Hungry?

Camille hummed as she washed the dishes in the sink, dinner had been courtesy of her dear husband Mark, so she had opted to do the dishes for him saving her the stress of making dinner. Holly, their seven year old daughter had talked non stop about the monster staying under her bed and to make matters worse, Archie had chipped in, defending her claims jokingly, she had slapped his thigh to hush him, he was Fifteen and was supposed to be discouraging such thoughts.

"Archie don't encourage your sister's monster belief." She shunned.

"Ohh honey, now now," Mark smiled at her, rubbing the back of her hand then he faced Holly. "Sweetie, how about we go check it out after dinner?"

"Okie dad." That stopped her from mentioning about the monster and Camille smiled at her husband gratefully.

*

*

“Mummy!! Mummy!!” She heard Holly yelling her name from upstairs just as she was dropping the last plate.

"Coming darling!" She yelled back. She climbed upstairs and entered her daughter's room, “What is it, baby?”

Holly was seated on the bed, legs crossed and clutching her teddy tightly, she looked at her mother with wide eyes and in horror, she looked tired and scared, she beckoned to her mother to come closer.

"There's something under my bed."

Camille sighed in exhaustion, not again, for two nights Holly had been going on and on about this monster under her bed. She was tired, she was fed up, no more, time to put an end to this.

"Holly, for the uptenth time, there is nothing under your bed! Maybe you just had a bad dream.”

"But mummy, I know what I saw, I know what I heard, I know there is something there!” Holly was adamant, no one was believing her.

Camille sighed, she just wanted to eat, and relax, stretch herself in bed with her husband's hands wrapped around her and drift off easily to dream land, but Holly was going to make this a long night. She had to end this tonight.

“Holly, if I check under the bed and find nothing, will you go back to sleep?” she asked her daughter.

“Maybe…” Camille gave her a stern look. "Yes I promise." She smiled.

“Ok, let me get the flashlight…” she said and walked out of the room to call her husband but there was no response.

“Mummy!!” Holly yelled again, Camille walked back into the room.

"Yes baby?"

“Daddy went under the bed with the flashlight…”

“What?”

"Yes, Daddy went under the bed with the light right after dinner, it must still be lying there.”

Mildly surprised, Camille bent down to look under the bed, she saw the flashlight alright but the light was already dim and was flickering, she bent lower to reach for the falshlight but it rolled further away, so she dragged her finger then she felt something sticky on the floor. She pulled back her hand and got up to check it under the lamp on the bedside table. It was something dark and sticky, she looked at her daughter and asked.

“Did you drop something under the bed?”

“A chocolate…” the child murmured in a guilt-ridden voice. "I was going to pick it up later but it wouldn't let me."

"It? Ahh...the monster." Camille laughed a little. "Ok, let's get rid of that monster, right?"

Holly nodded.

“Where is Daddy?” Camille asked as she bent down again.

“He is still under the bed…”

Surprised, Camille bent lower, the flashlight had rolled towards the other end of the bed against the wall. She crawled under the bed and grabbed a hold of it, but before she could turn it on, she felt something or someone grip her hand tightly, she let out a small scream in fear, but calmed down, if this was a prank by Holly and her brother, she was sure to give them a beating for it, she tried yanking her hand free but the grip only tightened so she shouted and thrashed, but something clutched her throat, squeezing the air out of her lungs and her voice was cut off. She struggled for air and fear registered in her mind, this was in no way Archie. Her husband? No he wouldn't, she struggled some more but in another five seconds, her body stopped moving and she was dragged under.

Holly peeked over the edge of the bed and saw a small dark puddle of liquid starting to slowly pool out from under, she smiled.

“Are you still hungry?”