There Are Rules

Amy rested back on the pillows. Watched Jason move efficiently around the room. Clothes off. Pajamas on. Contacts out. Light switch. She closed her eyes before she could see the room go dark. She was proud of the room. It was part of her first apartment and it wasn't some hole in the wall.

The bedroom was larger than any she had slept in as the oldest of four children. Her mother had done her best but they were never well-off. Regardless, Amy grew up. She went to school. She worked. She met Jason. They managed to get an apartment at an affordable price. Probably because the economy bottomed out and the complex was just happy to get some new blood.

The bedroom was her favorite room. Plenty of space for both dressers from Wal-Mart, the hand-me-down bed, the antique nightstand and lamp bought at the Salvation Army. It had a walk-in closet with three shelves and its own light. Amy never had a walk-in closet before.

Their red comforter was already tucked around Amy's body, folded especially tight beneath her feet. She didn't believe in something slithering in the dark, she just didn't like the fan blowing on her toes. And it was habit. Years of knowing that innate rule as a child – the blanket keeps you safe in the dark. Keep it close. Keep it tucked around you. Somehow it'll keep the monsters from getting you. A fuzzy force field. Adults don't believe in monsters. But Amy found she couldn't give up the habit.

Amy nuzzled her cheek against her pillow and waited for Jason's weight to settle beside her. The carpet muffled his footsteps. The bed creaked as he started to get on it. Then it creaked again as he leaned back off. Amy opened her eyes and found his silhouette in the dark.

"What is it?" she whispered. The dark always made her want to whisper, even if they were the only two there.

"The light's on," Jason said as he began to walk around the bed.

"No it isn't," she replied, glancing around in the dark.

"The closet light."

"Oh. That was me. Sorry."

"It's okay, I got it." Jason knew Amy didn't like the dark.

"Just leave it, Jay."

"Why?"

She turned to look at the other side of the room. The closet light haloed its door in gold. Amy watched over her shoulder as Jason crossed to it. She could just see the knob in the dark.

"Looks creepy," she mumbled into the blanket.

"Oouu," he teased her. "Bogeymen!" He opened the door enough to see inside. He was irreverent and it was one of the many things she liked about him. She could never shake off the rules herself. But Amy always felt a twinge of fear when he did stuff like this--a small rush of adrenaline. There were rules. You didn't walk around in the dark. You didn't talk to monsters. You kept your feet under the blankets. If you got in bed in the dark, you always, always stepped wide enough so the thing-under-the-bed couldn't get you.

The light from the closet formed a golden triangle on the carpet. Her clock ticked steadily beside her on the nightstand.

"Stop it Jason. Come to bed." But he stepped inside the closet and the door blocked him from Amy's sight.

"All you bastards better behave in here. You keep turnin' on this light and I'll start chargin' you rent."

Amy laughed and threw one of the pillows at the closet door as Jason came out. He grinned in the dim light. Picked the pillow up and threw it back at Amy. He moved to flick the closet light switch and stopped.

"What's wrong?" she asked, propping herself up on one elbow. Jason didn't answer. He was looking into the closet.

"Jason, what's the matter?" Her voice must have quavered because he turned back to her with a smile.

"Nothin'. Thought I saw somethin'." He shrugged a bit. Flicked the switch down. "Goddamn closet monsters." She tried to smile in the dark but her heart beat fast until she heard the closet door close snugly in its frame.

"I hate when you do that, Jason."

"I wasn't teasing you."

Amy squinted in the dark to watch Jason's shadowy silhouette move back around to his side of the bed.

"You shouldn't do that, you know."

"What? Tease them?" Jason asked. Amy could hear the laugh in his voice.

"Yeah," she tried in a light voice. "Classic bad horror movie move."

"There are no such things as closet monsters or bogeymen, Amy," Jason replied as he stood beside the bed and turned down his side of the comforter.

"But there are rules."

"Rules are for tools," he laughed. The sound was cut short. Amy sat up. The streetlamp outside filtered through the misty white material of their curtains. She could see Jason's outline hunched over in front of them. He was looking at his feet.

"Jason?"

"Some-" but he didn't finish. Jason gasped and his silhouette disappeared from in front of the curtains. There was a thump beside the bed. Amy moved up to see what happened but paused midway as a slurping, gurgling sound came from underneath her. Jason screamed her name once as the thing-under-the-bed dragged his body beneath the box spring. Amy pressed her body back against the mattress, grabbing the blanket around her in white knuckled fists. The whole bed shifted with Amy on it. Just twice. Then it was over.

The closet light flicked on, haloing the closet door in gold. Her clock ticked steadily on beside her. After a moment Amy tucked her blankets around her with shaking hands and closed her eyes tightly against the dark.

Later she would convince herself that she was paralyzed with fear. Unable to move to save Jason. Unable to lean over the bed. Maybe someday down the line she would convince herself that it never happened at all. That Jason left her for someone else. Maybe that girl that always flirted with him at Dairy Queen. Either way she would never kneel beside their bed and lift the bed skirt with quivering fingers. She knew better. It was a rule. You didn't look. You didn't ever look. And Amy followed the rules.

Back to: Vol 3, Issue 1