Scott carefully opened the door of his room and padded gently down the hallway towards the stairs. He stopped at the last door on the right and carefully opened it, the light in the hallway shining on the small boys face. Alan was curled up in bed with his big teddy bear, he let out a soft murmur and rolled over opening his eyes…
'Scott…'
'Its alright Alan, got back to sleep…' Alan tossed over onto his front and was soon softly snoring again.
Scott slowly closed the door and left the room, he made his way downstairs. This had been the same routine every night for the past year. Scott was fifteen and Alan only five, it had been just over a year since their mother had died and Alan found it hard as he couldn't remember her apart from in pictures. Scott went down to the kitchen and got a blue glass pouring in some milk. He sat down on one of the stools and drank his milk listening to the wind bashing into the windows and the building. He put the glass in the sink before retreating back to his room.
When he got upstairs he went again to check on Alan, but the small boy was gone. All his sheets and covered had been kicked off and his teddy lay in the middle of his bed. Scott quickly left the room, he knew exactly where Alan was. Scott made his way to his own room to find Alan sat on his bed, small tears ran down the small boys cheeks.
'Aw Alan, what's wrong??' Scott made his way to his little brother and sat down beside him
'I saw monsters in my room…' Alan flung his small arms around his big brothers waist as he sniffled
'There aren't any monsters in your room sprout' Scott ran his hand through his brothers sandy blond hair and smiled 'Should we go see…I promise you there aren't any monsters' Alan shook his head
'Can I stay with you tonight Scott?' his big brother just nodded and smiled still.
Scott helped Alan into bed and pulled the covers over both of them, he put an arm over his little brothers quivering frame and kissed the back of his head gently.