p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"The door was opening. I could tell by the narrow wedge of light that started to spill into the room and cascade over my bed, a streak of terrifying illumination. I couldn't even comprehend that it was finally happening, that he was finally here, and that I was finally going to die./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"In all reality, I really shouldn't be scared. I had known that this would happen ever since The Change, but nevertheless I could feel the anxiety blooming in my chest, trying to claw its way out through my sternum. I was glad I didn't actually sleep in my bed at night, but curled up in the bottom of my closet in a nest of blankets. You tend to do strange things like this when you've been hunted down your entire life, and I had a very difficult time explaining this to the chiropractor without mentioning the monster./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I could hear the slight scuffling noise of long claws searching for my light switch, an asset of my room I had overlooked when moving into the house. It was one of those irritating switches you could never find right away; the kind that was set too low on the wall, too far on your right side instead of your left. The door practically covered it. I felt a cool chill of fear sweep over me, the kind that makes you think you emmight/em pass out before you even hear the verdict of your situation. /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emThe Monsters under your bed don't normally mean harm, most are actually rather docile and friendly. They often are the "Imaginary Friends" that children play with, and the creatures that cause irritability and pigheadeness in teenagers. The explanation for this is simple. Monsters secrete hormones that make them difficult for adults to see; these hormones clash with the already abundant hormones filling the teenagers. Naturally, this does not effect everyone the same. They also cause feelings of premonition in adults, especially pregnant women. While Monsters tend to be very similar in temperament and personality to humans, certain things can turn them into /emmonstersem. /em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"The door made a startling noise that sounded as if it had been slammed against the cheap drywall that partitioned the rooms in my house. If my calculations were correct, my monster would be very close to the light switch soon. I slowly opened the door to my room, and dropped to my stomach to crawl like an infant. I edged along the wall of my room, so as to peer around my bed to see his progress. I still couldn't think. My adrenaline was trying to tell me to get away from the situation, and my brain was fighting it with every bit of willpower I had. I still wasn't able to process a legitimate plan that might be able to save my life. /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emSometimes Monsters taste human blood. A Monster is no longer a Monster after they experience the flavor of human flesh, and my Monster had the bad luck to accidentally taste me. /em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emI had fallen off of my bike and my Monster went to see if I was okay. I was 13, and my Monster and I had been together longer than most. I was developing more slowly than most girls my age, which I believe was the cause. My Monster had started becoming hazy however; I was positive that within the next two months I would no longer be able to see or remember my dear friend. He went to clean off the blood from my scraped knee for me and habitually went to lick his paw, not noticing the scarlet stain./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"There was the window and the door to my room, and they were my only options for entering and exiting my room. I took the lesser of the two evils, and decided that I wouldn't let the creature see me; I would break for the window and vault through the screen onto my roof. Realistically, this was my only option. I tensed, and was about to bolt./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emClick./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"A flash of dull yellow light from my single bulb in the middle of the room went on in what felt like slow motion. I slunk further back against the far corner of the wall, hoping to hide in the shadows for a bit longer,to buy myself just a little bit of time./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"My common sense broke through the void of unintelligible thoughts swarming my head, and I made an awkward dash towards the window. I slammed straight into it, and struggled to open it. I was forced to run my hand along the bottom of the pane and flip the lock on the window because I had locked it before I had gone to bed. I then felt a piercing pain in my back. My knees disobediently gave out, and my legs followed suit. A sickening crack sent my head reeling, and I massaged the spot, uncertain for a few blurry moments what was happening.I squeezed my eyes shut tight in a final, futile attempt to hide./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emAfter the unintentional consumption, their skin begins to boil off, sloughing off layers of their epidermis. This leaves them writhing in pain on the ground in a puddle of some unidentifiable liquid that slowly seeps into the ground. Snapping noises very similar to the pop! that a .22 makes when shot begins to fill the air, and their skeleton begins to shift, as if they are made up of tectonic plates. The eyes actually recede into the head, leaving blank sockets and their teeth all fall onto the ground with a clatter. Grinding and crackling soon follows as the process begins to slow and the skeleton falls into place. The Monster begins to take the shape of a /emmonsterem./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emI know this, because when I was thirteen, I witnessed my best friend turn into a monster. I will never forget the look on his face when the process began. I will never forget the realization of what had occured./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emSHHHHHLLLLLLIICKKKKK./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"That noise. The kind that slithers out of your nightmares and into your head. The one you think you hear in your closet or underneath your bed at night. The creepy dragging noise you think you hear when you are alone in the house. The one that makes you sprint up the basement stairs, or into your room at night when you return from the bathroom. The one that puts your heart into hyper drive and sends your body into a cold sweat. emThat/em noise./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emSHHHHHLLLLLLIICKKKKK./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;" A single fat glob of a salty liquid dribbles from my eye, and I am caught up in a full-body sob. My body quavers and trembles uncontrollably, and chills run up and down my extremities. Waves of prickly gooseflesh flush across my arms quickly while my own tears and snot begin to choke me. I was literally going to die of fear./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emEveryone's /emmonsterem looks different, because they take the shape of a creature that embodies every possible thing you fear. One thing that every monster "has" is their lack skin; they bleed constantly, leaving bloody tracks wherever they go. Their capillaries actually break open when they walk because they cannot handle the pressure of the entire body weight. They live with this curse until they die. This can only happen, as you the reader may have guessed, when their Human dies. And so the hunt begins./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I felt cold, long, sharp claws drag across my face, sending even more prominent chills throughout me. Then a familiar guttural gurgle softly whispered to me, an amiable and calm voice I haven't heard in a long time./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emMy friend./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"He came back for me, after all of these years I ran away, terrified./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emMy /embestem friend, actually. Nobody knows you like your Monster./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I hug his bloody flesh softly, so I don't pop any more sensitive capillaries. I feel strong arms wrap around me as well. Crimson heat soaks into my clothes, but instead of spreading chills up my back again, it warms me. The monster whispers soft and sweet nothings to me that make me feel tired and calm. Ancient childhood memories come back in a flood, and I know what I have to do./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;""Its okay. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," I sooth, though who I am soothing is a mystery to me. The real monster in this situation has become very clear to me now."We can go on now, I'm ready." /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emWhat is death, exactly? /em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I feel comatose. My eyelids begin to fall like a curtain over my red and irritated eyes. My head slowly nods, and I feel very peaceful. So sleepy and calm I almost didn't feel the pain of something sharp plunging into my breastbone before I expire./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"Almost./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;" /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"In all reality, I really shouldn't be scared. I had known that this would happen ever since The Change, but nevertheless I could feel the anxiety blooming in my chest, trying to claw its way out through my sternum. I was glad I didn't actually sleep in my bed at night, but curled up in the bottom of my closet in a nest of blankets. You tend to do strange things like this when you've been hunted down your entire life, and I had a very difficult time explaining this to the chiropractor without mentioning the monster./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I could hear the slight scuffling noise of long claws searching for my light switch, an asset of my room I had overlooked when moving into the house. It was one of those irritating switches you could never find right away; the kind that was set too low on the wall, too far on your right side instead of your left. The door practically covered it. I felt a cool chill of fear sweep over me, the kind that makes you think you emmight/em pass out before you even hear the verdict of your situation. /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emThe Monsters under your bed don't normally mean harm, most are actually rather docile and friendly. They often are the "Imaginary Friends" that children play with, and the creatures that cause irritability and pigheadeness in teenagers. The explanation for this is simple. Monsters secrete hormones that make them difficult for adults to see; these hormones clash with the already abundant hormones filling the teenagers. Naturally, this does not effect everyone the same. They also cause feelings of premonition in adults, especially pregnant women. While Monsters tend to be very similar in temperament and personality to humans, certain things can turn them into /emmonstersem. /em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"The door made a startling noise that sounded as if it had been slammed against the cheap drywall that partitioned the rooms in my house. If my calculations were correct, my monster would be very close to the light switch soon. I slowly opened the door to my room, and dropped to my stomach to crawl like an infant. I edged along the wall of my room, so as to peer around my bed to see his progress. I still couldn't think. My adrenaline was trying to tell me to get away from the situation, and my brain was fighting it with every bit of willpower I had. I still wasn't able to process a legitimate plan that might be able to save my life. /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emSometimes Monsters taste human blood. A Monster is no longer a Monster after they experience the flavor of human flesh, and my Monster had the bad luck to accidentally taste me. /em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emI had fallen off of my bike and my Monster went to see if I was okay. I was 13, and my Monster and I had been together longer than most. I was developing more slowly than most girls my age, which I believe was the cause. My Monster had started becoming hazy however; I was positive that within the next two months I would no longer be able to see or remember my dear friend. He went to clean off the blood from my scraped knee for me and habitually went to lick his paw, not noticing the scarlet stain./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"There was the window and the door to my room, and they were my only options for entering and exiting my room. I took the lesser of the two evils, and decided that I wouldn't let the creature see me; I would break for the window and vault through the screen onto my roof. Realistically, this was my only option. I tensed, and was about to bolt./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emClick./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"A flash of dull yellow light from my single bulb in the middle of the room went on in what felt like slow motion. I slunk further back against the far corner of the wall, hoping to hide in the shadows for a bit longer,to buy myself just a little bit of time./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"My common sense broke through the void of unintelligible thoughts swarming my head, and I made an awkward dash towards the window. I slammed straight into it, and struggled to open it. I was forced to run my hand along the bottom of the pane and flip the lock on the window because I had locked it before I had gone to bed. I then felt a piercing pain in my back. My knees disobediently gave out, and my legs followed suit. A sickening crack sent my head reeling, and I massaged the spot, uncertain for a few blurry moments what was happening.I squeezed my eyes shut tight in a final, futile attempt to hide./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emAfter the unintentional consumption, their skin begins to boil off, sloughing off layers of their epidermis. This leaves them writhing in pain on the ground in a puddle of some unidentifiable liquid that slowly seeps into the ground. Snapping noises very similar to the pop! that a .22 makes when shot begins to fill the air, and their skeleton begins to shift, as if they are made up of tectonic plates. The eyes actually recede into the head, leaving blank sockets and their teeth all fall onto the ground with a clatter. Grinding and crackling soon follows as the process begins to slow and the skeleton falls into place. The Monster begins to take the shape of a /emmonsterem./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emI know this, because when I was thirteen, I witnessed my best friend turn into a monster. I will never forget the look on his face when the process began. I will never forget the realization of what had occured./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emSHHHHHLLLLLLIICKKKKK./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"That noise. The kind that slithers out of your nightmares and into your head. The one you think you hear in your closet or underneath your bed at night. The creepy dragging noise you think you hear when you are alone in the house. The one that makes you sprint up the basement stairs, or into your room at night when you return from the bathroom. The one that puts your heart into hyper drive and sends your body into a cold sweat. emThat/em noise./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emSHHHHHLLLLLLIICKKKKK./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;" A single fat glob of a salty liquid dribbles from my eye, and I am caught up in a full-body sob. My body quavers and trembles uncontrollably, and chills run up and down my extremities. Waves of prickly gooseflesh flush across my arms quickly while my own tears and snot begin to choke me. I was literally going to die of fear./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emEveryone's /emmonsterem looks different, because they take the shape of a creature that embodies every possible thing you fear. One thing that every monster "has" is their lack skin; they bleed constantly, leaving bloody tracks wherever they go. Their capillaries actually break open when they walk because they cannot handle the pressure of the entire body weight. They live with this curse until they die. This can only happen, as you the reader may have guessed, when their Human dies. And so the hunt begins./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I felt cold, long, sharp claws drag across my face, sending even more prominent chills throughout me. Then a familiar guttural gurgle softly whispered to me, an amiable and calm voice I haven't heard in a long time./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emMy friend./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"He came back for me, after all of these years I ran away, terrified./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emMy /embestem friend, actually. Nobody knows you like your Monster./em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I hug his bloody flesh softly, so I don't pop any more sensitive capillaries. I feel strong arms wrap around me as well. Crimson heat soaks into my clothes, but instead of spreading chills up my back again, it warms me. The monster whispers soft and sweet nothings to me that make me feel tired and calm. Ancient childhood memories come back in a flood, and I know what I have to do./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;""Its okay. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," I sooth, though who I am soothing is a mystery to me. The real monster in this situation has become very clear to me now."We can go on now, I'm ready." /p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"emWhat is death, exactly? /em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"I feel comatose. My eyelids begin to fall like a curtain over my red and irritated eyes. My head slowly nods, and I feel very peaceful. So sleepy and calm I almost didn't feel the pain of something sharp plunging into my breastbone before I expire./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"Almost./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;" /p