Whisper (1)
Under the Bed
"There’s something under the bed"… that’s what my little daughter would say every night before sleep. I’m not a perfect mother—I, too, am afraid of those things—so I would simply reassure her and hum lullabies until she fell asleep.
But her complaints began to affect me more and more each day. In the mornings, I would watch her bed from afar while preparing breakfast in the kitchen. I started feeling that something was wrong.
"There’s something under the bed, Mom," she repeated that night again, but I told her there was nothing there. I stared into the emptiness beneath the bed. The space under the bed was completely empty, yet that strange feeling lingered… “There’s something under the bed.”
I felt fear even though nothing was actually there. I took my daughter to sleep with me in my room, and to calm my nerves, I called my husband on video to tell him what had happened from the beginning.
He interrupted me with a sentence that froze my blood… “Who’s that next to you?”
I looked at the girl sleeping on the bed beside me and studied her face… I felt dizzy at the reality before me—this was not my daughter. I threw the phone away and stepped back, staring at the strange girl sleeping in my bed. Since when had I thought she was my daughter? She didn’t even resemble her in the slightest! And where was my daughter?!
My eyes widened in realization as I found myself unconsciously entering her room. I looked around the room—dust filled the space, the mirrors were shattered, and… there was something under the bed.
