It Was Underneath
Written By: Randall Rydell Russell
Three shredded arms and various disemboweled body parts were spread across Billy Ferguson’s bedroom. They were randomly on the floor near his Hot Wheels cars, Star Wars toys and Nintendo Switch controllers. The limbs bled out onto his white Super Mario carpet. One leg was still twitching, and the head of Dylan Kronkite stared at Billy with lifeless eyes.
Little Billy sat on his bed, crying and hugging his knees. He heard the deep growling and the sounds of bones being chewed on under his bed. Billy did not know if it was Dylan’s bones being chewed on or his other friend Hector’s, who was also staying over. All Billy knew was his older brother Danny was right, a monster did live under his bed.
At fifteen, Danny was six years older than Billy. Danny had an athletic build but does not use any of that athleticism for good. He just used it for skateboarding and getting into trouble. Danny loved to torment Billy just like any other older brother would. Danny would tell Billy about jumping out of the bathtub fast or he would get sucked down the drain; he also used to tell him if he ate candy, little candy goblins would come at night, cut up his stomach and retrieve the candy because he was not ten yet. So, every Halloween or even at the store if they had allowance money to spend on the weekend or something along those lines, Billy would reluctantly give Danny all his snacks and treats. He overheard Danny one day on the phone tell a friend that he was so stupid and would believe anything. After hearing that and catching Danny and his friends smoking cigarettes, he quickly told their mom, which led to Danny being grounded for a month. A day later, Billy and Danny’s mother let Billy have Dylan and Hector over for a sleepover and Danny was to stay in his room the whole night. Mrs. Ferguson bought Billy and his friends pizza, junk food, soda and gave them free range to watch almost anything on Netflix, Prime and Hulu. Billy had it made and to top it off it was a three-day weekend. For once, Billy was the one winning in the house and Danny was finally low man on the totem pole.
That power was short lived; as Billy, Dylan and Hector played on the Nintendo Switch, Danny stood in the doorway to tell the kids not to sleep on the floor because there is a monster under Billy’s bed. Dylan and Hector were taken back by this, and not in a good way. Billy, still riding high from after taking his older sibling’s supremacy, told Danny he no longer believed anything he said and that he heard him on the phone making fun of him. Billy also added that he would tell their mom everything Danny had ever done to him if he did not leave, he and his friends alone. Danny understood but warned them again that a monster lived under Billy’s bed then exited the room. Dylan was visibly scared, so Billy and Hector tried their best to ensure Dylan that Danny was just trying to scare them. Dylan slowly calmed down and the three of them continued to play Nintendo.
A few hours later, Billy was fast asleep in his bed, snoring away like a madman. Dylan and Hector were asleep on the floor in front of Billy’s bed. They both were on small mats with pillows and a blanket. Empty pizza boxes, candy wrappers and soda cans where on the dresser near the TV. The sleepover had worn all three of them out.
Something started smelling Dylan’s foot. This woke him up causing him to look around Billy’s room. Billy and Hector were just sleeping away as Dylan looked around in disarray. Dylan pulled his feet under the blanket to give him a sense of security to ease his mind. He turned his sights to Billy’s spinning night light. The silhouette of neon-colored superheroes appears and reappear around the walls of the bedroom. Lying back down on the mat, he closed his eyes and began his descent back to sleep.
A low growling sound woke Dylan back up. Dylan sat up looking at Billy’s bed. The growling sound is low but heavy and scary. Dylan tried to get Billy and Hector’s attention but did not want to be loud either. The low growl is heard again. Dylan’s heart was about to come out of his chest, he was terrified. He began to wet himself due to the shaking and inability to not be afraid. Something came over him and he grew a desire to see what was under the bed. Billy’s comforter covered the front of the bed and touched the floor. Though his hands shook like he was in zero-degree weather, he wanted to get over his fear and prove to himself that he was braver than what his friends thought.
Dylan got close to the bed to show himself that nothing was under the bed. He took a deep breath and lifted the comforter. Where an open space to see under the bed should be, there in its place are sharp teeth the size of iPads or tablets with white foam covering all of the teeth. Dylan was now frozen with fear, unable to say a word. As he began to finally let out a scream, two reptilian clawed hands appeared from under the side of the bed, clawing into Dylan while grabbing him. The mouth opens and the teeth began devouring Dylan; body parts began rolling and falling all over the ground.
Hector woke up to the horrific scene of sharp teeth, slithering lips and lizard like hands clawing into his friend. Hector’s scream wakes up Billy who also freezes like stone at the sight Dylan’s dead body.
“Get on my bed hurry!” Billy screamed to Hector.
Hector does not make it a foot- the reptilian hands grabbed Hector, split his body in half and shoved the rest of his body in his mouth. More blood, guts, intestines and body parts accompanied the rest of them. Billy just sat on his bed hugging his knees.
The reptilian hands slowly slithered back under the bed. Only sound heard besides Billy’s pounding heart was the gnawing sounds of bones being chewed on under his bed. Billy looked around his room and at his door. Though terrified, Billy wondered if he could make it to his door.
He felt if he ran hard and fast off his bed, he could make it out of the room and to freedom. The scaley clawed hands were gone and whatever was under his bed was still chewing on bones and human flesh. Billy crouched up on his feet in his bed. He tried to control his movements; he doesn’t want to waste any energy. He just needed to get off his bed, turn the doorknob and book it out of the room. He had to keep playing the scenario in his head and not choke when it was time to make a move. Billy took one last deep breath, raised out of bed, jumped to the floor and took a short sprint to the bedroom door.
He opened his door, preparing to exit the room, until one of the reptilian hands grabbed him and took him to the ground hard. Billy is dazed and his vision is blurry. He hit his head when he hit the ground and he mostly just wanted to cry from pain, fear and exhaustion.
A large lizard like head slowly stuck his head out from under the bed. It’s eyes are yellow with glowing red pupils. Saliva and white foam drips from its sharp teeth. It began pulling Billy towards its opening mouth. Billy screamed until a familiar voice was heard and Billy stopped moving. He painfully turned around to see Danny in the doorway.
“Let him go.” Danny told the monster. The monster quickly does what he was told, slithering back under Billy’s bed.
“I didn’t expect him to go that crazy.” said Danny. Billy lost it and began crying.
“That thing killed my friends. They are dead.” Billy said, pulling himself away from all the bloody limbs.
Danny walked in the room, bending down to his little brother. “We used to move around a lot until you were born. I was able to control it when I was younger. Mom and Dad thought it was some Act of God or the devil. I didn’t see how they went hand in hand, but I could make things happen. Just by thinking about it. For your sake, I stopped using this… power. I did it because Mom and Dad asked me too. It freaked dad out and that’s why he left. But Mom begged me to control it which I promised I would. But the older you got, the more attention you got, you became like a threat to me and something deep within me, started boiling out. But I was still able to control it. Don’t ask me how.” said Danny, looking at his brother with honest yet insane brown eyes.
“If you were controlling it, then how did this happen tonight?” asked a terrified Billy to an insanely calm Danny.
“When you got me grounded, something took over me,” Danny said in a sullen tone and withdrawn, looking almost embarrassed by what was taking place and then a smile appeared on his face. “I was afraid of what was happening to me, at first. I realized what I could do with it. What I could do to people who tested him. That’s why you were my first test subject when I decided to let go. I would never hurt you or Mom, but everyone else was free game.” Danny told Billy.
Billy just looked at Danny. He was now more disturbed than ever. Danny was a stranger to him now and he did not know who was in his room anymore. Danny told Billy that Dylan and Hector did not matter either, they were expendable. The number of times they had to move when Danny’s ‘gift’ affected their living situation, they were needing to start packing because Dylan and Hector’s parents would start asking questions soon and the authorities would get involved. Danny suggested that Billy should start packing anything he wanted to bring because they were going to have to get going after he called their mom from her shift at the hospital.
All Billy could think when he looked at his older brother was that he was no more. All that was left was a teenager who has become committed to embracing the dark power he had to create monsters. A power that meant danger for anyone that came across Danny, Billy thought. Billy knew this to be true since Hector and Dylan were killed by the monster that lived under his bed.
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