The Light switch

Chapter One

It all started with the sock under the bed, well not so much the sock under the bed but rather the vicious monster who had the sock between its teeth. Jane wanted to be a scientist when she grew up, and when she heard the feet tap tapping across her roof every night, she had to discover what it was. The summer holidays were almost over, and this was her last chance to make an exciting discovery that would change the world. So after much careful planning, she had set her trap.

A net had been cleverly laid out on the floor beneath the window where she believed the animal would enter, and she had even put out a plate of cat food, biscuits, cheese, and a carrot. She could not after all be sure what this strange creature's diet would be and wanted to cover the different possibilities. Then she waited, sitting in her wheelchair in the shadows, sucking the rubber at the end of pencil, field journal in hand ready to take notes the moment the creature showed itself.

The hours of the clock had slowly passed by and it seemed that all her plans had been for nothing when, as her phone showed it had struck midnight, the window began slowly to move open. At first, she did not see what was causing the window to slide up, then she saw the longest, thinnest, but most clever looking fingers, wrapped around the bottom of the frame and slowly pushing it up. Once it had opened about halfway the fingers disappeared for a moment, and a long arm wearing a striped sleeve danced in like a snake and almost seemed to look around the room seeing if the coast was clear.

Jane held her breath. Slowly the hand and arm were followed by the rest of the creature. It was about the same size as her, but the arms and legs were so long they looked like thin bits of string. The hair was a bright purple tangle that seemed to glow in the dark, similar to the bright purple eyes that now looked around the room. Jane realised it couldn't be an animal as it wore shoes that poked out from underneath a long-striped jumper, but whatever it was it certainly wasn't human.

"Hello, my name is Jane, may I ask your name?" Said Jane as she wheeled out the corner she had been hiding in, making sure to avoid the disguised netting beneath the window that this person had so easily stepped over.

At first the stranger froze as if hoping by staying still they would not be seen.

"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you, please there is some food by the window if you are hungry?"

The person turned their glowing purple eyes on the plate and gave out a giggle that seemed to calm them both and help them relax.

"A very interesting selection I see, wanted to make sure you covered all possible diets on the one plate I guess, very generous." She said not taking anything from the plate. "I really am not supposed to be seen, but it is my first night out on my own so it's to be expected. You must have heard my clumsy feet on your roof these last few nights I'm guessing?"

"Well, I wouldn't say clumsy. You do still manage to climb across roofs safely and that can't be at all easy." Said Jane feeling a little embarrassed at discovering this girl's existence now it seemed it was supposed to be a secret.

The stranger looked at Jane in her wheelchair, young and smart with pale skin, red hair, and clever green eyes. She was not at all surprised that this young scientist who she had been sent to give exciting dreams of discovery to, had been able to discover her existence so easily.

"My name in Tilly and I am a Blanketsnatcher. We have watched over children since humans first moved into caves and slept by campfires, always keeping you safe and giving you the dreams you needed to grow up into whatever you wanted most to be. That's' why I was coming here to give you a dream tonight of a submarine exploring the ocean floor, but don't worry strictly no Octopi in this dream."

This was all a lot for Jane to take in who was taking notes furiously in her little notebook, shuddering a little at the thought of an Octopus. "But if you have been around for so long, how have you never been seen before? And what do you mean, giving children dreams?"

Tilly sat down on Jane's bed and smiled. "It's not the first time we have been seen and it probably won't be the last, we do however have this." Tilly drew out a bottle capped with a cork, containing rainbow-coloured sand. "This is sleeping powder, it's the sand you find in your eyes when you wake up in the morning and you have seen a Blanketsnatcher. We help you get to sleep, give you the dreams we were sent to give you, and when you are asleep, we dust you with the sand and you forget you ever saw us."

Jane was shocked.

"How many times have I seen you? I have woken up many times with sand in my eyes?"

Again Tilly giggled.

"I'm afraid this is your first time; you just happen to have particularly sandy eyes. Now, when it comes to dreams ... ouch!" Cried Tilly, leaping from the bed, three terrible claw marks torn into her stripey jumper just above her shoes.

From under the bed leapt a creature with huge, fanged jaws with a sock Jane had thought missing, poking between two of its knife-like teeth. Its eyes were a sickly yellow and its skin a warty green, from this and its vicious clawed hands, Jane was reminded of the horrible goblins she had read about in fairy tales when she was younger.

As the monster was halfway through the air, mouth now opened as it flew through the bedroom towards Jane many things happened at once. Jane pulled the cord that sprung the net by the window which swallowed up the goblin who came crashing to the ground. Before the goblin hit the floor however, Tilly had grabbed the blanket from off of Janes bed and thrown it over her and herself and with a swoosh they had vanished.

The goblin was left alone to bite and claw its way out of the net after Tilly and Jane had vanished. Sniffing at the air and not smelling any delicious things to chew on it crawled out the window into the dark road below, the sock still between its wicked hungry teeth.