The Creature: short story about a nightmare

 The Creature

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I was a little girl of 8 years old at that time. A girl who loved stories and cartoons. A girl who was carefree. During those days, I used to sleep with my grandma. One thing to note, there was no concept of my own room then. Even though I was a single child, no separate room was granted for me. My things were in my parents cupboard and almirah, while I shared the bed with my grandma in her room. 

This arrangement was usually fine but not without complaints. Small quarrels would happen between me and my bedmate, especially regarding the use of ceiling fan. I needed fan at full speed for better sleep, meanwhile my grandma did not require fan at all or it should be at its minimal speed. Another issue was the side of the bed allocated for sleep. The bed was kept in such a way that one side was close to the wall. I was allocated that side, even though I wished for the free side. Anyways days went on with our small disagreements and adjustments.

On that particular night, I was sleeping with my grandma as usual. The fan was moving at its lowest speed limit. The room was illuminated by a zero watt bulb, filling the small room in a dull green glow. I must have felt the discomfort due to heat and seating, that I woke up. I did not know the exact time, as there was no clock in the room. Maybe it was past midnight.

I sat up in bed. My grandma was in a deep slumber as evident by her light snoring. My plan was to get up quietly, get down from the bed and go near the switch board in the far away wall and increase the fan speed. Because, even though there was the switch for fan near the bed, the regulator was far away.

So I got up and tried to get down from bed quietly. Then I heard a light scurrying scratching sound. It was very low, that I thought that it was only my imagination. But then I heard it again, in between the tired squeaking of the ceiling fan, a distinct scratching sound, like that of a small rodent moving about. 

I halted my secret mission. My heartbeat was rising in a slow pace, and my breathing was turning erratic. I sat on the edge of the bed and focused my eyes on the floor below, below the edge of the bed. I did not have the guts to look directly under the bed. But I just waited with my breath held in anticipation for sometime. 

In a flash, a creature moved out from beneath the bed. Under the dim green light, I could roughly make out some of its features. It looked like a rat, dark, furry but oddly had the skin resembling that of a reptile. It had a weird disc shaped extension surrounding its entire body. 

But the most striking feature was its eyes- red, sparkling eyes- looking straight at me, unblinking. It was unnerving. I was frozen on the spot, unable to move any of my limbs. I continued staring at it with fear and anxiety, while my heart was beating frantically against the chest wall. This stand still felt like hours. 

Suddenly the creature squeaked and rushed towards the closed door. Then, it disappeared without any noise. I was sure that there were no cracks or gaps in the door and this creature could never crawl beneath the door considering its size. I looked at the door unblinking for a long time. My agitated body gradually calmed down. Somehow I went back to sleep, without hearing anymore disturbing noise.

When next day came, I was not sure whether it was a nightmare or a real incident.