For the third time that night, the girl’s mother made a show of checking the room: the cupboard, the corners, beneath the bed. The light flicked off, and the door closed.

Her fears assuaged, the girl drifted slowly into the dark, and all the things waiting in her dreams smiled.

Callachan McNulty is a student and writer from Ontario. He loves speculative fiction of all kinds, as well as tea and rainy days.