"We stop looking for the monsters under our beds when we realize they are inside us."

*****

6/7/16

Anri watched the moon light stream through the window beside him, a pearly eye nestled in wispy cloud.

He sighed wistfully at the sight of his two friends seeping soundly beside him upon the huge bed.

He'd tossed and turned for maybe an hour, and sleep had still not found him. He decided to try sleeping on his face, hugging the pillow and pulling his blanket tighter around him.

There was shuffling at his side, and he felt someone stir beside him.

"Mon?" he whispered.

Without a response, he got up on his elbows and squinted in darkness, confirming a dark tsunami of black hair while brushing his own out of his eyes. Mon had thrown off his blanket and stared emptily at the corner of the room.

In lieu of his usually energetic, playful gaze, there was something unsettling in the boy's empty brown eyes. It brought shivers down Anri's spine.

"Mon, are you alright?" Anri's voice raised an octave in urgency before he placed his hands firmly on his friend's shoulders and shook them.

His friend staggered, still staring at the corner of the room as he tried to get up.

"Where are you doing?" Anri laughed uneasily. "Bro you're fucking scaring me."

When Mon didn't answer, Anri hastily shook his other friend until Charles was awake and groaning in protest.

"What the hell?" Charles mumbled absently, rolling over on his face.

"No no wake up!" Anri patted him, "look, Mon has been like, doing stuff in his sleep!"

"I'm fucking exhausted," Mon muttered monotonously, before he slumped and fell back onto his pillow.

Somehow this made everything right in the world. Anri froze, his uneasiness unknotting into soft laughter and eventually he fell asleep.

****