The Monster Under My Bed

There was a monster under my bed when I was a child. Actually, it was more of a large, horrible, disembodied claw, reaching up to seize me, dragging me down with it. I'd turn out the light from across the room and then leap to my bed. Then quickly get under the covers, lie on my back, and keep perfectly still.... Then the appendage would slowly sink, farther, farther, to the center of the earth. After a few minutes the monster would be deep enough I could afford to roll over and get more comfortable even as it came rushing upwards toward me. Then, quick! lie still again and wait for it to gradually sink to the unfathomable depths below my bed--a portal to an unimaginably terrifying abyss.

That monster disappeared as I grew older. Died.

But it has returned.

threeifbyspace.net

Steven Moffat, the writer of Dr. Who (Series 8, Episode 4, 2014) "Listen," reached into my darkest childhood horrors and exhumed the monster under my bed.

"You wake up—or you think you do—and there’s someone in the dark, someone close. Or you think there might be. So you sit up, and turn on the light. And the room looks different at night. It ticks and creaks and breathes. And you tell yourself there’s nobody there. Nobody watching, nobody listening. Nobody there at all. And you very nearly believe it. You really, really, try. And then… {a hand reaches out from under the bed}."

Available on Netflix. Sweet dreams!