My mom told me that it was just mice in the walls, that the scary scratching, running sounds were nothing more than that, but daddy told me a secret. He said that when little girls like me turn 6, the boogie monster will hide in the closet and under our bed to steal all my stuffed animals, and I just had my birthday! I want to believe mom that it’s just a little, fuzzy mouse, but sometimes at night, the walls and floors make creaky sounds like it’s coming for my favorite stuffed bear and I know something as cute as Mickey Mouse wouldn’t do that. When I told my brother Joey about it, he told me I was being a baby and put teeny, tiny traps in my closet, but monster’s aren’t that small, so I came to my own rescue.
My unicorn is stationed with Growly the bear inside the closet by the traps, just in case he gets past them, and for double back up, I put all my Barbie’s and my brother’s old army men around my bed just in case he came from under there. Then, all I had to do was watch and wait for it, but he must have put a spell on me because I fell asleep. When I woke up all the toys were gone, shoved into the toy dresser! He snuck right under my nose, and so that night I set up an even BIGGER army, this time I put thumbtacks I found on moms desk under the window and locked it shut and I dumped my brother’s Lego’s right in front of my door, I wasn’t going to let him get away this time! The last piece of the puzzle was bait, I set out my favorite animal, Mr. Fuzzy, right in the middle of the room. Then, since he made me go to sleep last night, I pretended this time so he would think his spell worked again.
It took a long time but eventually it got dark enough and late enough that the monster woke up, I heard him start scratching in the walls and my closet, then I heard a ‘SNAP’ sound, a few seconds later there were big footsteps in the hall. I couldn’t take it, I hid myself under my covers and hoped he wouldn’t see me, and then it opened the door. Luckily my trap worked and the monster stepped on the blocks and let out a howl, then it said my name! I peeked from under the blanket to see my dad on the floor holding his feet, he was coming to check the mouse traps because sure enough there was a big fuzzy something in the trap. I guess it was just mice in the walls after all.