Time Wars & other SciFi Tales by Gordon Rowlinson

Things That Go Bump in the Night

by Gordon Rowlinson

“There's a monster under my bed!” said little Johnny.

“There is nothing under your bed.” The bleary-eyed, annoyed father slowly shuffled into the bedroom. “It's just a bad dream.”

“There's a monster under my bed! I heard him. He's been making bumping and scratching noises.”

“OK. I'll look and then you have to go back to sleep.” The sleepy man slowly got down on his knees, lifted up the overhanging bed cover and peered under the bed.

He was shocked and horrified to discover a pair of huge, red animal eyes looking back at him. The hungry, malevolent eyes were connected to a low hulking dark shape. Behind the thing, there appeared to be a strange portal to a dark, demonic dimension-world and he caught a brief glimpse of a surreal, hellish landscape. Under an alien yellow sky with two red suns, several nightmarish hooded figures carrying long knives and axes and several low multi-legged creatures were moving slowly towards the portal and the bedroom.

As he opened his mouth to protest the impossible that his mind did not want to accept, several slimy tentacles lashed out and enveloped him. One of the tentacles covered the father's mouth muffling his screams. The thing then began to stuff the father under narrow half foot space under the bed. There was the sickening crackling of broken bones as the creature forced the large human body under the low hanging iron bed frame.

Then there was blessed silence.

The half-asleep mother staggered into the bedroom.

“What's going on?”

“There's a monster under my bed!” said Johnny.

“OK. I'll look and then you have to go back to sleep.” The sleepy mother slowly got down on her knees, lifted up the overhanging bed cover and...

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Time Wars & other SciFi Tales by Gordon Rowlinson

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