Sammy the Bed Monster

by T Jondral

  “Aren’t you going to eat your lunch?” I ask him.

  “I forgot my lunch in my bag, it’s still in the classroom. I’m going to go get it, just wait here, ok? I’ll be back in a minute.”

  He gets up and sprints towards the classroom. I watch his head bobbing up and down, until he turns a corner and I can’t see him anymore.

  I turn to observe my other classmates. Most of them are sitting down on the grass, or on the tables eating their lunch and talking with their friends. In a few minutes, I finish my sandwich. On my left, there are a few boys kicking a football around, and I think about asking them if I can join but I should at least wait until Marcus comes back. Talking about Marcus... where is he? He has been gone for quite a few minutes now. Maybe he has gotten lost.

  I look the wide path but see no sign of Marcus. I close my lunchbox and put it under my arm. I follow the path, calling out ‘Marcus’, but I hear no reply. Looking from left to right, I spot some golden hair behind the shadow of a big oak tree. I already know it’s not Marcus because of the hair colour, but maybe this boy has seen Marcus. I come up behind him and tap his shoulder. I’m surprised by how cold and hard it is. The boy doesn’t move, not even a millimetre.

  I go around him and almost fall backwards when I see the look in his face. He looks petrified, just like the statue of the girl I saw earlier this day. His eyes are wide open and his mouth is gaping. I clap my hands in front of his eyes, but he doesn’t blink or even move a muscle. It must be another statue. But he looks very familiar. He has messy, golden hair and wears thick glasses that are almost falling off his nose. He looks exactly like the boy in my class, who answered the question and never came back to the class. This is very strange and freaky.

  I go back to the path, and run as quickly as possible to the classroom. I want to find Marcus quickly to tell him about this. I’m starting to get anxious and don’t want to be here by myself. I see the building getting closer and closer until I finally reach the front door. I look around in all directions but I can’t see Marcus anywhere. I climb the three steps leading to the door, and open the heavy wooden door. It creaks loudly and I struggle to open it with Luke’s small, delicate fingers.

  I take a step inside but I can’t see anything because it is too dark. There is only a small ray of light coming from the half open door. With that light, I manage to make out a small white rectangle by the door. Assuming that’s the light switch, I press it. The light blinks half a dozen times, until it finally stays on. I give myself a few moments to adjust my eyes to the bright light, and then look around the room. To my surprise, it is empty. Where is Marcus?

  Chapter 11

  While I’m at the classroom I decide, I might as well put my lunchbox back in my bag. So I go to my desk, and zip open my black bag and throw my lunchbox in it. I close it, and am about to leave the room when I hear a few whispers coming from outside the room. I try to listen, and I figure out that the voices are coming from behind the class. I pace quietly to the window at the back of the classroom and lift up the curtain a bit, just enough for me to see who is outside; it’s Marcus!

  “Marc...” I start to call out but I suddenly feel the urge to be quiet. Something about this whole situation doesn’t feel right. His eyes are fixated on something above him, and he seems to be scared. I open a little bit more of the curtain to see what he is looking at. Or should I say who.

  Mrs. McNally is pointing her finger at Marcus and yelling at him. I rest my ear on the wall to try and hear what she is saying. I lean in, just enough so I can hear better but they can’t see me. I hear Mrs. McNally shout,

  “You know what happens to annoying children, don’t you?”

  That’s all I hear before a scream fills the room. A flash of light explodes from where Marcus and Mrs. McNally are standing. It’s so bright that I have to shield my eyes. When I finally regain sight I see that Mrs. McNally is walking back towards the room. So I run under the table to hide myself from her. I hear her footsteps pass right in front of me, so I hold my breath and pray that she won’t look down.

  Luke’s heart beats so loudly that I’m scared Mrs. McNally will hear me. I’m hugging my knees to my chest and looking down. My eyes feel heavy and then I feel something running down my face, I touch my face with my hands to find that there are tears running on Luke’s face. This must be what humans call crying. Since I’m not conscious that I’m crying, and I’m not controlling it, just like I’m not controlling Luke’s fast heartbeats, it must mean that in the real world Luke is crying onto his pillow and is really scared.

  Fortunately, I hear Mrs. McNally’s steps moving away and then I hear a door creak. It’s finally safe to come out. I tip-toe across the room, heading towards the curtains, to see if Marcus is okay. All this time with tears still streaking Luke’s face. I see Marcus, but he is completely still. This scene looks too familiar, and I start to worry with Luke. I creep in closer and hesitantly extend my arm through the open window to touch Marcus. My finger taps Marcus’ shoulder and with a heavy heart I feel that Marcus is very cold and hard. I tap my nails onto his shoulder and there is knocking sound, as if Marcus was made out of stone.

  This couldn’t just be another random statue. I had seen Marcus moving and talking to Mrs. McNally. I try to control Luke’s breathing, to stop him from panicking but it’s very hard because I’m starting to feel really scared too. If something happens in this dream to Luke, Luke will wake up fine in the morning but I won’t – whatever happens in the dreams to me happens for real. I have to think of something before I become just another statue of the school. What I don’t understand is how this is happening, I know that dreams don’t always make sense but they always have a slight of truth to it. Why would Luke be dreaming of this?

  Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing...

  It seems that the bell always rings just as I’m about to think of a plan. Never mind, I’ll just try to blend in with the other students and be really quiet so I can think of a plan without attracting any attention. I take a sit back in my spot as the students rush into the classroom. I had hoped that I had been hallucinating and that Marcus would come in and ask me why I wasn’t in the oval when he went back looking for me. Of course, he didn’t come in and the spot next to me was left empty. I gulp as I see Mrs. McNally come in. She wears that evil smile of hers, as if nothing had happened.

  As she walks in I can feel her eyes staring at me through her black sunglasses. I look down at the table wishing that I could go and hide in the shadows or become invisible. She just continues to stare at me and clears her throat.

  “What’s the matter boy? Why are you crying?”

  Oh no, I forgot that Luke was still crying. I couldn’t do anything about it because it was happening outside the dream. I froze and tried to wipe the tears off of my face. Mrs. McNally continued,

  “You know what annoys me the most with little kids? It’s that they are always crying for no reason. And you know what happens to annoying children, don’t you?”

  Chapter 12

  Oh no, oh no...

  That is exactly what she said to Marcus before he became a statue. I couldn’t let this happen.

  Mrs. McNally’s tone is now of fury as she screams,

  “Get up! Get up now!”

  I have no choice but to obey, hoping that she will take me to the principal’s office and that’s all. Mrs. McNally walks up to me and grabs me, just like she had done to the boy with the golden hair. Her hand feels icy cold as it rubs against my neck. She guides me towards the back of the room towards the curtain.

  I feel Luke’s fear growing out of control. His tears become waterfalls and I feel like I’m about to throw up at any moment.

  Hisssss....

  I hear this strange hissing noise but I don’t see where it is coming from. I look at Mrs. McNally and I swear I see something moving from inside her bandana.

  Hisss....

  There’s that noise again! But I have better things to concentrate on, like the fact
that we are just footsteps away from the curtains and I’m about to see the end to my little life. I’m still looking up at Mrs. McNally, shocked that a teacher would ever be so horrible to her students. Luke will wake up tomorrow and he will be petrified of going to school tomorrow, he may be traumatised for the rest of his life. And I will be gone forever. My vision starts going blurry due to all the tears. I hear a drum beat coming from inside of Luke’s chest and I feel that his breathing isn’t regular anymore.

  As soon as we reach the curtains, she draws them shut and starts to grab her sunglasses. She is sliding down her sunglasses and I brace myself for whatever is going to come next.

  BAM!

  AAARGH!

  I hear a crash followed by a loud scream and everything becomes black. I feel like I feel and my head begins to throb as if I had hit it. I wonder if this is what it feels like to be turned into stone.

  I try to move my fingers and I find that I still can move them about. I move my hand and surprisingly I can do this too. I feel my arm but I don’t feel the smooth skin of Luke’s human arms; instead, I can feel fur. I feel fur!!

  It takes a while but my eyes adjust to the darkness. I see that I’m back in Luke’s room. Luke is sitting up and I can hear his heavy breathing, while beads of sweat and tears cover his pillow. Luke must have woken up from the nightmare because he was too scared. As soon as I realise this I slide underneath the bed. I’m just in time because Luke’s mum comes rushing in to the bedroom.

  “Luke! Luke, are you okay? I heard you scream.”

  Lying underneath the bed, I can see Luke’s mum hurrying towards him and sitting down next to him. The bed creaks softly. For a few moments, they sit in silence.

  “Luke? It’s okay, don’t cry.” She says again while stroking his hair.

  Luke takes a deep breath in and starts blabbering, “Mrs McNally, she-”

  “Mrs. who?” his mum remarks.

  “The teacher, she was yelling at me and-”

  “Oh... sweetie, you were just having a nightmare.” She says, relieved, and pats Luke on the back.

  “No, but it seemed so real.”

  “Don’t worry, Luke,” she assures him, “It’s natural to be anxious about school. I know it’s scary to start at a new school, but you’ll be just fine, I promise you.”

  “But what if I don’t know how to answer the questions, or even worse, if my teacher is evil and tries to turn me into stone?” Luke rambles on.

  His mum laughs and says, “An evil teacher trying to turn you to stone? You’ve got such a wild imagination, Lukey. There are no such thing as evil teachers. Sometimes our personalities clash with a teacher’s but that’s because they’re only humans. They are there to help you, and definitely not to turn anyone into stone. We visited your new school and met all the teachers, and they are all very caring. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Luke breaks into a smile and giggles with his mum. She kisses him on the forehead.

  “You better get some sleep now; you need to be well rested for tomorrow.” And with that, she gets up and leaves. I hear Luke lie down, but judging by his heavy breathing he isn’t going to go to sleep anytime soon.

  I try to make myself comfortable, seeing that I’m going to be there for a while. I still don’t understand the dream. All dreams are crazy and unpredictable, but they are based around a few ideas and thoughts that the child is thinking about. And why would Luke be thinking about a teacher turning her students to stone?

  Dreams are created when the person is trying to make sense of something. Like the maths question at the start of Luke’s dream, for example. He was feeling guilty for not answering that question in his last school, and it came to ‘haunt’ him in his dream. There must have been something that left a mark on his mind and made him think about all the statues. Now I just had to find out what.

  I’m excited for the mission ahead of me. Adventure is the reason I love my job. As long as the dream has a happy ending, that is. I wouldn’t like to be turned to stone for the rest of my life.

  I looked at the clock next to Luke and realised that it was already 5:30 am. Luke would be getting up again at 8 to go to school. I only had 2.5 hours to fix all of this. I’m starting to worry that if Luke doesn’t sleep soon I won’t be able to fix all the mess in his dream. That is the reason that children need to sleep 10 hours, otherwise my job is cut short and their thoughts may never be organised. They’ll just wake up the next day feeling confused, anxious and very tired. Now that you know this, please promise to make all the bed monsters’ jobs easier by sleeping for 10 hours, or else you’ll just stress them into doing a very messy and quick job.

  I listen to Luke’s breathing pattern, until it gets softer and softer. Finally, I can finish the job, hopefully there is enough time. I wait another five minutes to make sure he’s asleep then get up from under the bed. I lay my four fingers on Luke’s forehead and with the other hand I get my remote control and press the green button.

  In an instant, I’m standing in the middle of the pink walk-in closet, with bubbles floating all around me and drawers on one side of the room. There were still a few mini bubbles floating around. They would have to be cleaned by the next monster the next day.

  Right in the middle of the closet, on top of the armchair, was a huge bubble that was shining all different colours. This must be it, the answer to this mystery!

  Chapter 13

  I grab the huge bubble sit on the armchair. Soon, the closet is once again representing a cinema and I can watch the video trapped in the bubble. The scene begins in a living room; I’m guessing it’s Luke’s. There is a bucket of popcorn on the coffee table and Luke is sitting with his parents on the couch around the table. The sound of the TV fills the room.

  “Welcome to Fun Greek Mysteries. Today we have a collection of the scariest looking characters. We will begin the countdown with Medusa.”

  I remember hearing that name right at the beginning of Luke’s dream. It made sense, it all connected with Greek mythology. I feel so relieved knowing that even with a break in the dream, I’ll still be able to fix everything.

  The presenter, an old fashioned man with hair gelled back and wearing a brown suit, points to the right and an image of Medusa appears on the screen. It was exactly the same picture as that of Luke’s book on the Mysteries of Medusa. It was a woman with green snakes coming out of her head. Her eyes were completely black and her skin colour was a very pale green. I’m pretty sure I had seen that face somewhere else.

  The TV continues,

  “She is ranked number 10, in our list of scariest Greek mythology characters. However, Medusa was actually once considered the most beautiful woman in all of Athens. Now, there are many versions to the story but in this one, Medusa was anything but modest. She knew of her beauty and was very arrogant. She always boasted about her fair skin, green eyes, red lips and golden hair.

  One-day, Medusa visited a large temple dedicated to the Goddess, Athena. The temple was called the Parthenon. It was very grand and majestic. Liking beautiful things, Medusa decided to work at the temple.

  It was there that she fell prey to the charms of Poseidon, god of the sea. An arrogant but handsome man. They would meet and chat during Medusa’s work time. Athena, who often watched over the temple and Athens, saw everything.

  Athena felt disrespected and angry at Medusa. Medusa, continued to meet Poseidon at Athena’s temple. She called Athena jealous of her looks. Athena told Medusa that she was not as beautiful as her and that even if she were, it would not matter. There is much more to life.

  Athena, enraged at the – somewhat naïve – and very narcissist girl, cursed Medusa. Turning Medusa into her nightmare- a monster. Medusa’s hair changed into living snakes. Medusa became so ugly that whenever anyone looked straight into her eyes they would turn into stone. Even Medusa herself, if she went to look at her reflection would turn instantly into stone...”

  The host of the show continued talking and showing photos
, but deciding I have enough information I just switch the bubble off. Standing up with the bubble, I walk to the drawers, opened the one labelled “Television”, and put the bubble in there. It all makes sense now – the statues around the school and Mrs. McNally getting really angry when the boy called Athena the most beautiful, instead of Medusa. And, I already had an idea how to fix all of Luke’s nightmare problems.

  I find the remote control, and use it to take me back to the dream. I close my eyes tight, and brace myself. Soon, I hear loud chattering and a bloodcurdling hissing noise. These were the same hissing noises I had heard coming from underneath her bandana, however they were now much louder. Even with my eyes closed, I know I am in the dream. I must make sure I don’t look at Mrs McNally in the eyes, because if I remember correctly she was taking off her black sunglass and if she really is Medusa then that would mean I would turn to stone.

  I hear something falling to the ground, and a soft cracking sound. I open my eyes carefully, and take a peek at the ground. Beside her feet, her sunglasses lie with one lens broken. Oh no, this is proceeding faster than I had prepared for.

  “You know it’s rude to avoid eye contact,” she talks patiently but mischievously.

  There’s a cupboard behind me, and I open it and search for something to defend myself with.

  “Look at my eyes, boy!” This time she is yelling. I grab a book from the cupboard and throw it at her without looking. I hear it land on the floor, and I know that I’ve missed.

  Hisssss...

  That noise sends chills up my arms.