Practice

The Monster Under the Bed

Prompt: "A little girl is terrified of the monster under her bed, but what she doesn't know is that the monster under her bed protects her from the real monsters- her parents." But I'm gonna change it a bit.

"Blazie, why do I always have to pretend to be asleep when my mommy and daddy come in to say goodnight?" Little Miah asked looking under the bed.

"Because something bad would happen if you didn't." Blazeling started worry, Miah's parents would be in here soon. "Now go, go pretend you're asleep." Blazling watched Miah's head disappear to the top of her bed. A few seconds later Mrs. Franks walked in. Blazling could only see her brand new high heels clomp up to the bed where Miah was "asleep."

The heels paused and walked back to the door. Blazling let his breath out. One parent done. Miah's head poked back to below the bed. "Do you want to play a game Blazie?"

"Not right now Miah. Pretend you're asleep again." Miah's head disappeared once more and Blazeling could hear the stomps of Mr. Franks' dirty work boots coming to the room. The door swung open, Blazling's heart dropped. This was the one thing he feared. Miah's father. It was Blazling's job to protect Little Miah, and sometimes he wondered if he could even do that.

Back in the monster world, some monsters stayed there, other monsters were chosen to protect a child from the scary world that they lived in. Blazling was chosen to be Miah's monster to protect her from her parents. Her mother would stay out late, and sleep with other men. Miah's father on the other hand, he wanted to do bad things to Miah. Terrible things that Blazling couldn't even imagine. But he would only do those bad things if Miah was awake, Blazling overheard him say this over the phone. So Blazling always makes sure that Miah is asleep, or pretending to be asleep when her parents come in to say goodnight.

Mr. Franks strode over to the bed where Miah lay. Blazling heard him mumble, but he couldn't hear what he said. But he sounded angry. Blazling got ready to strike. Mr. Franks paced toward the door, and closed it. Then he walked back to the bed. Blazling heard the sound of a pants buckle coming undone. Then Mr. Franks crawled up onto the bed. Blazling heard Mr. Franks mumble something to Miah. Miah whimpered, and that was what caused Blazling to move.

Blazling jumped from under the bed so he was towering over the bed. He could see Mr. Franks crawling on top of Miah. Blazling roared.

Mr. Franks looked up and saw a giant monster that was a mix between a lizard and a centipede. Mr. Franks screamed and jumped from off the bed. Blazling chased him to the door and out of the bedroom. Soon they were downstairs and Mr. Franks was out of the house. Blazling roared one last time and turned back to the stairs. He saw Miah. She was crying.

"Blazie, what happened?" Miah sniffled from the staircase.

"You're dad tried to do a very bad thing to you. I had to protect you." Blazling walked to the staircase and wrapped his arms around Miah. "Now Miah, you need to listen to me." Miah looked up at Blazling, "go to the phone and call 911. Tell them what your dad did, but don't tell them about me. Everything will be better afterwards."

"What will happen?" Miah asked.

"You'll be brought to a new family." Blazling said.

"Will you come with?"

"Of course." Blazling released Miah and she walked to the phone. She picked it up and dialed 911. But she didn't hit call. She looked at Blazling. "It's alright." He said. Miah hit call on the phone and put it to her ear. She described what her dad tried to do, but she left Blazling out of it. Police came to the house, and set out on a search for Mr. Franks. Miah was brought to the police station where Blazling knew she would be taken care of. So Blazling went back upstairs to Miah's bed and collected his belongings from under it.

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Years later, Blazling sat underneath Zoe Franks' bed. Miah slept in the next room reading. At nine o'clock, like every night, she came into the room and said goodnight to her daughter. And every time, she looked underneath the bed and said, "Goodnight Blazie."