Grumbleguts

Johnny, a skinny and frail teenage boy is laying in bed one night. His dad sits beside him. Johnny asks to be told bedtime story as he is munching on his candy.

He hears something coming from under his bed. It is whispering, “Feed me.” He looks over the side of the bed and sees a black hand with long black nails reaching out from under the bed. Johnny is shocked. “Feed me or I’ll eat you.” the voice says again in a much more assertive manner.

Johnny screams and his parents rush in and turn on the lights. He explains to his parents that there is a monster under his bed and the monster wants to eat him.. Concerned, they check the room including under the bed and find nothing. After giving the all clear, Johnny’s father tries to inject some humor into the situation by saying, “Don’t worry. You’re too scrawny for any monster to eat. You don’t have enough meat on your bones.” His parents leave and turn the lights off.

After his parents leave, Johnny hears the voice return. He peers over and sees the hand protruding from under the bed again. This time Johnny reaches over to his night stand where he has some leftover Halloween candy. He drops it into the monsters hand and the hand retreats back to under the bed. Johnny does this for several days, but eventually runs out of candy and one night doesn’t have anything to give the claw. The claw responds by disappearing under the bed.

Several years pass and Johnny is older now. He has grown and is no longer the scrawny teen that he once was. After going to bed one night, he hears the voice again. It says, “I’ll eat you.” Johnny, confused, looks under the bed but there is nothing there. He looks over in the corner and sees a tall dark monstrous figure. The figure draws closer and says, “I’m going to eat you, I just wanted you to get some meat on your bones first.”