The Final Guardian
If scars were combat medals, the grizzled Ted was as decorated as they came. His right eye was gone. His left ear, too. Both sewn closed. Surely, no finer doctor existed in any land, their needlework so fine that his stitching braided together, his original brown-knitted fur replaced by patchwork threads that were alien to one another.
Yet, his experience mattered not. His arms quivered, buckling as strength left him—my teeth drawing closer. My gaping maw was all he could see as my form melded with the shadows beneath the child's bed. All of his kin were gone, some of them so terrified and bewildered that they had practically leaped into my mouth. Still, there was dignity in being the last one standing, the strongest among his peers.
His arms barred my upper fangs, his legs pressed against my lower jaw. When my bite yawned greater, his arms moved away from his legs. His eye widened. Ah, there it is. The moment when they can see the end. Delicious
"Please," he whispered forcefully. "Save... yourself."
My mouth closed around him, and he was gone forever. I peered about, my form indistinct from the shadows around me. Save yourself? Was there another plotting an ambush? How foolish.
The glow of a pink night light cut the bed's silhouette from the room's shroud. It plugged into an outlet on the wall alongside the headboard. No, surely, he was the final guardian. His mind just must have unraveled from the terror.
Across the way, the shuttered door of a closet was closed. Afraid of closet monsters. Good, good.
The bedroom door was in the corner between the closet and a dresser, which stood up from the foot of the bed. The bedroom door closed, too? Well, this is almost too easy.
I crept out into the pink glow, my humanoid form unsheathing, my barbed fingertips separating like a fan of knives. I elongated, my height rising above the bed until I loomed over the sleeping form. It was a young girl, couldn't have been more than five or so, her straight blond hair lying neatly around her as if she lay presented at her funeral.
I chuckled, its low rasp breaking the room's silence. I'll show her such delightful terror that her actual funeral won't be too far away.
The girl sniffed and stirred. As she sat up, I melted into the room's corner. "Teddie?" she called, looking about.
Teddie won't be joining us. It was all I could do not to chuckle again. Should I tell her?
The girl looked at the closet, then at me. It felt as though her eyes had somehow singled me out, but then they had moved on. She lifted the covers from where they dangled alongside the bed, then leaned over and peered underneath. "Teddie?"
Drats! If only I had still been there, I thought, scowling. I could have reached out and poked her nose. The screams, the kicking, the terror...I could have given her weeks of sleepless nights.
The girl looked at her dresser, then back at the closet.
Yes, come to the closet, little one. I have a present for you.
She kept looking at the closet. Just looking. And while darkness might be eternal, my patience is not. I decided to start things off with a show of force. I stretched tall again, towering over her and everything else. When I stepped away from the closet, becoming my own island of shadow in the pink light, her terror was so profound that she couldn't move at all, couldn't even make a sound.
Delicious. I grinned, my fangs gleaning.
Then, there was a sheen! and the world lurched. Suddenly, I was pinned, still an island in her damned nightlight as I glimpsed the largest scissors I had ever seen. Their maw opened and staked to each side of my neck as this child... this monster squatted on my chest.
"Did you do something with Teddie?" she asked, her voice cold, calculated.
A strange thumping sound grew louder in my ears. It was as if something was stampeding towards me. I had never heard the like. "Ta-Teddie?" I managed, my eyes flicking to the nearby shadows. I'd be safe if I could just get there, but her hands tightened on the scissors' grip, and I dared not move.
"My friends, my little helpers... they've all gone missing. At first, I thought mom might be taking them away. Thought she was getting newer ones and hoped I wouldn't notice them disappearing. But then she asked me what I had done with all my toys. I'm guessing that's where you came in."
Then, her mouth was moving, the words lost to the sound of that damnable thundering in my ears. I could no longer hear her. Was glad of it. Until she laid the scissors against the carpet and slid the blade under me where it nicked the back of my neck.
I winced, my neck shying away from the razor's edge. "What? What do you want me to say? I ate him, alright? Is that what you want to hear?"
She leaned near, one hand on the scissors, her shifting weight cinching the vice, the opposite blade grazing my throat. Her eyes were empty sockets, a darkness blacker than anything I had ever seen. I stilled.
"You shouldn't have done that."
A light flicked on beyond the bedroom door, a hall's light reaching towards me from underneath. The doorknob turned, and I silently willed the door to open faster. Never have I been so eager for more light. My eyes flicked that direction as the door opened.
"Maggie?" Her mom called. "Hunny, are you awake?"
I looked back at Maggie, expecting her to reply to her mother. To my horror, Maggie the monster had her finger over her lips. She winked.
Snip.
An overhead light flicked on, and Maggie's mom leaned into the room. Her curious expression shifted from concern to relief after seeing Maggie. Then, it shifted back to concern as she realized her daughter was straddling some kind of giant stuffed cat, which was headless.
"Maggie, it's after midnight. What are you doing out of bed?"
"But, momma... I wanted to surprise you."
Her mom looked around the room. Instead of the typical unicorn posters, Maggie's walls were decorated with images of patchwork marionettes and stuffed animal components were meticulously tacked above her headboard—ears, eyes, noses, and the like, all arranged as one might display butterflies in a shadowbox.
Her mom shook her head, "Darling, I really don't think I can stomach many more of your surprises." She hesitated. "Gosh, if only I had half of your spirit when I was a little girl. Maybe my imagination wouldn't have riled up my fears so...tricked me into believing those monsters under my bed were actually real."
Maggie stood and went to her momma, a pair of scissors dragging behind her, which were nearly as tall as she was. She hugged her momma's leg, then looked up. "Don't worry, Momma. I won't let the monsters get you."
Her mother knelt and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, baby girl. That's sweet of you to say." Then, she took her by the elbows and pushed her to arm's length. She glanced at the scissors. "Now, we're going to need to talk about where you keep getting these scissors."
Maggie grinned. Then, she winked.
