10-May-2019
What happens when you get bored?
“I’m bored!”
The childish whine of the words pulled me from my sleep into the realm of somewhat awake. I brushed the cobwebs from my mind and opened one eye. A single prick of light shone from a corner of my realm.
“Me too!”
“Shush, you two. I told you not to say that.”
There were two of them? I blinked a few times and the glowing dot resolved into two glowing dots.
“But it’s true!” the first voice wailed.
“I’m so bored I could die!” How children could put that much fake anguish into a single sentence still baffled me.
Both pricks of light grew brighter. I shifted a little so I could see them better.
“Todd!” The mother’s voice cut through the darkness surrounding me like a talon slicing through tender flesh. Even I flinched, and it had been eons since I’d had a mother. “Don’t you ever say that.”
The icy tone of the woman quieted the complainers, and the two lights grew faint.
I eyed them. I could still get to the children, but it had only been a week in the mortal realm since I’d eaten, and this was the bellyachers’ first offense. Each child had a distinct voice, and an even more distinct whine. If I heard a kid more than twice, they were mine.
The two little darlings continued to fade, and I put my massive head back on my paws. Just before I closed my eyes, one of the dots flared white hot. It didn’t matter that the little urchin whispered. I heard everything.
“I’m still bored.”
I coined the first little brat Conner.
“Me too.”
The second dot grew a little lighter. I called her Betty.
“And I don’t believe in the Savage,” Conner said. “Do you?”
Betty hesitated. “I…I don’t know. I mean Stewart disappeared a few months ago. Right from his bedroom. I heard my dad talking to my mom and he said there was blood everywhere.” The confident tone in her voice from a few moments before waivered. I could feel her fear.
A cruel grin pulled my lips apart, and air licked my gums. There had been a lot of blood.
“It’s just the adults trying to make us be good and not say we’re bored,” Conner said with a snort.
The deal the parents had made with me had been simple: I let them live under my protection, but if I heard a child whine that they were bored more than twice, I got the kid. Considering the chaos in the outside world, it seemed a small price to pay.
However, these parents weren’t very good at keeping their children in line.
I stood on four legs and shook my long, sleek body.
“Don’t say that word,” Betty said.
Smart girl.
“What, you think a word can bring a monster?”
Betty didn’t answer.
“I’m bored.” Conner said. “Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.”
I could practically see him dancing around as he said it.
“Come on, let’s go play,” Betty said. Fear dripped from her words.
“But I don’t want to play any of the games we have, they’re boring.” Conner sang the last word.
Conner’s light now shot through my realm and bore into my eye.
I didn’t usually attack when I had witnesses, but perhaps this would teach the other children a lesson. The light started to burn, and I ran toward it. One moment it was worlds away, and the next I got to a hole in the fabric of reality. A hole just big enough for me to get a claw through. I growled and raked my paw down from the hole.
A tearing sound filled the air, and Betty screamed.
I ripped through the opening and found a bedroom piled with toys and games. More entertainment than most people saw in a lifetime. Betty, a red-headed girl of about ten, and Conner, a blond boy of about twelve, stood in shock. Betty covered her mouth with her hands to stifle another scream, and Conner’s eyes practically bugged out of his head.
They knew what I was. I didn’t waste time. They’d interrupted my post-killing nap with their idiotic shenanigans, and Conner would now feel my wrath.
He stumbled toward the door, but I locked it with a thought. My realm bled out into the room, keeping any sound from getting out.
Betty backed up until her rump hit a wall, then she slid down to a sitting position.
I looked at her with my glowing yellow eyes for a brief moment. A moment I knew she would never forget. Then I turned to Conner.
He yelled and screamed as I slowly stalked toward him. He lost control of his bowels, then curled into a ball and cried like a baby.
I licked my lips. The really naughty ones always tasted the best.
