The new monster

There was a new monster under the bed.

Joey wasn't sure what kind it was, but he could hear the old ones chattering with it.

There was the clack-clack of the biter bird, and the click-click of the crab claws. He couldn't hear the whippersnapper, but it was always quiet.

At least, until it came out to scare him.

Curling up beneath the covers, Joey tried to listen to the new monster's grumbling and guess what it was. A bear with glowing eyes? Or maybe a rhino with snake skin.

The bed creaked, and the monsters chattering stopped.

Joey squeezed his eyes shut. "They're not real. They're not real." He whispered, the words coming out in a rush. His dad had checked under the bed, and he said there weren't any monsters.

His dad knew lots of stuff, so surely he was right about this.

Joey felt the edge of the bed sink, and imagined a scaly claw pulling itself out from underneath it.

A faint noise, like a dog's paws on carpet.

Joey didn't have a dog. If he did, then it would've scared the monsters away.

Something brushed the top of the covers, and Joey froze.

Slowly, the covers shifted, and Joey stared into glowing yellow eyes.

"Aah!" Joey shrank into his pillow as he screamed, and the yellow eyed monster jumped back.

"Aah!" The monster echoed his cry, stumbling as it backed away from the bed. "Don't eat me!"

Joey pulled his covers up and peeked from behind them. "Eat you? Don't eat me!"

The monster blinked, the glow from its eyes vanishing and reappearing a few times.

"Eat you? Monsters don't eat children. You eat us!"

Joey sat up a little. "No we don't."

"Yes you do." The monster gave a grumble and jerked a claw to the toy chest, where Joey's stuffed alligator was hanging out. "You eat our insides, then stuff and shrink us!"

"That's a toy, not a monster." Joey lowered the covers a little and frowned. "If you're not going to eat me, then what are you doing?"

The monster swished its long furry tail and looked down. "Rodger dared me."

"Rodger?" Joey asked, then started as a crab claw peeked over the side of the bed. The monster gave another grumble.

"My cousin. He says I can't play with them unless I scare you."

Joey looked at the monster, and realized that it didn't really seem scary. It had claws, and glowing yellow eyes, but it also was covered in long brown fur that stuck out at odd angles.

"You did scare me." He told it, even though he wasn't very scared anymore. The monster's eyes seemed to glow brighter.

"Really? Great!" The monster barred sharp teeth in a grin, then dived back under the bed.

As Joey settled back under the covers, he heard the monsters chatter begin again.

Only now, the new monster didn't seem so scary.