My family has never had much money, so I’ve stayed in this same house since I was a little girl. I sleep by the windowsill, the wall is always cold next to me.
At night, when I can’t sleep, I roll up the blinds and open the windows. I look at the stars and the large oak outside my house. I watch it change every season. From brown leaves, to bare branches, to buds growing and then into large, green leaves.
It’s winter now, the tree is bare and it’s a night where I can’t sleep.
The door in my room keeps creaking, and the wind is rustling the branches of the big oak outside.
I roll up the blinds and watch it’s branches violently jerk back and forth.
But this time, there’s a figure at the base of the tree. It’s humanoid, tall and thinner than any human could be. What I assume to be it’s head is large, like those pictures of pumpkins in growing contests.
It’s eyes are a glowing, neon, shade of yellow. The… thing stares straight at me. It edges closer to me house. I quickly drop back into bed and stare at the ceiling, much too scared to move. My breathing’s heavy and the door seems to creak louder than earlier.
I’m sure I passed out, because when I wake up it’s bright outside and the sunlight is streaming into my room. I groan as I lift my self from my bed, but my stretching is interrupted my my mothers worried yelling.
‘The chickens are dead!’ She screams, a frantic edge to her voice. I hurry downstairs, accidently knocking over my guitar.
A bloody mess is covering the garden when I open the front door, and my mother is sobbing, crouched over one of the chicken’s carcass.
The chickens had always been my mother’s favourite pets. Even before the dogs and the rabbit. I glance around and look for Toast (the rabbit). She’s untouched, sitting next to the gate.
After comforting my mum I make my self a cup of coffee. I’m not that good at helping people cope so I go back upstairs. Something’s off up here. The guitar’s back on it’s stand. But maybe I’m imagining thing’s from earlier and I never knocked it over, whatever.
It’s night again now. I can’t sleep still. I… can’t really remember what I did last night, I’m sure I was awake though. I roll up the blinds and quickly jolt back. Something’s on my roof. It’s too skinny to be a human but it’s head is as large as one of those pumpkins you see in a growing contest. It’s staring at me with yellow, neon eyes. I’m transfixed, I couldn’t stop my self from opening the window if I wanted to.
I reach out a hand and it scuttles up on it’s skinny legs. It’s head twists around and it nuzzles against my hand like a cat. It moves my hand back and sticks one of it’s front legs into my window, then it’s other, then it’s back legs. It towers over me on my bed, a clicking noise coming from it’s pumpkin smile. It heaves out a disgusting mucus onto me, then it heaves again, this time millions of bugs come out of it’s mouth. Earwigs, worms, maggots, cockroaches. Anything that you could think of.
They crawl over me and they worm their way into my ears and my mouth and my nose. The monster is watching still, towering over me still. It comes closer to me, it uses it’s front leg to stroke my head. I can feel an itch under my skin and I look at my arm. The outline of millions of bugs crawling on my flesh is the sight that greets me. I look back at the monster, it smiles at me again, it has no teeth and it’s tongue is split like a snakes.
I can feel the bugs crawl up my neck, their little legs on my muscle. They crawl into my head.
I can’t think for my self now, they are moving my limbs. It’s all fuzzy now, I think I’m… asleep now. I let them control me.