tentacles and jagged, flaring nostrils.
From her cracked eye, she could see that there was nothing. The chills were still receding, her breathing had slowed, the sweat on her brow had grown cold, and the thin white cotton T-shirt she wore clung to her, dripping with freezing perspiration, like an uncomfortable second skin. She knew what snakes must have felt like. No wonder they shed them the way they did.
She glanced over where she usually had the nightlight plugged in and saw a vacant socket, staring at her, a gaping mouth and elongated, downward eyes. It looked like it was trying to scream—she had always thought of them that way.
On the floor below the screaming socket was the nightlight, knocked from where it belonged. Maureen didn’t remember knocking it out of the socket, but she must have, nobody else had been in the apartment that day.
She let out a sigh and managed to get her other eye open, her eyes had finally adjusted to the dim, but bright in comparison to darkness, light. The plain, white, unadorned walls reflected the light around her, just as she had intended. Maureen slipped out of the cocoon of sheets and set her feet on the floor, ready to go and plug the light back in, and change her T-shirt, there was no way she could sleep in it.
She walked over to where the nightlight and fallen and crouched down, feeling the cool air from the vent directed towards that location, blowing down on her wet back and slipped the nightlight back into its slot carefully. The light bulb came to life when the nightlight made contact with the screaming socket, covering up the silent wailer, blocking it from Maureen’s view.
Maureen stood and glanced through the slit in the blinds at the street below and saw that nobody was there, just a vacant streetlight. There never was, she just always checked. Just in case. Never could be too sure.
She padded over to the dresser and opened the shirt drawer, seeking a clean alternative to her current soaking fabric.
A tank top met her hand.
And a tentacle met her foot.
She screamed as the mucous covered appendage wrapped around her ankle and pulled her down. From under the bed another tentacle shot out and grabbed her other ankle.
She screamed long and loud, unable to believe what was happening.
A head with dozens of crooked, writhing teeth opened.
Toxic breath seemed out of two jagged nostrils. The blood red eyes glared out at her hungrily.
She continued to scream, wishing for it to end.
It couldn’t be real. There was no way it was real…
Maureen woke from her terrible dream.
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