Mischievous Grin

"Guys that is enough you have to go to sleep!" The father told his two children while standing in the doorway of their shared bedroom. The youngest of the two turned to their father with a mischievous grin, "Ok, dad." The oldest just shook their head with an eye roll, "Come on, let's get ready to go to lay down." The oldest said as they started to pull the covers down. The youngest just sighed and did the same. The father gave a heavy sigh and said "Thank you, now get some rest you two." with that he turned down the lights and closed the door to their room.

As the two started to settle into their beds with their night light rotating a starry sky on the ceiling, casting moving shadows of their toys around the room. The oldest snuggling into their bed under their covers, dozing into sleep. The youngest however was wide awake, still full of energy of the day. Under the covers looking at the night sky projected on the ceiling, contemplating on sneaking out of bed to play just a little bit longer. As they were about to pull the covers off, something caught their eye. They stopped right in the middle of pulling the covers off, staring at one of the toys on the floor. They could have sworn they saw something move, but all they could see was the shadows being cast from the starry night light.

Feeling a little relieved, they continued to get up, walking slowly and quietly as possible so as not to be noticed by their parents. Stepping over toys and stuffed animals to get to the book stand and flashlight. Just as they were about to reach the stand they stepped on one of the stuffed animals, a lion, a loud roar went through the room. They immediately stopped, not wanting to move a muscle, craning their neck to look at the other bed to make sure the noise didn't wake them up. After watching the blanket for what seemed like an eternity, they were satisfied with the steady up and down motion, accepting that they are still fast asleep. They continued on grabbing the comic that they wanted to read and the flash light. Letting out a big breath they turned around and started back to the bed.

Finally back to the bed, throwing the covers over their head, turning the flashlight on and flipping open the comic. As they were getting enthralled in the action scenes, the picture of superheros and monsters. Scanning the flash light across each panel, but lingering one particular panel. The panel showed a monster, slinging out of the shadows, stretching out its impossibly long arm. Unbeknownst to the hero the monster reached out towards his neck, opening its hand, its nails sharp as daggers. Closing around the hero's neck, each panel showing the nails ever closer to his skin. Just as they were about to turn the page, a loud roar went through the room. Startled, they jumped up out of the covers dropping the comic on the floor, scanning the room with the light. Slowly getting out walking towards the middle of the room, they shown the light on the lion from earlier, looking at the lion on the floor trying to figure out what was going on. Another toy went off behind them, spinning around looking for the noise. Trying to figure out what was going on, the rest of the toys in front of them started to go off. They started walking back, flashlight in hand shaking, passing over all the buzzing and flashing. They kept walking back until they hit the other bed, with no else to go, they stared wide eyed at all the toys. From the back something was reaching out, grabbing their shoulder. With a scream they turned around and shined the light towards the thing.

"What the hell are you doing?!" They said holding up a hand to block the light.

"All the toys were going off, something was there!" They said in a shaky voice.

The oldest got up and walked them back to bed, "Now go to sleep before dad comes back ok?" With a nod the youngest clutches the flashlight in one hand while pulling the covers all the way to the nose, as if trying to hide from whatever was in the room. The oldest walks back to their bed and falls back to sleep.

Seeing them go to sleep, they held the blankets close to their face, keeping their eyes open to watch the room. Scanning, watching the moving shadows made by their night light. Their eyes kept moving from shadow to shadow, as if being hypnotized their eyes started to feel heavy. Struggling to keep them open, fighting with all their might, but in the end they lost the battle. Their eyes rolling back, eyelids closing, their grip on the blankets loosens.

As they drift off to sleep, slowly the covers pull up. Slowly covering their nose, sliding over their eyes, and finally completely covering their head. Then with a sharp tug the covers get tucked underneath the body. They wake up in a panic, trying to get out pulling at the covers, remembering about the flashlight in the hand they turned in on. Shining it over their head trying to see what could be holding it, then with a chill running down their spine slowly shined the flashlight down towards their feet. All they could see was blackness, the only thing they showed in the light was two wide eyes and giant mischievous grine. Before they could scream, an impossibly long arm stretched out, its hand with dagger-like nails covering their mouth.

In the other bed the oldest woke up to the flashlight shining into the bed. "I thought I told you to go to bed." They said as they got up to walk over. As they approached the other bed, they sat up, still under the covers but now shining the flashlight up. "That's enough, it's really time to go to bed." They said as they pulled the covers over, as they did the flashlight dropped to the floor, the bed was empty. Confused and scared, the oldest called their father. As they ran out of the room the flashlight rolled shining light onto the comic that they were reading, the page flipped to the last page, showing the last few panels.

As the dagger-like nails dug into the neck, the panels started to pan out showing the youngest face contorted in pain and horror. The last panel showed nothing but black all except to wide eyes and a giant mischievous grin.