Waiting in the Dark
Six year-old Eliza Tuttle reluctantly climbed in her small twin bed, only because her mother lovingly pestered her to do so.
"Mommy, I really don't think I should go to bed now," Eliza stated crawling beneath her flower-patterned quilts. Her mother carefully helped the little girl tuck under the covers. "Oh, and why is that?"
"Well, Mommy, I-I'm not tired," Eliza told her mom with a large yawn. Eliza looked up at the woman expectantly, as her large blue eyes searched the mother's face for a response.
Mrs. Tuttle leaned over her daughter and kissed her on the cheek. "Good-night," she finished, showing Eliza the conversation was officially over.
"But Mommy-"
"No 'buts'," Mrs. Tuttle interjected. The young girl giggled and slid further under the sheets.
"Night, night! Don't let the bed bugs bite!"
"I love you, sweetie." The mother moved away from the giant lump swallowed up in the bed. She strolled across the girl's bedroom and reached the door after a few strides. Mrs. Tuttle flicked off the lightswitch on the wall, the bedroom suddenly growing dark.
Eliza called out to the blackness around her, "I love you too, bigger than the whole entire universe!"
Her mom smiled and softly closed the room's door, leaving Eliza alone in her bed.
She turned over, snuggling up with her worn plush penguin. "And I love you, Mr. Hoppy," she told the toy closing her eyes.
Eliza laid completely motionless in the darkness, her sweet breathing getting heavier as she concentrated on sleep. Then the wooden floorboards suddenly popped, very quietly but still audible. Her eyes shot open. Eliza tried to ignore the strange noises filling her room like the hollow rapping on her glass window caused by gnarly fingers of a tree outside. She attempted to push away the odd feeling that she was being watched by something large hidden in the shadows in the dark corner, its glowing eyes staring her down. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up, her skin burning and tingling with nervousness.
Eliza grasped the blankets around her before she threw them over her head, protecting her from the "monsters" around her. She didn't particularly enjoy feeling stuffed under the hot sheets, her legs and hands growing sweaty, but knew this way the monsters couldn't see her. Therefore, if the creatures she imagined surrounding her couldn't find her then they shouldn't be able to harm her. It made perfectly good sense to Eliza's six year old brain.
The little girl tried to quiet her loud breaths, sure everything lurking in her room could hear, but failed. Being stuck underneath the thick quilts was making her breathing deeper and heavier.
"I'm feeling claustroflobic, Mr. Hoppy," Eliza whispered to the small penguin beside her. She continued the pretend conversation with the stuffed toy.
"Why don't you call to your mommy?" Mr. Hoppy offered in her imagination.
"I'll try, but the monsters can hear!" she exclaimed, her voice still at a very soft level. "You'll be my watch-penguin for any scary creatures, okay?" Eliza slowly pulled back a couple sheets above her before grabbing Mr. Hoppy and sticking him up into the pitch black room. "Do you see anything?" she wondered, pulling the plush animal back to safety with her. Eliza closed the small opening of covers.
Suddenly the floor creaked under the weight of a lanky, hairy beast slinking around the bed while the walls moaned.
"Mommy? Mommy?" she asked in a hushed tone to the empty room. "They're here, Mommy. The monsters are just waiting for me to get out of bed," the young girl continued. "They're all waiting in the dark!"
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