Monster Under the Bed

Mark was an eight year old boy with a very big imagination, for several weeks he had been keeping his mother up with tales of a monster under his bed and despite numerous checks and reassurances Mark's fears just wouldn't calm down.

Mark's mother eventually grew tired of the nonsense and decided to take a stand against it, she decided that she would ignore her son and send him back to his room no matter how many times he may complain -  a somewhat cruel but desperate measure, hoping she could at last break him of his fears and get some sleep.

Sure enough that night Mark came into her room and woke her, his voice was trembling and he seemed more afraid than usual - yet sure enough he stated that their was a monster under his bed and thus his mother fought back her ininitial urge to leap out of bed.

Instead she told Mark to go back to bed and that there was no such thing as monsters, turning away from her son she felt some guilt as he stood for a good few minutes in her room, obviously afraid to go out.

However after a while Mark left the room and his mother began to relax, only to suddenly open her eyes as she heard Mark talking from his room:

"Mommy says you aren't real.."

"..so mommy's not coming?.."

Instantly Mark's mother sat up, fear gripping her - the second voice was not her son, it sounded like a man, hushed but audible from the open door.

"Mommy's sleeping.."

"..I see.. why don't we play a game before she wakes up?"

Mark's mother gasped and got out of bed - abandoning reason as her instincts kicked in and she ran to her son's room and turned on the light.

In seconds she let out a scream as she saw an unkempt man sitting on Mark's bed, her son sitting up under the covers - the man turned to look at Mark's mother for a moment before he broke into a dash and clambered out of the open window.

It was then Mark's mother realized that was how the intruder must of entered the house, she had often left Mark's window open at night.. grabbing her son out of bed she quickly closed the window and phoned the police, holding her son close.

Several days went by and Mark's mother began to calm down, even though no trace had been found of the mystery man she had began to feel secure enough to leave Mark alone again - always checking to make sure his window was locked and keeping his door open just in case.

Mark in turn stopped entering his mother's room at night and she began to sleep easy knowing her little boy was safe, that was until one morning Mark said something that made her heart race:

"I don't like your room, mommy - there's a monster under your bed".