From the Words of a Child
By Frank A. Baburek
An October breeze rustled the leaves while the night moon cast eerie shadows along the dark and empty tree-lined street. In the third house from the corner, seven-year old Bobby sat next to his father in front of the television set. His face was half buried into his father's chest while his hands covered what was left. Fingers slightly parted allowed him to watch the television screen with one eye.
Robert Turk looked down at his son in guilt. The movie was much to scary for the boy. He should send the youngster into the other room with his mother or wait till later to view the movie being played but he knew how much it meant to this little guy to do things with his father. He felt proud that his son would suppress his fears to share in his own enjoyment of science fiction and monster movies. He kissed him on the top of his head.
“Is there such things as monsters Daddy?” Bobby asked, his hands muffling the words while on the screen something slithered out of the sea toward an unsuspecting couple.
Robert laughed lightly and said, “When I was your age, I believed in monsters, but in all my many years I have never seen a one or know of anyone who has”.
The boy glanced up at his father with a child’s inquisitive expression, “Maybe everybody who has seen one was eaten by it.”
Two weeks later Robert Turk stood in the front doorway of his suburban home on a sunny afternoon. He picked his son up and kissed him on the cheek. “You be a good boy and listen to your mother. I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
Sharon Turk outstretched her arms and embraced her husband. “We’ll be waiting for you,” she said after a gentle kiss.
He left them there and made his way to the waiting taxi. As it pulled away he looked back briefly and waved at the two figures framed by the open doorway. His smile slowly disappeared with the increasing distance and a feeling of a dreadful destiny invaded his mind.
The airplane and taxi rides were exhausting. By the time Robert reached the motel room it was late evening. After registering and entering his room, he swung his suitcase onto the bed and proceeded to undress. Within ten minutes he was bedded down for the night. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.
His eyes opened wide and it took him several seconds to realize were he was. The room was still dark but faint, artificial light from outside slipped in between the edges of the window curtains illuminating the room to a dark yellowish hue. His mind took several moments to put things in perspective.
What was it that woke him? A dream? A noise? No - it was something else. He quietly moved his head from side to side, his eyes scanning as much of the room as he could from his prone position. It was strange but he felt, rather then saw, a presence. It was this ‘feeling’ that had invaded his peaceful slumber. He got up on one elbow and again surveyed the room. After several minutes he was on the verge of dismissing it all and going back to sleep when, ever so slightly, the bed moved.
Fear began to blossom within him. He tried reasoning to quench its rising. He was acting like a scared child, there must to a reasonable explanation for what was happening. The bed moved again, only this time it was more noticeable. It must be an intruder, or maybe an animal that got into his room he thought. Whatever it was, it had to be under his bed.
He slowly lifted himself on both his elbows as beads of sweat rolled over his forehead. A strange sensation developed in his chest. His breathing increased as his eyes strained to look around the far edges of the bed and then from side to side. Something was in the room with him. Whatever it was he felt he was in great peril. Movement at the foot of the bed jerked his attention to it. His mouth fell open as a dark figure slowly ascended from the mattress’s edge. Fear was now replaced with terror as he realized this thing was no man or animal.
In the subdued light its grotesque shape stood out against the dimly lit wall behind it. It raised to over seven feet in height and had a light sheen to its gargoyle form. Long arms with claws or talons at their ends where attached near a head whose large size and odd shape supported a massive jaw. Small eyes glowed a hellish green. The mouth harbored rows of sharp teeth and something glistening dribbled from it onto the bed. Robert Turk did the only thing his shocked and jumbled mind could think of to do, he drew his feet up and pulled the covers over his head.
Little Bobby cried as his mother held him in her arms. “He was due back yesterday,” she told the uniformed police officer.
“We have no idea what happened to him,” the officer replied. “We had the local Police check and they searched his motel room. His luggage and clothing are still there and the bed had been slept in but your husband is no where to be found. They have had a number of missing persons lately with the same MO.”
“I know what happened,“ little Bobby said between sobs, “Daddy was eaten by a Monster.”
The end.
Frank A. Baburek: For over 40 years I have read hundreds of Paperbacks mostly Sci-Fi, Drama and Mysteries. I wrote numerous short stories in the 70's but never was able to get anything published. Now that I am retired I have taken up story writing again and who knows, one day I might actually get something in print. Contact us.
