"There's no one here...now go to sleep." I tried to make my voice sound menacing, but my fear came out instead.
Her head appeared from above, hanging upside down so her wild curls brushed the hardwood floor. "What are you doing down there?" she asked with a curious smile.
"I'm trying to get settled in. Now leave me alone," I snapped at her.
"Well, why would you do that?" She dug her finger in her nose and then wiped it on the bed covers.
"Because I live here."
"Really?" She appeared to think about this for a moment. "What's your name?"
"You know...this is really wrong. You need to go to sleep or I'm going to 'get' you." That's not exactly what I was taught to say, but it was all I could remember. The training hadn't prepared me for a child who wasn't afraid. I'm pretty sure I was more scared than she had ever been.
She laughed. "'Get' me? Like how? Like the Boogeyman?"
"Yes, exactly like that. Now fear me...and go to sleep!" I cowered deeper in the corner, clinging to the baseboards.
She climbed back under her covers, directly above me. The springs made a metallic sound as she settled into her favorite spot. After a moment of merciful silence, she spoke again, yawning. "You still haven't told me your name."
"That's because I don't have one."
I have no idea what possessed me to tell her that. No idea why this wasn't going the way it was supposed to. She should have been terrified--should have screamed and run for her parents' bedroom so that I could slip into her bed, but she didn't.
"Then we'll have to give you one." Her voice trailed off in another sleepy yawn. "Tomorrow, though."
The next morning I woke up to her giant blue eyes staring at me. "Good morning, Mortimer!"
"Mortimer?" I was tired and a little stiff from sleeping on the hard floor, not to mention the light burned my eyes.
"Yes, Mortimer. That's your name." A wide grin spread across her face in anticipation. "Do you like it?"
"I think so..." I was hesitant. I had never really given much thought to having a name. I had always been told that one would be given to me.
The bedroom door creaked open and the soft footsteps of her mother came closer. "What are you doing under the bed?"
"Just talking to my new friend Mortimer."
"Mortimer, huh? What happened to George?" Her mother put one hand on her hip, smiling.
"I'm not sure. I haven't seen him in a while." Heidi paused for a moment, thinking. "I like Mortimer better. He stays much quieter at night!"
"Okay, well, it's time to get ready for school. Come on, now...let's get washed up and go down to breakfast." Just before Heidi left the room, she turned back and smiled at me. For the first time ever, I didn't feel alone.
***
As soon as Heidi got home from school she rushed across the room and slid on her knees to the bed. "Mortimer, are you still there?"
"Yes, I'm still here." I had spent the day trying to remember everything they told us about what we were supposed to do. Befriending the child was not part of the plan. As a matter of fact, it was totally against the rules.
She bounced up and down with joy. "Yay!"
Her mother called to her and she turned back toward me. "I'll bring you something to eat in a little bit. I'll bet you're hungry."
With that she left the room and I felt alone again, hiding from the light.
That night when her parents tucked her in it made me miss my Mom and Dad. Of course it had been at least four years since I had seen them, and my mother's face was starting to fade from my memory. Just a hazy vignette of beautiful horror, her wings gracefully tattered, the warts on her face perfectly placed as though each had been planned by a special committee.
Each night Heidi and I would talk until she fell asleep. She brought me so much food that I worried about getting too fat to get out from underneath the bed. As the weeks passed she would try to get me to come out, but I knew it was a bad idea so I stayed tucked in the far corner.
One night as soon as the latch on the door clicked, her head full of curls dipped over the side of the bed. "Mortimer?"
"Yes?" My voice wavered, as it was early in our relationship and I was still trying to figure out how I was going to scare this fearless girl...or if I even wanted to.
"Do you want to play?" Her eyes sparkled. There was something different about the way they gleamed in the light that filtered in through the window, yet her gaze was wild and unfocused.
"Play?" I really didn't know how to respond to that, so I did what came naturally. "What do you want to do?"
"I don't know. Why don't you come out from under there?" she asked as she sat on the floor in front of the bed.
Fear streaked through me as I realized that I didn't want her to be afraid of me. I wanted us to be friends. The moment I come out, she'll shriek at the sight of me, and our time like this together will end...
My hesitation irritated her and she huffed. "Come on."
"No, I'm going to stay under here," I growled.
"Ooh, big scary Mortimer is going to keep hiding under the bed."
"Yes, I am big and scary, and you'd better get back in bed before I come out there and eat your toes. Don't forget--the covers are the only thing that will protect you from me." The rumble in my voice unnerved me a little.
Heidi just giggled. "Oh, Mortimer, you're so funny. I'm not going to be scared. You aren't scary at all. I can already see your heart and I know it's sweet."
"No!" I bellowed.
She started and looked straight toward me under the bed. "Fine," she said with defiance.
Satisfied that she was going to let it go, I closed my eyes and decided tonight should be a go-to-sleep-early night. That's when I felt her soft little hand on my scaly skin. "What are you doing?" I cried out.
"If you won't come out, I'm coming in." Her expression quickly changed from determination to wonderment as she moved her hand along my arm. Her fingers explored the spaces between my scales. "You feel different," she whispered.
The space under the bed seemed to close in on me in that instant. I recoiled to the furthest darkness and pressed myself up against the wall. "You shouldn't be under here with me."
"Why not?" She grinned from ear to ear, realizing my discomfort with her proximity.
"Fine, I'll come out." That moment was terrifying for me. I felt trapped and the only way I was getting Heidi out of there was to come out myself. The room was dark, but there was enough light coming in through the window. This is it--this is where our friendship ends. I'll go back to being the Boogeyman...I won't be Mortimer any more.
Cautiously I unfolded myself out from under the bed. I was quite a bit taller than Heidi, but it didn't seem to bother her. As a matter of fact, my appearance didn't seem to faze her at all. She took my hands and pulled me down to the floor. I landed with a thud.
"Okay, we're going to play 'Miss Mary Mack.'" She took me by the wrists and held my hands up and showed me how to play.
It took several times before I finally got it. It was fun, I thought it was strange that sometimes she would miss, but then again, it was dark in here. I wasn't sure what an elephant was or why it would want to jump over a fence. She explained it was just a silly rhyme and didn't miss a beat playing.
Everything I was doing was wrong. Here I was, playing with "my" child, when my job was to keep her in her bed. Scare her out of her mind. Make her so terrified to rest her feet on the floor when the lights were out that she might just pee the bed. Which, by the way, was apparently rather unpleasant for all involved, and therefore something I would avoid.
The instructors at the academy were adamant that terrible things happen to monsters that break the rules. That others would be sent to retrieve them and they would be brought back for punishment.
As the days, weeks, months and years passed by, Heidi and I grew very close. She was so much fun to be around. We would sneak out the window together at night. Because I always had to stick to the shadows,
it was my job to lead her in the dark. We would play on the swings, the monkey bars, and the sand box.
Passing the time during the day while she was at school was sometimes tedious, but mostly I slept, as I was awake all night. I did a pretty good job of avoiding the vacuum cleaner and mop during the weekly cleanings.
When I would see her little feet hit the floor in the morning she would point her left toe beside the bed three times. That was the signal for our little inside joke, especially when her mother was giving her the third degree. Containing my laughter was difficult sometimes, but necessary--I couldn't risk being discovered.
One of my favorite things was when her mother or father would read to her. I would sit under the bed and pretend they were reading to us both. I mean really, they were...they just didn't know it. When she got older, she would read to me after her parents tucked her in. For the longest time I wondered how she was able to read in the dark, but didn't question it. Maybe she didn't need my help in the darkness as much as I thought she did.
One night she was reading a wonderful story. The room was perfectly lit, just dark enough for me to be able to see her beautiful golden curls light up the room along with her milky blue eyes. I watched as her fingers flew across the page and she described the handsome hero and how he saved the beautiful princess. For a few moments I imagined myself as the handsome hero, with Heidi as my princess. We had many nights like that, many stories like that. I wondered more and more--could I ever be Heidi's Prince Charming?
There were days when she would come home from school sad. Mom would come and talk with her, and I heard Heidi crying about how other students made fun of her because she was different. That made me angry. How dare they make fun of her? She is the most wonderful, perfect person in the world!
After the lights went out I climbed up onto the bed to try to help her feel better. I held her and told her that being different was what made her so special. I was determined to make sure this stopped--that people didn't make fun of her.
It became my mission to make it stop. I would leave after she fell asleep and fly around trying to find the kids that tormented her. I didn't understand why people were so cruel to her. She was special. She was smart, beautiful, and thoughtful, and none of those things should have targeted her as a victim.
Flying low and silent by the open windows in the neighborhood, I listened for her name to be spoken. One night I heard cackling laughter coming from one of the houses not too far from ours. Curiosity drew me closer to the noise. Perched on the roof, I thought for a moment that my father would be so proud to see me sitting still as a gargoyle, just like him.
The laughter that streamed through the window was cruel; there was no goodness in it. That's probably why I was drawn to it, because it felt like my old home.
"Oh my God, I nearly peed myself when that freak started crying," said a voice that was oily with ugliness.
"Yeah, she totally lost it when you asked her if she still was carrying her V-card. Like anyone would touch her." The other girl's tone was biting.
It was no small task controlling myself while I sat and listened to them plan a cruel joke on Heidi at some dance. They were going to get a boy to pretend that he liked her, and then humiliate her in the middle of the dance floor. My blood boiled at the thought of a boy so much as talking to Heidi, never mind touching or dancing with her. It was pretty clear that I had to do something to intervene. They never turned the light off that night, so I was unable to go in. I toyed with the idea of breaking that rule, but I thought better of it considering how much rule bending I'd been doing already.
The next evening, when Heidi came home from her piano lesson, she was so excited because a boy asked her to the dance. I didn't have the heart to tell her what I knew. There had to be a way for me to keep her from going.
She was so tiny and delicate, her eyes popped with excitement that cut through the darkness of the room. "And he wants me to go to the dance with him. Me!"
"What do you know about this boy?" I growled, knowing his ill intentions.
"Well, he's one of the most popular guys at school. He plays lacrosse and football. I've known him for a long time...we went to middle school together, but we never really talked much until today." She flopped down on the bed like it was a cloud in heaven. "His voice is so smooth and sweet, and his hands are soft."
They. Held. Hands. I looked down at my own gnarled hands, at the long claws extending from them. My heart sunk knowing that I would never be Heidi's Prince Charming. In a whisper to mask my gravelly voice, I said, "Heidi, I don't want you to go."
"Mortimer, why wouldn't you want me to—" She cut herself off, having realized the truth of it. "Are you jealous?"
Damn right I was jealous, but I wasn't about to tell her that. I certainly couldn't tell her the truth; it would crush her. At that moment I knew I had to come up with an idea to make this go away without her ever knowing. "I'm not jealous, I'm just worried."
"You sound like my Mom." She rolled over onto her belly. "Don't ruin this for me. It's my first date. Don't make me feel bad about it."
She went on to justify why it would be okay, and why I shouldn't be jealous. "No one will ever take your place, Mortimer. You are my best friend forever."
She held my claws in her hand until I pulled her in. My wings instinctively wrapped around her as if I could protect her from all that was wrong. I wanted to keep her there--to hold her in the safety of my embrace where those horrible girls couldn't get to her.
It became clear that I had to stop this whole plan from playing out. And I knew just how to do it. That night, when Heidi fell asleep, I went to the house where I first heard the girls. I sneaked in the window, not caring about the consequences, and saw the name "Megan" written in a frilly script on a notebook. Her room was notably different from Heidi's room. There were posters and a full length mirror on the wall, a computer sitting on the desk, and clothes all over the floor. Heidi never left stuff all over the floor...she's always been very neat. I paused a moment, looking at my reflection. It had been a while since I had really seen what I had grown into. I was so much bigger...and seeing the hideous face staring back at me made me glad that Heidi didn't have a mirror.
Megan stirred in the bed and rolled over. I hovered over her in the darkness then moved closer to her face until we were nearly touching.
From deep within my chest I brought up a wretched burp that rode out on a guttural groan. "Megan, get up."
Megan's eyes sprang open to behold my lips above her eyelids, so close that she was only able to see my gnashing teeth. She started to scream, but I covered her mouth with my hand and put my finger to my lips.
"Shhhhhhh."
I let it ooze out slow while drool dripped down my chin onto her comforter. "Don't scream, sweetheart, I'm not here to hurt you." To which I added as she relaxed slightly, "yet..."
Her eyes widened and she tried to scoot backward in the bed.
"Are you going to be quiet?"
She nodded and I took my hand away, but kept at the ready in case she decided to scream again. "You are a cruel and terrible girl." I shook my head in disgust and pointed to her mirror, "Uglier inside than I am on the outside. Your little plan to hurt Heidi stops here. Understand?"
"Heidi?" She was trying to recall, then it dawned on her. "You mean 'Flighty Heidi?'"
A deep growl rumbled up from my chest and I wanted to pick her up and break her into pieces. "You will not be calling her that anymore."
"Okay, I won't." She trembled in her bed.
"And you won't be planning any surprises for her either." I was uncomfortably close to her face, so close our noses almost touched. I made certain that she would remember my hot, menacing breath. "You will be nothing but nice to her and get that dance date cancelled or I'm coming back."
She nodded as the smell of urine permeated the air. "O-O-Okay I-I-I will."
"From this point forward, every tear she cries because of you will be paid for in drops of your b
lood." My eyes never left hers; I wanted to be sure that she knew I was serious. Honestly, if it wouldn't affect my time with Heidi I would have torn "Megan" limb from limb and shown her the real meaning of cruelty.
The night of the dance came and I expected it would be a normal Friday night for Heidi and me. That we'd sit around after lights out and talk. I always thought it was very sweet that she would sit with me for hours. We'd play silly games, but as we both got older we did a lot of talking and dreaming of what life could be like. Most recently we talked a lot about when she would go to college.
I slid out from under the bed when she walked in the room, shocked to see her in a little black dress. She looked amazing. Her hair gleamed--she had makeup on her face! She was positively beaming, and for the first time ever I felt an acute awareness of how different Heidi and I were. I was so much bigger--she was tiny and I was a lumbering brute. With great discomfort I tucked my wings behind me to appear smaller, yet I could still see the slight shadow cast on the wall from the street lamps. It told the story of the monster and the girl.
When did this happen? I didn't even realize that she had left. The clock read "eleven fifteen" and I knew that she had just come from the dance. "Heidi, you look…" After taking her in a moment too long, I finished. "Amazing."
"Thank you, and I had the best time!" She spun around and I saw how the fabric sparkled.
"I thought you said you weren't going to go. I thought we had talked about it."
"Oh Mortimer, I know we had talked about it. You seemed so upset I didn't want you to be sad so I got ready at Melissa's. You'll be glad to know you were worried over nothing--the night was absolutely amazing and Wes is coming by later."
Oh, great. Wes is coming by.
Heidi floated across the room and started rummaging in her top drawer, then shifted methodically to her second drawer like she did every morning before school.
"But it's after eleven at night. Why is he coming here? And why are you putting on morning clothes?"
Her eyes brimmed with excitement and she looked up toward me with a silly grin. "He said he wants to spend some more time with me."
The Stroke of Midnight: A Supernatural New Year's Anthology Page 21