[ WP ] The monster under your bed is protecting you from something much worse .

I slept in the basement because I could no longer share a room with my sister. Her body had begun to change and she requested that she needed more privacy and that the room was too small for two people anyway. I had no problem; the basement was large enough for me to do jumping jacks before bed without knocking something over. In the time I had begun to sleep in here, I had gained a considerable amount of muscle. 
 
 It was pleasant when the lights were on because they were really bright and gave more life to whatever they touched. The bicycle from the 1920s, the mangled car parts, the unused carpets. They comforted me as I did pushups but when I switched the lights off, and slid into my bed panting, they became enemies. 
 
 It had begun from the first night I had moved down here and it had never taken a break, not even once, the feeling as though an earthquake was ravaging my bed and it was my bed only because nothing else looked as though it had been affected by an earthquake in the morning. I did n't disclose this to anyone else in the house; they would n't believe me anyway, would think I was just scared of sleeping alone in the basement. 
 
 But today I had prepared myself to find the courage and look below my bed to whatever was there. Perhaps it was a raccoon, its foot stuck between the springs. Or maybe a cat that had come in for shelter when it had gotten dark outside. 
 
 
 I took in a deep breath and *looked*. 
 
 Two large yellow eyes stared. I held back a scream because I was a man and a man who slept alone in the basement at night. 
 
 `` Hello,'' I said. 
 
 `` Hello.'' 
 
 A voice that rumbled, not unlike that of my Maths teacher. 
 
 `` Why are you under my bed like that?'' I was surprised, proud to find that I sounded curious and not terrified. 
 
 There was a pause before a reply from the deep voice. `` To protect you.'' 
 
 I turned on the lights and together we moved the bed. He was the size of a small chimpanzee but had purple fur and two horns protruding from his ears. He explained that each night a hole opened underneath my bed and it was deeper than anything I could imagine. From the hole spewed demons and abominations who kidnapped children for their master's broth. 
 
 `` And he cooks them alive, too'' said the monster with a grave matter-of-factness. 
 
 I was silent for a time and then I said, `` So what now then?'' 
 
 `` I'm going to show you how I do it, wrestle demons. I'm sure *you* would want to spectate such.'' 
 
 * 
 
 He woke me a minute before anything happened. He stood over the hole and waited. And then he slammed himself to cover the whole and prevent the clawing creatures from escaping the Underworld. They were quiet in their wrestling, although their bodies flailed and convulsed. It was a wonder how my bed had not shaken more. I did n't rush forwards to help the Monster because he had told me to stay in the corner. 
 
 Perhaps the reason why I did n't scream was because I thought it had all been a dream. Or because I thought men did n't scream for help, they helped themselves. But one of the demons broke loose and glided, almost gracefully, fangs and flaming eyes bared, and snatched me away, past the Monster's hopeless efforts and down the hole to the depths of the Earth. 
 
 And when I resurfaced, the screams of a thousand children intertwined with the echoes of the Monster's haunted wail. 

