every word.
****
That morning, Mother goes to both twins' bedrooms to wake them up for school. On Fridays it's easy to be late. Yuichirō gets up as soon as she calls him, but she knows she'll have to call Muichirō a few times. She smiles to herself.
So when she saw her son standing in the middle of his room and already changed, her jaw almost dropped to the floor.
"Mu–Muichirō? Is everything alright?"
He turned around to greet her, a beautiful smile spreading on his face. "Yes Mama. I had no nightmares last night. And I made a new friend."
"A new friend?" she looked at him, eyes filled with confusion.
"His name is Boogie. He lives in my closet, and when he wants to talk to me, he stays under the bed."
"I see," she said, smiling back at him, when inside, she was panicking. What has become of him! Where did we mess up?! I hope he outgrows this phase quickly. "Well, now that you're ready, how about you come help me in the kitchen, okay?"
YOU ARE READING
The monster under my bed
FanfictionEvery young child has a monster living in their closet or under their bed at some point. But they all grow out of it at some point. Muichirō is known to have a hyperactive imagination. So when he thinks there's a monster under his bed that also live...
