Monster News (Short Story)

This, obviously, is not a comic. It's just something I thought about a while ago. I have a few more waiting in the wings, but I think I will get comics going in full swing in the next few weeks.

I have tons of news for  the next few weeks.

I successfully defended my Thesis. I feel like I failed, but I actually passed with only minor revisions! I am now fully qualified to defend the planet from an alien invasion using only hand tools.

My reward for 5 years of graduate school is my first ever comic convention! I will be at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend! I am super stoked!

Afterwards, I head to eastern Pennsylvania to go apartment hunting because I am getting a real job. This should afford me more energy to actually do comics. No, I will not miss working on holidays.

 Anyway, here is my little story: 

Seeking darkness

It was almost summer, but it was already hot. Paul kicked off his blankets and looked around. He couldn’t sleep. Even with lights out, it was bright. The nightlight shined out in the corner. The sky was overcast with the yellow-orange city lights bouncing off the clouds and into the window. Paul could see everything. He could even see some things in color. He didn’t know how his younger brother, Benjamin, could sleep like he did. He appeared comfortable in his bed under what he knew to be a rather warm blanket. Paul was overstimulated and hot.

Paul stared at the ceiling for a while. He looked around the room. “How do people call this dark?” he wondered. His parents’ room was far darker, but that was a different matter. Paul identified as much as he could around the room. He could even make out the picture on the calendar. He smiled to himself, only one more week until his birthday, only one more week until everything changed. His eyes wandered across the room and settled on the dial of the dinosaur alarm clock. The glow-in-the dark hands were hardly necessary. He made out the shapes and the picture and watched as the second hand eclipsed the minute and hour hands, briefly blocking their lights. As the light of minute hand returned, Paul realized that was all he could see.

Paul glanced around, nothing. The nightlight was out. There was no light coming in from the windows. The city was in blackout. Instinctively, he dove under the covers, but all that was on his bed was his sheet. This was bad. A sheet was OK for plugging holes, but everyone knew that it would hardly slow down a monster if that is all that one had. His blanket was on the floor at the foot of the bed, no good. He would have to go for the flashlight. Why was it on the shelf across the room and not on his nightstand? Even in the dark, Paul could find it. He leaped clear of the bed and, with a lunge, grabbed the flashlight. He turned it on balling up in the corner.

Paul pointed the flashlight at Benjamin. He was still there, good. “Ben!” “Ben!” he said as loud as he dared, waking his younger brother.

“What?” came from the bed.

“The lights are out, get under.” Paul commanded. Immediately, Benjamin’s head disappeared under the blankets, and a small tube stuck out in its place. “A Monster Snorkel (TM), good thinking,” Paul said to himself. Ben was always planning ahead like that. Paul pondered how he has not been planning as well. Maybe he was just letting his guard down because his birthday was approaching. The flashlight’s batteries were dying. He shined it around the room. The closet door was open. His blanket lay right next to his bed in the kill zone. There were far too many shadows, far too many places for monsters to hide. The room was a deathtrap, and he had been too cocky to prepare. Now, he was in a corner protected by a pair of dying C cells. He needed a blanket for protection.

“Ben! Ben!” Paul called his brother again this time in a hushed voice.

“What?” came quietly from under the blankets.

“I need you to come to the corner with me,” Paul said.

“How do I know it's you?” inquired the heap of blankets.

“Just look, I have the flashlight.” Paul insisted.

Quickly the blankets flipped up an inch, enough for Benjamin to confirm that he was, in fact, talking to his brother. Then, like some sort of flying turtle, Benjamin, leaped off the bed, still encased in blankets, rolled, and leaped again, covering his brother in the corner. The two of them looked at each other by the dim flashlight under the blanket.

“That flashlight won’t last the night.” Benjamin said.

“I know, and it’s too hot to stay under here until morning.” Paul said. He was afraid, not so much of staying still but of what he knew they had to do. “We have to go to Mom and Dad’s room.”

“How?” Benjamin asked. “It’s too far to run. A kid can maybe run from across the hall, but that hall is long and dark. We have to go by the closet, and the bathroom door is open, and we have to go around the corner to get to mom and Dad’s room.”

“We’ll have to do a moving monster fortress.” Paul said. “We should be OK.”

Benjamin hesitated, but he knew it was the only option. “Alright.”

They sat there for a few seconds, until Paul said, “Come on. Get up.” The both rose, carefully, to keep the blanket over their heads. Adjusting the blanket for maximum coverage, Paul, then pointed the flashlight at their feet. They were theoretically impervious, but they didn’t feel that way. Then, Paul did something that scared him more than anything. He opened the bedroom door. He could feel the darkness of the hallway through the blanket. He was glad he couldn’t see it. If he could, he knew he wouldn’t go into it.

“OK, let’s move. Just stick to the right and keep your hand on the wall,” Paul said. They started to walk. Everything was smooth, step after step. They stopped when they felt the doorframe. It was the bathroom, and they knew it would be wide open. They didn’t know what was in there, but they didn’t want to find out, “Hold on tight to the blanket. We’ll run right by the door. OK?”

Benjamin looked at him.

“OK?” Paul asked again.

“OK.” Benjamin replied.

“Alright, ready?” Paul paused. “Set,” Paul paused again, “Go!” They both dashed with two steps past the doorway, and almost separated from each other had they not both had death grips on the blanket. They both collapsed to their knees keeping themselves fully covered as they had practiced many times before. “That was good. You did a good job.” Paul assured his brother. “Let’s get going.”

They moved further along the wall and turned the corner. Benjamin, slowed down, and Paul, in the pit of his stomach, could feel why. They didn’t need to touch the hallway closet doorframe. They knew it was there. Benjamin stopped. “Come on. Ben. It’s just a little farther,” Paul said, “come on.”

“I can’t do it,” Benjamin said collapsing on the floor.

“No, you can do it. Come on, get up.” Paul said, grabbing Benjamine’s arm and pulling him up, but when he released the arm, Benjamin, fell right back into his spot. Paul knelt down next to him. “We can’t stay here all night.”

“We can call to Mom and Dad. They’ll hear us from here.” Benjamin said, almost crying.

“The monster will hear us first. You know they can get you through a blanket if you are making noise,” Paul whispered. “Come on. We have to go. We’ll be alright.”

“But what if we go in the wrong door?” Benjamin asked.

“That’s not possible. Mom and Dad’s room is at the end of the hall. The closet is on the side. Come on. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be safe.” Paul urged.

“I can’t do it,” Benjamin said.

Paul knelt for a little longer. He lost track of how long, but, looking back, he realized that it was only a few seconds. It felt like an eternity. “I’ll tell you what. If you stay under the blanket, I’ll take the flashlight and run to Mom and Dad’s room. I’ll send Dad out to get you.”

“You’d do that?” Benjamin said, relieved.

“Of course, just wait here, Dad will be here in a minute.” Paul said. He readied himself. He took the flashlight in hand and found the edge of the blanket. He was contemplating how to flip it up fast without exposing Benjamin. He was ready.

“No,” Benjamin said, and grabbed his ankle. “I’ll go.”

“Really?” asked Paul. Now, he was relieved.

“It’s too dangerous, even with a flashlight.” Benjamin replied. “Come on, let’s go,” he said a little too loudly rising to his feet.

“OK, let’s do this.” Paul said. They got up and took a few steps, and they felt a little safer. After a few more steps, they were almost there. With one more step, they were at the door. Benjamin, found the knob. They whipped it open, and darted inside. The blanket came off, and they drug it, running and leaping into their parents’ bed.

“Oh, what is it?” his mother asked.

“The power is out. Can we sleep with you?” Paul asked.

“Of course,” Their mother replied. “Dear, close the door, would you?

Paul's father got up to close the door. The room was dark, darker than his. It was a clam dark, a peaceful dark, a safe dark. His father returned to his bed to find both of his children had already fallen asleep in his space. He pushed them aside making enough room as he could to squeeze onto his bed. He eventually found sleep.

The next morning as they ate their cereal, the news told an awful tale. The monsters are getting organized. They, apparently, found a weakness in the monster-proof fences around the power plant and the warning stations. They took them all out at the same time. There were countless tales of children experiencing the same thing Paul and Benjamin had just gone through. Three children were taken. Paul knew one of them. She was a girl from his class. They weren’t friends, but it is always worse when it is someone one knows. All elementary schools were canceled for the day, just like they always are after a power outage.

Paul knew what he had to do with the day. He had to make a monster-card for the mother of his classmate. He was also going to make darn sure that no power-outage was going to catch him again before his birthday. He was going to block up all of the space under both of the beds, and hang a blanket across his closet just in case the door gets left open. He was also going to make sure closet door gets shut. He was going to take down anything that would cast large shadows in a flashlight. He could use them to stuff under the beds. Most importantly, he would make sure to change the darn flashlight batteries, and have his mother get a second one for the room. Then, there could be one on both Benjamin’s and his nightstands.

Paul was going to make it to his next birthday. Then, things would be easier. Then, he could finally sleep in the dark. Then, Benjamin, wouldn’t have to keep a Monster Snorkel (TM) under his pillow, because, as everyone knows, a monster will never enter the room of a twelve-year-old no matter how young his brother is.