Monsters Under the Bed

I sit down with my daughter to quell her fears. She ran out of her room tonight screaming about monsters under her bed. She’s had this fear ever since we moved into the new house, six months ago. Ava is 7 and has never had a fear of anything. Her mother and I have chalked it up to the move: new house, new school. Maybe one of her school friends has this fear and has told Ava about it. Either way, I settle her down and tell her about a fear I had as a child.

“When I was little, my mother and I moved around quite a bit. I became scared of the dark. As an adult, I learned that it was because the sounds and the layouts of the homes were different at each place. My brain didn’t like being unfamiliar with things, so it manifested the fear of the dark,” I tell her.

“Were you ever afraid of the monsters, Daddy?” she asks quietly.

“Yes, I was. That was also part of my fear of the dark. I would never sleep with my feet out of the covers. I was afraid that the monster could reach up and grab me. Then they would pull me under the bed and I’d be gone forever. It was a fear that I still haven’t gotten over completely. I still won’t sleep with my feet out of the covers,” I laugh at myself. All of this is true. I look at my wife and she smiles, knowing the truth about the story.

“Did you ever see the monsters?”

“Nope, and I never will because they aren’t real, sweetheart,”

“But they are. I’ve seen them. They come in through my closet door and sneak under the bed before I go to sleep,” she argues.

I think that she is thinking about the movie where monsters sneak into the closet to elicit screams from children to power their homes. I remember the ending of this movie and use that as my argument.

“Well, remember. At the end of the movie, the monsters all became comedians, which may be scarier. They wanted children to laugh instead of scream. It was a fun movie,”

“I’m not talking about the movie, Daddy. I know that’s just pretend. I’m talking about the real monsters. The scary ones. They move in the shadows,” she says in her mother’s tone which means she is placating me.

I laugh and look at my wife. She just shrugs her shoulders and goes back to her phone. Nice, way to help there, honey! I rack my brain and try to think of something to help my little girl get back to bed. She can’t keep sleeping with us each night. Our marriage may not survive it. Hell, I may not survive. I don’t get any sleep when she’s there. She sleeps sideways between us, head on her mother and feet at my back. I need to have the kid tested for restless leg syndrome as she seems to kick incessantly each night. That and her mother’s snores from having to sleep on her back keep me from getting any sleep.

I have an idea. I put Ava down off of my lap and head to the garage. After a bit of digging through the boxes that have yet to be unpacked, I find the lone nightlight. I take it inside and plug it in. The plug is next to the closet door, so maybe this will ease her fears.

“Will this help, honey?” I ask her as the light brightens up the room slightly. It is a low-wattage bulb that easily changes colors as the night goes on. It is supposed to help children sleep.

“No, they are already under the bed. If the light stays on they will just stay there. They can create a doorway under the bed too. It is just easier in the closet since the door is already there,” she explains to me.

This explanation brings back part of why I had this fear as a child. In the late 80’s there was a movie that showed how the monsters under the bed worked. It was supposed to be a fun kids' movie, making light of the monsters. They stole socks and old toys and whatnot. But a doorway opening in the shadow under my bed had done it for me. I asked my parents for a captain's bed that Christmas “to hold my clothes and toys”. In reality, it was because with that bed there was no under the bed.

If you ask my wife I almost do the same thing now, though it is more out of habit. I have several totes under our bed that hold a variety of things. We don’t have much storage so we need to maximize what we have, or at least that’s what I tell her. In reality, I never have gotten rid of this fear. Talking with my daughter about it has brought it all back to me. It has made me realize the things that I do to ignore this fear every day. It’s kinda crazy how we cope with our childhood fears. They never really seem to go away.

As I wrack my brain for other ideas, the simplest one hits me. “Hey, how about one of Daddy’s hunting flashlights to scare them away? You sleep with that and nothing will mess with you,” I say with a smile.

Ava thinks about this for a second before smiling. “I think that’ll work, Daddy. I really don’t want to keep sleeping with you and Mommy. She snores,” Ava says with a scrunched ick face.

I laugh at that and we head to the garage to find my hunting supplies. After a bit of searching, we find them and move back to her room. I turn my light on and flash it all around the room. She shines hers under the bed and keeps it there for a while. I start to worry that this isn’t going to work. Then she stands up.

“Yup, all good it scared them all away. Can I leave it on for a while?” she asks sheepishly.

“Yes, you can. The battery is rechargeable. We can charge it while you're at school tomorrow,” I answer.

This elicits a cheer and a hug. Ava jumps in bed, yells goodnight to her mother and rolls over to her side. I ease back to the door and shut off the light. As I do the flashlight in her hands illuminates. It is so bright, I’m a bit scared she won’t be able to sleep. Then I remember what it's like to be a kid. They can sleep through anything. I smile as I back out of the door closing almost all the way. I creep down the hall and back to the living room. Her mother is still nose-deep in her phone.

She does ask, “Is she good?”

“Yup, I finally figured it out. I think. With no help from you. I might add,” I tell her.

“I knew you’d figure it out. I have to beat this level to get my bonus for today. Then do you want to watch something on television?” She asks. Just like that, the night goes back to a normal evening. No more monsters under the bed.

The next morning, Ava comes down for breakfast. She looks like she hadn’t slept a wink all night. She hands me the flashlight and the nightlight.

“The monsters didn’t like these. They made them even madder last night,”

“Did they scare you? Why didn’t you come to get us?” I ask her

“They told me not to. And I was too scared to get out of bed to come get you both,” she said sheepishly.

“You shouldn’t be that scared, honey. You should’ve called out and gotten us. The monsters aren’t real...”

“STOP SAYING THAT! They can hear you and they don’t like it,” Ava screams at me.

I was too taken aback to even correct her for screaming at me. Her fear of these monsters is starting to become a real problem. I soothe her and get her to calm down as her mother makes her breakfast. As the morning wears on, she gets dressed and starts acting like normal. Minutes later, she is off to school.

After she leaves, I look through her room and find nothing out of the ordinary. She’s acting odd and I want to know why. She has always had a very active imagination but this seems to be going a bit overboard. She was very tired this morning. She has to find a way past this fear.

When Ava gets home from school, we talk about the day and she doesn’t mention anything about the monsters, under her bed or otherwise. I feel that maybe all the talk before she went to bed led her to have very realistic nightmares. I figure that tonight we will watch a very PG movie, not one from the ’80s, and talk about nice things. If she can get through one night without talking about these things, maybe we can start moving forward and away from this nightmare-inducing fear.

The night goes as planned and we have a great dinner and movie session. Her mom tells us about her day at work and we go over the things Ava learned in school. As she starts to get ready for bed, Ava hasn’t mentioned anything about the night before or the monsters. My plan seems to be going well.

After she brushes her teeth, Ava comes to the living room to have me read her a story before bed. We used to do this in her room, but since her fear has popped up we do this in the living room now. I like it this way because her mother can be involved too. After a quick story about princesses and dragons, Ava yawns and says that she is ready for bed.

“Do you need your flashlight?” I ask her. “Or the nightlight?”

Ava’s face gets really dark, “I told you that they don’t like those things.”

“Ok, ok. I’m sorry. I was just checking. This morning was weird and I was just trying to help,” I say.

“They told me that the flashlights and the nightlight didn’t help you when you were my age. The same monsters follow a family. It’s their heritage,” Ava’s voice has taken a very deep and dark effect. Neither her mother nor I like it very much.

“Ava, are you ok sweetie?” her mother asks.

“Yes, Mother. I’m fine,” she’s back to her normal voice.

The heritage monsters thing has stuck with me. I know I told her my story last night but where did she come up with that? I think that her mother and I are out of our league here and may need to find her a therapist to get her past this. Maybe I should just get her a captain’s bed. That could solve this too. As I think this I look at my daughter and see her staring at me with a glaring hate. What is wrong with her?

“Ok,” I say hesitantly. “Let’s go to bed.”

The two of us walk to her bedroom. She is walking ahead of me but looks back several times to see if I’m following. I know she’s scared. As we reach her bed she hops up as I tuck her in.

“Do you want Daddy to check under the bed for the monsters?” I ask

“No,” the girl on the bed states.

Then I heard the most horrible thing that I have ever heard. “I’m the one under the bed, Daddy,”

As I jerk away from the bed towards my daughter’s voice, my real daughter. The door slams shut behind me. The hands grab me and pull me under the bed.

I don’t even have time to scream.