So quiet….for such a long time. She thought the child must be asleep in there by now. This was the third night now. The third night of closing and locking the door in order to have her daughter fall asleep on her own. The mother hated doing this, but it had seemed the only way to have the child sleep alone. The mother needed to have some alone time and this seemed like the only way to get it. Every night, the little girl would find her way into her mother’s bed. No matter how late the mother stayed up, the child would always end up in her bed by the morning. This had been the last resort.

For her own piece of mind, she had to check on the little girl. The last couple of nights, she had found the girl asleep in her bed, but always in a strange place. The first night she was in the corner of the bed, curled into a fetal position and sitting up. How she had fallen asleep like that, the mother couldn't understand. Last night she had been curled up in the same corner, but this time lying down, her entire body on the pillow. The child had to be put in the bed the right way, and be covered up. The child had always complained that the room was cold, and it did seem to be unusually chilly most nights.

She approached the door quietly, listening intently. The slightest noise could wake the child within, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. She just needed to take a quick peek, to make sure she was in the bed and covered up. She had been known to sleep in strange places when left to her own devices. Once, she had been found sleeping in a box of stuffed toys. While very comfortable, it was just a bit confining.

She placed her hand on the doorknob, tensing her arm just slightly to turn the knob. There was barely a click as the knob slid back and freed the door to move. She pursed her lips, still listening to any noise from inside the room. The lights were off in there, but there were two very bright nightlights by which she would be able to find her daughter's form. The nightlights had been another bid to keep the child in the room.

The light from the hallway behind her spilled into the darkened room as the door opened. Still no noise, this must mean she's sleeping somewhere then. She would have cried out or run to the door if she had been even the slightest bit awake, she had done so in the past. The nervous mother pushed the door further open, her eyes searching the darkness for anything out of place. If her daughter had fallen asleep on the floor, she wanted to make sure to put her in her warm bed as soon as possible.

She thought at first her eyes had deceived her when she saw the first hint of pink so close to the door. Not only close to the door, but actually standing close to the door. Her mouth dropped open in utter shock.

Just beyond the swing of the door, her daughter stood staring at her. The child's eyes were unnaturally wide and unblinking, her mouth set and straight. The arms hung limply at her sides, her feet together, as if she were standing at attention.

This sight nearly made the mother scream, for it seemed that it was not her daughter looking at her. She tried to get a hold of herself, to tell herself that it was just shock at seeing her daughter awake and waiting instead of in bed and sleeping.

"Bab..baby, I thought you would be sleeping", she finally managed to stutter. She was completely taken aback by this sight. Not only was she not sleeping, but she seemed to be very upset. This was not the scene she had expected at all. She struggled, trying to see everything, trying to understand how this could be.

"Mother." It was a deep voice uttered by the child, much deeper then she ever had spoken before. "I told you there were monsters” The words dripped from her barely moving mouth. Her eyes never left her mother's, and still they did not blink.

It was the monsters again. “Of course there are no monsters in here, honey.” She tried to speak firmly, tried to sound confident. Instead of the familiar frustration and anger, she was starting to feel frightened. Frightened of her own little girl! But her eyes….they still didn’t blink. 'She must have had a bad dream, that it,' she thought to herself, 'and now she's half asleep.' This surely must be what was going on here.

The girl's mouth suddenly lifted in a toothy grin. Strange response in itself, but with the wide, unblinking eyes, it looked somehow ghoulish, frightening. "There are monsters in here, Mother. I will show you” As she spoke, her teeth parted for just a moment. When they did, a bloody piece of meat dropped from within and onto the carpet. It was the tip of the child's tongue.

The mother screamed then. This was not the result of a nightmare. This grinning horror could not be her little girl! She wanted to both grab the child to find what was wrong with her, and also run as far from her as possible. “What’s wrong with you?” she screamed. Tears ran down her face, and she began to back away.

The little figure moved toward her slowly, her bare foot crushing the bit of tongue as she did so. The child was no more, but the demon that now inhabited her skin would eat well tonight.