Unlikely Alliances

Once upon a time (cliche right?), a young boy was at home by himself. He was a very inquisitive child and decided that he wanted to watch a movie. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed as much junk food as he could find and took it into the den, where food was strictly forbidden. His parents wouldn't be home for hours, so he decided to bring the junk food into the den anyway.

After getting situated, he decided to have a horror movie marathon and picked 3 of the scariest movies he could find, and then decided to watch them all in succession. He scared himself so much that he decided to watch a few cartoons to erase the scary images that were burned into his imagination.

He was so caught up in what he was doing, that he didn't notice his parents were home until he heard the keys jingling in their attempt to find the right one for the door. He rushed out of the den with his junk food in his arms, put everything back, and was in bed before the door finished opening. He pulled the covers over himself right as his parents cracked his bedroom open to check and make sure he was okay. Duly satisfied that their son was in bed, the door closed slowly and the murmuring of their voices faded as they walked away from the door.

After he was sure they were nowhere near his bedroom door, he smiled to himself and started to drift off to sleep when he heard a bone-chilling breathing sound. He pulled the blankets down past his eyes to the bridge of his nose to see what was making the noise, and he was face to face with the alien from the second horror movie he watched. His father told him that these kinds of things were fake, but his father was wrong because fake was staring right at the young boy. Before the boy could say anything, he heard some laughter from the corner, and while looking over the 'shoulder' of the alien, he saw bloody teeth that made up the smile of the star from the first movie he watched. The laughing man with the bloody smile had nails sticking out of his face and around his head, and seemed to enjoy the pain. Terrified, the boy looked around the room to his mirror and saw the hand of the monster from the third movie reaching through the glass that rippled like a small puddle. Frozen with terror, the boy realized that the things he was told about these creatures being fictional were totally wrong. An alien, a nail-faced laughing man with bloody teeth, and another monster reaching through his mirror were all in his room at the same time, ready to pounce on this young boy. Just when the boy figured that it couldn't get any worse, he heard the sounds of joyous singing coming from the furthest corner in the room. Sensing his need for investigation, the alien stepped to the side to allow the boy a clear view of the other side of his room, and the boy saw the tiny village creatures from the cartoons he watched singing and dancing. The oldest one of them ran to his bed and tried to climb up the corner of his blanket that was hanging from the bed. It was too short, so the man with the bloody smile picked it up and put it on the end of the bed. The tiny creature climbed over the boys legs and stood on his chest. "Don't be afraid.", the creature said. "We are all here to make sure that you're okay every night. We know that you tried to be brave and watch all these movies, and scared yourself in the process." The man with the bloody smile approached the boy's bed and put his hand on his shoulder, which caused the little boy to flinch involuntarily. After the boy suppressed another shudder, Nail Face began to speak. "Your parents told you we are fake, and they're correct in a sense. We are indeed fictional characters, but you scared yourself so much, your imagination pulled us from the fake side into real life." The boys breathing started to slow down as he realized that these beings were telling the truth, and that they really wouldn't hurt him. Feeling brave, he sat up in bed and turned to the alien. "Do you have anything to add, Mr. Alien, sir?", the boy asked with a slightly mischievous smirk on his face. The alien simply shook his head no, and slithered under his bed. The boy looked around, and saw the other creatures receding into the shadows that the lights from outside cast into his bedroom. The man with the bloody smile was the last one to speak. "Whenever you go to sleep, know that we are here in your room with you, and will guard and watch over you through out the night. No harm will ever come to you while we are here, so rest easy child." The boy slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he found himself in his room alone again. He looked around one more time, then pulled the blankets up to his chin and fell asleep. Every night until he grew up and moved out of the house, his 4 guardians watched over him and kept him safe. They fought many battles and kept all intruders out of the boy's room, and that's that.

The End...?