Sobs were heard coming from the other side of the room. Since Alfred had claimed that they were too old for nightlights, the room was pitch black except for the very faint glow of the moon coming through the blinds.

"What's wrong, dude?" Alfred asked quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Kumajirou told me why he's afraid of the dark," Matthew answered. "I'm scared."

"The dark isn't that scary! There's nothing here. It's our normal room, just darker," Alfred told Matthew, trying to get him to stop crying.

"But what if a monster sneaked in through the window before we turned off the lights and hid under my bed? What if the monster is calling his friends to come and eat us right now?" Matthew sobbed. "They're gonna sneak up on us while we're sleeping and cut us into little tiny pieces to bring home so they can cook us for dinner!"

Alfred slid out of his bed and crossed the room. He climbed into his brother's bed with him. "I'll stay up and keep guard so the monster can't hurt us! I'll be the hero!"

"What if you fall asleep?"

"Maybe we should both stay up! If one of us falls asleep, we can wake the other. We need to make a plan so we can fight off the monster." Alfred thought for a moment. "I know!" He ran back to his bed and pulled out two sticks from under it. He also pulled out a flashlight. "Here you go, Mattie! Now we can fight off the monster!"

Matthew had stopped crying at this point, comforted now that they were going to fight off the monster and not be chopped up and eaten. "But what will Kuma use?"

"Kuma can work the flashlight." Alfred went to the closet. "Let me see if we have anything else to use against it."

"But Dad said not to go into the closet," Matthew protested.

"But this is a matter of life or death! We need to use something in here against the monster. Monster fighting rule number two is 'always use something from the closet'!" Alfred pulled the door open to the closet, only for a big stuffed animal to fall and almost land on top of him.

Matthew squealed. "It's the monster."

"Come on, Mattie!" Alfred ran and grabbed his brother's arm. "Let's fight it off! We need a battle cry! Uh...FOR NARNIA!" Alfred cried, remembering a battle cry like that from one of his father's boring books.

"For Narnia!" Matthew yelled too.

They rammed into the stuffed animal and started hitting it with their sticks. When Alfred accidentally hit it too hard, it flipped over and landed on top of Matthew.

"It's got me!" He started crying again. "It's got me! It's gonna eat me! HELP ME!"

"Oh, no! I'll save you 'cause I'M A HERO! STAY BACK, YOU FOUL BEAST!"

Just as Alfred was about to charge back into the 'monster', the door opened.

"What on earth is going on up here?" Arthur exclaimed, flipping on the lights.

Matthew crawled out from under the stuffed animal and ran to him.

"There's a monster over there! It attacked me!" he started to cry harder. "It almost killed me!"

"But it didn't!" Alfred interrupted. "I saved Mattie from the monster! I'm the hero!"

Arthur looked at the stuffed animal on the ground, and he picked it up. "Is this the monster?"

Both boys nodded. Arthur closed the closet and decided to play along. "You boys did a great job of fighting it off! See? You killed it!"

"Yay!" Alfred exclaimed.

"Yay," Matthew said quieter.

"But don't go into the closet without me again, okay?"

Alfred nodded.

"Now go back to sleep. I promise you, there are no more monsters in this house."

"How do you know?" Matthew asked. "What if they're hiding?"

"Hold on a second." Arthur left the room and came back with two small spray bottled filled with water. "This is monster spray. If you spray it around your bed before you go to bed, monsters can't get you." He handed each of the boys some 'monster spray'.

"I don't need monster spray! I can just fight it off!" Alfred said, handing back the spray bottle.

"Nope, you need to use it, too, or else it won't work," Arthur told him.

"Please, Alfred? Can you use it?" Matthew looked at him with big, pleading eyes. "I don't want to get eaten."

"Alright," he gave in. "I'll use it, but only for you, Mattie."

Soon the boys were tucked back into bed with their 'monster spray' sprayed around them ("And Kumajirou! He was almost eaten, too!"). The lights were turned off, and good byes were said. Now that there was a special monster shield around him, Matthew felt safer and fell asleep quickly. Alfred only went to sleep after his brother, just in case a monster tried to take him.