It was a quiet afternoon. The falling sun reached through the windows and past the curtains of little Michael's room. Everything was still. So still.

click click click

A noise stirred underneath the bed.

click click click

The creature tapped and scraped at the floor surrounding Michael's bed. Above the bed, a rustle of sheets.

"Cut that out," came a grumpy voice.

"Well, why don't you come down here and make me?" The response was low and sounded like the cogs of a large machine that was struggling to turn.

"Harumph!" was the teddy bear's only reply.

click click click

One long, sharp claw reached up and over the side of the bed. Nothing else was revealed. Nothing else was ever revealed.

"I think you'd like it down here. It's warm. It's sunny," the voice taunted, "and I've prepared a picnic for you and the others."

"Picnic?" The bear brightened at the word. "I do love a good picnic."

"Yes," the voice gave a sinister laugh, "and we can play hopscotch."

"Ooh! I love hopsco- wait a minute!" The bear was shaken from his daze and a frown fell on his face. "You hate hopscotch!" he declared as he rolled over to the side of the bed and flipped himself over the edge. Two large, menacing eyes stared at him. The eyes laughed mockingly. It sounded like a deep rumble.

"You foolish little bear," it growled, "to think you're Michael's only defence." It laughed until it noticed the bear's furious frown.

Boo!

The bear shrieked and crawled back to the top of the bed. He was trembling, not only because of the shock, but also because the monster's laughing was making the bed shake. The bear flipped itself over the edge to look at the menacing eyes again.

"At least I'm his best friend. You're not even his worst fear!"

The rumbling stopped. The bed was still. For a moment, the room was quiet again. The bear, hanging over the side of the bed, looked for the eyes. He was filled with panic when they opened right in front of his face. Again, the bear gave a shriek, although this time, he covered his own eyes.

"What do you mean 'not even his worst fear'?" the voice questioned slowly. It was a sound so dark and so malicious that the bear began to whimper. The monster under the bed gave a viscious roar that sent the teddy bear back to the top of the bed covers. The bed juddered from the echo.

"M-Michael t-t-told me," stammered the bear, still a little taken aback from having been roared to the sky.

"Grrrr," the creature snarled, "t-t-told you what?" The bear didn't appreciate it's mockery. His fear was pushed aside to make room for his sensitivity.

"Well, if you must know," the bear continued, slightly wary, "he talks to me about other monsters. Yes, and they're mush worse than you." The bear sounded very matter-of-factual. The monster boomed with so much fury that it made the bed jump. The bear gave a yelp.

"Other monsters?"

"Yes. Didn't you know?!"

"Scarier monsters?!"

"Indeed," the bear crossed his arms and smiled in triumph, "much scarier." The monster thrashed and thundered underneath the bed.

"I'm the monster under the bed! There is no scarier monster!!"

"Apparently not," the bear said, and the monster quietened. Its heavy breathing shifted the dust surrounding the bed. Its breath sounded like the huff of a large animal.

"What are these monsters?" it growled curiously. The bear peered over the edge to try and see the monster. He couldn't.

"They're terrible things," the bear shook his head sadly, "awful. Worse than you." The monster gave a low rumble.

"That's not possible."

"And you know what else?" the bear dismissed the monster, "they can get him during the day." The breathing stopped and a curious grunt filled the silence.

"...the day?"

"Yes. Michael comes home and tells me all about them," the bear thought for a moment, "I believe he calls them... Boo-lies." The monster made a series of distressed sounds. It didn't like this. It didn't like this at all.

"I'll show them. I'll show them who's scary!"

"I don't know," the bear was concerned, "they sound really terrible." The creature lashed out beneath the bed, screams echoing somewhere below. The bear was tossed around the air from the jerking of the bed.

"NO! I'm the scariest monster! I won't let these...BOO-LIES do this to Michael!" A large pair of menacing eyes rose above the rim of the bed. The violent wailing and cries didn't stop. The bear squealed at the sight of the creature in the light. "I'll show them!! I'll show them!!"

The bedroom door opened.

A young boy dropped his bag on the floor, shut the door. It was a quiet afternoon. Everything was still. So still. He noticed his bear lying in the middle of his bed.

That's not where I left you.

He walked forward, to the edge of the bed. The dust stirred ever so slightly beneath him. He didn't notice. He just picked up the bear and stared at it. The soft, friendly bear. His best friend. His only friend. And the bear stared back. The bear, however, did not stare through wet eyes. It did stare through black ones, though. Michael gave a weak smile.

"We're kinda the same, Teddy." He hugged the bear and curled up on the bed. The bear wondered where Michael's bruises came from.

"Kinda the same."

So there I was, blood the color of exquisite rubies covering me head to toe, my butt to the sky and naked as a newborn babe. My family looked on in horror as I stood and turned to them, my hand plastered across my no-no-square to keep my modesty, though it was a pathetic attempt considering what they just saw.

“I can explain...”

the heart wants what it wants,

what a demisable phrase

such vivid truth,

there is no such thing as mind over matter

love blocks out good judgement,

conflicting choices encompassed by impulse

i look sadness in the face and i dive head first

but i don’t know how to swim

i give in for the happiness,

but it’s only temporary

it’s always temporary

even the good things crash and burn in the end

i haven’t learned how to let go,

so the feelings linger and resurface

i know that you’re bad for me,

but my heart aches to sleep next to you

i long to hear your laugh,

i would die to be yours again

we’ve been apart almost as long as we were together, why does my heart still belong to you?

maybe i let myself get too attached?

maybe it was the fact that you were able to lift my heart out of the bottomless pit it had fallen into

maybe it was the way your eyes lit up when you looked at me?

no one had ever looked at me like that before

maybe it was your dimples,

the most beautiful smile i have ever seen

it kills me that it’s over,

and i know that there’s no hope for us anymore

i’m so in love with you,

it’s everything about you

i miss you,

i miss us

i’ve tried moving on,

but nobody compares to you

i don’t know how not to love you

and the problem isn’t that i’m alone,

or maybe it is

i lost my myself when i lost you,

and i don’t know how to find myself again

it’s like something in me snapped,

i stopped letting myself feel sad

the sadness boiled over, and the only residue it left was a trace of anger

i think it stopped when i finally realized that i was holding on to something that would never work

i weeped and mourned for half a year,

i cried over you for the same length we were together

i looked pathetic,

and it made me angry

i took a deeper look into what i once praised at my feet

i looked deeper into you

the relationship we had wasn’t perfect,

and even i knew that

but it was the best thing i had ever known

i polished your name like it was silver,

i talked you up like you were God

i was oblivious

there were patterns, signs, and traits that i miss looked,

you were never as glorious as i made you out to be

you secluded me, but made me feel like i was too much for you

you used me

everything we did was on your terms,

if you didn’t want it then it wasn’t going to happen

you made me feel as though you cared,

and maybe you really did

your heart was jaded,

there’s not a chance you loved me the way that you said you did

but i believed you

i won’t lie and say that i don’t get jealous, i do

but knowing that you sit there and you do it on purpose aggravates me

i don’t want to be with you anymore

it worries me because now i sit and from the outside,

i’m scared of you

you make me feel weak, powerless

i feel like you could hurt me

the capability keeps me in the shadows,

my lurking has seemed to cease

i’m better on my own

i’m happy being me

The warm walnut brown of your eyes,

Reminds me of fall.

The winds, the rain, the cold,

And the comfort of hiding from it all.

But when I see you work,

When you're lost in thought.

They darken into a chocolate shade,

Which I find hot.

And the best of them all,

Is when you laugh to a joke of mine.

They turn to a brunette

Full of a hopeful shine.