Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

by Rex Clark

y Me Down To Sleep

  By Rex Clark

  Copyright 2017 Rex Clark

  Other titles by Rex Clark:

  Waters Rise

  The Horror From Beyond the Outhouse

  Seduction

  The Guest in 519

  Blood Doll

  Memoriae

  “Come on, ladies, go to sleep,” Danny said as he tucked the girls back into bed for the third time. “You have school tomorrow, and it’s already way past your bedtime.”

  “Tell us a story,” Kaylee said, clutching her Curious George doll to her cheek. “I bet we’ll go to sleep if you tell us a story.”

  “Yeah, tell us a story, Daddy,” Carly chimed in. “Tell us a story! I wanna hear the one about the bicycle lesson!”

  “Yeah, read us a story! We can’t go to sleep without a story. I wanna hear the bicycle lesson one too!”

  “Kaylee,” Danny sighed, “I’ve already read that story to you three times today. It’s too late for another story. Now go to sleep, you two. Seven o’clock comes a lot sooner than you think.”

  “I wonder if I can get a glass of water,” Carly said. She pushed at the covers, trying to get her legs untangled and slide out of bed.

  “Me too. I’d really like one,” Kaylee agreed.

  “No you don’t, wise guy,” Danny replied. He stared Kaylee down while he snagged the back of Carly’s pajamas and hauled her back into bed. She squirmed but couldn’t pull free, and finally gave up with a sigh.

  “No,” he stated as he jerked the covers back over his younger daughter. “You had a glass of water an hour ago, missy. Remember that? An hour ago, when you got in bed originally? And you,” he said with a look at Carly. “If you have any more, you’ll wet the bed. Now lie down and go to sleep. I don’t want to have to come back in here again tonight..”

  “But-” the girls said in unison.

  “No buts, unless you want me to tan yours. Your mother and I trying to sleep, too, and you two giggling in here isn’t helping.”

  “You were not!” Kaylee snapped. “We heard you in there laughing and it woked us up!”

  “No, no, you have to be asleep to get ‘woked’ up, that’s how it works, “ Danny replied, struggling to keep a straight face. “You haven’t been to sleep yet, so it just doesn’t scan.”

  “Yes, we were too asleep,” Kaylee said. “You heard us snorin’!”

  “I heard you fake-snoring, when I came in here. You were giggling before that, though.”

  “Can we watch TV with you?” Carly asked. “Can we watch Dora? We’ll be quiet as little mouses, I promise.”

  “You couldn’t be quiet if you tried, Carly,” Kaylee said.

  “Can too! I can be real quiet!”

  “Right now, neither of you is being very quiet,” said a voice from the doorway. All eyes turned toward the speaker.

  “Bedtime, you two,” Linda continued. “No discussion. No water. No stories. You will sleep, girls. Now.”

  “Mommy, Kaylee says I can’t be quiet, but I can too be quiet. She’s bein’ mean, tell her to quit buggin’ me.”

  “Shut up, tattle-tale!” Kaylee spat. “You couldn’t close your mouth to keep flies from gettin’ in your head! Daddy said so!”

  “Guys…” Danny said, scrubbing at his face to hide the grin forming on it. “I never said that, Kaylee. That was Grandpa.”

  “Huh-uh, you said it, too, Daddy. I heard you said it,” Kaylee insisted, shaking her head for emphasis.

  “Enough, all of you!” Linda said, stepping into the room. “You two get under those covers and go to sleep. I’m not saying it again!”

  Then she rounded on Danny. “And you need to stop encouraging them.”

  “What?” he replied, hands raised to protest his innocence. “I’m trying to get them to go to sleep too! Not my fault they got in the candy jar earlier. All that sugar, it rots their brains.”

  “Mommy, can we watch Dora with you? I promise we’ll be good,” Carly asked.

  “No,” Linda replied, her voice stern. “Daddy and I aren’t watching Dora. It’s past your bedtime, Carly, no more television. No more questions. No more discussion. If you don’t want your toys taken away from you for a week, then you will sleep. Now.”

  “Aw, man, that sucks,” Kaylee grumbled.

  “Yeah, it really sucks on toes,” Carly agreed.

  Linda glared at Danny.

  “They heard it from your dad when he was over here last month!” Danny stated, “I’m surprised they didn’t say it bit the big-“

  Linda raised a warning finger. “Don’t. Just don’t. It’s bad enough they hear it from either of our fathers, they don’t need to hear it from you, too. Now lights out, everyone, and Daddy, you need to get out of their room and back into our room, because you are not helping here.”

  Danny sighed. “You heard your mother, guys: lights out. And if you don’t go to sleep right now, the Closet Monster will come get you.”

  Linda groaned and closed her eyes, but Danny ignored her.

  “What’s the Closet Monster, Daddy?” Carly asked in a small voice. Kaylee just looked up at her father with wide eyes.

  “Well, the Closet Monster lives in the closet, like the name says. And it waits in there to see if any bad little girls or boys aren’t doing what they’re told, like going to sleep right away when their parents tell them to.”

  The girls gasped and Carly pulled the blanket up to her eyes, which had gone huge enough to fall out of her face.

  “Don’t tell them that,” Linda said. “You’ll give them nightmares.”

  “BUT,” Danny continued, a step ahead of his wife, “if the children behave and do what they’re supposed to do, then the Closet Monster comes and leaves candy and toys under their pillows. But only if they do what they’re told. Got it?”

  The girls nodded.

  “What does the Closet Monster look like?” Kaylee asked as she pulled the covers up to her chin.

  “Well, no one really knows, Kaylee,” Danny replied. “The only people who have ever seen it are the ones who are being bad, so they get eaten up, and they can’t tell anyone afterwards.”

  “I don’t wanna see no Closet Monster,” Carly squeaked. “I don’t wanna see it at all.”

  “Then you’ll be good and go right to sleep, just like I told you to, right?” Danny said, feeling ridiculously pleased with himself for handling the situation so well.

  “Uh-huh,” they chorused and plopped their heads down on their pillows.

  “Good. Well, good night, ladies, and sleep tight. Or else.”

  Danny started to do his Mad Scientist laugh, but stopped when Linda punched him on the shoulder.

  “Will you leave the night light on, Daddy?” Kaylee asked as Danny started to close the door. “I really think you should turn it on.”

  “So the Closet Monster will see where to leave the candy when it sees us sleepin’,” Carly added.

  “I like candy,” Kaylee stated.

  “Me, too,” Carly agreed. “It’s really good, an’ I-“

  “Carly,” Linda warned from the hall.

  “Oh,” Carly replied, and closed her mouth with a snap.

  “Your night light is already on, silly people,” Danny said. “So you’re fresh out of excuses. Good night, my dears.” He turned to leave, paused long enough to turn off the lights, and pulled the door shut behind him.

  Linda was waiting for him by the bedroom door, a look of disapproval stamped on her face.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she snapped.

  “What?” Danny said. His innocent expression was undermined by the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

  “You know perfectly well ‘what’. Don’t tell t
hem crap about some monster living in their closet. You’re just going to give them nightmares. I give them ten minutes, and they’ll be in here, trying to get in bed with us.”

  Danny dropped the grin and kept his voice soothing. “Give them some credit, babe. They know I’m not being serious about it. Besides, have you seen the inside of that closet? There’s not enough room for a monster in there with all the teddy bears and toys and stuff. The worst thing they have to worry about is a rabid Barbie doll.”

  “Kaylee might know you’re teasing, but you know how literal Carly is. They’re five and four, Danny! You don’t tell kids that young that something will eat them if they don’t behave!”

  “Look, my dad used to scare the shit out of me when I was their age, but he would tell me about the Thing Under the Bed. He’d tell me it would grab my leg and pull me under the bed and chew on my bones if I didn’t behave. It scared me, yeah, but I still turned out all right. More or less.”

  “Your dad is an asshole, Danny. And it looks like you plan on taking up the family tradition.”

  “Now, that’s not fair…”

  Linda sighed. “Just stop telling them stuff like that. If they’re not going to sleep, ignore them. They’re trying to get your attention anyway; telling them scary stories just gives them more to use on you.”

  Danny wrapped an arm around Linda’s waist and pulled her closer. “It worked, didn’t it? Y’know, the worst that’s gonna happen is, they’ll fret over the closet for the next few minutes, pull the covers up over their eyes, and wind up falling asleep where they lay quivering in their pj’s. I’m more worried about what a pain they’ll be in the morning.”

  Linda narrowed her eyes at him. “There are better ways to go about it. Now come on. We