The Storm

Lightning lit Jeremy’s room with a calming strobe effect. He had developed a love for storms over the years which was a stark contrast to his childhood. Thunder on the other hand chilled him to the bone. To him, it was the growl of some ancient beast just waiting outside his meal ticket to venture outdoors. He could still remember in vivid detail that growl inside his room as a small child. He used to believe it was something under his bed or in his closet, but after numerous attempts to point this out to his parents, he realized it was all in his childhood imagination.

Sometimes questioning those memories and his parent's conclusions that there was nothing amiss. Distinct memories of shadows dancing across his room when he would suddenly awaken in the middle of the night. This happened quite frequently from Jeremy’s recollection of those days. His eyes began to get heavy as he drifted off to sleep while thinking of his younger years. Now at 18, he knew better than to believe in the boogeyman or monsters under the bed, but yet he could never shake those memories.

Jeremy’s eyes popped open to the sound of scurrying in the room. “Raven?” He asked out loud to the empty room. Raven like most cats was prone to play with whatever they could get their paws on in the middle of the night. “Here kitty, kitty,” he called in his sweetest voice, “Raven? Come here you silly ca…..” his words were cut off by the sudden realization that he sounded younger. Like a lot younger, “What the fuck?”, he exclaimed as he jumped out of the bed and turned on the lamp.

Staring back at him was a face he recognized from the photo albums gathering dust in his closet. Jeremy was looking at his 10-year-old self. “This can’t be happening," he said watching his lips mouth the words in the mirror, "This must be a dream,” Of course, it's a dream he thought to himself, but it wasn’t a very convincing argument as everything seemed so real. Jeremy had never had vivid dreams and had never remembered more than some fleeting images of them upon waking. He could not only feel the cold floor beneath his bare feet, but he could also acknowledge that there was a full moon shining through his curtains. Every detail of his old room was there.

His old toys lined his faded red dresser that was covered in numerous hideous-looking stickers of gross kids known as Garbage Pail Kids, which was all the rage back in the day. A deformed model of a plane sat on the top of his dresser. Jeremy’s first attempt at making a model that his mom bought him at the local department store after listening to him whine for nearly an hour.

“Mom, please! All my friends are doing it and it’s all I want!" He whined. “Jeremy, please you are not old enough to put a model together, and the glue and paint aren't safe. You will glue your fingers together!” She had exclaimed. He actually did do exactly that and everything that could go wrong went wrong with his model. It turned out as some sort of formless blob of gray plastic that remotely resembled the ship he was trying to create.

A loud bang brought him out of his nostalgia. “What was that!”, he screamed to the empty dark room. His eyes now adjusted to the darkness, scanned the room carefully searching for the source of the noise. A shadow by the wall catching his attention. He began trying to identify the shadow and what it might be. It kind of looked like a pillow slightly triangular at the top but widening out the lower his eyes went. He could see what looked like a deep red glow just south of the triangle but assumed it was just the moonlight pushing through his curtains.

Jeremy’s breath caught as he realized the bulk of the shape seemed to be breathing. The slow rise and small of the dark shape continued as Jeremy continued to stare in disbelief. “What are you?" he asked as he began to slowly step forward. The shape began to rise from the darkness, but not because he was getting closer. He realized this shadow monster was standing up or rising like the cookies his mom made on Sundays.

Before his eyes, he watched as the triangle became more and more prominent. He slowly scanned the dark shape from the top of what had to be its head downward. The triangle continued to stretch outward as he looked lower. He suddenly realized the triangle head was a good foot long and could see the gleam of white off of its many teeth. That's when he became aware that the triangle wasn’t a head at all, but a giant mouth, similar to that of a crocodile or alligator, but much more menacing. He could make out at least two individual rows of teeth sharp and pointy much like the shape of the mouth. The faint red glow he had seen below he realized was at the center of this hideous black mouth.

Suddenly the shape sat upward and he saw that this monstrosity was laying on the ground and was beginning to rise. The mouth was now inches away from his face, but the creature had yet to even move forward. Jeremy began to wonder how big this monster really was. He began to shake as the red glow got closer and closer to his face. It was as if the creature was a shadow being cast by some massive beast behind him. The only problem with this theory was the mouth that was staring him down. He couldn’t even find a face or eyes for that matter.

“Oh god no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He cried as he suddenly jumped up in his bed. “That was a dream?” He exclaimed to his empty room. “What the fuck, man, that was seriously messed up,” He said as he sat on the edge of the bed. He couldn’t recall the last time he had a nightmare. He never remembered his dreams, and he began to realize that this too was beginning to fade from memory. “Maybe I should start a dream journal,” He said again to the empty room. Maybe that was why he never remembered his dreams cause he never tried to remember.

He got out of the bed to walk to his dresser and get a notebook to write this down. He thought at least I can remember this dream, as he reached his dresser. He pulled a notebook from his backpack and began to search for a pen. He was reaching into the bottom pocket of his backpack when he heard a slight scurrying in the room. “Raven?” He asked meekly as he slowly turned around. After making a full turn he saw Raven, sitting on the window sill, but something seemed wrong.

Raven was scared, really scared. His cat was drawn up against the window as if hoping to melt through the glass somehow. That was when he began to hear the low guttural sounds emanating from his cat. “What’s wrong, girl?” He asked as he began to walk towards his cat. He got to where Raven was cowering and reached to reassure his pet when he noticed the dark shape in the reflection of the window. He began to just make out the pyramid shape when he felt pain rip through his head.

Finding himself inside the giant mouth, he quickly grabbed for the window sill but it was too late. Raven hissed loudly and jumped off the window sill. Jeremy began to claw at the window as the pain increased. He could feel himself being chewed by this gigantic monster. He continued to fight until his vision began to go dark…………..

“Jeremy, I made cookies,” his mom called out as she opened the door to his room. Raven came flying out of the door as soon as it had cracked. “What has gotten into you, Raven?” She asked as she turned to follow the cat with her eyes. “Jeremy, what in the world is wrong with your c...,” Her words turned into a scream as her eyes found her son’s mutilated body laying on the floor. The room was covered in more blood than she could imagine, and the screams kept emanating out until she fell to the ground.

The police were unable to offer even a remote explanation for what had happened to Jeremy. They came to the conclusion that some sadistic person had somehow broken into the room and murdered her only child. There were no suspects, and no fingerprints or weapons had been found. The only evidence left behind were the letters M.O.N written below the window sill in Jeremy’s blood.