In celebration of the six 5-star reviews Where the Monsters Are received on #amazon, I did a giveaway for the best under-the-bed and in-the-closet monster encounters. Here are the winning entries.
I have a vague memory from when I was 3... I'm not sure if it's real or was some sort of prank. My parents claim it was real. So, for what it's worth:
I was three or four, and I remember trying to sleep but I couldn't because there was this loud music coming from the living room. Every time I snuck out of bed to open my bedroom door the music would stop the instant I twisted the doorknob. It wasn't the music I was used to either... something was different... it was classical: like the music that would play in old fashioned balls. I heard laughing and lots of voices, but no one was home except my parents. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well at all that night. The music didn't stop until the sunrise. It was around sunrise that I stepped out of my room and walked down the carpeted stairs. As soon as I set foot on the hardwood, I felt something wet and icky. I looked down to see the entire floor was covered in green slime. I wasn't scared, but excited. I ran back upstairs to wake my parents and told them "the ghosts had a party last night!" They seemed puzzled by the weird slime that seemed to evaporate when you touched it or tried to save it in a plastic bag. My grandmother left the house earlier that morning for work and said there had been no such thing on the floor... The memory - although vague - still haunts me.
Tina Rooker
My worst childhood encounter with an under-the-bed monster: I was 8 yrs old and turned off the lights fast, running for the bed so that 'he' couldn't get me. I was careful to wrap myself tight like a burrito so that nothing of skin was available over the edge of the bed or on the bed but somehow during the night I awoke from a nightmare so fierce that I had to get up. The problem was that I couldn't! I was so frozen with fear that I was unable to move, barely able to breathe and most definitely unable to scream for my mom. I tried so hard but it was as if my windpipe was being cut off from the monster standing at the foot of my bed. I have no idea how long I was frozen like that but it seemed an eternity! He was staring at me with huge fangs , claws and breath that I swear I can still smell to this day from the foot of my bed and I was completely and utterly catatonic! I have never gotten over the experience and still sleep completely wrapped neck to toe like a burrito in case he comes back, no matter how damn hot it gets in summer (I'll pay extra for the electric bill to cover the A/C).. I just know he's not done with me yet.
Steve Chaput
When I was about 12 my father, who put up outdoor billboards for a living, told me that he would let me choose a billboard that I could use in place of the flowered wallpaper in my bedroom. There was a great automobile ad that showed a family picking up pumpkins to put in the back of their station wagon. A great, colorful Autumn scene. My dad put it up and on the second night I woke up and saw what looked like the face of the devil staring down from the corner of my room. I screamed and my mother came in. Apparently the leaves of one of the trees, shadowed and partially showing sunlight took the form (in my mind) of a demon's face. I had to live with that for the next three years, because my father told me I was 'being childish'.
RJ Kennett
Pfft. Childhood schmildhood. My worst monster-under-the-bed moment came as an adult, having a bad reaction to medication that caused hallucinations. Visual, auditory, and TACTILE. I actually felt the clawed hands grab my ankles and wrists, saw the red-eyed, white-furred werewolf and heard an odd, but loud, buzzing moving around the room.
Now, fortunately I'm an adult, so I figured it was all in my mind and went to sleep anyway - but it was still freaky and I didn't sleep well!
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