When she was smaller, she would have nightmares in which she was hiding from monsters; terrible, giant monsters that wanted to gobble her up, just like in the stories people told at school.
This was no story. This was no nightmare.
A creak
[align=center] The creaky step,
hes coming upstairs.[/align]
When she had the nightmares, she would get up and creep over to her mama's room. She would open the door and her mama would smile at her and make room on the bed. She would cuddle up to her mama and explain the nightmare. Her mama would assure her there were no monsters, if there were her mama would fight them off bravely.
[align=center]There was no mama. There was a monster.
[/align]
A door opened down the hall with a familiar creak.
She craned her head to listen
.
[align=right] Rummaging through the droors.
Yelling to more monsters down the stairs.
Yelling with their harsh tongue.[/align]
Her sister used to tell her that if she closed her eyes in a nightmare the monster would go away. She'd do this in all her bad dreams and the monster would go away, just like her sister said. Eventually she stopped having the nightmares.
[align=center]This wasn't a nightmare. The monster wasn't leaving.
[/align]
And she knew. She knew it wasn't a bad dream. She knew the monster was real. She knew that he wasn't leaving, that none of them were.
But she closed her eyes anyways.
[align=center] She closed them tight.
She felt tears fall down her face
but made no sound
and no motion
to clear them.[/align]
[align=right]She knew big girls didn't cry
but figured
maybe this once
there could be an exception.
[/align]
She could hear him stomping around outside in his big boots. He would find her eventually. She knew this. He was going through every room. She wondered what she would do even if she wasn't found. Her grandparents lived in Belgium, but the monsters were there too. She had friends in France; friends that had left when the monsters first came--but she had heard the monsters were there too, had taken the city of lights.
Her sister had gone to school in England. She knew the monsters hadn't made it there--but how could she get there?
[align=center] It doesn't matter,
they will find me.[/align]
She kept her eyes closed and thoughtabout her mama and her sister and her friends and her grandparents and life before the monsters.
She was hiding from the monster.
When she was smaller, she would have nightmares in which she was hiding from monsters; terrible, giant monsters that wanted to gobble her up, just like in the stories people told at school.
This was no story. This was no nightmare.
A creak
[align=center] The creaky step,
hes coming upstairs.[/align]
When she had the nightmares, she would get up and creep over to her mama's room. She would open the door and her mama would smile at her and make room on the bed. She would cuddle up to her mama and explain the nightmare. Her mama would assure her there were no monsters, if there were her mama would fight them off bravely.
[align=center]There was no mama. There was a monster.
[/align]
A door opened down the hall with a familiar creak.
She craned her head to listen
.[align=right] Rummaging through the droors.
Yelling to more monsters down the stairs.
Yelling with their harsh tongue.[/align]
Her sister used to tell her that if she closed her eyes in a nightmare the monster would go away. She'd do this in all her bad dreams and the monster would go away, just like her sister said. Eventually she stopped having the nightmares.
[align=center]This wasn't a nightmare. The monster wasn't leaving.
[/align]
And she knew. She knew it wasn't a bad dream. She knew the monster was real. She knew that he wasn't leaving, that none of them were.
But she closed her eyes anyways.
[align=center] She closed them tight.
She felt tears fall down her face
but made no sound
and no motion
to clear them.[/align]
[align=right]She knew big girls didn't cry
but figured
maybe this once
there could be an exception.
[/align]
She could hear him stomping around outside in his big boots. He would find her eventually. She knew this. He was going through every room. She wondered what she would do even if she wasn't found. Her grandparents lived in Belgium, but the monsters were there too. She had friends in France; friends that had left when the monsters first came--but she had heard the monsters were there too, had taken the city of lights.
Her sister had gone to school in England. She knew the monsters hadn't made it there--but how could she get there?
[align=center] It doesn't matter,
they will find me.[/align]
She kept her eyes closed and thoughtabout her mama and her sister and her friends and her grandparents and life before the monsters.
the door opened