Monster From Within-Chapter 1

This is only the beginning. I will finish it in time.


Shannon yawned and reached over to turn off her bedside lamp. Another long day ahead of her tomorrow and if she could just get some sleep tonight she’d be fine. The past week’s sleep had been full of nightmares that were often hard to come out of in the morning. With a deep sigh, she snuggled her head deeper into the pillow and closed her eyes.

“BZZZZZZZZ”

Shannon, always slow to react to the alarm, reached over and smacked the snooze button. Well, she aimed for the snooze button, but managed to slide the whole clock off the table onto the floor. Damn, she thought, as she reached down to try to grab it in the dark. With her hand, she made her way along the carpet to just under the bed where it had fallen. As she leaned over to see where exactly the thing was, her eyes caught something brown towards the foot of her bed just barely peeking out from underneath it.

“What is that?” she whispered to herself as she tried to focus on it enough to figure out what in fact it was. But the sun had yet to rise and the room was filled with darkness, making Shannon unable to make out what exactly the object was. From the head of the bed, it appeared to be brown and silky.

“A ponytail?” Shannon mumbled. Actually it did look like the end of a ponytail. Just as Shannon decided that one of her many hairpieces had gotten dropped under her bed, the hair moved. Shannon screamed and jerked her head up, smacking it against the bedside table.

“Shit!” Shannon cursed loudly as tears came stung her eyes and her head pounded. Raising her hand up to check the damage, she could feel the bump that had already risen from the collision with the table. The throbbing almost made her forget what she had seen. However, once the pain had subsided to a very dull ache, the image of the hair moving came back. Shannon bit back another scream as she closed her eyes against the picture in her mind. Maybe if she just slid back down under her covers and buried her head back into the pillows she could forget about it and fall back asleep.

Yeah right, she thought. No the best thing was to turn on the light and check underneath the bed. There was no way she could get back to sleep until she had checked.

Shannon reached over to click on her bedside lamp. At least some light in the room could help her calm down enough to investigate. However, that was not to be. As she clicked the lamp on, nothing happened. Nothing. No light. No light bulb blowing at the most unfortunate moment. Nothing. That’s strange, she thought. I know last night it was working fine.

Frustrated with herself and desperately wanting to go back to sleep, Shannon decided to just get down and look for herself. She threw back the covers and slid her feet from the warmth of the blankets into the cool air and onto the floor. Suddenly her fears came back. She felt completely vulnerable with her bare feet down, almost waiting for someone, or something, to grab them. But nothing did. Feeling childish, yet still a little afraid, Shannon fell quietly to her knees beside the bed. Slowly she slid her hand barely under the bed hoping to find the hairpiece quickly. Once again, luck seemed to be against her and all she felt was the carpet. Squeezing her eyes shut as if this might protect her from being attacked by the hairpiece, Shannon gradually slid down onto the carpet, inch by inch it seemed, until her stomach rested fully on the floor. Almost too scared now to continue, she turned her head away from the bed, still squeezing her eyes shut.

“Really, Shannon,” she whispered to herself, “how long do you think you can stay down here. Just stop being a chicken shit and look.” The low sound of her voice seemed to calm her a bit and she quickly turned her head towards the bed, resting it against the carpet, yet still keeping her eyes closed.

“One step at a time,” she mumbled again. “You can do it.” Almost as if to dare an attack, Shannon’s eyes flew open and stared into the darkness under the bed. The moon shining through the curtains allowed for a limited viewing area, but Shannon could see about two feet under her bed. There was nothing there. No hairpiece. No dirty socks. Not even a moldy dish she had accidentally pushed under the bed and forgotten about. The thought of being attacked by a dish of green spaghetti suddenly made Shannon laugh.

“Oh god, “ she said. “ I can’t believe I let myself get so scared over nothing. It was probably a mouse.” Although frightened by the idea of a mouse creating it’s home in her walls, knowing who, or what rather, the culprit was would let her sleep easily now. Shannon rolled away from the bed, so she could get up and avoid the bedside table this time. She quickly stood up, facing the window and noticing how bright the moon had gotten and how breathtaking the view was.

“Oh well,” she said, “at least now I can sleep.” Shannon turned around to head back towards bed. Only she never made it that far. Sitting on Shannon’s bed was a girl, only not any girl. Using the moonlight as her only light, Shannon could tell the girl was her height, with shoulder length brown hair, and very dark eyes. Shannon barely held back a scream. In a trance like walk, Shannon stepped closer to the bed to get a clearer look at the girl. When she was about a foot from the bedside, Shannon could no longer hold the scream back, for the girl on Shannon’s bed was Shannon herself.

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