#120 – The Tale of the Boy Who Lived Above the Bed​

Once upon a time, in a world where you often thought about what you believed in, a monster, who had been called ‘The Monster’ his whole life had tucked himself up in bed for the night. The Monster had a mother and father, but he didn’t live with them anymore because they had told him he was now old enough to live in the real world on his own. The Monster wasn’t really sure that he really was ready to do this because on the first night that he spent in his new house, just as he was a just about to go to sleep, the scariest possible thing happened to him: A young boy came and slept on top of the bed under which The Monster lived.

The first night it happened, The Monster couldn’t believe it. He had been told stories about humans sleeping on top of the mattresses they used for the roofs of their homes, but he was sure they were just that: Stories. When the monster was at home with his mother and father, he was able to sleep under the bed with them and there was certainly no sign that a human was sleeping above them. But, on the first night he went to sleep under his new bed all by himself, he heard the door open, saw the lights go out and watched as the mattress above him moved downwards as the human set himself up for the night directly above his head.

The Monster was too terrified to move. All he wanted to do was run over and turn on the light but he dare not dream of what horrible things the human might do if he knew an innocent monster was living under his bed. The stories that his father had read to him about humans had made them sound like very scary creatures, creatures who didn’t bother getting to know you first before presuming you were there to scare them. These stories stuck with The Monster as he lay under the bed, refusing to let himself go to sleep before he was sure the human above him was asleep. This made for a very long night, and, in the morning, the monster pulled himself out from under the bed and dashed to his parents’ house to get their advice

Unfortunately, they didn’t believe him. They told him that he must have simply been imagining the whole ordeal. The harder The Monster tried to explain how real the human was, the more his parents tried to convince him otherwise. They suggested that The Monster shine a torch above his bed if he ever felt as though a human might be up there just to prove to himself that humans weren’t real. Although this certainly wasn’t the advice The Monster wanted to hear, he promised his parents he would try it if it were to happen again.

Which, of course, it did. The monster couldn’t believe it. It was almost as if the human waited for him to go to sleep before moving on the mattress above him just so he could scare him at the right time. The Monster tried telling himself it wasn’t real and it was all just in his imagination, but he also couldn’t bear the thought of going another night without sleep. He then decided he would do as he promised and use his torch to check above his bed to see if the human was real or not. He gripped his torch tightly in his two hairy hands and pushed himself out from under the bed.

There was no human. Just an empty bed and a few toys The Monster had left there earlier in the day. It felt so strange to be looking at an empty bed having been so sure that there was a human lying there, waiting to scare him. He started thinking about how easy it was for his brain to play tricks on him and asked himself if there were other things he was sure were real that perhaps didn’t exist either. The answer wasn’t important now though. What was important was that he got a good night sleep after worrying for so long the night before.

The Monster pulled his sheets over himself, safe in the knowledge that there was no human sleeping on the bed above him. He tucked himself up safe and sound and was nearly asleep when he heard the doors to the cupboard at the foot of the bed start to rattle.

THE END

My name is Gregg Savage and, every night when the house is quiet, I write and publish a free children’s story at dailytales.com.au for you to share and enjoy.

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