Monster under the Bed
Waking up with a start, Erica sat up quickly and clutched the blanket to her chest. She breathed rather quickly and looked around the room. It was incredibly dark and she wished she had a nightlight so that it just wasn't so dark. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and drew her knees up to her chest after letting out a frightened scream. She didn't mean to scream and she most certainly didn't mean to do so in that high pitched shrill voice she had when she was terrified.
But she couldn't stop herself so she just kept screaming. She forgot to breathe and her lungs hurt as her body forced her to take in oxygen when her mind told her to scream. The light was turned on suddenly but it didn't stop Erica from screaming and letting the tears fall from her eyes she couldn't control. And when she could no longer scream, her body was forcing her to hyperventilate and she couldn't stop which made her even more scared than she already was. Oh God, what if she died right there because she couldn't breathe right? That would be an interesting way to go and perhaps mildly pathetic.
Erica felt strong arms lift her up and she sat on someone's lap rocking her back and forth gently. A voice was telling her to calm down, take in a breath, and that it was okay; she was safe in his arms and she believed it but apparently her body did not. She gripped his t-shirt so tight that her fingers hurt. She was told to focus on his breathing and she was glad that she could somewhat finally hear what was going on around her. Her head was against his chest and she could hear and feel him breathing and she began to try and match her breaths to his. She was eventually successful, taking in large gulps of oxygen to supply her body.
The grip she had on his shirt loosened and she felt his hand rubbing her back. "There you go," Erica heard the gruff voice say clearly.
"Sorry," Erica said. "I didn't mean to wake anyone up."
"I wasn't even sleeping," Trevor replied. "Had to quiet you down before you woke up your parents. A tired Amanda is a fucking grumpy Amanda and I don't wanna deal with that in the morning."
"Hey, she isn't that bad," Erica said and smiled a little.
"So, what got you so worked up tonight? Bad dream?" Erica's smile faded just as quickly as it came. She closed her eyes and listened to Trevor's heart beat in his chest. It hadn't been just a dream, but a nightmare.
In her dream, Erica was in her room in her bed. She recalled sitting up and swinging her feet to the edge to get up. Once she was standing and her feet hit the floor, she could smell rotting meat. Erica wondered if she even did smell rotting meat or her dream self thought she was because the girl wasn't entirely sure if one could smell anything in a dream.
The rotting meat, she sniffed, had been coming from underneath her bed. The smell was revolting and just thinking about it made Erica crinkle her nose. Although she would never investigate something like that in real life, in her dream, Erica got onto her hands and knees to look under her bed to see what was causing this.
She couldn't see a thing underneath her bed. It was as if there was a black hole under her bed because she couldn't even see through to the other side. Erica stood back up because she figured she'd be able to see something with a flashlight. She turned, but before she could take a step, a hand grabbed her around the ankle and pulled. Erica fell with a thud.
For some reason, this didn't scare her. Dream Erica felt this was more of an inconvenience than a creepy monster under her bed taking her down into the abyss. She tried to pull her foot free, but it seemed to be impossible. She managed to turn around and face the culprit who caused her to fall down. She looked at the rotting flesh of the hand that grabbed her first. She rolled her blue eyes because this was what was causing the smell. Perhaps Trevor tried to kill someone, shove it under her bed for later, failed at actually making sure this person was dead, and he eventually forgot because he was high on something.
Erica followed the hand, the arm, and eventually saw a face staring at her from under the bed. And that face belonged to her biological mother, Elizabeth. Erica frowned; why was Elizabeth there under her bed? And why was some of her flesh on her cheek about to fall off? She wanted to ask these questions, but found she couldn't speak. "Come with me," Elizabeth pleaded in her normal voice. Funny, Erica was expecting some freaky unrecognizable voice to go along with her almost unrecognizable, rotting features. "Come back home with me, Erica."
The part that scared Erica wasn't the fact that her rotting biological mother dragged her under the bed into the blackness. The smell didn't scare her despite it getting stronger and stronger and neither did the uneasiness of the entire bizarre situation. No, what terrified her and caused her to wake up screaming bloody murder was the fact that her dream self didn't try to get away from zombie Elizabeth. She didn't even struggle and let Elizabeth take her away.
Erica was scared because a part of her thought she made the wrong decision to live with Amanda and Michael. Perhaps she should have stayed with Elizabeth because deep down she missed her and sometimes felt she didn't belong with Amanda, Michael, Tracey, and Jimmy. In fact, she felt like the outcast of the family. But then when she thought about it, she was the outcast with Elizabeth and her boyfriend. At least with Elizabeth, though, she felt that undeniable connection because she was Elizabeth's daughter and sometimes, rarely, but sometimes Elizabeth would let Erica read to her. And she missed those rare moments.
The reality was that Erica decided to live with her aunt and uncle and although she loved them dearly, she still loved Elizabeth and was afraid that she'd come back and offer to take her away.
What scared her was that Erica would probably go back with Elizabeth given the chance.
"Erica?" Trevor queried, breaking her from her reverie. She clutched his shirt in her fist and was terrified that she'd give up this-the comfort she always wanted, the attention she always craved, and the love that she always deserved for neglect and abuse from her own biological mother.
"Yeah," Erica shook. "Yeah, I had a bad dream." She left it as that and would never tell Trevor or anyone about the monster under her bed.
Yinyang754 requested: "I want to see Trevor and Erica interact in the next one after Erica has a nightmare about Elizabeth trying to take her away." Hope you liked it!
