[coolgal]: 288.Contest Entries. Emotional Fear

(my entry for Flipside's contest on emotional fear, yay. lol. 360 words)

Off a cliff and onto the bedroom floor.

My small seven-year-old body tangled within a mess of blankets. Being this close to the dark emptiness under the bed frightens me enough to wake my senses from slumber. Pouncing like a startled cat I land on my bed, pulling my covers up tight and huddling farthest away from the edge. I grab my teddy and hug him close.

Not only my eyes adjust to the darkness, but being the child that I am, my imagination adjusts in addition. As the room becomes clearer I notice the closet door open a crack. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight. It can see me, I know it can. Sensing its gaze from the closet, I freeze, my breath slowing to make less sound. I cannot, and will not, take my eyes off the closet, but the more I stare, the more the fear wells up inside me. I can feel it, beginning within my stomach and slowly rising to my throat, disabling any sound to utter from my lips.

I realize the covers are my only hope, as every seven-year-old child knows; no harm can come to anyone under the protection of his blankets.

Slowly, I take the covers firmly in my hands, never straying my eyes from the ever watching closet. As careful and quiet as I can be, I pull the covers up over my body to my neck while gently leaning towards the safety of the mattress. With my head on my pillow and the blankets tucked up to my nose, I take one last look at the closet and then retreat in fear under the shelter of my blanket.

I lay under the covers, still as a statue, praying that the closet had not noticed my disappearance. Wondering if this night will be the end? Hoping that perhaps the monster which lurks within the shadows will spare me? I look to my teddy for guidance, but receive a not-so-reassuring blank stare in return.

An eternity of waiting passes by and soon enough into slumber I fall once again, teddy in hand and closet in mind.