It was such a dark room, so different from the bright bubble-gum pink walls of his real bedroom. Sure, it was a girly colour, but under the circumstances, Bart felt a certain longing for it. He could hear the water gently slapping against the boat as it bobbed in its place at the dock. Homer had said that the great thing about a houseboat was that you could just sail somewhere else if you didn't like your neighbours, and the whole family had laughed as the other boats, perhaps not so coincidentally, did just that.
Now that Bart thought back on it, the joke didn't feel so funny anymore. The Simpson boat was all alone now, and so very vulnerable. Bart shivered a little, feeling cold despite the closed window. He thought back to the old days of "Can't sleep, clown'll eat me..." At least that monster clown had been no more than a figment of Bart's twisted, toddler imagination, a horrible vision triggered by a stupid, badly crafted homemade bed.
This had to stop, or else Bart would never get any sleep. Climbing out of bed, Bart went over to the box that contained his unpacked Krusty stuff, and pulled out his Krusty nightlight. He stuck it into the outlet and turned it on, with a soft sigh of relief. The room was now fairly well-lit, with no shadowy corners for some psycho to hide in...but what about the closet?
Now on the verge of hyperventilating, Bart yanked open the closet doors and relaxed when he saw nothing. He partly pulled back his sleeve and noticed all of the goosebumps on his arm; it still felt rather cold in here.
With a loud yawn, Bart slid back under his blanket and wrapped it tightly around himself. As his eyes slipped shut, he heard an odd buzzing noise, and the glow of the nightlight stopped shining through his closed lids. Stupid defective Krusty merchandise.
Bart willed himself to just relax, and slowly, he dozed off into a light slumber. He barely heard the splashing from outside, or the loud "THWACK!" Or the sound of a low groan...
The door creaked open, and Bart opened his eyes, while silently praying that it was just Homer doing some other stupid thing.
"Hello, Bart."