“Her life changed when she learned the monsters were protecting her.”
I was five years old when Leona Moved in. She just showed up in my room one day all grayish green hair and beady little eyes. She stank like stale old socks I could smell from my older brothers room. My parents always blamed it on me, though.
Leona’s hair was big and fluffy, like a dog, and hung to her chin in matted locks. Her skin was greenish brown, like swamp water. Her eyes were tiny, but her mouth took up half of her face when she smiled, except her smile looked less like a smile and more like someone was pulling her jaw apart. There were only two holes in her face for a nose, like a skull.
I likes it better when she hid under the bed because I didn’t have to see her. Also, she liked to go into my closet and take my favorite clothes. She always put them back with holes in them. I would yell at her to get out but my parents always tole me it was okay- that she wasn’t real. They didn’t understand, though, and always blamed me for losing things and destroying my clothes.
Daniel, my older brother teased me a lot. He’s two years older than I am and six years younger than our sister. Her daddy took her away just before my fifth birthday because she got really hurt. Mommy cried a lot, but Angela never came home. That’s when Daniel started being especially mean to me- and when Leona showed up.
After a few months of her being there I was yelling at her one night for just staring at me and Leona finally yelled back. “If someone is bothering you you have to stop them!” It was the first time I’d ever heard her voice. It felt like slime in my ears. Mom woke up and slammed my door open and SHE yelled at me TOO. “Shut your damn mouth.” Then she slapped me. “I have enough to worry about without you waking me up at night for some pretend monster! Just grow up already!”
I flung myself onto my bed crying. It felt like hours passed, but it was probably only minutes until I calmed myself down. My mom had turned the lights out before she closed my door, but I could see Leona’s small dark eyes glowing slightly and feel the pressure of her perched at the end of my bed. Slowly, she crawled over me- a foot and a hand on each side of my body. He body hovered over mine menacingly and coolness radiated off of her like standing in front of an open refrigerator. A piece of her hair fell and tickled the tip of my nose. I squeezed my eyes shut. “I can assure you,” She purred, “I am not a PRETEND monster.” Her breath smelled like bad eggs and she kissed my forehead, sending a shiver down my spine. I wanted to scream, but I didn’t want to wake up my mom again...
“You’re a nasty little animal!” Daniel sang. “Nasty animals belong in cages.”
We hadn’t has a dog in nearly two years, but my parents kept promising we’d get another. We didn’t, but the empty cage sat in the back corner of the garage. Well, it wasn’t empty that day. My brother had taken my favorite T-shirt (one that wasn’t all ripped up yet) out of my closet and thrown it in the back of the cage. When I crawled in he locked the door behind me.
“Daniel, let me out!” I cried, “I’m going to tell mommy!”
He stuck out his tongue. “Mommy loves me more. She wont believe you.”
I was stuck in that cage until after dark. My dad found me when he came out, turned the car on and the headlights washed over me. I’d fallen asleep in the cage, cold and hungry.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” He unlocked me, carried me back to the house and put me down on the living room sofa. “Daniel locked me in there” I whined. I could see Leona watching from the shadows of the hallway.
After everything settled down our mom and dad sat both of us down in the living room together. “Minnie, you said Daniel did this?”
“Yeah, he called me an animal.”
My parents exchanged glances. They explained that they thought I was playing with the neighbor kids and apologized that it took so long to find me.
“You’re a liar.” Danial mumbled.Â
“Shush, Daniel.” Our father said. “Why didn’t you call for us, Min?” Behind them I saw Leona. She made a “zip your lips” motion with her hands and smiled pink, sharp teeth.I shrugged and stared at my hands. They sent the two of us to bed.
“And Minnie,” Mom reminded me, “please try not to wake us up tonight.”
Leona followed me to my bedroom and closed the door behind us. I could hear my parents talking- fighting, more like- in their bedroom next to mine. “The same thing happened with Angela, Cheryl. How many times does he need to do something like this before we do something?”
“Angela cut HERSELF, John. She did it so she would have a reason to go live with her dad!”
“And what about the nightmares? Angela had them and Minnie started getting them as soon as she moved out.”
“An imaginary monster to cover up the loss of her sister. This isn’t an episode of Dr. Phil, John!” I stopped listening.
Daniel opened my door and smiles at me, but not in a friendly way. Leona slinked into my closet. “Hey sissy.” He came in and closed the door behind him. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“You lied to mommy and daddy and called ME the liar.” I complained. “That’s not fair.”
“I know, I just didn’t want to get in trouble.” He took a steak knife out from under his shirt. “Which is why you’re going to tell them tomorrow that you made it up, right?” He almost laughed but it came out as a choke. “I don’t want you to have to go away like Angie did.”
That’s when it happened. Whispers echoes from every corner of the room, “Like Angie did... did... Angie...” I saw Leona step out of the closet, but Daniel didn’t, he just looked around the room.
“How are you doing that, Freak?”
Leona’s body grew like a shadow against the wall until I could feel the cold of her behind me. Daniel’s eyes widened. When I turned around I could see her eyes. She opened her mouth like she was going to scream but she made a mouth-wash-gargle noise. Daniel’s hand held his throat and he made a similar noise. “You took my Angie from me!” Leona hissed, “You will not take my Minnie!”
She screamed, so did Daniel and I, then she pushed him into me. I could feel the knife graze my cheek when the lights flashed on. Mom grabbed Daniel off of me and dad picked me up. “This is the last straw!”
It has been 4 years since then. Daniel and Leona don’t live with us anymore, but mom and dad go to visit him at the hospital once a wee and Angela babysits me when they go. Today we were playing monopoly when my mom came home smiling. It was the first time I’d seen her smile in a long time. Daniel followed her into the house.
Angela grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry, Leona will take care of you.”
