The Monster In My Bed (Available on Amazon)

Delilah woke from a dreamless sleep, her face twisting in discomfort. Her stomach ached and a small cramp had Delilah clutching at her lower abdomen, willing away the spasm. God, was she starting her period early? It wasn’t due for another two weeks at least.

Cracking her eyes open, Delilah stared ahead groggily, her brow furrowing in confusion.

Why the hell was it so dark in her bedroom? Usually she kept the hallway light on and the door ajar before falling asleep, nervous to be alone in the pitch black of the night.

Had the light burned out?

With a groan, Delilah forced herself to move, reaching for the lamp on her nightstand. Her hand clutched at the air instead, and she searched blindly until her eyes slowly began adjusting to her surroundings.

What was that orangish glow in the distance? And where was the outline of her furniture? Delilah wiped at her eyes, registering more details that didn’t make sense, her confusion mounting.

Her mattress was hard as a damn rock, and as she searched for her comforter, all Delilah touched was the silk of her tank top. Had she slid off the bed in her sleep? She palmed the ground beneath her, ripping her hand back quickly. Why was her floor covered in dirt?

Something’s not right. Her heart pounded in her chest as she lay there, too scared to move.

“Don’t panic,” a woman said from beside her, and Delilah did the exact opposite, screaming like a lunatic and leaping up. A soft hand clamped over her mouth and she was tackled to the ground, a startled cry leaving her as someone loomed overhead. “Shh, please be quiet,” the woman whispered frantically.

Delilah’s eyes adjusted further to the darkness and she could just make out the features of the woman straddled over her. Green eyes, long black hair, and a nervous expression were all Delilah could focus on. She seemed around her own age, maybe in her upper twenties? A few drops of sweat slid down the side of the woman’s face, causing her hair to stick to her cheek.

What was going on?

Delilah mumbled into the woman’s hand, trying to speak.

“You have to promise not to scream or make any noise, do you understand? I’ll explain as much as I can, but we’re not home anymore, and this place isn’t like our own.”

Delilah mumbled something again, nodding her head in agreement just so the woman would back up and give her a chance to breathe. The words the stranger had spoken should have frightened Delilah, but she was oddly calm as the woman stood up, holding out a hand and pulling her to her feet.

Warm earth touched her toes, almost as warm as the woman’s grip on her hand before she released it. Delilah noticed the woman was wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, not too dissimilar from Delilah’s own silky pajama set.

“What’s going on? Where am I?” Delilah asked, looking around once more. What had once been cloaked in total darkness now took on a more nuanced edge. The glow she had noticed before were plants. Trees, it seemed. The light was muted, but it was enough for Delilah to finally understand that she was standing in a wooded area of some sort. Everything looked like it was burning, part of some crazy, hellish dimension. “What kind of weird ass dream is this?” It had to be a dream, didn’t it? Nothing looked like this in real life.

“I’m Cordelia. What’s your name?” the woman asked quietly, drawing Delilah’s attention away from the world around her.

Delilah stared at Cordelia blankly, wondering why introductions mattered in a dream. “Delilah,” she eventually replied, a slight tremor betraying her voice.

Her womb spasmed again and Delilah nearly bent over to alleviate the pain. What the hell was that? Was it normal to feel physical pain in dreams? She certainly hadn’t before.

Cordelia let out a small breath, squaring her shoulders resolutely. “Okay, Delilah, this is going to sound a little crazy, but you’re not dreaming. We’re not dreaming.”

Delilah snorted, the cramping forgotten completely as she laughed at the absurdity of it all. Of course she was dreaming.

“Quiet!”

Delilah’s mouth snapped shut at Cordelia’s panicked tone, a small fissure of fear running through her.

Cordelia bit her lower lip, looking around quickly before her gaze returned to Delilah.

“I don’t have time to coddle or convince you, okay? Just listen, and please believe me, because I honestly think your life depends on it.”

Delilah gulped, nodding in understanding, her hands becoming clammy.

“You’ve been asleep a lot longer than the rest of us, but I’m the only one who stayed behind to make sure you didn’t wake up alone and frightened. It wasn’t fair to leave you without any way of knowing what was happening.”

Dream or not, that didn’t sound good at all.

“What is happening?”

Cordelia threw her hands up in the air, her eyes wide as she began explaining. “There was this monster, a-an alien, here, when I woke up, and a handful of other women, though they were aliens, too, I guess. I don’t-” Cordelia paused when her voice became frantic, taking a deep breath before continuing. “The man that was here told me we were taken from Earth and are competing in some kind of game on their planet. We need to track down a key. Once we find the key, it will activate and take us back home.”

Delilah’s mouth dropped open and silence stretched between them as she processed what Cordelia was saying.

Suggesting they’d been abducted by alien monsters was completely fucking insane. Batshit crazy. But as Delilah took another look around her, she had to admit that everything was more vivid than she’d ever conjured up in a dream. It was terrifyingly dark, and even the air smelled different and she could see a glittering pollen floating around in the slight breeze.

Delilah swallowed, feeling a hell of a lot less calm than she had only a minute ago. “A key? Like a car key? A house key? One of those damn hotel room keys? What does it look like? Where the hell do we find one?”

“I was told that there are monsters all around these woods and we need to find one of them. Hopefully they’ll have what we’re looking for. We’ll split up and go from there.”

Delilah’s mouth dropped open. “I’m sorry? Did you just say we need to find a monster, and then do what? Ask if it has a key? This can’t be real.”

There was no way Delilah wasn’t dreaming. Or hallucinating. Maybe there was a gas leak in her apartment, or she had inadvertently ingested some kind of drug that was making her lose her damn mind.

Oh, or a psychotic breakdown? Delilah had been a bit stressed at work, so that was plausible enough, and it made a hell of a lot more sense than alien abduction.

Cordelia grimaced. “Believe me, it’ll get crazier once you see them, and from what I was told, you won’t be able to just stroll up to one of the monsters and ask for it. You have to convince them to give it to you, and who knows if they even have it? And if you can’t convince them, then you have to steal it.” Cordelia shuddered, her body trembling as she clutched her side, wincing.

“Wait, are you getting cramps too?”

Cordelia nodded. “It’s not just cramps, Delilah. There’s a pheromone in some of the plants on this planet. It makes women aroused.”

Delilah’s head snapped back even as she felt the soft stirring of desire begin to creep in, completely unbidden, corroborating Cordelia’s story.

“How is that going to help me find a key?” Delilah hissed, feeling more and more unhinged as Cordelia spoke.

God, was she really buying into all of this? Wake up, wake up, wake up!

Cordelia waved away Delilah’s question. “It’s just a side effect of the plant, not something that’s intentionally done for the competition, but I’ll go into that in a minute. From what the man told me, the lust we’re experiencing is probably going to work in our favor.” Cordelia swallowed thickly, rubbing away the sweat on her brow. “The monsters aren’t just going to hand over a key, not unless we give them something in return.”

Delilah inhaled roughly at the insinuation, sneezing as pollen flitted past her nose. Just then a spike of lust hit her womb, sharper than before, and she moaned, doubling over.

“This is insane,” Delilah wheezed. “There is no way I’m having sex with a freaking monster. That’s what you’re getting at, isn’t it?” Though Delilah had to admit, as another knot of lust spread through her womb and robbed her of breath, the idea wasn’t as horrific as it should have been.

Stupid plant, she thought bitterly.

“Yes,” Cordelia answered, her own breathing shallow. “I’ll explain more about the plant in a few minutes, but we can’t stay here. The other women already have the advantage on us; we need to get moving. Just know that you’ve been given an injection that will keep you energized and nourished for the next several days, so don’t worry too much if you feel a bit different.”

“Okay,” Delilah replied hysterically, her voice ridiculously high as she struggled to stand up straight. “I just… I mean, you know you sound psychotic, right? None of this is real. It can’t be real! I didn’t just wake up on a different freaking planet, get told I need to seduce monsters and–”

Cordelia reached out, slapping Delilah hard across the face.

“Ow!” Delilah clutched her cheek, her eyes narrowing on the other woman as searing heat spread beneath her palm. “What the hell was that for?”

“Did that feel real enough, Delilah?” Cordelia grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently. “This isn’t a joke. It isn’t a dream. This is our life, and if you don’t get with the program, you’re going to lose the competition and be stranded here. Possibly forever!”

Delilah’s chin wobbled, reality setting in as the sting on her cheek began to fade.

She was so screwed.

She’d been hiding for hours, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Delilah blinked furiously, a fine sheen of sweat dotting her brow as she fought off the incessant waves of lust running rampant inside of her. She’d been horny since she’d woken up in this horrific, nightmarish wasteland and it was only getting worse.

Cordelia had explained that the world Delilah had been taken to had been declining in population for hundreds of years, leaving the males outnumbering their women seven to one, and the plants had begun to help with the population crisis, secreting pheromones into the air that caused the females to become more fertile. Whether these plants evolved on their own or by tampering, Cordelia didn’t know.

Evidently the lack of companions was a sore point for the monsters because women were kidnapped all over the universe–something Delilah did not want to think about right now–and sent to this burning planet of night and terror to compete for their freedom.

Compete. Like she was at a freaking sporting event. Delilah shivered, either from lust or terror at her situation, she was unsure.

The only way to get back home was to find some sort of magical key before all the other women competing could, and Delilah had slept so long that everyone else had taken a clear lead.

There were only three keys in existence, apparently, and each one was hidden by a monster who guarded it somewhere near where she’d woken up. If Delilah wanted to find a key and escape, she had to do whatever was necessary to obtain it.

Cordelia had been rather clear on the details about how Delilah could use her wiles to find the key, and Delilah had unfortunately been much more intrigued than disgusted at the prospect of slutting it up with some insane looking monsters.

Watching her prey now, she couldn’t decide if the pollen had made her vision wonky or if the monster she’d been observing was someone she was actually interested in. The pollen could make her horny, sure, but could it make her crave a monster with such ferocity?

She’d been stalking this monster for half of the day now, after having spotted him prowling through the woods like he owned them. It had been a gamble to follow him, but she had, as stealthily as she could.

She hadn’t expected him to lead her to a decent-sized structure hidden amongst the rocks and plant life, but he had, and now she was peeking at him from behind two large rocks several feet away. The longer she watched him, the more her body ached with her building arousal until she was certain she’d orgasm with just a quick brush of her fingers.

Delilah still couldn’t believe she was attracted to him. And it was a ‘him’ if the other monster between his legs was of any indication. He was tall and muscular, and his skin was a smoky gray color, though it was difficult to make out all of his features in the darkness. There was a bright orangish glow that weaved along his skin, almost as if his veins were on fire or made of molten lava that could seep from the cracks, though his flesh seemed smooth enough.

His face was mostly obscured from her, but it was human-like in appearance. His eyes were the color of flames and his lips were black. A mop of short, unruly hair sat atop his head, becoming messier each time he ran his large hand through the strands, which he did regularly. His teeth looked normal enough, though the tips seemed to come up into sharp points.

Wrapped around his torso were black, corded tendrils that shifted on their own, attached from the base of his spine and up to the middle of his back. She’d been wondering what they were and what exactly they did for hours now, but he’d yet to utilize them as he wandered around what she assumed was his territory. Maybe they were decorative; nonfunctioning. Did all of the monsters on this planet have them?

He looked at home in the darkness, among plants and trees that all glowed a fiery orange, lighting up the world around him until Delilah could see everything clearly. Even how incredibly naked he was.

She hadn’t seen anything resembling a key in his possession, but Cordelia had pointed her in this direction before going in search of her own key, wishing Delilah good luck.

Distance was hard to fathom in this strange world but this was the only monster she’d seen after traveling for what seemed like a number of miles. He must be one of the monsters she was looking for, though Delilah had no actual idea.

Her womb clenched with need once more and she winced, sucking in a sharp breath. Where the lust inside her had been a nuisance at first, now it was a dull, consistent pain, making it difficult to do anything other than sit and observe.

She was just waiting around for the big beast in front of her to fall asleep, but her body was screaming at her to find some relief, and quickly. She ignored the bitter demand rioting inside her, focusing only on stalking the monster until he inevitably turned in for the night. Then she’d snoop through his things, find the key, and go home. Hopefully…

Once she figured out how to use said key, that is. Was there a doorway or something? Did it work like a normal key back home?

Nevermind, she’d figure it out later.

Delilah settled into her little crevice in the darkness, watching the monster wander around the perimeter of his home, waiting for the perfect opportunity to take him down.