Lullaby

• Charlotte Hartell, Grade 7, Modbury P-7 School
• Short Story
• 2015

Finalist in the 'Beyond Words 2015' competition

I suddenly wake up in my bedroom with a cold sweat all over me. I feel the breeze blow through my room, making me cold. I turn to the window to see the curtains blowing through. All of a sudden, I realize; I closed my window last night. Who opened the window? What or who got inside? Where are they now? All these questions race through my head.
My questions get stopped mid thought—is that a boy laughing? I look around my room, panicked. I hear my door creak. I see it is slowly being pushed ajar. The laughing stops, the door stops moving, the wind stops blowing, everything is silent.
I lie back down and hug my stuffed bear tight. I’m just imagining it. Of course I am; there’s no one there. Then I see him. Two purple gleaming eyes, with an outline of a frail body, tucked away in the back corner of my room. There is just enough room for it to fit between my toy bin and my blanket pile. It’s staring at me. Slowly, it pulls a big toothy grin. Its jagged, uneven and yellowed teeth out on full view. I duck my head down under the quilt cover and pretend it isn’t there. I hear it moving; The sound of its large yet light footed feet scraping across my old floorboards. I slowly pull the covers from my eyes. It’s in the moon light now; by the chest at the end of my bed. It starts turning towards me and I duck my head back under the covers.
I hear it moving again. It must be right next to me now. I feel a weight get put on the end of my bed. It’s cautiously moving closer and closer to my face. I hear it breathing. It doesn’t sound like anything familiar.
Everything goes quiet again. It stays quiet for 5 minutes. It sounded like it was gone but I could feel its weight on my bed. The weight suddenly disappears and I’m certain it’s gone. I slowly pull the covers from my face and am greeted with a face. A face of a young boy with shining purple eyes. He looks about 7 years old. I’m paralysed with fear. Suddenly breaking the silence, it says “Do you want to hear a lullaby?”