🌙 Stories After Dark · Crow Wall Collections

Something Under My Bed

Get cozy. There’s a little mystery waiting beneath the bed…

A new house. A new bedroom.

It happened late one night, not long after we moved into our new home.

Everything was different there.

Different house. Different street. Different yard. Different bedroom.

But that first day had been pretty good.

I met two boys who lived nearby, Kevin and Brad. We played football and basketball until the streetlights came on and our parents called us home.

“See you tomorrow!” I yelled.

“You better!” Kevin called back.

At dinner, Mom and Dad asked about my day. I told them about Kevin and Brad, about the basketball game I absolutely dominated—although I’m pretty sure Brad would tell that part differently.

After dinner, we watched old cartoons together.

It almost felt like home.

Almost.

Soon Mom looked at the clock.

“Bedtime.”

I showered off a day’s worth of dirt, brushed my teeth, and put on my favorite pajamas.

Then I climbed into bed.

Mom and Dad came in to say goodnight. We said our prayers, they tucked me in, and Dad turned off the light.

“Goodnight, buddy.”

“Goodnight.”

The door clicked shut.

I looked around my new bedroom.

Moonlight stretched across the floor. Boxes still sat against one wall, waiting to be unpacked. Shadows from the trees moved across my curtains.

I pulled the blanket a little higher.

New rooms look different in the dark.

I closed my eyes.

My body grew heavy.

CREEEAK…

I was almost asleep when—

CREEEAK.

My eyes flew open.

I listened.

Nothing.

It’s just the house, I told myself.

Dad had said old houses made noises.

I closed my eyes again.

CREEEAK.

I sat straight up.

There was light underneath my bedroom door.

Who was awake?

Mom and Dad had gone to bed.

Hadn’t they?

I watched the light.

My heart thumped a little faster.

Then—

scratch… scratch… scratch…

I froze.

That came from underneath my bed.

I pulled my feet beneath the blanket.

Everybody knows that’s the first rule when something is under your bed.

Never leave your feet hanging over the edge.

“Dad?” I whispered.

Nothing.

Scratch… scratch…

I swallowed.

Why did we have to move here?

I missed my old room.

I missed knowing which floorboard squeaked.

I missed knowing every shadow on the wall.

This house was scary.

Then my closet door slowly began to open.

Creeeeeeak.

My mouth went dry.

“Mom?”

Nothing came out.

I tried again.

“M-Mom?”

Then I heard it.

Scratch.

Right beneath me.

The eyes beneath the bed

I gathered every bit of courage I had and slowly leaned over the side of the bed.

At first, I couldn’t see anything.

Only darkness.

Then…

I saw them.

Two eyes.

Two dark eyes stared back at me from underneath my bed.

I stopped breathing.

The eyes didn’t move.

I didn’t move.

Maybe if I stayed perfectly still, it wouldn’t know I was there.

Then—

SCRATCH!

The eyes moved.

“MOOOOOOOOOM!”

Mom and Dad investigate

My bedroom door flew open.

Mom rushed in with Dad right behind her.

“What happened?”

“THERE’S SOMETHING UNDER MY BED!”

Dad looked underneath.

Nothing.

“I SAW IT!”

Mom sat beside me.

“What did you see?”

“Eyes!”

Dad looked at Mom.

Mom looked at Dad.

Then—

scratch… scratch…

All three of us heard it.

Dad slowly turned toward the bed.

Mom’s eyes got bigger.

I pointed.

“SEE?!”

Dad grabbed the flashlight.

Mom knelt beside him.

I stayed exactly where I was because somebody needed to supervise.

Dad lifted the blanket.

Mom shined the flashlight underneath.

There they were.

The eyes.

Mom gasped.

Dad jumped.

And something underneath my bed squeaked.

For one very long second, nobody moved.

🔦 Shine the Flashlight!

Then Dad started laughing.

“What?!”

He reached underneath the bed.

“Be careful!” I yelled.

Dad pulled out…

a sock.

My sock.

My favorite raccoon sock.

The two terrifying eyes staring at me belonged to the raccoon printed across the toes.

“I told you there were eyes!” I said.

Mom laughed.

But then…

the sock moved.

Mom stopped laughing.

Dad stopped laughing.

I definitely wasn’t laughing.

The sock wiggled.

Once.

Twice.

And then a tiny brown nose poked out.

Followed by two whiskers.

Then two little round ears.

A mouse popped his head out of my raccoon sock.

I screamed.

Mom screamed.

The mouse screamed—or at least I’m pretty sure he did.

Then he took off across the floor, dragging my favorite sock behind him.

Dad chased the mouse.

Mom chased Dad.

I chased Mom.

And the mouse ran straight into my closet.

CREEEAK!

The door moved.

We all stopped.

Dad looked at the closet.

Mom looked at the closet.

I looked at the closet.

So that’s what had been opening it.

A few minutes later, Dad found a tiny gap near the wall where our little visitor had been coming and going.

The house had been empty for a while before we moved in.

Apparently…

someone else had moved in first.

Dad explained that the creaking I’d heard was the old floorboards settling.

The light beneath my door had been him getting a glass of water.

The scratching was our little mouse trying very hard to steal my sock.

And the monster eyes?

Well…

those belonged to a raccoon who lived on my toes.

Mom tucked me back into bed.

“Feel better?”

I nodded.

“A little.”

She kissed my forehead and turned toward the door.

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Can you leave the light on?”

She smiled.

“Tonight, I can.”

I looked beneath the bed one more time.

Nothing stared back.

No monster.

No glowing eyes.

No scratching.

Just a new bedroom in a new house that suddenly didn’t seem quite as scary.

I snuggled underneath my blanket.

Maybe new places just took a little getting used to.

Maybe strange noises weren’t always scary once you knew what made them.

And maybe I wasn’t the only one who’d been frightened tonight.

After all, that little mouse had been living peacefully in this house…

until we showed up.

I smiled.

Maybe he thought I was the monster.

I closed my eyes.

This time, when the house creaked, I didn’t even move.

I was almost asleep when I remembered something.

I opened one eye.

Then the other.

I looked toward the floor.

“Wait a minute…”

Mom stopped in the doorway.

“What?”

I stared at my bare feet.

Then underneath the bed.

“Where’s my OTHER sock?”

Scratch… scratch… scratch…

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