The Monster Underneath My Bed

• Jasneet Singh, Grade 11, Brentwood Secondary College -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

I have met the monster that dwells underneath my bed.

Fairy tales and childhood stories do not do him justice. Sometimes he is a hairy and troublesome beast, relentlessly snoring away while I try to rest in my beauty sleep. Other times he is a vile slimy creature with countless legs that haunts children in their most treacherous nightmares. His endless forms never cease to shock me yet there is always an unnerving similarity to them all; they remain in the shadows.

We often play hide and seek – it’s his favourite game. His eyes gleam with mischief and anticipation when I lift my hands to my face and I know he’s off in an instant. He’s quite shy though, simply disappearing when my mother walks into the room. My mother never believes me when I tell her about my playful bed-dweller.

“Stop frolicking away into fairyland,” she says. “It’s time to grow up.”

I’ve never understood the appeal of growing up. You live alone: play alone: die alone. But I know that even in my alienated apartment, I will not be alone, as my monster friend will follow me to the ends of earth. Loyal and devoted, yet no one can see him.

Because they never look for him.

Simply dismissing his existence, what do I have to do to prove it to you?

Should I show you the mess he makes underneath my bed that always gets blamed on me? What about how I never seem to leave leftovers during my meals even though I’m a picky eater? Maybe you could figure out why I always dream peacefully when I don’t have a dream catcher? Or that when I have nightmares, my room seems emptier: lonelier?

You see, my friend also gets sad and needs time to rejuvenate. He is only a creature. A creature of the dark, of the terrifying truth that comes to haunt us all. He is locked away and forgotten as time goes on, but I will not forget. I still remember him.

His favourite colour is grey, a mix between the light and the dark. He sees reality through a different lens to ours for he is colour blind. His world is composed of different shades of grey, however, nothing is light enough to be completely white, and nothing is dark enough to be completely black.

We are conditioned to fear the monster that lives underneath our beds thus we fail to recognise the ones that walk in our midst. Disguised and unwavering, sometimes we simply ignore them.

Why? Because it is easy.

Easy doesn’t mean good.

Because there is a monster that lives underneath everyone’s bed and as a child we were open and accepting towards it. However, as the hands of the clock continue to tick, we soon diverge onto the path of ignorant bliss.
I will not forget my guardian, my bed-dweller. Will you forget yours?