From Under My Bed

Strangers under my bed

I was told they were all in my head

Darkness comes

Out of the silence –hums

Coming from the visitors under my bed

I rest in a place of thought

Somewhere between my dreams

Somewhere I am alone

But yet feel so at home

I arise from my partial slumber

My thoughts a bit humbler

I then hear a sound

And I look around

It was my clock

That infernal tick-tock

But something deeper

Like a deadly reaper

An utter silence I hear

A sound that brings me fear

That near-silent hum

Of the strangers under my bed

I knew they were not real

But it’s like they knew what I feel

Their hums crawling into my skin

Like they could reach through the cloth of my bed -- that was so thin

…Just waiting for the moment

To finish their torment

To end my life in an instant

The only thing protecting me was the tick of my clock that was so distant

I hide under my covers

Wrapped up over me so fast

You’d think it was two lovers

And still the hum of my visitors amassed

I looked into the shadows

Dark eyes aglow

The form of a face I see

That oddly looked like me

(And at that moment) I realized that the monsters under the bed

That I thought were in my head

Were really me instead

A part of me I thought was dead

By: Kylan Walker

Memories

Slowly, slowly I crawled. Out of the pit from which I had been cast. The daylight had nearly blinded me. When my eyes regain focus of the world surrounding me, I notice green hills encompassing me for miles. I get up and stand; my legs limp. After a short while I regain the strength to walk. I continue walking among the path I set for myself when I come to a stop at the base of a tree. I look up and see a lone bird precariously perched among its branches. I look closer at it. It was a robin. As I stare at it I noticed something, it was gazing back at me! I dismiss it at first and continue walking. After I had gone a few miles I look around. Strange I thought, there had been no sign of civilization, or even life – except for that bird – for miles.

Realizing I may not find any other person for a long time I decide to set up a camp. I look up in the sky to determine how long I had ‘till dark. To my surprise the sun had not moved since I had left the pit. What world had I entered? I asked myself.

I am getting tired by this time. I find a fair sized tree and sleep in the shadow it casts. When I wake up I look around; nothing has changed. The sun brightly shines suspended in its position with the world encircling it. Had I been in a dream? I wondered. No I couldn’t have been. For I had dreamt of that horrid pit from which I had come from.

Then where was I? What reality had I entered? I stand up from where I had been laying and I begin walking off in the direction I had chosen preceding my sleep. After travelling a couple miles I noticed something. Perched on the tree was that lone robin, standing perfectly still. Staring at me as it had before. I continue walking among my path I had chosen for myself.

Beads of sweat formed on my head over time. My mouth became parched. I climb the nearest tree I find in hopes of seeing water. I notice a shining glimmer among the distance. I drop from the tree and run towards it. To my surprise I find a small circular pool of water. I take some water in my hands and place it up to my face. After I feel my thirst has been quenched I continue my walking seeing nothing out of the ordinary. I lie in the shadow of a tree and try to get some rest.

In my sleep I hear voices. I recognized these voices! They were the voices of my tormentor! My tormentor from the pit in which I had crawled out of. He was speaking of me. To whom I did not know. In hushed voices I hear “when we feel enough pain, we become numb. At this point we would be invincible if not for one thing! We’ve nearly reached the point of death by this time. But some say that emotional pain can bring us into something much darker. Soon we are no longer able to feel ourselves; we are no longer who we once were.” I realize he was talking to me. I open my eyes and look around. I was back in that dark pit. The only light I see is that of a furnace. My tormentor whose face I cannot see, notices me eyeing the furnace. He walks towards it pulling a rather long knife from amongst the hot embers. He puts it against my forehead; a slight hiss is heard as the hairs near the knife are singed off.

I awaken from my dream. Beads of sweat roll from my face. I feel the still singed hair falling onto my forehead. I am hungry. I figure the robin must have some source of food so I start paying attention the vegetation; nothing for miles, but then, I find a bush. It’s unlike any bush I have ever seen before. The flowers are a mix of pink and red. The leaves are almost triangular, dark green with a spotted yellow underside. Dotted amongst the branches were tiny blue berries that formed in small clusters. I pull some of them off. Fragile they nearly puncture in my hand. I place them in my mouth and begin eating. Their sweet juice flowing through my tongue. As I step away from the bush I look behind me; that lone robin - perched among the branches of the tree overshadowing me - was staring at me as he always does. He was staring at me! What did this bird want? I try to jump at the branch in an ill-fated attempt to scare away the bird.

I walk away from the tree, still staring at the bird. After the bird has become a small speck in my vision, I turn around. I reach a hill and began trekking up it. I reach the top. I look on for miles, still not a single sign of life other than that lone robin. I don’t know why it freaked me out – the robin staring at me that is. When I was younger and I felt alone, a robin visited me even in my darkest of times. It was my only friend sometimes as a kid. Then one day it stopped showing up by my window.

I go to rest under a tree. In my sleep I dream of the pit again. My tormentor is unbinding the ropes that held me to this chair. I get up feeling limp. My tormentor places a finger in a still open wound in my shoulder. I scream falling to the ground. Too weak to move; I watch as my tormentor walks towards the chamber door. Pulling out what looks like a body. Most of it is destroyed. My tormentor drags it close to me. My eyes widen in horror as I see the face of my mother; her ashen face still barely twitching from whatever tortures my tormentor had given her.

I awaken from my slumber screaming! A tear forming in my eye, I look up as I wipe it away. I see the lone robin staring back at me. I couldn’t stand moving I was too sad. I curl myself up and try to get back to my sleep. I don’t even care that the robin is stalking over me.

As fate should have it, I fall back to sleep. But fate can be a cruel mistress. And I am haunted by another horrid nightmare! Things are different. The room had been illuminated by candlelight. My tormentor whose face is still masked from my vision finishes what he had been telling me earlier. I assume he tells this to all his victims before he finally ends their lives. He says in a soft voice: “when we feel enough pain, we become numb. At this point we would be invincible if not for one thing! We’ve nearly reached the point of death by this time. But some say that emotional pain can bring us into something much darker. Soon we are no longer able to feel ourselves; we are no longer who we once were. And sometimes when the pain becomes unbearable, we put ourselves in a world of dreams and old memories, with nightmares of the reality we face.” 

By: Kylan Walker