The Same Green Crayon | Short Story

Mike was trembling in fear. And his face, had lost colour.

It was not his first time in the house. Mike knew every inch of the room he was standing in. The room’s décor was a lot old school kinds. There were two little windows of about 24 by 50 inches each on the right wall and on the wall adjacent to it. These windows were adorned with heavy curtains and a wind-chime that tink-tink-ed its way on breezy days.

A double bed placed in the center, occupied almost 1/2 of the room. It was a wooden bed with floral carvings in the sides. Mike thought the bed was a probably a customized one, for it was much larger than the regular size of a double bed. A study table, paired with a chair on one side and an over-stuffed dressing table on the other side filled the room. This left a very narrow space to walk around.

While the house was warm and welcoming, Mike always preferred to stay away from this room. He knew it was never a good decision to enter the room. More so, after it was dark.

Today he found himself alone in the house and heard some sound from the room upstairs. At first he didn’t pay much heed. “Just a stupid rat” he murmured and continued colouring in his art book. Mike looked at the outline sketch of a house with mountains and a river on the backdrop and decided to pick up the light green crayon for the grasses. He started colouring with deep concentration, when a sharp screech made Mike look up.

He looked up, with his eyes wide open. All the lights upstairs were switched off. He craned his neck but couldn’t see very clearly from the corner he was sitting. Also, given Mike was just 8 year old, he was yet to catch up on his height. The sudden fear made his throat go dry.

“Who is there?” He called out.

There came no response.

Mike got up from the sofa, put the art book and colours aside, and walked in the direction of the stairs.

The stairs creaked lightly with every step that Mike took. Once upstairs, he turned the lights on and the entire floor was illuminated. He looked at the wall clock and thought, “Another hour until mom dad return”.

He stood in front of this room and pushed the door open. He looked around for anything unusual. Trying to figure out what made the screeching noise a few minutes back. Everything seemed to be placed neatly at its place. Just as he turned to close door, something caught his attention from the corner of his eyes.

He noticed something long, black and hair-like on the other side of the room, from under the bed. A drop of sweat had now emerged on his forehead. He contemplated whether to step in and see what that thing was or walk out, lock the door and call for help.

Still in double minds, Mike didn’t realize he had already taken a few steps inside. He inched towards the bed and kneeled on his knees to take a look. As he stretched himself on the floor his eyes met with another pair of eyes looking directly at him!

He gasped in horror and fell on his face. The woman under the bed, started crawling towards Mike and had an ear to ear grin. Her hair were long, thick black, but frizzy. While he identified her as a woman, there was nothing feminine about her. She seemed was a monster.

Mike was taking short and shallow breaths now. He wanted to scream but no voice came out. He wanted to get up and run, but it was as if his body had forgotten its motor functions.

She was now closer than before. Getting closer every second. As she dragged herself with every move, her long dry nails made the familiar screech. She was now only a feet away from him. Tears came streaming down Mike’s little eyes.

Mike mustered all the courage he had and flung his arm across the woman-like demon and screamed “Mmmoooommmmmmm!!!”

As he tried to get up and run, Mike banged his head into the corner of the dressing table and fell once again.

This time when he opened his eyes, he found himself breathing heavily in the safe confinements of his room. His mother came rushing in “Baby! What happened? We heard you scream” she said.

Mike was confused. He looked around frantically to be sure if this was a dream or reality. He looked under his bed. 2 Footballs, a carom board and a black bag lay there peacefully.  His mother wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Mike? Are you okay baby? Are you looking for something?” she enquired.

“Mom. Had a bad dream I guess!” He replied.

“Oh. Okay. You scared us honey. Here, have some water” His mother said handing him a glass of water with a warm smile.

Mike gulped it all down in a single breath.

“Get up now. You slept a little too much Mike. Go freshen up and come down for snacks. Its 7:30pm already.”

“Will be there Mom” Mike replied and watched his mother walk out and close the door.

He was relieved that it was just a dream. He has been getting these dreams for a few months now. It was always the same house. Same room. But different reasons why he ended up in that room. And once in there, bad things happened.

Mike got up from his bed, changed his Pajamas and slipped into his favourite Superman T-Shirt. As he happily marched out of his room, little did he notice the chit next to his pillow that said “It was not a dream” written in green crayon.