Safety Blankets.

The fan spun madly. Even so, my room was still unbearably hot. The soft, comforting sheets of my bed began to feel more like sandpaper than anything else. I couldn’t even lie on the pillow anymore; it was drenched in sweat. My clock beeped, letting me know that it just became the top of some ungodly hour of the night. I craned my neck to look over at it. Two in the morning. It was Monday. School was going to start in the next six hours and I sorely wanted to get some sleep in before then.

So I lay there, miserable, on my back, under the covers of my bed, staring at the fan as it spun.

Slowly, I came to the realization that the sheets I was laying under were just blocking the cool air the fan was pumping out. I quickly grabbed the corners, ready to throw them off and experience the rush of air as it soothed the heat of the night.

But something made me hesitate.

See, when I was younger, my parent’s had told me that the blanket I covered up with was what kept the monsters away from me at night. Since then, I hadn’t gone a night without sleeping completely covered by a blanket. But, I mean, come on, I’m an adult now and that was just some stupid thing they said to get me to stay in bed at night. I laughed, tossing the blanket to the foot of the bed and was instantly greeted by a splash of cool air. It washed all around me, soothing me into a state of restfulness.

Sleep was finally coming for me. After such a restless night, I couldn’t wait to… Something odd caught my attention. It was some kind of noise, like... scratching, maybe? I sat up and listened but couldn’t seem to hear it anymore. I shrugged it off, not thinking much of it. It was probably just some animal outside. Now it was definitely time to sleep. I closed my eyes, letting myself drift off into… What was that? I definitely heard something that time. It was the same sound, only louder. Or was it closer?

An uneasy feeling began to grip me in the pit of my stomach. I suddenly felt horribly exposed. It started to feel like something out there was watching me… waiting for me to be lulled into defenseless, non-resistant sleep. A sudden urge to cover myself up with the blanket stormed through me. For some reason, though, I was afraid it knew. Whatever it was. My mind was playing hell with my fear induced imagination. I felt constricted, like any sudden movement would set off whatever monster was lurking in the shadows of my room.

There it was again. The scratch. Oh, dear god, it was right next to my bed. I hadn’t noticed until just now. The closet door is open. Had I left it open? I couldn’t remember. Is there something in my room? What if there is?

It could get me.

I’m exposed.

No blanket.

Another scratch.

This time I could feel the vibration of it in the springs of my mattress. Fear turned into panic. Cold sweat dripped down my forehead as I lay in the darkness, stuck to my bed in utter terror. I slowly sat up, making no sudden movements as I groped blindly for my blanket, calmly trying to pull it back over my body. I didn’t care how hot it was; I wrapped myself up in it. I refused to even poke my head out. I lay cocooned in that fashion for some time.

The silence was the most terrifying part. I waited for what must have been half an hour, but was probably less, or maybe more. I couldn’t tell. I hadn’t heard a single scratch in that time, though. I hadn’t heard anything. Not even the fan. It was beginning to reach unbearable temperatures under the blanket. Every inch of me was crying of heat, and every other inch of me was still terrified of whatever existed on the other side of the blanket. I finally could not resist the temptation of cool air and made a tiny gap in the blanket barrier I’d created. I peeked out of it. A dark silhouette and a pair of yellow eyes slowly rose up over the edge of my bed to stare intently at me. My arms and legs began to shake in fear, and I could feel the blood drain from my face, but I could not look away from it. Not even as it raised one long arm and reached toward me, it’s bony fingers cracking as they slowly uncurled.

I felt a tug on the blanket.