Things That Go BUMP in the Night

SWITCH SWITCH

"Time for bed!" Mommy said as she reached for the light switch.

"Wait!" I yelled. "I need to turn my nightlight on!" Mommy didn't seem to care, if she even heard me. SWITCH *off* went the main light; SWITCH *on* went my nightlight.

"Yes, of course," Mommy said. "I will come check on you and turn it off when you're asleep. Goodnight." I wasn't certain, but it looked as if there was some sort of figure in my room.

"Ok," I said, snuggling into my covers. "Goodnight." I watched as the door clicked shut. I could clearly see, now, that there was indeed a figure, hunched over and waiting. I SWITCHED my nightlight back off, in hopes of it disappearing. I heard a slight shuffling noise, so I SWITCHED my nightlight immediately back on to see what the cause was. I looked for the figure where it was before, but it was not there. Instead, it was about a foot away, still perched perfectly motionless.

Slightly questioning, I turned my light off and on again. SWITCH SWITCH. Again, the figure had moved! I was wondering if it moved every time I turned the light on/off. So, of course, I had to test my theory. SWITCH SWITCH. Okay, well, I was right.

I still couldn't see the figure clearly, it was about ⅓ across my room (which is pretty big) and my nightlight isn't that bright. SWITCH SWITCH. Moved again. SWITCH SWITCH. Wait, it's coming towards me! I wanted to get a good view of it, so I kept on switching my light on and off. SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH SWITCH. I could see it closely now. It was a humanlike creature, with crazy eyes and jagged teeth sticking out of its mouth. It's back was hunched, it looked ready to pounce.

In the hopes of it leaving, I kept switching my light. SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH SWITCH SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH. It was nearly 2 feet away from the foot of my bed. I could hear a heartbeat, whether it be mine or the creatures I could not tell. I counted to three, then turned the light on. SWITCH. It was almost on my bed now, staring at me intently. I could see its eyes twitching, darting around my face. I dared to turn my light on and off again. No turning back now. SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH. SWITCH. With every switch it came closer and closer, the last switch its face was just a millimeter away from my own. I tried to scream, but no noise came out. My hand instinctively kept switching. SWITCH SWITCH, SWITCH. I prepared for my doom, but it never came. I sat in the darkness, catching my breath. When my heartbeat finally returned to normal, I switched the light back on. SWITCH. I jammed my eyes shut, just Incase I was to be attacked. There was silence. For a while, there was silence. Until I opened one eye, there was silence.

"Milo?" Mommy asked. "Milo, sweetie, why aren't you asleep?" If I told you you wouldn't believe me, I thought.

"I think my nightlight is too bright now," I lied. "Maybe we should move it across the room?"

"How come it's never bothered you before?" Mommy asked in a new tone of voice, a tone Mommy never uses. It was sickeningly sweet and sugar-coated.

"Uhh," I said to stall my thinking process. "Um, we had to replace the light bulb, remember?"

"Oh, I guess not," Mommy-yet-not-Mommy said. "Ah, silly me. My memory isn't too good these days." The light bulb was the same as it always was, though, and Mommy would have been able to remember such a thing. "But dear, why can't we simply replace the bulb as we have before? Why move it all the way across the room?" Mommy was being a little strange now. Even more so than before.

"Mommy," I dared to say, "are you feeling okay? You're acting strange."

"My, whatever makes you say that, Charles darling?"

"Because my name is Milo."

"Oh. Uh, right, right, of course, darling! I was simply messing around, dear. That's all. Nothing to worry about!"

"Okay..." I said skeptically.

"Now, why don't you go on off to bed?" 'Mommy' said. As she said that, I noticed something hanging from her neck.

"Mommy, what's on your neck?" I asked.

"Oh, this?" she fingered the - zipper?? "Just a loose string."

"It looks like a zipper to me," I said.

"No," she said, her voice suddenly hardening. "It is not a zipper. And I'll PROVE IT!" She violently yanked the zipper, and it turns out it indeed was a string. She pulled the string so hard that she began to unravel. My 'mommy' was unraveling. Not her clothes, but her herself. Soon she was completely unraveled, and you would have expected to see a skeleton underneath. But instead of a skeleton was a humanlike creature, with crazy eyes, jagged teeth, and a hunched back. It stared at me so intensely I felt its eyes burn into my flesh. It suddenly came towards me at lightning speed. That's all I remembered before the whole world went black. Then I woke up. It wasn't a dream though, of that I was sure. It was most definitely real. I knew it was real when I looked at my floor and saw what looked like a pile of string.

(First draft completed December 19, 2018)