Creep - A short horror story

Creep.

Never look under the bed, monsters live there.

The hour was late and despite his tiredness sleep evaded him. A storm raged outside, but something else was off, it felt as if someone was watching him from the end of his bed staring at him with menacing intent. He tried to dismiss the thought and continued to doze. Suddenly he felt it, right when he was on the cusp of passing into a deep sleep, it felt as if someone had tried to get onto the end of his bed. Startled he turned on the bedside lamp, but obviously there was nothing there. Shaking off the uneasiness he lay down, turned off the lamp and attempted to sleep. Once more just as he was about to fall asleep, he felt it but this time with more force. He flipped the switch to turn the light on and checked the end of the bed, again nothing there, back to sleep. His eyes couldn't have been closed for more than a few minutes when it happened again, the switch was already in his hand and his gaze fixed on the end of the bed, still nothing.

This was getting stupid he thought as he lay down, monsters don't exist, he kept repeating that over and over inside his mind as if to assure him that he was going slowly insane.

An hour passed and nothing had happened, his bed had been still, all in my head he thought. Suddenly he felt it again this time with increased pressure. Only he didn’t turn on the light, merely stared into the darkness. He froze as he made out a dark outline off the end of his bed. Lightning flashed, just his shirts, he let out another sigh. He hadn't even lain down when it happened again. This time however it felt as if someone had tried to sit on the end of his bed. He turned the light on but still the darkness would not yield its secrets. Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the sheets were ruffled around the area that the pressure had been felt. As if a switch had been turned on in his mind he remembered every time he had felt it he had noticed the ruffled sheets gradually getting worse, but had dismissed it. His heart was racing, there was only one place he hadn’t checked yet, under the bed. But that was stupid, nothing was under the bed, save a few boxes and yet his heart raced at the thought of looking. Eventually he plucked up the courage to check, taking a deep breath he leaned over the side of the bed, nothing was there, he let out a long sigh of relief. He got up and looked at the end of his bed and that’s when he saw it sat there, mocking him, head cocked, cloaked in shadow, laughing silently. The light flickered out, a flash of lightning illuminated the room and suddenly it was gone.

Never look under the bed, monsters live there.