Midnight’s Monster BY CHIANNA BUG!!!!!!! :D

BOOM! CRASH!

 The force of the storm outside shook the entire house.

 Marion Outer sat on her bed watching the storm through her window intently. She figured that if she stared hard enough and long enough at it, she could tire her eyes and finally get some sleep through all the racket going on outside.

 Marion was so focused on being focused that she nearly missed the horse standing beside the Old Pine at the edge of their lawn just near the road.

 “What on earth?” Marion scrambled out of her covers and scrambled closer to the window. Perhaps it was one of Mr. Tunee’s horses.

 Mr. Tunee owned a ranch just down the road and every once in a great while they’d get a visit from an escaped horse.

 Squinting through the heavy lashing rain she tried to make out more of the shaggy creature.

 It looked ginormous! Marion didn’t think she’d ever seen a horse that big before.

 If you were going by hands she figured it could be an easy nineteen. She felt proud of herself for a moment of the calculation. She’d learned a lot about horses during the past year they’d been living here. Mr. Tunee was never stingy when it came to teaching people about horses.

 He’d so far taught her how to tell whether a horse was nervous or angry, how to tell if they needed exercised, and how to measure them by taking your hand and laying it sideways against the horse's body from the ground up to the top of the back, specifically to the spot between the shoulders. The withers. The width of Mr. Tunee’s palm was a “hand” and in this way you could say how big a horse was.

 Marion didn’t think she’d seen this horse before though, even though she couldn’t make out a lot about it she was sure she'd remember seeing a horse like that, just by it’s size!

  Perhaps Mr. Tunee had gotten a new one in?

Considering the horse again she wondered why it wasn’t completely freaking out because of the storm; it was probably the worst one they’d had all year and there was this massive beast just standing there as if it could be a beautiful day with the sun shining and all.

 A sudden movement from the horse in question drew her attention back from her thoughts. At first it just looked like it was going to rear, but then to Marion’s astonishment it looked more coordinated and balanced…she could swear it looked almost like it was standing on its hind legs.

  “Mary!” Came a loud whisper just over her shoulder startling her.

 “Benny! You startled me!” Marion exclaimed recognizing her little brother’s mop of dirty brown hair in a flash of lightning.

 “Mary I’m scared. There’s something outside my window and I think it’s trying to get in.” Benny clung on to her desperately.

 “Aww Benny, we’ve been over this.” Marion carded her fingers through the seven-year-olds hair. “There’s nothing there. Your head's just filled with Halloween stories from your friends at school and the fact that it’s the night before Halloween…come on. I'll check it out for you okay?”

 “Okay. But if it eats you I’m telling Mommy.” Benny insisted.

 “Sure.” Marion led the way out of the room and down the hallway.

 “Can I stay in the hallway while you check it out?” Benny asked.

 “Ok I’ll be out in a minute, Champ.” Marion had to wade through several carefully organized piles of building block toys before she made it to the bed, a quick peek unsurprisingly revealed nothing. The closet was the same and the only thing outside the window was the small cherry tree they had planted there that summer.

 “The only thing outside the window is the cherry tree that you named Apples, and there’s nothing in the closet either.” She reported.

 “That’s a relief.” Benny said coming into the room and walking back to his bed. Then he stopped.

 “There’s nothing under there except your dirty socks.” Marion reassured.

 “I knew that.” He quickly scrambled back into bed. “Goodnight.”

 “Goodnight, Benny.” Marion ruffled his hair and headed for the hallway.

 “Marion?”

 “Yeah?”

“Your the coolest sister. Even if you are a girl.”

 “Thanks Benny. You too, even if you are a boy." Marion headed back to her own room still trying not to laugh.

   When Marion first entered her room she was confused as she was rebuffed by wind. Scrambling across the room she found the source and hastily shoved her window shut cutting out the rain and wind.

 “How on earth did that happen?” She wondered aloud. “Did the latch is break? Uck! What a mess!” Looking down she saw puddles of water all over the floor.

 “I’m going to need towels." Marion groaned turning.

  What she saw made her blood run cold and her breath catch. A second passed and she found it again, letting out a piercing scream so loud it went through the whole house and carried down the road.

 Benny scrambled out of bed at the scream.

 “Marion! Marion?” He called crouching in his doorway. Staring at his sister’s still partly open door. No call answered. All he heard was the creaking of floorboards.

 Cautiously, he crept into the hallway. “Mary?" He whispered when he reached her door.

 BANG!

Benny bolted for his room at the noise that came from inside the room and quickly scrambled under his bed dragging his favorite stuffed elephant with him.

 A few seconds dragged by feeling more like hours then the room flooded with light from the hallway.

 “Marion? Benjamin?” A woman’s voice called.

 “You check on Mary, I’ll check Benny.” A deeper voice followed. There was a creak at Benjamin’s door and then he could see his father’s feet.

 “Benny?”

“Under here Daddy." Benny poked his head out slowly. “Is it gone?”

 “Is what gone, Champ?” Mr. Outer hoisted Benny into his arms and set him on the bed.

 “The monster.”

“Wh—“ Mr. Outer never finished.

 “Robert! Oh Robert! Come quickly! It’s Marion!” Mrs. Outer choked out down the hall.

 “Sally! What’s happened?” A few long strides and he was out the door and down the hallway.

 Quietly, Benny slipped back out of bed and crept to his door peering out.

 “She’s gone. She’s gone. She’s gone.” Mrs. Outer stood sobbing in Mr. Outer’s arms. Beyond them, now that the door was opened all the way, Benny could see the window shutters banging in the fierce face of the storm and rain lashing in through the open window. But no sign of Marion.

*****

Days dragged into weeks, weeks dragged into months, months dragged into years. Police inquiries turning up Benny's story of monsters turned into children psychiatrists, and being bullied at school. So eventually Benny stopped talking about it, but he never forgot. His parents never talked about her and often worked as often and as long as they could to forget their loss and Ben stopped going out during October, especially Halloween. For five years Ben made a ritual about it, he’d lock up every part of his room on the night before Halloween and stay awake all night watching and waiting. The next morning when nothing happened in the early hours of the day he’d creep, real quiet, down the hallway and listen to Marion’s locked bedroom door. Then he’d spent the rest of Halloween day and night locked in his room waiting some more.

 During the fifth year when Ben was thirteen and carrying out his usual yearly ritual it occurred to him that Marion was the same age he was now when she vanished.

 As the day wore on it began to rain, by nine o'clock it was a heavy thrashing storm.

 Huddled in his blankets Ben stared dully out the windows for the remainder of the night, thinking about how it would soon be Halloween day. As the hall clock sounded midnight however his eye caught an unusual movement outside. Down by the Old Pine. Upon closer inspection it looked like one of Mr. Tunee’s horses might have gotten loose again. He really needed to make his fence higher. It was a great big shaggy beast. Very tall from what Ben could tell through the rain.

 Thoughtfully Ben chewed his bottom lip. Did he dare go out on Halloween? What if the monster came back? But could he really leave the poor horse to suffer through the remainder of the night lost? Sighing with a knot forming in his gut Ben shrugged on a coat and slipped into a pair of sneakers. Perhaps if he were very quick it wouldn’t matter if the monster prowled or not. When he first stepped out the back door it was like someone was dumping several buckets of water on him all at once. Feeling very disorientated he grudgingly began to march across the lawn to the pine tree. Squinting he thought he could see the horse was moving closer to him now.

 “Here Horsey, Horsey. Come on. That’s it. I'll take you home.” Ben called.

 “Grrrrrr-aaarrrr!” The horse replied. Panicked that the creature was hurt Ben sped up. Perhaps the horse had caught its leg on a wire fence?

When Ben looked at it next his breath caught. It was standing on its hind legs. Not rearing, but still walking towards him. As he stood with his mouth gaping open a flash of lightning revealed the creature in the stark contrast of light. What he had originally thought to be a horse was no horse at all, but a shaggy-haired monster with gaping jaws lined with hundreds of brown-stained teeth. Its small squinty eyes glowed a radioactive yellow as they locked on him. Nine-inch claws extended sharply off skeletal fingers. Tall, narrow rounded ears extended straight up.

 Benny’s body trembled, he knew without a doubt that this was what had made his sister scream that night she disappeared. This was what had eaten her. As he stared transfixed the creature took a long stride toward him with a hideous grin.

 Ben ran as fast as his trembling legs would allow. Slipping and sliding his way back to the house a sob built in his chest. Crying out would do no good! No one would ever hear him, not in this storm...

 BAM!

Ben slammed to the ground stunned by the weight pressing down on his back.

 “Benjamin Outer. I’ve come to take you away from here.” Came a gravely voice by his ear. Turning his head for better look Ben was stunned to see that it was the monster that spoke.

“Come along Benjamin. Your sister awaits.” With that the creature was gone loping back the way it had come.

 Scrambling up, Ben gaped.

 “What do you mean?" Ben shouted. "Hey! Come back!" Ben couldn’t believe the words coming from his mouth or what his legs were doing as he tore after it. But he did know that his family would never be the same happy one that he knew when Marion was still alive.

 Now here the monster returned just to say she was waiting for him? Nothing was adding up. If the monster was trying to lure him to the tree to eat him why didn’t he just drag him there? Those gnarly jaws could certainly get the job done.

 “Hey! Wait!” Ben rounded the tree to run smack into the creature and tumble to the ground. Stretching claws reached for him and Ben became certain he had made the biggest mistake of his life following the creature in the first place. However when all the creature did was gently lift him back to his feet Ben once again felt like he was completely out of his depth.

 “Through here.” The beast moved to a radiant soft, purple oval that stood alone about a foot off the ground, a light white-gray fog draped itself gently out the opening and onto the ground around it.

 “Wait!” Ben called as the creature stepped up to it, the creature turned back to him.

 “What is that? Who are you? What are you? Where’s Marion? Why are you here? Why’d you kidnap my sister? What do you want with me? Why aren’t you eating me right now?” Ben paused for a breath before opening his mouth to proceed, but was interrupted by the same sound the monster had made earlier.

 Grrrr-aaarrr-aaarrr-aaaaaarrrr! Much to Ben’s sense of pride he figured out that he was being laughed at and was just about to leap to his own defense when the monster began speaking.

 “I am called Rimonis. This is a portal. All other answers lie on the other side. Come Benjamin Outer. Your sister waits.” With that the creature stepped through the portal and vanished.

 “But what about Mom and Dad?” Ben asked the rain. Thunder and lightning flashed and rain poured, but no obvious answer was provided. Turning Ben looked back to the house. All remained dark.

 “I'll find my way back Mom and Dad. With Marion." Ben promised before stepping through the strange source of light. Into a land of unknown…

  THE END...

...FOR NOW...