Mine

By the time eight o'clock rolled around, it was seven year old Kyla's bedtime. Through yawns she insisted that she be allowed to stay up longer, but she still found herself being carried upstairs by her father. It wasn't fair. Jake got to stay up longer and he was only two years older than her! How was that fair?

Nonetheless, with her favourite stuffed fox in her grasp, she was carried up the stairs and into her bedroom where her father tucked her in. She'd long ago been changed into her pyjamas, shortly after her bath in fact, at which time she'd also brushed her teeth. With those tasks already completed, she was able now to just crawl under the covers and set sail for dream land.

"Daddy, make sure there are no monsters under the bed, 'kay?"

He grinned, getting down on his hands and knees, pulling up the bed skirt and calling under the bed. "Any monsters under there?" He demanded to know in a stern voice. Of course no one answered. "No? Good!"

Kyla giggled, though did feel safer now. She'd never seen any monsters under the bed herself, but it was like a child's instinct to know that they were there. And it was also within a child's knowledge that the grown-ups, especially parents, could make those monsters go away. The monsters were scared of grown-ups and even more so of parents.

"Even if there are any monsters under the bed, they'll be afraid of the light," her father told her as he sat on the edge of her bed and pointed to the nightlight. He smiled when he saw her nod and put on a brave grin. "And Mr. Fox here will protect you, too."

The girl's grin fell to a look of annoyance. "His name's not Mr. Fox, daddy! It's Pie!"

"Of course, sweetheart, I'm sorry. Pie will protect you."

The stuffed creature had been named Pie after the girl's favourite food. While Apple Pie was her favourite, she'd opted for not attaching the apple part to the name. Pie suited the stuffed animal just fine.

Pie had first been given to her a few years back as a birthday gift. While Kyla had been able to tell right away that the toy wasn't brand new, she'd welcomed the little fox with open arms. Her face had lit up at its cuteness and it was immediately sucked into her grasp and had since very seldom been let go. No matter where she went Pie just had to go to. To school, the movies, to friend's houses, to grandpa's, to birthday parties, to church; they had yet to find a place that was an exception. Even when Pie went into the wash, she would sit there in front of the washer and drier until he came out. Nothing would deter her from this.

But of course Pie would protect her. Despite the small patches of fur missing, the fact that it looked like his tail could fall off at any second and that one eye had fallen out and upon being sowed back in place now stuck out slightly farther than the other, Pie was still strong enough to protect her. There was no way the monsters could beat this little fox.

She smiled again, content with the thought that her best pal would protect her and she hugged him to her chest under the covers. Her father's grin returned as well.

"See, you've got nothing to worry about." He bent down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Goodnight, daddy," she called after him as he closed her bedroom door.

Kyla stared around her dark room in silence for a long moment. Her eyes adjusted and finally picked up the light that the nightlight gave off, which reassured her once again. The light always kept the monsters away, even if her daddy somehow (she didn't see how) hadn't managed to scare them away. And then she couldn't forget Pie, who she now kissed on the top of his head and turned over to go to sleep.

With a peaceful expression on her face she fell into a slumber, having long forgotten her adamant protests of how early it was.

It wasn't until several hours later that she'd wake up once again, which in itself was unusual. She usually slept right through until she got up to watch her seven-o'clock-in-the-morning cartoons. Yet Kyla found herself waking up at eleven o'clock.

She sat up, rubbing her eyes and trying to figure out what was out of the ordinary. Besides the fact that her shoulder-length brown hair was in shambles, she could tell that something just wasn't right. She reached beside her to pick up Pie, only to find that he wasn't there. A strike of panic ran through her.

"Pie?" she whispered frantically as she searched all around her and under the covers. "Pie, where'd you go?"

She concluded from her investigation of the bed that Pie wasn't there. Cautiously, she decided to peer over the edge. Maybe he'd fallen down? So, with her blankets pulled up over her head as she lay on her stomach, she glanced over the edge of the bed, first in the direction of the nightlight.

"Pie?" she called out again, still in a whisper. Pie wasn't there.

She continued along the edge of her bed, growing more and more frightened the farther away she got from the light. It wasn't until she came to the foot of the bed that she spotted her beloved friend.

"Pie!" she cried out happily and quickly reached off the edge of the bed to scoop him up. In doing so she almost fell to the floor, but managed to keep herself on her bed. "How'd you get down there, Pie?"

How indeed. It was quite the ways from the head of the bed, where he had been, to the foot of the bed, where he was, so it didn't make much sense to the young girl. Regardless, she dusted some nonexistent dust off of him and took Pie back into her arms as she turned to go back to sleep.

She allowed the shield of the blanket to fall off of her as she turned around and crawled up towards her pillow. In the process, her pyjamas, a nightgown, got all twisted up around her and she had to adjust it. With Pie tucked under her left arm she fought with the gown, pulling it from under her knees rather than just getting up and fixing it that way.

Kyla paused a moment when it felt like someone was trying to tug Pie out from under her arm. She stopped and turned around, glaring into the darkness as if expecting to see her brother there playing some cruel trick on her. It wouldn't be the first time. But no one was there, only the darkness around her and the silence of the night. Then who was it that had pulled on Pie?

For now, though slightly afraid, she shrugged it off and thought maybe she'd imagined it. It couldn't possibly be a monster, right? Her daddy scared them off, and then there was the light, and Pie couldn't possibly be captured by them. No! That was impossible! Unthinkable! Only a fool would believe such a notion.

Yet again suddenly she felt that tugging. She hadn't even managed to try getting back under her covers and this time the tug was on Pie's front legs. She was horrified to see the short little legs lift into the air and be tugged on even though she could see no one doing it. Fear swept over her and she shrieked, but the tugging on the stuffed creature continued.

"No! Pie's mine!" she told the invisible being forcefully, though with a shaking voice.

She expected her daddy to come in and save her and help her against this invisible force trying to take Pie, maybe even her brother would come help, but as she looked around she heard no footsteps coming down the hall. Saw no one opening the door. Why weren't they coming?! Why?!

"G-go away, monster!" she shouted, holding Pie with one hand while swinging at the one tugging with the other. The stuffed fox's paws fell back into their normal place and she quickly hugged Pie to her chest, trying to hide him in her arms. She also dove under her blankets for extra protection and just lay there shaking and crying.

She shrieked again when the blankets flew off of her and across the room, falling over her nightlight and even causing it to unplug. Kyla held her eyes shut tightly and continued to clutch Pie to her chest, but suddenly felt the being pulling on her arms.

"No! Daddy! Daddy! Help!"

Her daddy wasn't coming though and she still couldn't figure out why. Maybe the monsters had gotten to him, too! No!

"Daddy!" Tears were streaming down her cheeks at this point, but still the being continued to accost her.

She dared open her eyes and wished she hadn't. She saw before her now the form of another young child. The child, a young girl, looked even younger than she was, or maybe around the same age. Kyla could barely make out her features at first, but they began to settle and she could clearly see the young girl kneeling on her bed and scrabbling to get the stuffed fox out of her arms. The look on the girl's face scared Kyla even more.

"Daddy!" she tried screaming out again, this time also kicking at the monster that looked like a little girl.

The girl's expression fell as she got kicked backwards and she fell off the bed. She shook her head, tossing about the braid of red hair before scrambling back up on the bed. Heedless of Kyla's wails, the girl threw herself back at the other girl and began once again trying to pull the stuffed fox away from her.

"Mine!" Kyla heard the girl's voice hiss out for the first time.

"No! Pie's mine! My daddy gave him to me!"

"Mine!" the girl continued to insist.

"No!"

Kyla was kicking and screaming, afraid of the darkness and especially afraid of this strange little girl. What did a monster want with her Pie? Weren't the monsters supposed to be afraid of Pie? That's what he daddy had always told her! That's what had always proven to be true! Why wasn't this monster afraid?!

"Mine!"

Kyla screamed much louder this time, which seemed to shock the monster and cause it to back off for a moment. Risking being sucked under her bed by more monsters, she jumped off of her bed and ran towards the light switch. The monster leapt after her, grabbing Kyla by the ankles and making her fall to the floor. She cried out in pain as she fell, but didn't dare use her arms to stop the fall, more concerned with keeping Pie in her possession.

The monster flipped her over, straddling the girl's stomach and trying once again to get at the stuffed fox. Through her screaming and her crying Kyla saw the look of intense irritation and determination on the monster's face, but she wasn't about to give up Pie. No way!

She screamed really loudly again, feeling her voice crack, but continued anyway. Her limbs flailed, though she was taking special care to keep Pie away from the monster's grasp. Somehow in the fray she'd managed to throw the monster off of her again, and didn't care to figure out how. She scrambled up again, tripping slightly on her nightdress before managing to reach the light switch.

When the light flooded the room, Kyla looked back, noticing that the monster had disappeared. She clutched Pie to her chest still, her breathing ragged on her hoarse voice and her whole form shaking. Terrified hazel eyes glanced around the room, though saw no one else there. There was no way she'd imagined the whole thing. No way.

Her blanket still covered the place where her nightlight should have been and she could feel bruises beginning to form on her knees and elbows, probably other places on her arms and legs, too.

"P-p-pie… what just h-happened?" she spoke quietly, though received no reply from the fox. She didn't press the matter.

She opened the door to her bedroom, not daring to turn out the light though, and looked out into the hall. It was dark except for what light poured out of her room. Her legs shook and she swallowed hard as she debated moving forward into the darkness. She was terrified, but she wanted to know if her daddy and her brother were okay.

A cautious step was taken to the world outside her room. When nothing happened, the other foot came up along side it and she stood there motionless for a moment.

'Daddy's room is just two doors away and Jake's is right across the hall,' she told herself silently, trying to gather her courage.

So Jake's room was the first that she visited. Her small hand reached and fell on the cool doorknob where it would sit for a minute until she gathered the nerve to finally twist it. As quietly as she could, she turned the knob and opened the door a crack to peer in. She was shocked to find that everything seemed perfectly normal in her brother's room. As usual, he was lying on his stomach, one foot hanging off the bed and his arms curled up under his chest. And, most importantly, he was breathing, too. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

She closed the door just as quietly as she'd opened it and looked towards her father's room. To get there she'd have to venture deeper into the darkness for the light died away before it reached his door. And she didn't even know how she would be able to see him in the dark; he was a grown-up, so he didn't need to sleep with any light on.

Pushing herself forward and looking to Pie for reassurance, she made her way down the hall towards her father's bedroom. The floorboards had yet to obtain any creaking qualities considering they were quite new, so her walk was silent. When she reached his door, she took to the same measures with which she'd opened Jake's.

Slowly, she turned the knob and pushed the door open, though with his she opened it wider since the light didn't reach it. From within she could hear her father, but couldn't see him. He was breathing, even snoring the slightest. Was he perfectly fine, as well? This didn't make any sense. If they were both fine, why didn't they come to help her? Had the monster somehow made it so they couldn't hear her cries?

Kyla looked back down the hall towards her bedroom, but daren't go back now. Despite the light, her body refused to go back in that direction, immensely frightened that maybe the monster had become immune to the light as well.

For a minute, she stood there unsure of what to do. Finally, she decided to venture into the darkness of her father's room. Surely there were no monsters in there, right? He probably scared them all away.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, though only enough so that she could make out the shapes of things, which was enough to make her way over to her dad's bed. She proceeded to gently prod his arm when she was close enough to him, but at first he didn't react at all. So she poked him harder.

"Hmm?" he murmured upon waking, blinking and trying to figure out what had woken him up. His bleary eyes couldn't see anything or anyone, so he closed them again, about to go back to sleep, but felt another poke. This time he turned on his bedside lamp only to see his daughter standing there. "What is it, Kyla?"

He glanced at the time, seeing that it was only about eleven twenty five and he sighed slightly. He'd only gone to bed maybe an hour ago, but when he looked at his daughter's face, he saw that she was clearly terrified of something. And he saw that she'd been crying, too.

"What is it, hun?" he asked, sitting up now and pulling her up onto the bed beside him. He rubbed his tired eyes absently, waiting for a response.

"There's a monster in my room, daddy," she told him.

He was shocked to hear that her voice was hoarse and low. He almost hadn't heard her, but with the way her voice sounded it sounded to him like she'd been screaming. Yet he hadn't heard anything.

"A monster?" he questioned and saw her nod. "But we scared the monsters away."

"This one came back!" She looked at him, her eyes frantic. "The monster tried to steal Pie!"

The man could see his daughter clearly clutching the creature as tightly as she could. It was obvious that she very much believed that someone had been trying to take her toy from her, but he doubted that someone actually had.

"Come see, daddy!" she said, pulling him along by the hand and he only followed.

Walking down the hall, he saw that he light was on and as they got closer to the room he began to see that it was in slight disarray. He saw that her blanket had been tossed and that the nightlight was out, but there was nothing else that he could see out of the ordinary in the room. He did see now, however, the red marks on his daughter's knees and elbows.

"What happened?" he asked, crouched down and gently touching her elbow to show what he meant. Indeed, he was very tired, but he knew this wouldn't go away until she was calmed down.

"The monster attacked me and made me fall down." Kyla saw from the look in her father's eyes that he didn't quite believe her. "It's true, daddy!"

"But why would the monster do that?"

"Because it wanted Pie!" Hadn't he been listening to anything she said? Her eyes began to well up with tears again.

"Why did it want Pie?" he asked as he tried very much to at least appear like he believed her, but he could tell something about his expression was betraying him.

"The monster said that Pie was theirs."

He paused a moment, blinking. "And what did this monster look like?"

"Like a little girl. It had red hair in a long braid and it looked younger than me. It had a scary face, too."

"Like a little girl?"

"Yes!"

He thought long and hard for a moment, deciding what it was he should do. It didn't take him long to come to his decision.

"Well, how about we take care of this monster tomorrow and for tonight you and Pie can come sleep in my room, huh?"

Her look brightened and she instantly lost some of the fear that had been clouding her eyes. She nodded vigourously, but didn't say anything. She watched as her daddy stood up and flicked off her bedroom light and she then took his hand and followed him back down the now very dark hallway to his bedroom. She crawled under the covers on the opposite side of the bed that he slept on and kissed Pie on the head again before she closed her eyes.

Her father sat on the bed beside her for a moment, watching her and wondering. Wondering because from what Kyla had just described, the little girl 'monster' that had attacked her sounded just like a young girl he'd read about a few years back who'd died in a car crash. She'd been on her way, according to the papers, to see a movie with her family when they were sideswiped by someone who didn't stop at the stop light. None of the family in the little car had survived.

But as far as he knew, Kyla hadn't heard about that report at all and he didn't see how it would have any connection to the little stuffed fox. Yet somehow it did. Kyla couldn't have seen this girl's ghost, could she? And had this girl really been the previous owner of the now dubbed Pie?

'No. She probably just had a nightmare. It's all coincidence,' he decided silently, turning and lying back in bed now. "Goodnight, Kyla," he said as he flicked off the bedside lamp, but didn't hear a reply from his daughter. Dismissing it all as a nightmare once again, he turned over and fell back to sleep.

The next morning the incident seemed to be long forgotten and all through the day there had been no mention of it. Kyla's father wondered if maybe she'd just imagined the whole thing and didn't even remember it now. But when it came time to go to bed, she refused to even enter her room.

"Come on, Kyla. There's nothing here to be afraid of," her father told her. He'd long since made her bed back up and put the nightlight back in, but yet she still shook her head.

"The monster will come back!" she told him, her voice still slightly hoarse. Pie hadn't left her side all day, which was normal, but she'd been clinging to the fox with more conviction than she had been before.

"No it won't, sweetheart. I'll bet it got scared away when you came to get me," he said.

After a minute or two of them both just standing there she took a few steps into the room. Then a few more before getting into bed as quickly as possible. She scrambled to get under the covers, holding them tightly around her even as her father pulled them up. He kissed her on the forehead before standing and heading towards the door.

"I'll even leave the door open for you tonight, okay?" he turned and said to her before leaving. He saw her nod, yet she still looked frightened. He was sure she would find that there was nothing wrong, though. "Just call if you need anything. Goodnight, hun."

"Goodnight, daddy."

She heard his footsteps trailing back down the stairs. It was quite the bit brighter in her room considering her nightlight and the light that was still on from the hallway. Because of this, she relaxed slightly and cuddled up with Pie with the intent to fall asleep.

Maybe ten minutes had passed when she was finally almost asleep, but she started back awake when she heard something. Her eyes flew open and she began to tremble as she saw the door closing all by itself. When it was closed, she heard it click and heard the slight rattle of the doorknob as if someone had let it go.

"Daddy?" she asked. No response. She just knew that once again he wouldn't hear her.

She brought the covers up over her head, daring not to even lessen her grip on either them or Pie in the slightest. Nothing happened for a long moment and she lifted the edge of the covers just enough so that she could see out. Her nightlight was still on, and she couldn't see anyone there.

Quickly, she got up and ran over to her door, aiming to head downstairs and get her daddy again. But when she twisted the doorknob, she found that the door was locked. Panicking, she fought to open the door, twisting the knob back and forth, but it would only go so far and it wouldn't open.

"Daddy!" she screamed, pounding on the door with her fist.

She turned sharply as she felt someone tugging on Pie again. She didn't see anyone there at all and the tugging didn't continue. But then she heard a whispered hiss of a voice.

"Mine…"

And she screamed.

End