As you’re laying in bed trying to fall asleep, the monster under your bed suddenly crawls out from under the bed. He glances from you to the door and growls anxiously, “Uh, I don’t want to alarm you, but...I think I heard a noise coming from downstairs...”
The clock on my bedside table ticked away silently as I stared out the window into the night. It wasn't dark, the street lights prevented that, but above the warm cover of the lights the sky was dark and cloudless. A car occasionally drove past, but nothing much happened at this late hour when most people slumbered. An occasional wind gust rattled doors and pushed tree branches against the side of the house, but nothing struck me as unusual. My blankets wrapped loosely around me as a sprawled to another position, still unable to find the right position to engage sleep and relaxation. Something was keeping me up and I just couldn't figure out what. It seemed it would just be one of those nights. I rolled again to find the remote to turn on the TV. Maybe the droning of a show I had seen a thousand times would help me find peace.
As I scrolled to find my show the bed started to lightly vibrate, until it got more and more violent. My sheets escaped my fists and my pillows slid to the floor on each side. And then as quickly as it began, it stopped. There was a grunt as something enormous pulled itself from under the foot of my bed, and a large shadow rose to block my view of the TV.
The only way to describe it was Enormous. From its hulking round head and shoulders that were wider than two grown men. There was no way in the understood laws of physics did this behemoth fit under my full sized bed. The edges of the creature were blurred, leaving him looking hairy and undefined. He was not of the reality I lived in, but there he was. He groaned again, heaving his great chest in a deep breath.
He glanced from me, to the door anxiously. Although he was shadow you could see the movement, and there was something almost welcoming about the blurred features of his face. "Uh, I don't want to alarm you, but... I think I heard a noise coming from downstairs". His voice was like a whisper through a closed fist. It was both unsettling and bordering on comical.
"Oh, um... perhaps the wind?" I asked, shocked to the point that my mind was telling me this was all perfectly normal.
"No" he grunted again, stepping away from my bed and towards the door. His movement was not fluid like it would be assumed of a shadow. There was weight to his steps, as if he was being pulled back towards my bed. The blurred edges of his feet splayed across my carpet, leaving a grey dust as he walked.
"Am I in danger? Should I call the police?" it all sounds so stupid when I say it. What would the cops do? This shadow thing was not something that could be shot... or at least it didn't look like bullet would stop it. But my mouth kept moving as my brain tried to recon with the situation it was encountering, "Perhaps a church? Should I call my mom?"
The enormous shadow looked over its shoulder back at me, at this point it was nearly to my door. "Dangerous, yes. To you? Probably not." His voice seemed tense but attempting to be calm as if he didn't want me to panic.
Panic makes you stupid. That's what I had been taught by my father. Calm keeps you alive.
"What's down stairs? Who are you? What are you?" I couldn't stop talking. The shadow turned to its full body to me.
"I am from a different world, a world you cannot understand. My name is not important. I am here to deal with what is down stairs." He nodded to the door, then turned to continue his slow and labored movements. He made his way out of my room and to the top of the stairs where he paused. A faint chanting began from deep within the shadow and emanated outwards. From his chest, back, and arms other worldly symbols glowed and moved outwards. I sat stock still in my room as the symbols began to block my door way, creating a barrier of light. A sense of calm filled the room, it seemed to come from the dancing symbols. The shadow creature nodded once at me and descended the stairs as my eyelids drooped and my limbs became heavy with sleep.
--------------
Now that the girl was safe in sleep I could begin my true mission in this world.
The portal for some reason had emerged under her bed and had been a struggle to move through because of that. My form felt heavy and tethered as I made way through. My master nodded in encouragement right before I finally crawled through.
The girl had not screamed or fainted as I emerged into her bed chambers the way many other travelers had described previous encounters. She was calm and asked too many questions. I tried to keep my own presence calm, I knew the shadow cloak that covered my kind upon entry into this world was intimidating. My words were slurred and weighted on my tongue as I tried to explain as quickly and only with essential information. It was my goal to keep her alive during this hopefully brief mission but she was making it difficult by being awake.
As I slogged past her and from the bed chamber I began to chant a sleep and protection charm. Simple, but incredibly effective. She would awake tomorrow thinking she had experienced an incredibly vivid dream. My focus shifted to the cause of the noise at the bottom of the stairs.
On rare occasions, and usually during windy nights in this world, there was an occasional runaway from our world into this one. Why this occurred, no one was quite sure, but the people of this world were incredibly creative when coming up with ways to explain it away. Minor tornadoes, or catastrophic squalls were usually blamed for the destruction that our runaways caused. On our side of the portals it was almost always windy also and a rogue portal would show up. On occasion these rogue portals would show up in a location that would be convenient for a runaway to slide through.
Tonight, the runaway was one that could cause serious damage to the physical beings and structures of this world and it was my mission to bring it back, or destroy it. The Congress did not care either way; just that our impact be limited on this world, and all other worlds that we could portal to. It was in our best interest to keep unknown to all but ourselves.
As I turned the corner on the stairs the runaway froze. Her form was also shadowed in a way that was disconcerting, even to a seasoned Runaway Salvager as myself. She was a quadrupedal creature, but she moved on two legs, her front appendages drawn to her chest. A short kinked tail twitched back and forth. The shadow that contained her form in this world was not blurred, but sharp as if back lit by a single light source. She swayed slightly as her dulled senses tried to unravel where she was.
I continued down the stairs, slow and steady. The pull of the portal I had crossed through was weakening slightly, as sign that I was straying too far from its safety. The runaway's portal shimmered from the fireplace, it was unusually robust for Rogue. They were usually dim and flickering when they appeared without being summoned.
The runaway turned away from me as I approached. Her tail twitched violently and faint glowing symbols began to appear from her shoulder blades. In a moment fire erupted from her back in a wing like form, stretching across the expanse of the room. Without hesitation I began to chant my own set of symbols and set to creating an extinguishing charm to douse her wings and anything else in the structure she might feel the need to ignite. She swayed again, attempting to become airborne. Her form was not one that naturally flew in our world, and would not in this. I doused the runaway with my charm, her wings fizzling out. Her shoulders slumped.
"Come now, let us return. This is not our world" my words were heavier and more muffled, but the way her ears moved to listen told me I could still be heard through my shadow. She shook her head. My master had warned that she was a creature who could turn from calm to chaos without warning. I stood my ground and repeated my words firmly. "Come, let us return."
She turned, her shadow sharper still, lava eyes meeting mine. "No" she hissed, her voice high and sharp. "No, this is not my world. Nor am I of your world."
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/abocnl/wp_as_youre_laying_in_bed_trying_to_fall_asleep/
As I scrolled to find my show the bed started to lightly vibrate, until it got more and more violent. My sheets escaped my fists and my pillows slid to the floor on each side. And then as quickly as it began, it stopped. There was a grunt as something enormous pulled itself from under the foot of my bed, and a large shadow rose to block my view of the TV.
The only way to describe it was Enormous. From its hulking round head and shoulders that were wider than two grown men. There was no way in the understood laws of physics did this behemoth fit under my full sized bed. The edges of the creature were blurred, leaving him looking hairy and undefined. He was not of the reality I lived in, but there he was. He groaned again, heaving his great chest in a deep breath.
He glanced from me, to the door anxiously. Although he was shadow you could see the movement, and there was something almost welcoming about the blurred features of his face. "Uh, I don't want to alarm you, but... I think I heard a noise coming from downstairs". His voice was like a whisper through a closed fist. It was both unsettling and bordering on comical.
"Oh, um... perhaps the wind?" I asked, shocked to the point that my mind was telling me this was all perfectly normal.
"No" he grunted again, stepping away from my bed and towards the door. His movement was not fluid like it would be assumed of a shadow. There was weight to his steps, as if he was being pulled back towards my bed. The blurred edges of his feet splayed across my carpet, leaving a grey dust as he walked.
"Am I in danger? Should I call the police?" it all sounds so stupid when I say it. What would the cops do? This shadow thing was not something that could be shot... or at least it didn't look like bullet would stop it. But my mouth kept moving as my brain tried to recon with the situation it was encountering, "Perhaps a church? Should I call my mom?"
The enormous shadow looked over its shoulder back at me, at this point it was nearly to my door. "Dangerous, yes. To you? Probably not." His voice seemed tense but attempting to be calm as if he didn't want me to panic.
Panic makes you stupid. That's what I had been taught by my father. Calm keeps you alive.
"What's down stairs? Who are you? What are you?" I couldn't stop talking. The shadow turned to its full body to me.
"I am from a different world, a world you cannot understand. My name is not important. I am here to deal with what is down stairs." He nodded to the door, then turned to continue his slow and labored movements. He made his way out of my room and to the top of the stairs where he paused. A faint chanting began from deep within the shadow and emanated outwards. From his chest, back, and arms other worldly symbols glowed and moved outwards. I sat stock still in my room as the symbols began to block my door way, creating a barrier of light. A sense of calm filled the room, it seemed to come from the dancing symbols. The shadow creature nodded once at me and descended the stairs as my eyelids drooped and my limbs became heavy with sleep.
--------------
Now that the girl was safe in sleep I could begin my true mission in this world.
The portal for some reason had emerged under her bed and had been a struggle to move through because of that. My form felt heavy and tethered as I made way through. My master nodded in encouragement right before I finally crawled through.
The girl had not screamed or fainted as I emerged into her bed chambers the way many other travelers had described previous encounters. She was calm and asked too many questions. I tried to keep my own presence calm, I knew the shadow cloak that covered my kind upon entry into this world was intimidating. My words were slurred and weighted on my tongue as I tried to explain as quickly and only with essential information. It was my goal to keep her alive during this hopefully brief mission but she was making it difficult by being awake.
As I slogged past her and from the bed chamber I began to chant a sleep and protection charm. Simple, but incredibly effective. She would awake tomorrow thinking she had experienced an incredibly vivid dream. My focus shifted to the cause of the noise at the bottom of the stairs.
On rare occasions, and usually during windy nights in this world, there was an occasional runaway from our world into this one. Why this occurred, no one was quite sure, but the people of this world were incredibly creative when coming up with ways to explain it away. Minor tornadoes, or catastrophic squalls were usually blamed for the destruction that our runaways caused. On our side of the portals it was almost always windy also and a rogue portal would show up. On occasion these rogue portals would show up in a location that would be convenient for a runaway to slide through.
Tonight, the runaway was one that could cause serious damage to the physical beings and structures of this world and it was my mission to bring it back, or destroy it. The Congress did not care either way; just that our impact be limited on this world, and all other worlds that we could portal to. It was in our best interest to keep unknown to all but ourselves.
As I turned the corner on the stairs the runaway froze. Her form was also shadowed in a way that was disconcerting, even to a seasoned Runaway Salvager as myself. She was a quadrupedal creature, but she moved on two legs, her front appendages drawn to her chest. A short kinked tail twitched back and forth. The shadow that contained her form in this world was not blurred, but sharp as if back lit by a single light source. She swayed slightly as her dulled senses tried to unravel where she was.
I continued down the stairs, slow and steady. The pull of the portal I had crossed through was weakening slightly, as sign that I was straying too far from its safety. The runaway's portal shimmered from the fireplace, it was unusually robust for Rogue. They were usually dim and flickering when they appeared without being summoned.
The runaway turned away from me as I approached. Her tail twitched violently and faint glowing symbols began to appear from her shoulder blades. In a moment fire erupted from her back in a wing like form, stretching across the expanse of the room. Without hesitation I began to chant my own set of symbols and set to creating an extinguishing charm to douse her wings and anything else in the structure she might feel the need to ignite. She swayed again, attempting to become airborne. Her form was not one that naturally flew in our world, and would not in this. I doused the runaway with my charm, her wings fizzling out. Her shoulders slumped.
"Come now, let us return. This is not our world" my words were heavier and more muffled, but the way her ears moved to listen told me I could still be heard through my shadow. She shook her head. My master had warned that she was a creature who could turn from calm to chaos without warning. I stood my ground and repeated my words firmly. "Come, let us return."
She turned, her shadow sharper still, lava eyes meeting mine. "No" she hissed, her voice high and sharp. "No, this is not my world. Nor am I of your world."
https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/abocnl/wp_as_youre_laying_in_bed_trying_to_fall_asleep/
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