Margy and the Monster

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," little Margy screamed from under her bed covers. "Mommy, there's a monster in my room!"

Brenda was still half asleep as she trotted into Margy's room, for the third time this week, to comfort her daughter and once again explain that there are no monsters in her room. As Brenda turned on the light, she almost would have sworn herself that she saw something, the tail end of something, scurry under the bottom of Margy's bed. Great, she thought to herself, now she's got me seeing things. Brenda re-tucked the sheets under the mattress so Margy was snug and tight in her bed and sat down beside her. She looked at all the stuffed animals scattered around her daughter on the bed and explained how they were watching over her while she slept so that nothing bad would ever happen to her.

"Look at all your babies here taking care of you. See the looks on their faces? They are here to make sure you are safe." As Brenda said the words, she realized just how strange it was that every animal had such a serious look on their faces. These weren't the adorable stuffed animal faces she remembered as a child, but realized it was a stupid thing to think about. They were toys and nothing more.

"Margy, honey, do we have to go over this again? There are no such thing as monsters, there are no monsters in your room and there is nothing, nothing, nothing in this room that you should be afraid of. Don't you think that if there was something scary and dangerous in your room that I wouldn't leave you in here alone?"

Margy swallowed hard and looked around the room before turning back to her mother. "I guess so, Mommy, but my animals were talking to something under the bed. I heard them," she whispered. "You were just dreaming, sweetie," her mother replied as she stroked her hair. Brenda picked up one of the stuffed animals and showed it to her daughter. "See, Margy? These are just stuffed animals without real mouths. They can't talk so you were just having a dream and nothing more."

Brenda could see the look of uncertainty in her daughter's face and wasn't sure how to resolve this problem anymore. She kissed her goodnight again and hoped that she would at least sleep through the rest of the night. As she turned to shut the light off and glanced one more time at her daughter, for a split second she thought she saw a couple stuffed animals moving, like they were talking. She thought to herself she must be sleep deprived and the exhausting nights were beginning to take their toll. She shut the door to her daughter's room and fell right back into a heavy sleep the moment her head hit the pillow of her own bed.

The scream jolted her out of bed not more than an hour later. Her daughter was screaming for her again, but this time there was a severe panic in those screams. Brenda rushed to Margy's room as fast as she could and flung the door open so hard the doorknob broke through the wall behind it. She ran to her daughter's bed and grabbed hold of her tight.

"Margy, honey, it's okay. I'm right here and there is nothing in here to be afraid of at night." Margy peeled her face away from her mother's grip and with tears rolling down her face she looked up at her mother and said, "Mommy, the animals were talking again and I heard them say over and over again, 'take her down, take her down.'" "They're going to do something to me Mommy and I'm scared."

Just as Brenda laid her daughter's head back down on her pillow something grabbed her leg from under the bed. She screamed and yanked her leg, trying to get whatever was holding her leg to let go, but no matter how much she flailed, the grip would not release. Brenda had just enough time to see the look in little Margy's eyes. It was a look of calm and peace and then she too could hear the stuffed animals chanting louder and louder, "take her down, take her down." In an instant she was pulled off the bed and dragged underneath to never be seen again.

Margy looked around the bed at all her stuffed animals and as she quietly told them, "See, Mommy believes me now, I bet," each slowly began to grin, the sewn on strings for mouths turning upwards and they all settled in for a long night's rest.