“SSShhh now and don’t let the bed bugs bite,” Mum said as the lights clicked off and the door slid shut.
 
Bugs as every child knows are the smallest of worries as the moon comes up to say hello.
 
Alice’s eyes peeked outside the safety of her blankets staring at the shadows dancing in her room.
 
The door handle rattled….the window blew open and the wardrobe giggled.
Alice dared to shut her eyes for two quick seconds, opening them again to see something tall lurking over her bed.
 
In the darkness of the room all she could see was the faint outline of the…..thing and it’s pointy sharp teeth opening up…
 
“Are you ready to be spooked?” it whispered…
 
Gasping up air Alice reached for her bedside light, the thing was revealed in full view to the widening eyes of Alice.
 
The Thing eeked and creeked using its long thin fingers to hide it’s hideous face from the heat of the light.
 
It screaked and cried “turn it off…turn that horrible thing off!”.
 
“Are you ready to be friended, you keep forgetting!” Alice told it off..
 
“Yes, yes! Turn it off, Turn it off!”
 
Click, the room went dark.
 
“Who will we friend first?” asked Alice.
 
“You will see…come under the bed with me and you will see”
 
Like a snake the thing slithered underneath the bed with Alice soon behind, then with just a teaspoon of magic they were underneath a bed of a small boy’s room.
 
The thing stared at Alice and spoke gently,
 
“He lost a tooth, I hear children like to have their lost teeth stolen” it smiled in a menacingly yet friendly way.
 
“No! Th..”
 
“Sshhhh shhh you will awake him before the fun!”
 
Alice tried again lowering her tone,
 
“Children like shiny new money as a swap for their old teeth”
 
“Well that doesn’t seem fair to me… and where is the fun in that?” asked the Thing
 
Alice gave a disproving look.
 
With a huff of air from underneath its breath it moaned “ok…ok”.
Rising from the floor the Thing stared at the blue pajamaed boy, focusing hard on Alice’s advice.
 
The Thing’s natural instincts disagreed greatly as it struggled to remember Alice’s exact instructions.
 
In a small panic the Thing’s mind went blank and its instincts kicked in… and that is a very bad thing as the small boy’s eyes woke up.
 
“I will steal your shiny new teeth and give you my old ones!” the Thing said revealing its own teeth to the boy.
 
In two clicks of a hanging superhero clock the parents stampeded in following the screams of their son.
 
“That was awfully close,” the thing spoke from underneath a bed staring at Alice. Alice was not the least impressed,
 
“You almost got us caught,”
 
“Yes…Sorry, don’t worry this time nothing can go wrong”
 
“…..well,” Alice said eager to know the next child they were to friend.
 
“Oh…yes.. this child likes to play with her toys and dolls, I will play with toys and dolls…child will have fun,” the Thing spoke.
 
Off course all children like to play with their toys but most children do not expect those very same toys to play with them back.
 
The scattered dolls in the mess of the child room started to dance in a robotic function, the joints of the toys only allowing the slow swinging movements of the arms going backwards and forwards.
 
The small chair in the far corner of the room started to rock with the doll sitting on top’s head twisting round as it lips came alive to give a smile.
The little girl awoke at the tune of the dancing ballerina in it’s music box broken free from it’s single spinning movement.
 
Wiping the sleep from her eyes all became clear as she stood up in her bed starring down at her teddy bear as it inched ever closer to her from across the bed saying the words;
 
“Hug me…hug me”
 
At the screams of the girl Alice and the thing were gone.

“It’s ok I’m sure the next person will like you” Alice spoke as she worried for the Thing, it seemed both frustrated and upset that it’s attempts to make friends had ended in screams.
 
Nodging it on the shoulder, Alice tried to reassure the Thing “Those kids were 4 years old, they are sacredly cats… get a 6 six-year-old like me and they will love you!”
 
The thing’s head perked up at Alice giving a second’s smile.
“I understand now…no more games, I will simply say hello and tell them that I am their friend!”
 
Alice was horrified by the idea but too late, the Thing was already resting it sharp skinny fingers on the boy.
 
“Wake up boy, wake up….ssshhh shhhh don’t scream,” as the index finger of the Thing rested on the boy’s mouth.
 
“I may have the teeth of a shark, but I would much rather smile at you than eat you….my skin as pale as a vampire but as sensitive as the feelings I hide inside…my songs might screech in your ear but the words are quite beautiful if only your mortal ears could hear them…my very presence may darken every light and make your bones rattle in fright but I’m really quite friendly…so please little child don’t cry”.
 
The boy sat emotionless and quiet, the Thing eager to know the words about to come out the boys mouth.
 
“Well?” the Thing said evermore hopeful, had it finally found how to make friends? Centuries of spooking them never worked, playing games with them had never worked maybe all it ever had to do was say hello?
 
The lips of the boys mouth opened up, the Thing could sense it… the dawn of a new age. Finally, a noise had left the boy… the loudest scream of them all, in all his years of spooking never was there louder.
 
The Thing’s smile dropped, its heart would be broken if only it had one. There it just stood detached as the parents marched in, Alice begging for the Thing to hurry under the bed.
 
The mother was startled in disbelief “What is it…it’s horrendous….foul….evil,” she cried.
 
Hatred could only be seen in the eyes of the father as he gripped his baseball bat spitting out the words “It’s a mon…”
 
“Monster,” the Thing screeched finishing the father’s words.
 
“Yes I am, I am it…the one you dare not remember. The one you wish dead….the shadows that moved in your room…I am everyone of your childhood fears and I did it all without a eye being cast upon me….well see me now….see how right you were to fear me!” the Thing screamed as tears dropped down it’s face.
 
Great bat shaped wings made of shadow burst open from the Things back growing ever larger until they plunged the entire room in darkness. In one quick movement the Thing smashed it wings together unleashing a noise never meant for this world. Such was the horror of it that anyone in the room who wasn’t a…monster fell on the floor unconscious.
 
Alice woke up in the comfort of her own bed, the room dark all she could see was a shadow crying in the corner of her room. Slowly approaching it the shadow spoke to her;
 
“No more friending”
 
“It’s ok, I understand we will try again tomorrow,”
 
“No…no more…no more friending and no more spooking. I am done, I tried and I failed. I was never meant to bring joy to children I am a monster and that is all I ever will be. I do not wish to come to earth again I do not wish to scare little children again,”
 
“I am your friend… how can you fail when I am your friend. You have brought me more joy than anyone and monsters can’t bring joy…you are not a monster. You cannot never come back.. you are my friend and I need you… never seeing you again scares me more than the thought of any monster hiding underneath my bed. Only a monster would leave me alone so you cannot leave me because you are not a monster…you are my friend and you could never scare me”.
 
The Thing wiped the tears from it eyes and smiled,
 
“How right you are, I was too busy trying to make friends that not with my five eyes could I see that I already succeeded. No matter how many children I may scare I know that I am not a monster because I have you and I could never scare you…it is late go to bed Alice and I will see you tomorrow… I promise,”
Alice was both so happy and relieved as she gave the Thing a mighty hug
“Read me a bed time story before you go,”
 
“I will read my favourite…a story of ghosties and ghoulies.