Define, Monster.

DEFINE, MONSTER.
Michelle Drew


“EEEEEk! MOOOOMMMMMYYY! THERE’S A MONSTER IN MY WINDOW!” the little girl shrieked, diving under her covers.

Within seconds her bedroom door opened. She could see the light spilling into her room from the hallway.

“Sally? Where’s my little girl?” Her mother asked playing the game she always played when Sally was hiding. “I thought I had a little girl in here, where could she be?”

Sally stifled a giggle.

“I don’t see my little girl, but I think THERE’S A MONSTER IN HER BED!” Her mother said as she ripped back the covers and began tickling Sally’s ribs.

“eeeeeek! Moooommmy!” Sally squealed and then broke into hysterical giggles.

“It’s a tickle monster!” said her mommy, trying to keep hold of the wiggly little girl.

“S-stoooop!” Sally begged through uncontrolled laughter.

“Ohhhh, it’s not a monster, it’s Sally!” Her mother smiled and sat down on the bed next to the little girl.

“I thought you said there was a monster?” asked her mother, smoothing a long strand of golden hair from Sally’s face.

Sally’s eyes grew big and serious. “There was mommy. He was right outside the window.”

Sally’s mom got up and went to the window to look around the well- lit back yard. “Well it’s gone now, see?” Sally got out of bed. She walked over to the window on tippy toes to look. She saw nothing.

“But he was there Mommy, I saw him.” Sally insisted.

The mother picked the tiny little girl up and carried her back over to her bed laying her down.

“Sweet pea, you know you don’t have to be afraid of monsters. They can’t hurt you.” Her mother gently covered Sally back up and handed her Coco, her pink stuffed poodle.

“They can’t?” asked Sally, clutching Coco tightly.

“No baby, they can’t.” Her mother reassured her by stroking her hair. “What has mommy told you to say if you see a monster?”

“Go away monster or I’ll eat you right up!” Sally announced, knowing she had answered correctly.

“Yes baby. That’s all you need to say.” Replied her mommy with a kiss on the forehead.
“Now you need to get some sleep baby girl. I’m right down the hall, okay?” she said walking towards the door.

Sally nodded her head still unsure. “Mommy, what if the monster doesn’t go away when I say that?”

“Then you eat him right up.” She said and smiled at her daughter. “Goodnight sweet girl.”

Two nights later, Sally awoke in the middle of the night. She knew IT was there so she lay perfectly still hoping IT wouldn’t know she was awake. After a few moments, curiosity got the better of her and she opened her eyes and looked at the window. A horrible face with sunken eyes and red fleshy lips that curled into a terrifying smile looked in at her. Sally’s heart beat so hard in her chest she could hear it in her ears. For a second she lay paralyzed with fear and then remembered what her mommy had told her to say. In her meanest sounding voice she said “Go away monster, or I’ll eat you right up!” her eyes never left his. The monster waved at her, still smiling in that terrifying way. “GO AWAY MONSTER OR I’LL EAT YOU RIGHT UP!” screamed Sally in a voice loud enough that it woke her mother.

“Sally, baby, mommy’s coming.” She heard her mother say and saw the hall light turn on. When she looked back to the window, the monster was gone. By the time her mother entered her room, Sally was already settled back into her bed, with Coco tucked tightly under her arm.

“I told the monster to go away or I’d eat him right up!” Sally said proudly.

“You did?” her mother said, sitting on the bed and brushing the soft locks of blond hair from her daughter pretty face. “And what did he do?”

“He ran away mommy!” She sat up and hugged her mommy around the waist.
“See baby, I told you. Monsters can’t hurt you, you’ll eat them right up.”

Sally had just turned 8 years old and recently been promoted to “big girl” status. This meant walking the two blocks to the park by herself was now allowed. She was warned that if she wasn’t home when she was told, the privilege would be taken away. Her daddy had given her a watch for her birthday and showed her how to tell time so she would always know when she was supposed to be home.

“Mommy?” Sally asked in her sweetest voice. “Can I go down to the park and play for a while?”

“Did you clean up that mess in your room yet?” Her mother asked sternly.

“Yes mommy.” Replied the little girl.

“Okay, then you can go, but no ice cream money, it’s too close to dinner.” Sally crossed her arms and her little pink lips went into a pout.

“Not gonna work, sorry. We’ll go get some ice cream after dinner, okay?” her mommy offered as a compromise.

“But all the other kids will be eating ice cream at the park.” Sally wined crossing her arms even tighter and furrowing her brow.

“Keep that up and you can just stay home and not go to the park at all young lady!” Sally knew her mother meant business.

“Okay mommy. Sorry.” She said defeated.

“Now what time does your watch say?” asked mommy.

Sally looked at the face of the watch and tried to remember which hand marked the hour and which hand marked the minutes. “The little hand tells you the hour!” she suddenly remembered, and it was on the 4. The big hand was right behind the 12. She held up her watch so her mother could see and said “almost four?” she asked unsure if she was right.

“You are absolutely right!” Her mother said. “Such a smart girl you are!”

Sally welled with pride.

“Okay, so I want you to be back home at five thirty. Daddy will be home by then and we will be eating dinner at six. Can you show me on your watch what five thirty looks like?”

Sally thought a moment then pointed down and said “The little hand will be on the 5.” She traced her finger from the 3 to the 5. "and the big hand will be half way around the clock." She traced her finger from the 12 down to the 6.

“Very good Sally! You’re so smart.” Mommy hugged her again. “Now get! You only have an hour and a half to play.” Sally was already out the door and down the stairs before her mother had finished the sentence.

Sally skipped all the way to the park. When she arrived, she scoured the playground to see who was there. She saw her mommy’s friend Lucy over at the sandbox playing with her two year old twin boys Trevor and Jaydin and waved. Lucy smiled and waved back. She saw DJ Lowery and some of the other older boys were playing football in the field. She avoided them because they always teased her. DJ liked to pull up her dress and sing “I see London, I see France, and I see Sally’s underpants.” then all the other kids would laugh at her. She hated that. Thankfully, it didn't appear they had noticed her. She was relieved when she spotted her friends Kelly, Christy, and Dawn over on the swings and headed towards the group of girls.

The four girls played on the swings for a while laughing and talking about silly little girl things until the ice cream truck came around. The kids started yelling “Ice cream man! Ice cream man!” and descended on the truck like a pack of wolves from every direction. All except Sally.

“Come on Sally!” Dawn yelled over her shoulder.

“My mom said I can’t have any ice cream till after dinner.” Sally sat on the swing sulking. Dawn paused for a moment then said, “I'll share mine. Be right back.”

Sally sat alone on the swings, kicking rocks and feeling sorry for herself and hating her mean mom. A man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses sat down in the swing next to her. She couldn’t see his face very well, but when he spoke he had a gentle voice, like her daddy’s.

“How come you’re not getting any ice cream?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“My mommy said I had to wait till after dinner.” Sally answered, aware she was breaking the 'don’t talk to strangers' rule but her mom was mean and she was enjoying defying her mother’s instructions.

“Oh, well that’s probably a good idea.” The man said, then added “what time is dinner?”

“It’s at six O’clock.” Sally replied still pouting.

“That’s hours away!” The man said in surprise. “There’s no reason you can’t have an ice cream. "

“I know!” she replied indignantly. “But, she didn’t give me any money anyway.” Said the little girl, sounding very “put upon.”

“She didn’t?” The man asked, still gently swinging back and forth. “Well I could buy you one.”

“You could?” Sally asked looking up from her despair. She thought of how mad her mommy would get if she disobeyed her and looked back down. “Mommy would get mad and punish me if I ate an ice cream after she told me not to.”

“Well she wouldn’t have to know, would she?” The man said with a reassuring smile. Sally looked down at her watch. The little hand was almost on the 5 and the big hand was on the 9. Fifteen minutes till five. Then after that another thirty minutes.....She calculated 15 +30 = 45. She still had forty five minutes! She could get the ice cream, eat it here at the park, wash her face and hands in the rest room and her mommy would never know.

"I guess she wouldn't have to know" agreed Sally.

“Would you like me to buy you an ice cream Sally?” asked the man.

“Okay!” the little girl said happily, ignoring the little voice in her head that told her something was wrong.

“I’ve got some money in my car just over there in the parking lot. Why don’t we walk over there and get it.” He looked at her, waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know…..” Sally wasn’t sure that was a good idea.

Sensing the girl’s hesitation the man said. “It’s ok. Look, the ice cream truck is right there in the parking lot. That’s where my car is too.”

The little voice said no, but when she looked up towards the ice cream truck and could see Dawn and Christy and Kelly in line excitedly waiting their turn, she ignored the little voice and said “okay.”

She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not right about this man. Not just that he was a stranger and she wasn’t supposed to talk to him or that adults didn’t usually tell you to disobey your mommy. It was something else. Well if mommy had just let her get some ice cream in the first place, she wouldn’t be talking to a stranger anyway, she rationalized. With that, she hopped off the swing and began following the man to his car.

“Is it much further?” asked Sally, looking over her shoulder at the large parking lot they had just crossed. The ice cream truck was pretty far away now. She could barely hear the kid’s voices anymore.

“It’s right up here.” He assured her. Sally was relieved when she saw him taking out his keys. The man opened the door to a large white van and pulled himself in shutting the door behind him then disappeared into the back. “Hey, Sally, come check this out!” she heard him say in a muffled voice. Sally went around to the side of the van and the whole thing opened up. It was like a little room inside. Sally had never seen a car with furniture inside of it.

“Wow!” was all she could say.

“Wanna come in for a minute and check it out?” said the man holding his hand out to help her up.

The little voice in her head was screaming NO! NO! NO! And this time she listened to it and declined the offer.

“Well I AM going to buy you an ice cream.” Said the man speaking to her in a way that made her feel as if she’d done something wrong. “at least you could just take a quick look. I did this myself. I’m very proud of it.”

Not wanting to be rude or ungrateful and scared he might change his mind about the ice cream, Sally grabbed the man’s hand let herself be pulled up into the van.

The door slammed shut behind her and Sally’s heart began to pound.

“Well, what do you think Sally?” asked the man.

Sally’s thoughts raced. She shouldn’t be in here. She mustn’t let him know she was afraid. Then it hit her. He knew her name! How did he know her name? She’d never told him. Her mouth went completely dry and she thought she might pee her pants. Slowly she turned around to face the man. He no longer had his baseball cap and sunglasses and on and she could see his sunken lifeless eyes and the fleshy red lips that curled into a terrifying smile. She recognized the monster at once.

With no time for her to react, the monsters enormous hand, holding a white cloth, was over her tiny nose and mouth. The instinct to fight back came much too late and her body went limp as she slipped into darkness.

Sally slowly opened her eyes in blurred confusion. Where was she? How did she get here? What time was it? She panicked thinking about the time. When she tried to lift her arm she found she could not. Her head throbbed in pain as she tried to lift it to see why she couldn’t move her arm. Both arms and legs had been tied to the table she lay on. She looked around and saw that she was in a dark room except for the light that hung directly above her. When she moved she could hear plastic crinkling underneath her. There was a table next to her with sharp scary looking objects on it neatly lined up next to each other. Her mind had finally cleared enough for her to remember the park, the ice cream and the monster in the van. The monster must have brought her here. She tried to let out a scream, but her voice was horse and dry and only a kind of crackling sound came out. Tears began to slide down the side of her face.

“Good! You’re awake!” said the monster appearing out of the darkness, smiling. “I can’t wait to get started.” The monster rubbed his hands together slowly. His voice no longer soft and comforting as it had been earlier, it sounded cold and was dripping with evil intent. Picking up a sharp blade and testing it’s sharpness by rubbing the edge down his thumb he added, “You might as well know that I’ve done this many times.” His eyes never left the sharp blade. “Nobody is coming to save you.” Now he looked at her with that terrifying smile that never touched his dark empty eyes. He knew he was scaring her, it was part of the thrill. Very softly the monster whispered “I’m going to hurt you real bad Sally.” He let the sharp blade he held in his hand softly trail up her bare leg.
Sally was shaking with fear. She began to cry and try to plead with the monster to let her go.

“SHUT UP BITCH!” The monster spat at her and slapped her hard across the mouth. Sally’s ears rang and her mouth exploded in pain. Something warm was running down her chin. She started to cry but quickly muffled her sobs when the monster raised his hand again.

“Now look what you’ve done!” said the monster angrily grabbing a towel behind him. “You’ve made me mess up your pretty face already.” The monster wet the towel with his spit, He was no longer smiling. “I like to save the face for last.” The smile returned, more terrifying than ever. “Now let’s see if we can clean that up a little bit.” He said and leaned in closer to wipe the blood from her chin.

The monsters face was inches from Sally’s face. In a barely audible scratchy voice she said “Go away monster or I’ll eat you right up.”

The monster stopped wiping and looked at Sally for a moment, his face still only inches from hers. Then he let out a loud laugh. He’d heard a lot of kids say a lot of things on this table but that, was a first. Sally new what she had to do.

The monster only had time to let out half of a terrified scream when he saw Sally’s jaw suddenly become unhinged and a giant mouth full of razor sharp teeth open up in front of him before the grotesque mouth violently slammed shut around the monsters entire head. The sharp teeth easily cut through flesh and bone. He was dead within seconds. The headless body slumped to the floor. Sally chewed up the monsters head and swallowed it. She used the sharp object he’d dropped on the table when his body fell to the floor to cut herself free. She hopped down on the floor and began ripping off limbs and digging out the monsters intestines and organs, Sally devoured the monster in less than fifteen minutes, then checked her watch. The little hand was on the 6 and the big hand was on the 1. “Uh-oh” she thought. “I’m gonna be in so much trouble. I’m late, and now I’ve gone and spoiled my dinner too.”