More monsters under beds! Please enjoy!
The next night, Asra didn't wait until I was in a half asleep state before he showed himself. Like mist curling over a road, he slipped from underneath my bed and took the same chair he had the night before. While his attitude was a bit warmer towards me this time, he still seemed wary and unsure of himself.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Asra seems startled by my abruptness.
"I do not see why it would be a problem, Liora," he said slowly, folding his hands on his lap serenely.
Just the gracefulness of his movements made me feel clunky and useless in his presence.
"You never seemed interested in scaring me the way I would assume a traditional monster under the bed does," I said. "Why is that?"
Asra's golden eyes looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I suppose I'm cut from a different cloth than others," he said slowly. "I did enough to keep you slightly frightened and uncertain as a young child. As you got older, I just made small noises to let you know I was still here."
"I used to try and stay awake all night just to meet you," I said, my voice becoming dreamy and far away, lost in childhood fantasy. "I used to think I could catch you but you wouldn't be scary at all and we could be best friends."
Asra let out a cough but I was pretty sure he was trying to cover up a laugh. It did seem like a stupid concept when one thought about it long and hard enough and it earned me ridicule my entire life.
"Everyone used to tell me that I would outgrow you," I said to him, my dark eyes meeting his light ones. "That I would forget all about the monster under the bed and move on to something worth my time."
"You would have seemed to have accomplished that," the monster said matter-of-factly.
I gave the fiercely handsome creature a sad look.
"No, I never did and everyone has called me everything from crazy and delusional to obsessed," I said, casting my eyes to my white knuckled fingers.
Tears threatened to escape my eyes. I didn't think that asking Asra this simple question would have brought back so many painful memories. It was hard enough being one of the only Jewish children in your school but when you have fantastical thoughts and self-made adventures with the monster under your bed... Well, children are cruel and it doesn't get better as you get older.
A whispering touch on my chin causes me to look up. I find myself face to face with Asra and I am again breathless at the beauty I find in it. He is very far from the monster I would have believed him to be years ago. He has fine features with a proud, straight nose and his molten eyes set underneath well shaped brows. There are no lines or wrinkles on his face save a tiny birthmark at the corner of his right eye.
"The unfortunate side effect of growing up in your world is a lack of imagination in most cases," Asra says, still taking hold of my chin.
His eyes rove over my face as if to memorize it's features. Surely it is a face he has seen many times and he has had lifetimes to gaze at faces more beautiful than mine. I let my gaze drop from his.
"Liora, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent," Asra said, letting his fingers slid off my chin.
My eyes shoot back to him and I let out a surprised exclamation.
"You just quoted Eleanor Roosevelt!" I said in shock.
Asra nods as he finally takes a seat next to me.
"I do like to keep occupied," he said. "I find the human world probably about as fascinating as you do mine."
I give him a look.
"I would be more fascinated if I knew what your world is like, you know," I told him. "You have yet to tell me anything about it."
Asra looks uncomfortable again, his eyes shifting uneasily to my floor as if he can see into his world. For all I know, he can.
"Well, my world can be unforgiving and brutal if you are not careful," he said slowly. "A monster gets to choose their own form when they are assigned to a child."
I nod. I guess it would make sense for the monsters to be assigned children. How else could so many children have the same stories about monsters under beds and noises that bump in the night?
"You and I, we are an unusual case," Asra said. "This is because you still believe I exist."
"So, you're saying, the only reason I can see you is because I believe in you?" I asked, incredulous. "That's like the terrible plot line of a poorly though out 90's cartoon flick for children."
Asra chuckled lightly.
"You and I are different because most monsters are not with their children very long. They stop fearing the monsters so the monsters are reassigned to new children every couple of years," he explained. "Except I have been paired with you for the last 23 years. You are actually a bit of a minor celebrity back in my world."
I felt myself blush, not only at Asra's proximity but at the thought of being a C-list celebrity where he lived.
"No one has kept a child longer than 2 years," he explained. "Children grow out of their imagined fears. Yours just seemed to change."
I sat there mystified. I knew I was strange to begin with but to be considered famous in a world that was invisible to me was strange and disconcerting. A large yawn that almost unhinged by jaw interrupted our conversation. I was tired and had to get to sleep.
"Promise you'll be here tomorrow?" I asked Asra sleepily.
"I will," he said.
Before I drifted off to sleep, I thought I felt him kiss my brow softly and whisper in my ear -- "Always."
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