Midnight Monster

The night was at the prime of its age, dark and deep. Outside, a single lamp shone with weak golden light, highlighting thick raindrops as they plummeted down. The wind sang its sorrows and the storm howled its wordless rage.

Brenna’s parents were sound asleep in the next room, but she herself was agitated by the rumbling thunder and occasional flash of fierce lightning. She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped the blanket around herself. It gave her a small sense of security. She stared into the pouring rain outside as it hurled itself against her window. 

The young girl was afraid, and too much so to sleep. She had been awakened by a curious hissing noise, softer than the thunder but more prominent to her attention. Such events had been growing more frequent lately. At first, it was once or twice a month, but now, it occurred nearly every day. She could swear that she had seen a shadow or two without an object to explain themselves. She was sure she’d seen something bright in the darkness that hadn’t been a lamp. 

Yet, her parents assured her that nothing of the sort as happening, that it was all in her wild eight-year-old imagination. Many times, they’d chuckled, assuming Brenna was joking. She wasn’t. But no one takes a child seriously.

She gave a small whimper as the inky night lit with vivid lightning. What was that blotchy shadow in the sky? Shaking in terror, Brenna hugged herself tightly. 

Thunder groaned as it rolled past, and all of a sudden, materialized what appeared to be two brilliant red lamps. At first, Brenna thought nothing of it, until she looked a little closer.

Those were no lamps.

Those were two glowing eyes, peering out from thick tenebrosity beyond her window. They were huge and round, a deep, vibrant scarlet redder than blood, lacking eyelashes but possessing ample color and a pretty shape. Each was as large as a saucer. Brenna froze for a few moments before she screamed a high-pitched wail. To her dread, her parents didn’t come running to her aid. 

A low hiss sounded from the direction of the eyes. Brenna scrambled away, smacking the light switch open. “Mom! Dad!” She shrieked at the top of her lungs in a panic. “Help! There’s a thing outside!” 

“Strange.” Came a voice a throaty, scraping voice, very much like the brittle call of a snake. From the direction of the sound, it seemed to emerge from the lantern-like eyes. “Not many humans… can see me… the couple from before didn’t, after all. They didn’t realize anything as wrong until I bit their heads off.” The lightning blazed again, briefly illuminating a caliginous silhouette extending from the eyes, somewhat shaped like a gaunt human skeleton. “I haven’t eaten children for a while. You’ll be delicious.”

“They’re not going to come help you, you know. They’re dead.” It continued. “I devoured their souls… and their minds and brains… four senses, all but the tasteless hands, went to feed me. Their skulls were very crunchy.” The eyes seemed to get larger. No, that wasn’t right. They were largening as they were nearing, closer and closer, until they were pressed against the thin glass of the window. 

Even though she was shaking in alarm, Brenna couldn’t help but whisper, very, very quietly, in curiosity exclusive to children such as herself. “What… what are you?” For those huge eyes couldn’t be that of a human, and neither could such a frightening voice. 

“A monster. Blame your parents, they’re the ones who foolishly opened the windows when I knocked. I can only come in through a window, you know. Had they been less concerned of the man they’d seen out in the storm, perhaps they’d still be alive.” Again, lightning streaked the sky, uncovering the thing’s terrible body, and once it was gone, so were the eyes.

Suddenly, all her fear came rushing back to her, and Brenna screamed again and scrambled away, fleeing from the room and not looking back. If she could just get to her parents, everything would be alright. Of course it would be. She raced to her parent’s room, stumbling over her own feet in her hurry. “MOM! DAD!” Brenna cried as loudly as she could, flinging the door wide open and flicking the lights on with vigor.

For a while, she couldn’t even process the sight she saw next.

Two bodies laid limp on the floor of the room. Where their heads should have been, there was a ragged stump for a neck, from which boldly colored blood cascaded out in a river of red. 

It was only after a moment that Brenna realized who these bodies belonged to. 

Horror-struck, she recognized her nightclothes worn by the corpses. There were the distinct patterns and colors each of her parents always wore. Protruding from underneath those clothes were pallid, skeletal limbs, much thinner and paler than Brenna recalled her mother and father to be. She could see the silver engagement ring around her mother’s finger as she registered their missing heads and the blood.

They were dead, she understood in grim dismay. Even at her young age, she knew what death meant. Death was when you were gone, and would never come back. Death was when there was too much blood, when you stopped moving. Death was when someone cut off your head because you did something evil. 

Trembling violently, she grabbed for her mother’s cold hand, disbelieving. Other people had died and would die, but not her parents, right? They were the only ones… who would never leave her… 

The rain pounded outside, spraying Brenna and wetting the bodies through the window, which gaped open. All of a sudden, the thunder seemed much more menacing than before, beating a disastrous portent. Brenna was all alone on a stormy night, with a creature who’d eaten her parents. Her heart and breathing sped rapidly.

And in just a moment, the monster came for her, too, through her parents’ open window, and sucked her soul away.