Billy
he night began calmly enough. The afternoon was clear, but the lingering hint of clouds was in the air. By dusk the clouds were getting thicker and thicker. When bed time rolled around the sky was dark and angry, thundering its disapproval in the distance. Billy noted all of this, and knew that tonight was going to be a bad night. Billy had a problem, a problem every child thinks about, but few have to actually face. This kind of problem is really more common that you might think, but like anything strange it is pushed into the back of the public conscious, blamed on other things rather than addressed as the very real problem that it is. Billy had a monster living under his bed.
Over the last year, Billy became aware of the monster. He heard it digging through his closet, found his toys in places that he had not left them, and even found his window open a couple of times. His young mind made up fantastic stories of himself sleepwalking and doing all these things, and for a while that calmed his fears. That all changed several months ago when the monster first spoke to him. It told Billy that it was going to eat him.
After it spoke, Billy assured himself that he was dreaming. This worked for a couple of weeks, but soon, the monster again told Billy of it's desire for young Billy to be it's dinner. At this point Billy yelled for his father, who came in and checked under his bed, and showed Billy that there was no monster. Billy saw nothing, but knew that monsters probably can avoid parental detection. Back to bed Billy went, and later that night, something woke him up. It was the monster laughing at Billy.
All these things had happened in the past. Tonight, Billy knew the monster was going to eat him because the monster told him that last night. Billy at first did not believe him, but the monster must have sensed this, because he repeated himself louder and laughed for a good twenty minutes. Billy realized that tonight would be his last night in his house. He walked slowly up the steps to his room and opened his door. Peering at the bed he took one step towards it, his feet not wanting to move. The floor creaked, as it always does, but this did not help Billy's state of mind. Step by step, Billy edged towards the bed. He slid under the covers, and listened intently. Nothing. For one whole hour Billy listened to the silence of his room. Soon, he gave up, and went to sleep, determined not to believe the monster's statement.
Billy awakened and looked up into yellow eyes that gleamed from a furry face. The monster looked at Billy, Billy looked at the monster. Rather than scream, Billy just stared at the hideous thing perched on his chest. He looked deep into those yellow eyes with the coldest stare he could muster, and he got the feeling that he might actually look pretty tough. The monster did not move, but looked right back at him. Billy was desperately trying to think of something to do, but he could not think of anything, so he just continued looking at the monster. Half an hour passed, and the two were still locked in a battle of stares. Billy then decided, that if he was going to be eaten, then the stupid monster better go ahead and do it, because he was getting impatient. Billy stretched his arms behind his head in a comfortable position, still staring at the monster, and closed his eyes, and went to sleep.
The next morning, Billy awoke quite surprised that he was still alive. He sat up in bed in disbelief, and felt his stomach for any holes or anything. Nothing missing, so he crawled out of bed, and saw that his room had been cleaned during the night. At the time he thought nothing of it, his mother could have come in early this morning and straightened up. The next peculiar thing was that the window was wide open. This had happened before, so he thought nothing of it. Then, on the table next to his bed, was the weirdest thing of all- a Han Solo action figure that he had desperately been trying to find for the better part of a year. He finally realized that whatever had happened last night, the monster was gone, and it even returned his favorite toy. He was right, the monster never bothered him again, but it did move on and eat several other kids who were not as brave as Billy was.
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