Growling

It was a little after midnight and I was awakened by a terrible nightmare, about a monster ripping me to shreds and devouring the bits. My Mighty Dude night light was the only light in the room. Sweat drenched my face and pajamas. ''Oh thank goodness,'' I muttered. ''It was all just a nasty dream.''

I went to the bathroom and did my business and came back and as I was walking back to my bed, I heard growling coming from my closet. At first, I was scarce sure I had heard anything. Afterall, imagined visions happened all the time. I would often think I had seen someone that wasn't there as I was walking up the stairs. I would sometimes hear my mom or dad call my name when they hadn't done so.

The growling in my closet seemed to subside for a minute. I went over to the door and pressed my ear close to it. I waited for a moment or two. It started low and it started to grow. I leaped back at the terrible sound, nearly falling on my butt as I staggered backward. ''What was that?'' I thought. ''Could it be some kind of wild animal or something?''

I heard scratching coming from inside the closet. I grabbed my baseball bat and looked over at my night light and whispered, ''be brave, like Mighty Man.''

I swung open the closet door and found nothing inside. I still gripped the bat. ''I'm under your bed,'' I heard a voice say.

I nearly leapt out of my skin. Footsteps could be heard out in the hallway. I listened and heard my bedroom door being opened. I sucked in as much air as humanly possible before I heard a familiar voice call to me. ''Bryce?'' She said. ''You awake?''

''Yeah, mom,'' I said. ''I'm fine.''

''You look tasty enough to eat,'' mom said, in a growly, demonic voice.

''Mom?'' I managed to squeak out.

Mom turned on the light and I saw her teeth were all razor sharp and her blue eyes were all green now, no pupils or irises just all green. ''Stay back,'' I pleaded, edging closer to my bed.

The back of my legs bumped against my bed and I felt a hand grab my ankle. I screamed as a powerful creature dragged me under the bed. The next thing I remember is waking up and seeing a kid around my age, a boy, sleeping in my bed. I shook his arm and when he saw me, he screamed. ''Mom,'' the boy howled. ''Come quick, there's a ghost in my room.''

''I'm no ghost,'' I said.

''Don't hurt me, please,'' the boy begged.

I went into my bathroom and looked in the mirror and saw right through myself. I was a ghost. The monster had eaten me. I collapsed on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Was my mom dead too? Did the ghost eat her? Did the family that's living here now kill her? I went back in the bedroom and the boy was holding a bat. He swung it at my head and it went right through my head. ''I'm a ghost, jerk,'' I said. ''You can't hurt me.''

I heard growling coming from the closet. I smiled. I took the bat from the kid and opened the door and found the monster and I beat that ugly sucker to death with the baseball bat. The thing screamed and cried. I kept hitting it and hitting it until it finally stopped moving. Ever since that time, the boy brings me whatever I want, toys, baseball cards, ice cream sundaes. It's not so bad being a ghost.